What is your biggest RPG heartbreak?
- Thread starter Marc_C
- Start date
aramis erak
Legend
For me as a GM?
really hard question.
really hard question.
- The Fantasy Trip: Legacy Edition is pretty far up the list: the changes are pretty fundamental. Not huge, but they have far reaching impacts that make play of campaigns result in very different characters.
- GURPS OGRE. the setting in the GURPS RPG Supplement is rather notably different from the one in the boardgames... the lack of tacnuke infantry, the much more fragile battlesuits, and just SJG changing the fundamental relationships of the setting...
- GURPS Vorkosigan Adventures. I was hoping for it to have more information about the setting. What it has is almost all (I can't think of any non-mechanics bits that aren't) in the Vorkosigan Companion. Thus it was a total waste of money.
- Dragon Warriors. The numbers just don't work that well. The concepts are fine; the actual values used are the issue.
- Traveller T5. I wanted to like it, but the core mechanic is retained from MMT ("T4"). It's just so damned much crunch.
Last edited:
Stormonu
Legend
Probably trying to play the Dragonlance modules. I tried at least twice, and we'd maybe get as far as Que-She village outside of Solace and everyone would just lose interest.
As for game systems that broke my heart - Fading Suns. Wonderful. character world that strikes me as pre-Dune. Mechanically, the game is flat and I have been unable to get player interest in playing the game.
As for game systems that broke my heart - Fading Suns. Wonderful. character world that strikes me as pre-Dune. Mechanically, the game is flat and I have been unable to get player interest in playing the game.
aramis erak
Legend
I got to the point where they met the Gully Dwarves, and half my group was unhappy with the setting, and the other half had schedule changes.
werecorpse
Adventurer
Pendragon, specifically the Great Pendragon Campaign. I love the setting, the base mechanics and the scope of the multi year/generation campaign and managed to convince my D&D centric group to give it a try - they enjoyed the start but trying to integrate the more detailed manor rules and winter phase stuff ended up dominating the game to the exclusion of roleplaying. Campaign derailed it is tainted now and will be tough to go back.
Call of Cthulhu. I’ve played in a couple of one shots and gmed it a little but I would love to play or run a campaign. Just can’t ever seem get any traction in my group.
Call of Cthulhu. I’ve played in a couple of one shots and gmed it a little but I would love to play or run a campaign. Just can’t ever seem get any traction in my group.
Biggest gaming heartbreak?
In the 1990s, I used HERO to run a supers campaign set in the Vernesian/Wellsian version of 1900, sourcing mainly from Space:1889 and a host of other contemporaneous settings- The Difference Engine, Wild, Wild West, Adventures of Briscoe County Junior, Kung Fu- and storylines I could yoink and reset in that era. I stole freely from Marvel & DC comics, Alien Nation, The Man With The Golden Gun, novels by Michael Moorcock and Harry Turtledove and more. The PCs were part of an INTERPOL-like group. And the players bought in 100%.
It was my magnum opus as a GM.
15+ years later, with a different group in another city, I was given an opportunity to run a Supers game again. My first thought was to dust off the 1900 campaign for this group. But nobody was interested in HERO. I suggested M&M 2Ed due to its evolution from D&D 3.5- the group’s preferred system- and that was greeted warmly.
I figured I should update things a bit, so I chose 1914 as the date for the new campaign. I created new enemies & rivals, like Spring-Heeled Jack (with a pneumatic exoskeleton) and Dr. Zeus (a classic evolved orangutan with a glass-domed brain who had weaponized the inventions & ideas of Nikola Tesla). There was a time traveler. This group’s organization was more akin to the X-Men.
...it was a disaster. The game crashed after 6-8 sessions.
Player buy-in was spotty. One guy paid almost ZERO attention to the setting. Another designed a character who was going to be a big problem for the local authorities...even after I pointed this out. Some players opted not to show up at all. Despite its relation to 3.5Ed, the differences irked several of the players. And the final nail in the coffin was that my mastery of the system was not sufficient to the task- I started running the game before I was truly ready,
In the 1990s, I used HERO to run a supers campaign set in the Vernesian/Wellsian version of 1900, sourcing mainly from Space:1889 and a host of other contemporaneous settings- The Difference Engine, Wild, Wild West, Adventures of Briscoe County Junior, Kung Fu- and storylines I could yoink and reset in that era. I stole freely from Marvel & DC comics, Alien Nation, The Man With The Golden Gun, novels by Michael Moorcock and Harry Turtledove and more. The PCs were part of an INTERPOL-like group. And the players bought in 100%.
It was my magnum opus as a GM.
15+ years later, with a different group in another city, I was given an opportunity to run a Supers game again. My first thought was to dust off the 1900 campaign for this group. But nobody was interested in HERO. I suggested M&M 2Ed due to its evolution from D&D 3.5- the group’s preferred system- and that was greeted warmly.
I figured I should update things a bit, so I chose 1914 as the date for the new campaign. I created new enemies & rivals, like Spring-Heeled Jack (with a pneumatic exoskeleton) and Dr. Zeus (a classic evolved orangutan with a glass-domed brain who had weaponized the inventions & ideas of Nikola Tesla). There was a time traveler. This group’s organization was more akin to the X-Men.
...it was a disaster. The game crashed after 6-8 sessions.
Player buy-in was spotty. One guy paid almost ZERO attention to the setting. Another designed a character who was going to be a big problem for the local authorities...even after I pointed this out. Some players opted not to show up at all. Despite its relation to 3.5Ed, the differences irked several of the players. And the final nail in the coffin was that my mastery of the system was not sufficient to the task- I started running the game before I was truly ready,
Mind of tempest
(he/him)advocate for 5e psionics
that every campaign I have ever been in just goes wrongs, first we had too many and no one knew what they were doing and I need something more complex than fighter.
the second time was better till the muderhobo ruined everything and I went to college and no one has clubs at UK college apparently.
In the third campaign I had to cancel my participation because of too much college homework plus the dm should have just have said humans only and low fantasy if that is how he builds his settings.
and the fact that nothing in anything quite fits me in any setting I have ever heard of.
so now I just sit online and buy d&D 5e book like a mad man.
the second time was better till the muderhobo ruined everything and I went to college and no one has clubs at UK college apparently.
In the third campaign I had to cancel my participation because of too much college homework plus the dm should have just have said humans only and low fantasy if that is how he builds his settings.
and the fact that nothing in anything quite fits me in any setting I have ever heard of.
so now I just sit online and buy d&D 5e book like a mad man.
Mind of tempest
(he/him)advocate for 5e psionics
any idea why?
Nytmare
David Jose
Not sure if you read it or not, but "The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack" might tickle your fancy.
The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack - Wikipedia
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