Games you thought you'd like and hated and games you thought you'd hate and liked
I thought I'd like d20 Modern/Future. Extending the core d20 System rules sounded perfect for me (long long time D&D junkie). But having completely flavor-free base classes, plus taking all the feats/skills/abilities systems, and then piling on talent trees/occupations in addition, and needing to multiclass/prestige class before getting any flavored classes, utterly overwhelmed my technical capacities. I think it takes like 5 feats or something before you can shoot a machine gun. Way too much for me.
This is all working off the SRD as a test run, for what that's worth.
This is all working off the SRD as a test run, for what that's worth.
Mechnomancer
First Post
Colonial Gothic. I read the blurb on the back and it was about dark conspiracies and gothic horror behind the scenes during the revolutionary war. I thought fricken sweet. Wrong. 90% of the book is their system 12 degrees, with an extremely brief equipment list and tips for using classical (vampires, mummies, werewolves, etc.) in a game. Nothing at all from the back cover. Total waste.
Tolen Mar
First Post
I'm a picky gamer, so I have far more 'thought I'd like but didn't' games.
GURPS is the big one. I have attempted many times to play and run this one. I can pretty much echo everyone here so far. Great fluff, but playing it was less than exciting.
Prime Directive (not the d20 version). I'm a big Star Trek fan, and an even biger fan of Star Fleet Battles. But PD just doesn't do it for me.
Let's see, briefly: Army of Darkness, Starship Troopers (those two taught me to stay away from movie based games), Mechwarrior, Hackmaster, Shadowrun (though I had more fun with the older editions), and Cyberpunk 2020. Believe me, there are plenty more.
There are a few I thought I wouldnt like, but not many.
Ars Magica 1E. I picked it up because at the time at our LFGS it was the thing to buy and play. Liked the 1E rules, but once White Wolf got ahold of it...
Palladium Fantasy. I was playing Rifts a lot at the time and having a blast with it. I bought PF mainly as a class sourcebook. But the more I read, the more I wanted to run it instead.
Paranoia XP. I never managed to complete a session of Paranoia. Anyone whose played it knows what I'm talking about. So I saw the XP edition, and thought 'meh.' But once I gave it a chance...it turned out to be pretty good. Now if I could only convince some local players around here to give it a try.
Finally, I have a third category: Games you waffle on. I'll explain with my entry:
SilCORE. We wanted to try something different. I had Heavy Gear, which was an okay mech game, but not fantastic. And to top it off, its a dice pool system, something I and my gaming group usually despise. But we made a point of trying something we would normally dismiss out of hand, just so we could say that we would play just about anything. So we go get SilCORE, since its basically the engine Heavy Gear runs on, but with the freedom to use whatever setting we want with it.
We fell in love with it. Its quick to pick up, easy to build characters, and has been very easy to 'wing it' with. Everyone was impressed with the mechanics, at first.
Two months later, we came to realize that it is too simplistic. The rules just don't have quite enough meat to keep us happy. A few of the rules that are in there are even a bit annoying (I really dislike the vehicle construction rules).
So we started out skeptical, grew to like it, then realized it was too light.
GURPS is the big one. I have attempted many times to play and run this one. I can pretty much echo everyone here so far. Great fluff, but playing it was less than exciting.
Prime Directive (not the d20 version). I'm a big Star Trek fan, and an even biger fan of Star Fleet Battles. But PD just doesn't do it for me.
Let's see, briefly: Army of Darkness, Starship Troopers (those two taught me to stay away from movie based games), Mechwarrior, Hackmaster, Shadowrun (though I had more fun with the older editions), and Cyberpunk 2020. Believe me, there are plenty more.
There are a few I thought I wouldnt like, but not many.
Ars Magica 1E. I picked it up because at the time at our LFGS it was the thing to buy and play. Liked the 1E rules, but once White Wolf got ahold of it...
Palladium Fantasy. I was playing Rifts a lot at the time and having a blast with it. I bought PF mainly as a class sourcebook. But the more I read, the more I wanted to run it instead.
Paranoia XP. I never managed to complete a session of Paranoia. Anyone whose played it knows what I'm talking about. So I saw the XP edition, and thought 'meh.' But once I gave it a chance...it turned out to be pretty good. Now if I could only convince some local players around here to give it a try.
Finally, I have a third category: Games you waffle on. I'll explain with my entry:
SilCORE. We wanted to try something different. I had Heavy Gear, which was an okay mech game, but not fantastic. And to top it off, its a dice pool system, something I and my gaming group usually despise. But we made a point of trying something we would normally dismiss out of hand, just so we could say that we would play just about anything. So we go get SilCORE, since its basically the engine Heavy Gear runs on, but with the freedom to use whatever setting we want with it.
We fell in love with it. Its quick to pick up, easy to build characters, and has been very easy to 'wing it' with. Everyone was impressed with the mechanics, at first.
Two months later, we came to realize that it is too simplistic. The rules just don't have quite enough meat to keep us happy. A few of the rules that are in there are even a bit annoying (I really dislike the vehicle construction rules).
So we started out skeptical, grew to like it, then realized it was too light.
Hunter In Darkness
First Post
have to add me to the anti-gurps list love the fluff the system leaves me feeling flat .
ARGH...
I hate jumping on the bandwagon but the first thing I thought seeing the OP was GURPS,
I think I have picked up at least one GURPS sourcebook every year since its inception. The information/fluff is just THAT good.
But by the beard of Cthulhu, I just can not enjoy PLAYING Gurps.
I hate jumping on the bandwagon but the first thing I thought seeing the OP was GURPS,
I think I have picked up at least one GURPS sourcebook every year since its inception. The information/fluff is just THAT good.
But by the beard of Cthulhu, I just can not enjoy PLAYING Gurps.
Hunter In Darkness
First Post
Jorunkun said:
well you see man on paper it looks good looks damned good really but in play it just seems to fall in on itself i think anyhow
Darrin Drader
Explorer
GURPS for me too. I actually got rid of my core book a few years ago because I just had no desire to play it, which was sad because I too had high hopes.
Shadowrun - too much number crunching for too little action. The mechanics were wonky, as was the math. It just didn't work for me.
Earthdawn. I thought it would be a better system than AD&D. I was wrong and after a few sessions I switched back.
Mythus. Again, overly complicated. One of my good friends declared that the system was completely unplayable, but the books were compelling on a philosophical level.
Games I liked that I thought I wouldn't.... d6 Star Wars. I got to play it when it was brand new and I felt that the system lent itself to cinematic goodness with a touch of silly. I miss the silly in the D20 versions.
Alternity - Not a half bad system, and those books are great for mining ideas from. It's kind of sad that the game didn't shine brighter than it did.
Shadowrun - too much number crunching for too little action. The mechanics were wonky, as was the math. It just didn't work for me.
Earthdawn. I thought it would be a better system than AD&D. I was wrong and after a few sessions I switched back.
Mythus. Again, overly complicated. One of my good friends declared that the system was completely unplayable, but the books were compelling on a philosophical level.
Games I liked that I thought I wouldn't.... d6 Star Wars. I got to play it when it was brand new and I felt that the system lent itself to cinematic goodness with a touch of silly. I miss the silly in the D20 versions.
Alternity - Not a half bad system, and those books are great for mining ideas from. It's kind of sad that the game didn't shine brighter than it did.
