Games You Rarely See Played "Correctly"

[sevenbastard]

What was clearly supposed to be a game about personal horror ended up being superheroes with fangs. Instead of an angsty vampire trying to hold on to their humanity or live under the oppressive rules of their elders, we had vampires running around with twin Desert Eagles, katanas, and trench coats.

Thats on the designers for not having some sort of solid starter adventure that shows how to play. With no direction we went to our default, killing things for loot.

Also probably on the fact teenagers like my friends and I didn't really want to roll play our feelings.

Who am I kidding I still dont want to roll play my feelings when the alternative is big guns and sharp swords.

 

[John R Davis]

PBTA

This game is easy to play wrong. Needs a certain approach which I seen not happen

Plus there are a lot of games supposedly PBTA but really aren't and are a bit rubbish

 

[jian]

Monopoly. I don't know a single person who plays it RAW.

Exactly, everyone remembers about 30 minutes in why they never play it and either give up or change the rules. It would help if the cover said something like, “this is The Landlords’ Game, it’s meant to be unfair and horrible and put you right off capitalism.”

 

[Aldarc]

Not an RPG, but apparently, everyone plays UNO wrong

I had this problem when playing UNO with my partner for the first time. I knew that our respective family played the games in different ways, so I had to gently put my foot down and insist on playing the game RAW as the compromise between having to choose whose family's rules take precedence.

PBTA

This game is easy to play wrong. Needs a certain approach which I seen not happen

Plus there are a lot of games supposedly PBTA but really aren't and are a bit rubbish

I came here to say this. A lot of it involves trying to play chess like checkers, though in this case, it's like trying to run PbtA as a trad game like D&D. Usual signs of wrong doing involves treating Moves like skill checks and/or buttons to press.

Also, I think we can now safely add Daggerheart to this as well.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Monopoly. I don't know a single person who plays it RAW.

I do. I actually took a community college class taught by a runner-up in a national championship (it was basically a statistics class disguised as "how to crush everyone in Monopoly forever"). Most -- but not all -- of the game's problems are caused by everyone playing with house rules that they may not even know actually are house rules.

A RAW game is usually 45 minutes or less, although people get their feelings hurt even more playing RAW. (If you never want to play Monopoly again, make the whole family play RAW and emotionally scar them for life.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Exactly, everyone remembers about 30 minutes in why they never play it and either give up or change the rules.

I don't buy that most people start out by auctioning off every space they land on, if the person landing on it doesn't buy it, or that they don't start off by putting money on free parking as something for people to win when they land there.

Most of the ways that you see people play in real life or in the media are the accretion of decades of house rules made up by people who shouldn't be in the business of making up game rules.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

A lot of current RPGs are ran as an almost constant combat but with minimal real risk of character death.

Which "current RPGs" are these, other than 5E D&D and closely related games?

It seems that we just go through the motions. What ever happened to the social side of things? Or being able to sneak past something? Or maybe it is just groups in my area.

Those groups need to try OSR games, Mothership, Alien or a host of other games that emphasize not charging into battle.

And for games with magic - spell research for new spells? Used to be a thing. Now spell lists are often considered sacrosanct and not to be altered or have things added. I think it is still in many rule sets but it has been a couple of decades since I heard someone ask about researching a new spell.

There are whole games, like Ars Magica, built around this. When you say "games," which ones are you referring to?

 

[Gradine]

In Cyberpunk 2020, it's suppose to be more important to look good doing something than to be competent. I can't think of many players who adhered to this ethos when it came to their characters. Most of us tried to make the most effective characters, choosing equipment and cyberware that would make us more efficient killers and thieves, and making choices based on what was going to get us the most euros in the shortest period of time. I can only recall one player who tried look cool no matter what. In CP2020, a posergang is a specific gang where members all alter themselves surgically to look like a specific person or persons. For example, the Gilligans were a LGBTQ posergang and they all looked like characters from Gilligan's Island and there was another posergang who looked like members of the Kennedy family. Anyway, I had one player who was a former member of a posergang and they all looked like Star Wars character. His main weapon of choice was a replica that looked like Solo's blaster and he loaded it with tracer shots so it'd resemble a blaster when fired. He's the only player I can remember who spent that much time on how his character looked and chose his equipment on what made sense for his style.

I can't think of a genre more hard-coded towards people comically missing the point than Cyberpunk. It's almost refreshing when a property leans into the concept that cybernetics are cool and awesome. Also, being more familiar with the Cyberpunk 2077 video game than the tabletop game, but this:

In Cyberpunk 2020, it's suppose to be more important to look good doing something than to be competent

makes everything about Johnny Silverhand make so much sense

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I keep trying to win this game but I can't seem to get ahead.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yes, well, it would have helped if the game was designed to be angsty personal horror. But, the game design is clearly superheroes with fangs - it is a game in which the supposed intent does not match the rules the players are given.

FWIW, when I was playtesting GURPS: V:tM, my character was, in fact, based on a superhero.

The Tick.