Games with "terrible" follow-up editions

[Ralif Redhammer]

Shadowrun was actually what immediately came to mind. My favorite subsequent edition is definitely Shadowrun Anarchy, and that has unfortunately gotten minimal support.

Vampire the Masquerade also springs to mind. If I had to think what common factor links them, it's that both were lightning-in-a-bottle that came out at precisely the right time for the product they were releasing. Capturing that electricity a second time isn't easy, especially when the cultural factors that contributed to their success have also shifted.

 

[Voadam]

HeroTraveller was on the market for a few months. It has almost no fanbase. It was written for Hero 5E... but released just as 6E came out... but the license had to end due to....

I own a bunch of classic Traveller, GURPS Traveller, and T20 but I had never heard of Hero 5e Traveller.

 

[embee]

I don't think the conversion from oWoD to nWoD in the early 2000s was terrible (in many cases, I thought the new games were better). However, rebooting all your old games with similar concepts but completely new lore and modified mechanics is definitely an A+ way to split your fanbase into arguing pieces.

While I'm somewhat curious about current WoD, my feeling is that it won't be able to compare to the original and revised editions. Not because of any mechanical flaws but, rather, because my experience with it is so tightly bound up with college in the early 90s.

My fondness for it is, in no small part, from my fondness for my friends with whom I played.

It's an unfair comparison.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Got rid of all the bad words ( hell etc).
Lowered % chance to cast on already very very low % spells.
Utterly abandoned then the IP of my first n fav RPG

Just seemed like no editions of DQ managed to get the magic right, did they? It was the biggest weakness in the system.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Our GM was very upset with the TSR, as I recall.

Well, the history of TSR and SPI wasn't anything for the former to be proud of.

 

[Thomas Shey]

In general while I know of editions that clearly got negative reactions, its actually been pretty rare for me (though nothing I've heard of SR6e endears me to it). I reacted negatively to Hero 6e at first, but its grown on me with a couple exceptions.

 

[John R Davis]

Just seemed like no editions of DQ managed to get the magic right, did they? It was the biggest weakness in the system.

Get out.
It was fantastic!

.it's skill system was a mess though

 

[Jahydin]

L5R has diehards for 3E (like me until 5E came out) and for 2E...

5E, being very different mechanically, is also having issues with existing 3E and 4E fans badmouthing it. It does, however, seem to have a strong fanbase.... including me.

Oh, didn't know that. I have all the 5E books myself cause the art is amazing. Haven't got to play it yet though. Maybe I should get to reading them finally...

 

[Dioltach]

Has anyone mentioned Star Frontiers: New Genesis yet?

Ducks

 

[aramis erak]

I always considered T20, GURPS: Traveller and Hero System Traveller to be different games set in the same universe.

Thing is, Many CT, MT, and TNE fans did NOT see them as set in the same universes.

GT fundamentally reënvisaged the OTU, into a MUCH higher traffic, much higher trade place than most prior editions had; many fans of high traffic from CT/MT didn't think it would be the levels of high flow that GT floors at in its assumptions...

T20 officially overwrote the Judges Guild version of the Gateway Domain area; Some were quite unhappy with that.

Hero Trav wasn't available long enough to actually matter...