Products That Overwhelmed You

[aramis erak]

Tried Jorune, but yes, it was odd. Still have it kicking around, but haven't looked at in years!

The setting being so weird and the rules being built to support the setting made the rules of Jorune indecipherable to me; I couldn't keep track of which names were what.

That same effect has limited my willingness to try Talislanta. "25 years and still no elves!" (but 15 different variations on humanoids with extended lifespans, pointy ears, and varied cultural norms that have all been attributed to some flavor of elf in other works, and just have cosmetic differences...)

Talislanta's rules are simple, but the setting isn't. Keeping track of the setting is daunting; the names always are a problem for me. 30 years of looking at it, and not daring to run it...

 

[Emerikol]

For me Ptolus was everything I had ever wanted in a product. For once someone did a city in a way that I'd do it if I was working on my own. It's one of my absolute favorite products.

I find a lot of the super crunchy games to be overwhelming but I've found this to be true more in wargames than roleplaying games.

 

[Henry]

As noted in another thread, Dangerous Journeys overwhelmed me when it started reading it. It had tons of cool ideas, but to actually play it I just couldn’t wrap my mind around how to implement it without getting half the rules wrong.

Another was GURPS, the first time I read it. The detailed combat system just read too cumbersome for me. I did grok it later, but it’s still not a system I run by choice.

 

[the Jester]

Two words: Dangerous Journeys.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Honestly, I don't think it's an issue of intelligence. I look at that iteration of WFRP and just think that I could have more fun with a different system, or even just WFRP 2e, and not have to shoulder that burden. It's smarter to know what you want to run, what you can run, than to try to work with a system that just doesn't work for you. Either of us could run WFRP 4e, but is the complexity worth the payoff?

When I look at older games I used to play and run, I'm surprised by my tolerance for crunchy, complicated rules when I was younger.

Yeah. That's a head scratcher for me too. On top of it, trying to get the Enemy Within Campaign to run well. Like I'm trying to present a mystery, full of intricate and complex motivated NPCs, across a lived-in campaign world, and I also have to understand all of these rules?

Again, maybe I'm not smart enough. I've been gaming for 40 years, run several games weekly, but I just can't do it? Maybe the problem is that I'm trying to do too much? Like if the only game I was trying to run was Warhammer Fantasy, with the single campaign of Enemy Within, putting all of my hobby time into doing it - I think "maybe" I could do it justice.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Anything that requires a detailed knowledge of Forgotten Realms lore.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

Wait a few years. It will change.

Prolly get cataclysmically spellsundered, or something.

 

[Undrave]

Mechanical Dream: the edition I have has a totally lousy English translation; I found it hinting at something cool, but just out of my ability to extract the original ideas from the English version of the Quebecois original. And while I know one French-Canadian Ex-pat, she's not a gamer...

Well now I'm curious...

 

[GMMichael]

I want to write a Skyrim module. It's threatening me, but I think I'll win if I focus my Thu'um.

This got me thinking about other products I've purchased, including the original edition of Ptolus (seeing that the 5e revision Kickstarter recently funded.) It was so involved, so difficult to run, that I've been hesitant to run another urban campaign for the past 15 years or so. . .

What do you think? Have you ever been overwhelmed like this?

Yup. I picked up Pathfinder 2e and almost threw my back out.

I think Ptolus deserves some XP for defeating you like that

I was 10 when I got it, and had only heard about RPGs and D&D from other people. Luckily, as if summoned, a never-seen-before 20-something second-cousin of mine suddenly appeared in my house, and she proceeded to meticulously explain D&D and how to write adventures and be a good DM to me, ran a cool adventure for us, and then left, leaving some amazing notes how to do stuff.

That's pretty awesome. You're one of the lucky ones.

Anything that requires a detailed knowledge of Forgotten Realms lore.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

I bet some of your players do. Ask them to fill in the details. Throw in some Inspiration if they need bribing.

 

[Retreater]

I think Ptolus deserves some XP for defeating you like that

Yeah. Monte Cook was able to dual class into Cypher System after vanquishing me.

 

[Fenris-77]

Invisible Sun. It's really cool, but it's frickin' enormous.