Games that didn't survive first contact. . .

[jdrakeh]

Scripting combat does not work for us. I thought about just keeping combat the way it is sans scripting (just round to round decision making).

I think that we're in much the same place, actually. That said, if you remove scripting from combat, I really feel that, aside from character creation, there isn't a lot left to set BW apart from other fantasy game systems. This being the case, I feel that it's more worthwhile to port the life paths and such (something that everybody I've played BW with does enjoy) to a combat/rsolution system that I know everybody similarly enjoys (be it D&D, WHFRP, or something else).

 

[Treebore]

I'll mirror what some others' have said and go with "Rifts." We had a glitterboy, a godling, a dragon hatchling, a ley line walker. Good so far! Oh and...

...a vegabond.

That right there killed it. Any Rifts game I run in the future, I'll be giving players a list of available OCC/PCC/RCCs.

That is probably the biggest key to running RIFTS successfully. Then willingness to house rule all the quirkiness and stream line the combat a good bit. RIFTS is a lot of fun, but you have to definitely be a bit of a game designer to make it work at its best.

Every game I have played in or ran made it past first contact. Most ran for several months of weekly play. The two shortest were Aftermath and Rolemaster, actually Spacemaster. Chivalry and Sorcery made it about 4 months. We loved the rich flavor of everything, but we didn't love how it played.

MERP, RIFTS, Paladium Fantasy, RIFTS, Synnibar, Shadowrun, Harn, etc... all lasted a year or longer.

I sure miss gaming in Charleston, SC.

 

[apoptosis]

I think that we're in much the same place, actually. That said, if you remove scripting from combat, I really feel that, aside from character creation, there isn't a lot left to set BW apart from other fantasy game systems. This being the case, I feel that it's more worthwhile to port the life paths and such (something that everybody I've played BW with does enjoy) to a combat/rsolution system that I know everybody similarly enjoys (be it D&D, WHFRP, or something else).

For me all the other stuff (BITs),skills and conflict resolution, magic system, resources and such is really what interested me more. But i can see how when you remove scripting it could lose some of its uniqueness. I like the rest of the combat system (wounds, dice pool, combat choices) I just dont like advanced scripting in practice or in actual resolution as characters get really hurt by a poor decision that is almost a random decision (as in the players really dont have that much ability to skillfully decide which option to use).

The game though is so crunchy that i cant get enough of my group to really understand the rules and without everyone on board it doesn't really shine.

We ended up switching to Shadow of Yesterday for a FRPG.

 

[timbannock]

Tribe 8 - I'll always love this dark, dark setting, but unless the players are very well read on the core elements of the setting and are interested in a whole lot of grim, cathartic roleplaying, it's just not going to work.

And it didn't.

Heavy Gear - Also a great setting, but after we did a human vs. mecha fight -- and the humans won -- it just lost something.

Earthdawn - We liked D&D more, so we ported it to that system. Now, one of the companies to join the 4E GSL is doing the very same thing. Hmmmm...

RIFTS - Tried it twice. Second time actually seemed promising, but the GM got lazy and frankly, it was only so promising...

Wildside Fantasy RPG - This game is the worst piece of **** that I've ever played, hands down. I was a playtester as a favor to my professor (who designed it), and I've regretted it ever since. Just tossed the book into a campfire this past Saturday as a matter of fact. My fellow playtesters used the burning pages to light cigars as we watched it turn to ash. No joke.

Wraith - me and a friend loved this game, but everyone else hated it.

 

[jdrakeh]

We ended up switching to Shadow of Yesterday for a FRPG.

I love this game, although the switch to FUDGE dice in the second edition disappointed me. I think it's a good choice for simple but meaningful fantasy.

 

[Mercule]

Mage: the Ascension. Glad I never went back to that one.

Mage can be an odd one. I think it was written to be a playable metaphor, in some ways. I've got a minor in philosophy, and played it during college. I had a significantly different impression and interest in the game than most of the engineering and ecology students I was playing with.

 

[lin_fusan]

I'll also add Rifts. I tried one game in which it started off as Palladium Fantasy and in the first session we got transported to Rifts. Even then, as a noob, I mentioned the SDC/MDC rules and the GM ignored us. Until I shot an arrow against a guy with armor and a lasergun.

The second time I tried it, we were all playing Evil-type characters and all from every sourcebook imaginable. I refused to buy any new books and used the Robotech RPG back when I was an anime fanboy. It ended up becoming a D&D game, with laserguns and robots, crawling through a dungeon.

I'm a Mage: The Ascension fan, but every game gets really, really wonky. I'd say the sweet spot is all Spheres at 2 dots, maximum, which eliminates pretty much 30% of the Mage book.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Another game that didn't last past one session was the one and only time I ran World of Synnibar, which I will admit is one of my secret guilty gaming pleasures (it's just such a stupid game).

My then-but-now-ex wife rolled up a mutant with absolute maximum human strength...and asthma. The other player played a chameleon drake. It was madness.

 

[El Mahdi]

Alternity. I loved the settings for StarDrive and DarkMatter but the Alternity rules were just too clunky. The whole level of success part of the rules was just too cumbersome. Felt like going back to Thac0, but worse. I have since used both the StarDrive and DarkMatter settings, with the original source books for fluff, with adapted Alternity classes to D20 Modern. Worked really well and easily survived beyond one session.

 

[Caliber]

Enough people have mentioned Rifts that I don't feel like piling on here but ... oh what the hell. Rifts.

Also, Shadowrun. Maybe me and my friends were just a bit too young to grok the game (not the rules, mind, but the tone and idea) but it just turned into a bloodbath as insults escalated to violence and everyone turned on everyone else. I'd like to think I'll give it a shot again someday, but I somehow doubt it.

Really, I'm always willing to play pretty much anything someone is willing to run, at least once. I have more problem finding people interested in running than anything else, and wind up running predominantly as a result.