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Games you thought you'd like and hated and games you thought you'd hate and liked
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<blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 4057864" data-attributes="member: 3586"><p>Both Mutants & Masterminds (2e) and Iron Heroes are big examples of the "thought I'd like, and ended up disliking" categories.</p><p></p><p><strong>M&M</strong>... well, I don't really like the damage system. But, more to the point, the game thrives on saving throws to avoid special effects. Either a power works or it doesn't, there isn't much of an inbetween. And the Power Level restrictions soon mean there's a sameness to all the characters. You have a power that works 50% of the time (or thereabouts). And if you don't max out your defenses/powers, something that you're weak to just pounds you into the dirt.</p><p></p><p>The less said about the Constitution Drain power (which costs the same as any other power drain, except it actually kills you) the better.</p><p></p><p><strong>Iron Heroes</strong> has a lot going for it... but suffered terribly from inadequate development and playtesting. Token pools sound good, but for many characters are too hard to build up. I'm sorry, spending a standard action to gain tokens isn't worth my time in a system where a combat lasts four rounds. And then the abilities you can use them for are often completely underwhelming. The less said about a low-level hunter the better.</p><p></p><p>Oh, and the high-strength characters (with heavy armour) completely owned the battlefield. Utterly. Completely. Dex wasn't giving me a much improved chance of dodging blows, but their DR meant they weren't taking much damage *and* had better hit points. Consider that D&D has huge levels of Sneak Attack for rogues in 3.5e, and IH doesn't approach that...</p><p></p><p>I played two different characters in the IH game, and both didn't work compared to the strength guys. When all characters are basically melee characters, you need to do more to put them on the same level, and that work was lacking.</p><p></p><p>Probably the game that has surprised me the most was <strong>Marvel Super Heroes</strong>, which made a very simple system work really well. It may have been the DMing - well, that almost certainly was part of it - but because of its simplicity the problems with its design really didn't bother me that much. It was fast enough so you didn't have lots of time to worry about what it did badly. It's been ten years since I played it, but I'd play it again.</p><p></p><p>I haven't played many other games recently (just Amber and every edition of Star Wars), so I don't have much else to say. Though I could go on for some time about Boardgames...</p><p></p><p>Cheers!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MerricB, post: 4057864, member: 3586"] Both Mutants & Masterminds (2e) and Iron Heroes are big examples of the "thought I'd like, and ended up disliking" categories. [b]M&M[/b]... well, I don't really like the damage system. But, more to the point, the game thrives on saving throws to avoid special effects. Either a power works or it doesn't, there isn't much of an inbetween. And the Power Level restrictions soon mean there's a sameness to all the characters. You have a power that works 50% of the time (or thereabouts). And if you don't max out your defenses/powers, something that you're weak to just pounds you into the dirt. The less said about the Constitution Drain power (which costs the same as any other power drain, except it actually kills you) the better. [b]Iron Heroes[/b] has a lot going for it... but suffered terribly from inadequate development and playtesting. Token pools sound good, but for many characters are too hard to build up. I'm sorry, spending a standard action to gain tokens isn't worth my time in a system where a combat lasts four rounds. And then the abilities you can use them for are often completely underwhelming. The less said about a low-level hunter the better. Oh, and the high-strength characters (with heavy armour) completely owned the battlefield. Utterly. Completely. Dex wasn't giving me a much improved chance of dodging blows, but their DR meant they weren't taking much damage *and* had better hit points. Consider that D&D has huge levels of Sneak Attack for rogues in 3.5e, and IH doesn't approach that... I played two different characters in the IH game, and both didn't work compared to the strength guys. When all characters are basically melee characters, you need to do more to put them on the same level, and that work was lacking. Probably the game that has surprised me the most was [b]Marvel Super Heroes[/b], which made a very simple system work really well. It may have been the DMing - well, that almost certainly was part of it - but because of its simplicity the problems with its design really didn't bother me that much. It was fast enough so you didn't have lots of time to worry about what it did badly. It's been ten years since I played it, but I'd play it again. I haven't played many other games recently (just Amber and every edition of Star Wars), so I don't have much else to say. Though I could go on for some time about Boardgames... Cheers! [/QUOTE]
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