Games that are more fun to read than to play

[Shades of Green]

Shadowrun and Earthdawn. Both have excellent backgrounds, TONS of flavor text, and overall coolness; but all these are marred by (IMHO) cumbersome rules. Shadowrun 4E resolves a lot of this complexity, but is still quite rules-heavy for my tastes.

 

[CarlZog]

Babylon 5

I've been thinking about grabbing this one as a generic space opera system. What didn't you like about it?

 

[Diamond Cross]

I'm sorry, I accidentally posted that game here.

I am dyslexic to a degree and sometimes get thing criss-crossed.

I like the game but have never played it. Would someday like since I am a fan of Babylon 5 myself.

 

[AngryMojo]

I'll go on a limb and say Pathfinder. Not because it's a bad game, but because the world supplements and adventures are such damn entertaining reads.

 

[SiderisAnon]

As a non-math whiz AND devoted HEROphile, I've heard this time and again and never really understood it. I mean, it's basic addition & subtraction, multiplication and division...with charts provided where the worst multiplication & division are done for you.

And after that, all you do is roll N(d6) for everything. The harder math is all in character creation.

First, character creation is overwhelming to many.

Second, there are numerous numbers to track every round, including Endurance, Recovery, Stun, actions on which you go, whether you are stunned, et cetera.

Finally, I know gamers who consider Shadowrun and D&D far too much math. The kind of players who find both games dead easy are the only ones I've found who were willing to touch Hero. That's three people besides me in the past 15 years in the groups I run, plus one group of guys who were running the game but I had to quit because the game was awful (not the system, their game).


Seriously, some people won't play HERO just because the character sheet looks too complex.

 

[Treebore]

Aces & Eights - Great looking book, full of flavor and great fluff, but it is horrible complex.

Totally disagree. To play all you need is on pages 6 to 13. Everything else is optional.

 

[Walking Paradox]

Wraith: The Oblivion by White Wolf and HöL both qualify in that regard for me. I've played in a couple of really good Vampire games and one awesome HöL game, but it's a lot easier to read those books for fun than it is to play a game that actually takes place in those settings.

Special mention needs to be made of the "Shoah: Charnel House of Europe" sourcebook for Wraith. It's a vivid history lesson in a book and very well-written, but that setting is not playable. I remember one passage in which Holocaust survivors were being described and the writer said something along the lines of "it is the testimony of these people which made this White Wolf book possible" and I thought my head was going to explode; I could just imagine some SS officer giving a fiery speech to his men before commanding them to commit an atrocity, and ending it with "and remember, in 60 years, White Wolf will have a book about this." That made me laugh, but I don't think it's a playabe RPG setting.

 

[Treebore]

I'll go on a limb and say Pathfinder. Not because it's a bad game, but because the world supplements and adventures are such damn entertaining reads.

Yes, I am definitely completely past any desire what so ever to play 3E, let alone Pathfinder, but I do love to read the support material, so I buy waaaay too much of it!

I definitely disagree with a number of opinions here. I love L5R, especially the new 4E, I love Shadowrun, 4E best of all the editions. RIFTS I can mostly agree with, especially as you add on more of the supplements, Paladium Fantasy, on the other hand, is far more playable, with equally awesome fluff.

GURPS, definitely not my favorite system, but still pretty darn playable, and the various source books are indeed awesome!

Deciphers LotR, never got to play it, but it certainly looked good. So really can't say how it plays in comparison to how it reads.

HERO, never read or played it, so no idea.

Mutants and Masterminds, since I use a lot of the templates written up by others for our PC's, very fun game! If I HAD to do character creation, I probably wouldn't touch it. Since I only do it occasionally, I really like it, but I also haven't been able to give Wild Talents a try out yet, so I may end up liking it better, one of these days.

One things I am definitely finding to read better than it plays is Eclipse Phase. Especially PC generation, you are seriously better off using the good Excel sheets for this game. After PC gen the game plays well, though.

Another one that read better than it played is Dragon Age. Still had a good time with it, but the reading made the playing a disappointment in comparison.

Starblazers also read better than it played, but still fun enough.

I still haven't played it enough to say for sure, but so far Warhammer 3E definitely reads much better than it plays. I am still hopeful I will like this much better as I get to play it more.

Aces and Eights, like I said above, plays way, way better than it reads. Definitely play with the basic rules for a while first (pages 6 to 13), then play with more and more of the advanced stuff as you feel it is needed. If you ever feel it is needed. I thought for sure I would not like this game, but now it is among my 3 favorites. Heck, most of my group thought they would hate this RPG, none of them hate it and most of us love it!

Star Wars SAGA played much better than it reads. I played this after I got burned out on 3E, so as I read it I thought for sure I would not enjoy it, but for the love of my son, I co GMed it with him, and ended up really liking it.

Harn. I really, seriously, love Harn, but the rules system, again a playable system, but I never liked it. When I tried using it I could only think of systems I thought do the job better. Still, if I ever really wanted to play a "low magic" RPG, this would probably be the one I would use, and would probably like it then. I certainly love the world and its material.

HARP. Definitely reads better than it plays, but if the new version ever gets done I may change my mind. It was his first ever RPG, so I believe him when he says he will do a much better job this time around.

Runequest. I have always enjoyed reading it better than playing it. I have yet to give the new version a try though.

Pendragon. Love reading it, but have never had a chance to play it.

Chivalry and Sorcery. Love reading it, playing it was not nearly as fun as I hoped.

Traveller, I prefer running it to reading it, but I do get a lot of enjoyment out of reading it too.

BESM, much prefer to read the source materials, using the system always frustrated me. I actually enjoyed the D20 versions more. Especially the Mecha stuff.

Twilight 2000, definitely plays better than it reads! Ditto for Twilight 2013!

Gamma World 1E, also plays much better than it reads!

Thats all I can think of for now.

 

[Retreater]

A bit too complex/cumbersome systems....

Aces & Eights
GURPS
Anything Palladium


Systems not complex, but didn't feel right to me....

Savage Worlds
WHFRP 3E

 

[tylerthehobo]

I overheard a guy who runs a FLGS tell this story once. He participated in a retail program for one of the publishers at one point a while ago, where he had to complete phone surveys with the publisher for hours on end (about volume of sales, demographics, etc.). After one particularly tedious survey, at the end he said, "Look, can you tell me what you are finding from all of these, so that I can better position your products?" And amongst the many marketing talking points the surveyor rattled off, the one that stuck with him the most was, "Well, a lot of customers are guys in their 30s and 40s who buy the games but basically just read them - don't play too much."