Games you were turned off of and why

[painandgreed]

[*]Dragonlance: I absolutely HATED the setting. I hated the NPC's, I hated the Kender, and those ruined it for me. That, and module railroading made me seriously consider pounding a railroad spike through my tongue and into a stack of first print Dieties & Demigods rather than ever even walk buy one of those modules again. But, it's been pointed out that maybe it was the GM. A friend of mine has agreed to run the modules and if I can get through them without clawing out my own eyes, he'll give the campaign a shot. Strangely enough, I liked the old SSI computer games.

Quoted because I feel the exact same way.


Warhammer 40k - Loved the game, but when they redid the rules so that it invalidated all my armies and would have forced me to buy almost all new miniatures, I sold everything for a cheap price and never looked back. To make things worse, the new edition was smaller than the previous and was mostly cut and pasted from the previous edition. That made me even madder because the previous edition was smaller than Rogue Trader and since I had some of the books I could tell that most of what was in the edition was cut and pasted from those books. if they're going to coem ot with a new edition, the least they could do is write new material besides a few rule that force you to buy all new minis.

 

[Tolen Mar]

Re: Warhammer games...

First off, it isnt my favorite. Its popular around here, so its the game to play.

However, you can do like I do, and tell anyone who thinks (I know the rulebook says it, too) that you have to have the appropriate minis to screw off. Its too expensive and its about the game and having fun with your friends, not who has the bigger mini budget.

I do this all the time, and it can be a bit of a hassle, but its a lot cheaper.

 

[Nomad4life]

Another RIFTS rant. Sorry.

When I think of systems that I became profoundly disillusioned with, the name at the forefront of that list is the infamous amalgamation of random words, numbers, and kewl artwork known as RIFTS.

Early in high school, I remember being really exited about the potential of RIFTS. All those big, cool robots and spells seemed like they would make a good diversion from regular ol’ AD&D. My group and I had lots of good character and adventures ideas ready…

Which is where the game collapsed. The rules are what I would call “unplayable.” Not so much because they are literally broken, but simply because there was a failsafe in my brain that prevented me from trying to understand something so horribly, horribly, horribly bad.

We played about four times. Each time, we never finished the adventure because the GM gave up in a fit of frustration and would never look at or touch the book ever again. Worse yet was the time a player wanted to make a new character in the middle of an adventure because he saw a picture that looked “kewler” than the one he was playing at the time. Our GM yelled “NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” with such violent conviction and terror that we still laugh about that incident today. Character creation was that much of an ordeal.

Near the end of our last adventure, our Crazy, just to show off, put a live hand grenade in his mouth and kissed an opponent on the lips!!! After the resulting explosion, the opponent was decapitated, and the barely scratched Crazy blew smoke rings from his lips. It was at this point that we all became aware of how godforsakenlyabysmal the combat system in that game really was.

I think I could in fact write a book entitled “How bad RIFTS really was.” Heck, I think I’m going to start that book right now. My brother would buy it for sure, at least. He was there.

Diversion from AD&D? AD&D 2nd ed. Still holds a fond place on a shelf in my study. Can you guess which book does not?

 

[Wil]

I'd have to chime in with:

WOD - Partly this is due to experiences with players, partly because of the mishmash of "personal horror" stuff that just seems so played out. I'd have to weight it heavily towards being involved in the whole "goth-industrial scene" thing by virtue of liking the music, going to the clubs and shows, but not giving -all about the aesthetics. Since Marilyn Manson's popularity peaked about the time that WoD was getting big, I think my general malaise towards WoD kind of went along with my dislike for the way "the scene" was heading. I actually think Storyteller is a slick little system, and I love Exalted.

Shadowrun - I really liked the Borderlands series of books when I was in high school. Shadowrun just failed to capture that urban fantasy feel I was looking for, so I never cared for it. In fact, I think this is part of my problem with WoD - I wanted Midnight Blue and got Capcom "monster vs. monster" (which I totally understand is partly a problem with the players that I encountered and not the game itself).

Amber - I have no problem with diceless games, it's just that I never really cared for the books (just like I'm not a huge fan of other "classics" like the Dragonriders of Pern, Lord of the Rings, etc.) Throw into the mix a very overzealous individual who did nothing but poo-poo every play style except for what's espoused in Amber and I developed a dislike for the game. Interesting trend though - I tend to get turned off from all kinds of things (games, music, movies) based on how rabidly "If you don't love it there's something wrong with you!" the fans are. I was that way when Depeche Mode first came out too.

RIFTS - I think the concepts are great, even if the execution is lacking. The rules are something to be desired, however and that's my biggest turn-off.

Superhero games - I don't read comic books and really never have, so it's no surprise that I wouldn't care for superhero games.

d20 - It's just too crunchy for my tastes. There are a lot of good things that I've seen in many d20 games, both setting and rules-wise; I just can't stand the system.

 

[Tolen Mar]

I had another thought: Battlelords of the twenty-third century.

My FLGS was so desperate to get rid of this one, they were literally giving copies away free. Now, I happened to like it. It was an amalgam of disparate systems (including system shock rolls!), with a somewhat interesting story. The races seemed cool, the combat was interesting.

Taken as a whole, however, it was too complex, and I couldnt con anyone into playing.

