Games you want to play but can't

[shadow]

What are some games / settings that you are itching to play but can't because they wouldn't work with your group? For me there are three:

1. Planescape - I've tried running the Planescape setting with my group but it didn't work. My players couldn't get into the weird urban fantasy setting and no one wanted to have anything to do with the various factions (which are a big part of the setting). Then there was the problem of "So Sigil has portals to everywhere? Does that mean I can play a character from real life earth?" This always leads to problems because the players love to play up their 'real-life earth' characters' naivety and outsider status. Last time I tried to play Plansecape I had a player insist on being a devout Muslim from the second crusade who was against anything resembling remotely polytheism or atheism (which lead to a huge amount of problems with cleric characters as well as the Athar faction).

2.Hero - I love the system and the flexibility it allows in character creation, but it takes forever to build characters. With all the group having full time jobs and family, we only are able to get together for a few hours at a time. Consequently, no one wants to commit to several sessions of character building

3. Fear Itself and other horror games - I like horror settings and survival horror games, but I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that horror games will never work with my current group. To do a good horror game, players must participate and role-play their characters being scared. My current group tends to do more 'beer and pretzels' style games. I had an unfortunately experience when trying to run "Don't Rest Your Head". Most of the players didn't take it too seriously and had rather silly characters.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

Horror RPGs - Very hard to find folks willing to play in horror campaigns of any sort.

Wraith: The Oblivion - My favorite horror RPG, but very emotionally draining when played "right."

Stargate, Smallville, and other licensed RPGs from somewhat obscure sources - Hard to find players who are as into the show as I am and can therefore slide right in to the game.

 

[aramis erak]

Starships & Spacemen (1E) - my players tend to have a hard time not using "but they can do it in TNG"... which leads to unhappiness.

Justifiers - since it's an anthropomorphics game, players tend to get silly as all hell.

Albedo - finding people who have read its souce comic is a pain; anyone who hasn't tends to get silly due to the anthropomorphics side.

 

[phil62]

The Laundry Files. Relies on a decent knowledge of Stross's (thoroughly excellent) Laundry books.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For me, it is most games that aren't D&D- I game with a good group, but there is a very constructive core to it. It is rare that we try other RPGs- maybe 3 non-D&D systems since 1998?

Hero - I love the system and the flexibility it allows in character creation, but it takes forever to build characters. With all the group having full time jobs and family, we only are able to get together for a few hours at a time. Consequently, no one wants to commit to several sessions of character building

Whole it takes time, it really shouldn't take "several sessions" to design PCs in HERO. Granted, I'm a true HEROphile, but even so, a couple hours.

And the hidden beauty of HERO is that- once your PC is designed, 90% of everything you'll need to run the game will be on the character sheet in front of you. No need to look through a bunch of splatbooks for a spell or feat or what have you.

 

[Gradine]

I have a seven month old, sooooo... everything.

More specifically I'll echo the comments on horror games. I love writing horror but my usual player group trends towards being less than serious.

 

[bone_naga]

I'll join in with the chorus of comments about horror games. It can be really hard to get the players to buy into the environment and atmosphere required, especially after playing more traditional games like D&D. You can describe horribly traumatic psychological events, and the players shrug and go "ok, then what happens?" When some monstrous, mind-shattering being appears they wonder "how many HP does it have?"

Now that we've been playing the FFG Star Wars RPG, I think it may actually work out quite well for a horror campaign.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Well, a decent game of Call of Chtulhu is pretty much the only non-D&D game I'm likely to see, and only because one can easily do it as a one-shot with two players.

Apart from that I have a pretty much fixed group with players much to sluggish to try new things.

 

[innerdude]

The One Ring.

Oh my goodness, how much do I want to play this game.........

Own the core book + Rivendell in hardcover, everything else in PDF......

But I can't convince anyone to play it. When I suggested it to my best friend, who's the primary catalyst for my group, just looked at me and said, "But you've read the books over two dozen times. I've only watched the movies once in my life. How am I supposed to 'get' the setting?"

And truthfully, I wouldn't want a typical group to play it. There's always the one guy who thinks that making a hobbit character named "Filbo Snaggins" (or whatever) is the height of comedy. I just couldn't handle that. I have too much deep, abiding love for the source material.

And you absolutely, positively cannot approach the system as a power gamer. It's just not a system designed to be "power gamed." There's only three freaking core stats, and maybe two dozen skills, of which 6-8 of them are things like "herb lore" and "riddle lore."

So, it probably won't ever happen, sadly. Ah well.

 

[shadow]

Whole it takes time, it really shouldn't take "several sessions" to design PCs in HERO. Granted, I'm a true HEROphile, but even so, a couple hours.

Considering the fact that we took 2 sessions to make Shadowrun characters I'd hate to think how long it would take to make HERO characters. Granted because of kids, school, and/or work we only have about an hour and a half per session. Also, because there's only one copy of most of our gaming books, character creation usually consists of the GM going from person to person each step of the way and explaining the rules and options to the player.

If I had a group that knew the rules pretty well and had copies of their own books (At least the first one), I'd play the game in a heartbeat.