What is, in your opinion, the single WORST RPG ever made, and why is it so bad?

[Bedrockgames]

Talislanta - "No elves!"

It is hard sometimes to know when this stuff is tongue in cheek. OG, which is still one of my favorite novelty RPGs ever because it turned out to be a very gameable concept, had a whole unlike certain other role-playing games tone (which if I recall was directed at D&D). But it was OG and I suspect there was an edge of irony to it

 

[Thomas Shey]

With Talislanta, though, it really did seem like they were doing backflips to show how different they were--which was, to a degree, legitimate, but not nearly as much as they wanted you to believe.

 

[Jahydin]

Talislanta, Talisman, J. Talanian, and Tolorian all get jumbled in my head whenever I hear them.

 

[pemerton]

No, I was including the sort of games he was referring to too.

OK, so now I'm confused.

Here's the first post in this sub-thread:

It's my understanding that both OSR and storygames arose as a strong reaction to the predominant strains of play in the 1990s and early 2000s, so it doesn't surprise me that products from both styles of game sometimes come across as having something to prove and, however deliberately or inadvertently, come across as crossing from trying to contrast themselves from mainstream games over to belittling mainstream gameplay. (I'm taking your word for it in the case of PbtA games, while I have seen that kind of attitude on display in OSR games and blogs; the lack of such talk is one of the things I really appreciate about, say, the writing in Kevin Crawford's [X] Without Number games.)examples" in my post 306 was an attempt to acknowledge that - that might not have come out clearly?

This is a post about OSR and "story" games. And you replied to it:

Honestly, a lot of games in that period pushed themselves by badmouthing either specific classes of games or pretty much everything of a different style at all. Like you say, I blame it on a lot of designers and the players they were aiming at being super-reactive to the common styles of the time.

So you weren't talking about RPGs that arose as a strong reaction to predominant styles of play in the 1990s and early 2000s, but rather were talking about RPGs that were predominant in that earlier period?

 

[Lanefan]

There were some really good ideas in the game that, unfortunately, were badly implemented. Energy was super important and characters ran through it way too fast. Gambit couldn't throw many charged up cards, which seemed weird.

Not familiar with the game but your comments make me wonder: is it possible the designers were expecting a very cautious 5-minute-workday approach to play, where the PCs would (try to) rest and replenish their resources at every opportunity rather than pushing forward, but failed to present/explain this clearly?

 

[pemerton]

Not familiar with the game but your comments make me wonder: is it possible the designers were expecting a very cautious 5-minute-workday approach to play, where the PCs would (try to) rest and replenish their resources at every opportunity rather than pushing forward, but failed to present/explain this clearly?

This would only reinforce @Arilyn's criticism: a cautious, 5-minute workday approach makes no sense at all in a Marvel Universe RPG!

 

[Arilyn]

Not familiar with the game but your comments make me wonder: is it possible the designers were expecting a very cautious 5-minute-workday approach to play, where the PCs would (try to) rest and replenish their resources at every opportunity rather than pushing forward, but failed to present/explain this clearly?

I don't think so. Big red flag was not accounting for Cyclops, who could use up his energy and then not worry about those uncontrolled eyeblasts. And if I'm remembering correctly characters depleted energy really fast. Marvel characters can run out of energy, but usually takes a long time or if they do a dramatic push. Storm really whipping up nature beyond her usual power level, for example. (and then fainting and getting caught by Wolverine... Ouch!) And energy powered everything, even opening a lock.

 

[Thomas Shey]

So you weren't talking about RPGs that arose as a strong reaction to predominant styles of play in the 1990s and early 2000s, but rather were talking about RPGs that were predominant in that earlier period?

The ones that rose up in the 90's included a lot more than just those two types. In fact, the OSR didn't rise up in any significant fashion until after the publication of D&D 3e, which was in 2000. So I was including more than just those two.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Not familiar with the game but your comments make me wonder: is it possible the designers were expecting a very cautious 5-minute-workday approach to play, where the PCs would (try to) rest and replenish their resources at every opportunity rather than pushing forward, but failed to present/explain this clearly?

Given it was a superhero game, that seems pretty unlikely.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I don't think so. Big red flag was not accounting for Cyclops, who could use up his energy and then not worry about those uncontrolled eyeblasts. And if I'm remembering correctly characters depleted energy really fast. Marvel characters can run out of energy, but usually takes a long time or if they do a dramatic push. Storm really whipping up nature beyond her usual power level, for example. (and then fainting and getting caught by Wolverine... Ouch!) And energy powered everything, even opening a lock.

Honestly, this sounds like a more extreme version of a critique that was often directed at Champions Endurance; at least there there were a number of ways to address it if you found yourself running out of gas too quickly.