Eventually, I gave up, and managed to sell my copy back to the same FLGS in exchange for some other used stock they had (apparently, only the owner knew about the giveaway some months before).

 

[Elemental]

Near the end of our last adventure, our Crazy, just to show off, put a live hand grenade in his mouth and kissed an opponent on the lips!!! After the resulting explosion, the opponent was decapitated, and the barely scratched Crazy blew smoke rings from his lips. It was at this point that we all became aware of how godforsakenlyabysmal the combat system in that game really was.

There was a funny bit in one Rifts book where the author ranted about PC's who'd shoot themselves in the head to show how tough they were. So special rules for shooting yourself in the head were introduced, to make it fatal. Shooting yourself in the heart, cutting your own throat and the like still wouldn't kill you.

And there's the well-known screed in Federation of Magic, where Siembieda mocks players who complains that mages are screwed compared to a guy with a gun, and that the magic system is fine as written....then mentions off-handedly that he doesn't play with the magic system as written.

 

[Elemental]

It was basically just nonsensical. Firstly, a whole ton of was required regarding your "home base" and your "boss", and you did play some manner of "otherwordly superpower", but the effects of it were so varied in their utility and reliability (our God of Rage expended most of his power attempting unsuccessfully to get a fussy baby to throw a temper tantrum) as to be useless.

Heh. Now I've got this picture of a bearded berserker type with crazy eyes craning over a cradle and saying "Rage! Release your rage!", and the baby giggling and throwing a rattle at him.

I'm pretty certain RPG.net still loves it though

They seem to have moved onto Weapons of the Gods and Dogs in the Vineyard recently, with Exalted a perennial favourite. Is there any context for the RPG.net hating?

 

[Huw]

1) GURPS. I think the GM put me off. Character generation was going well, but the GM insisted we take 5 flaws for 1 point each "for background". I decided my character thought squirrels were servants of the devil, and would kill them on sight (anyone who's seen Blackadder III might recognise this concept).

Anyway, he decided that this was actually a 15 point flaw (major delusion) - but having to play out that flaw would make the character impossible to work with. It was obvious that I had to have a character meet his narrow criteria, rather than have one as flexible as the rules claimed.

2) Vampire Minds Eye Theatre (LARP). A player put me off. Now, I wasn't playing, but I was a goth, and I was hanging around the FLGS 10 minutes before the game was to start. Still no reason for some weirdo to come and start talking (in character, as it turned out) about his day at work at a film studio and (this is where I started getting suspicious) using real bodies for special effects.

3) Some small press game whose name escapes me (something like "Fantastic Adventures"). One of the stats was Bravery. Before you were allowed to even enter combat, you had to make a bravery check. Remember those annoying family board games where you had to roll a 6 to start? Same concept.

 

[Zappo]

The WoD in general, and Vampire in particular. I don't like the mechanics, which make skills way too unreliable. Setting-wise, I find that many of them suffer from the problem that it is nigh impossible to find a decent reason for which the party should get together. And I'm not into all the misery that Vampire is about. Ok, the problem of having to kill (well, hurt) to survive is interesting, but it gets old fast.

Star Wars d6. Too many dice. Rules that are oversimplified by far, resulting in numerous horrible and unfixable balance issues that eventually resulted in us purchasing Star Wars d20 as soon as it got out.

Warhammer 40k - Loved the game, but when they redid the rules so that it invalidated all my armies and would have forced me to buy almost all new miniatures, I sold everything for a cheap price and never looked back. To make things worse, the new edition was smaller than the previous and was mostly cut and pasted from the previous edition. That made me even madder because the previous edition was smaller than Rogue Trader and since I had some of the books I could tell that most of what was in the edition was cut and pasted from those books. if they're going to coem ot with a new edition, the least they could do is write new material besides a few rule that force you to buy all new minis.

I almost quit 40k after the new edition; mostly because of lack of time to play, but also because the new rules didn't change enough for me. They tried to maintain backwards compatibility, with moderate success rules-wise, but only marginal success balance-wise. Instead, I think they should have scrapped the whole damn mess of senseless ad-hoc rules that is called Warhammer 40k, and build something that doesn't treat a weapon's ability to penetrate armor in a half dozen different ways, with another ten or so wholly arbitrary exceptions on top of it depending on what special weapon the designers want us to buy next. The current game plays like something that was designed by ten or so different people, who never talked to each other. I hoped that the new edition would sacrifice compatibility on the altar of playability and balance, and instead it went the other way round.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Near the end of our last adventure, our Crazy, just to show off, put a live hand grenade in his mouth and kissed an opponent on the lips!!! After the resulting explosion, the opponent was decapitated, and the barely scratched Crazy blew smoke rings from his lips. It was at this point that we all became aware of how godforsakenlyabysmal the combat system in that game really was.

There was a funny bit in one Rifts book where the author ranted about PC's who'd shoot themselves in the head to show how tough they were. So special rules for shooting yourself in the head were introduced, to make it fatal. Shooting yourself in the heart, cutting your own throat and the like still wouldn't kill you.

Actually, it wasn't a special rule- it was just an editorial note/FAQ answer from KS on the idiocity of that ocurring, stating that such a PC should be dead.

Essentially, he was of the opinion that, like in D&D, the HP didn't represent actual damage absorbption of damage, but rather "dodge points"- and that deliberately pulling something suicidal was...suicide.