Games that are more fun to play than to read

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'll highlight 3: HERO, GURPS and 4Ed.

The first two read rather dryly and can be very information dense/complex. The latter suffers from some poor layout decisions (as well as revisions I don't care for).

HERO, however, quickly became my favorite system, bar none.

The other two are at the lower-middle end of my enjoyment range, but far exceed my initial expectations.

 

[Baumi]

Lejendary Adventure was very confusing to read and I though several aspects of the game are very strange (not to say stupid). But then I GM'd it for a spontaneous one-shot because of missing players and in play everything suddenly made sense and it was one of the easiest games to GM that I have ever played before. I have never been so wrong with my expectations before or since then..

 

[Aus_Snow]

Er. All of them. . .?

No, really. I can't imagine a RPG being more fun to read than to play. There are hardly any I would even expect to be "fun" to read, whatsoever. So yeah, barring totally fun-free gaming it's, well, that simple.

 

[Sutekh]

Stargate Sg-1 RPG by AEG.

Use a Heavy version of the Spycraft rules. The book and supplements read very well (and were actually sanctioned by the producers and were thus 'canon' to a point), loved all the info on System lords and the ones you heard about but never saw. Its just that the mechanics of the system were so heavy.

That and its one of the most expensive rpgs I have ever bought.

 

[Heathen72]

It seems to me that if your game is more fun to read than to play, then you're doing something wrong - people will just reread the rulebooks, and never mind playing the game.

Most games are really pretty dry, no-fun reads. They need to serve as reference documents on algorithms and rules - that doesn't lend itself to bright and engaging writing.

But I have learnt so much from books that I have read but never managed to play! And there are definitely some, valiant attempts at RPG's that never quite managed to work in actual play (at least for my groups) that I still return to as a source of inspiration. These are the games I want to play and make work. Amber, Burning Wheel etc. But this belongs in my other thread, perhaps.

 

[Shades of Green]

Classic Traveller. The book looks like a technical manual and has almost no illustrations or flavor text, but it's very, very enjoyable to play.

 

[tylerthehobo]

Funny, I actually just started an identical thread without realizing that this one existed. Shutting down that thread. Here is what I posted there:

For me, I'm a HUGE fan of the Runequest rules, but the campaign setting of Glorantha is so dense that I've had trouble getting players interested in an ongoing campaign over the years. By the time they've wrapped their arms around heroquesting, the various empires, etc., it's hours into the first session. Unlike say the Forgotten Realms, where granted there is an unapproachable amount of history, you actually have to get into this stuff in Glorantha (what tribe are you from, what deity do you worship, what are your views on the world) to make the game actually fit the setting, unlike FR where even if there are thousands of years of history you can say, "Well, you're a halfling from the south, and you're a pickpocket." The tropes and archetypes of Glorantha are less approachable to a typical fantasy player, in my opinion, but if you can get into it it's fascinating great stuff.

On the rules/presentation side, there are plenty of games that I've played where due to budget or whatever the game was presented in a haphazard fashion, but once you cut through it it was hella fun! TWERPS comes to mind - it was obviously photocopied from pages that were typed on a typewriter, but if you got past that, it was a great beer and pretzels game.

(And a major 2nd to Traveler.)

 

[S'mon]

4e D&D, obviously. The 4e PHB must be the least fun, least readable rpg book I've ever encountered. I don't know how they did that, it took some real design talent to make it that unreadable. OTOH it can be a fun game to play/GM.

 

[CarlZog]

I'll second the vote for Alternity. I adore this system.

Reading it, you scratch your head over the mechanics and terminology that seems confusing and counter to a lot of RPG standards. Plus most of the interior art in the core books sucks.

But it's an elegant thing in play.

 

[jaerdaph]

I'd have to say the Decipher Star Trek RPG books are perhaps some of the dullest RPG books I've ever read (especially compared to its stellar predecessor from Last Unicorn Games), but actual play is quite fun and runs very smoothly. But getting through the Player's Guide and the Narrator's Guide was a real snooze fest at times.