Games you won't play

[Akaiku]

I refuse to play Global Thermonuclear War.

It's the only way to win.

May I interest you in a nice game of Chess?

More on topic, I won't play a game where you are genre-baised incapable of obtaining a Disney ending. Also! I don't play games where you as a player suck.

Escapism and such.

Similarly, I don't play high mortality rate games.

I got a strong preference to fantasy, often high fantasy. Ero and the like games might not suck so bad for me if they weren't, in my experience, all pretending to be a different genre and then degrading to really bad crosses between Days of our Lifes and creepy fetishes.

Also, I hate games that rely on randomly killing/maiming/rapeing your friends on bad dice rolls. I'M LOOKING AT YOU WEREWOLF. Similary, I dislike games that rely on out-thinking your friends, like political ones and mysterys.

 

[Agamon]

There are lots of categories of games on my list similar to other folks here-- the extremely obscene, the extremely goofy-- but only one that I can think of off the top of my head that I've ever specifically and consciously refused to play:

Axis and Allies.

I just find it ghoulish.

It's dull, too. It has now joined Monopoly as the only 2 board games in the "games I refuse to play ever again" catagory. I just wish all my friends didn't like it. A buddy asked me if I wanted to play it tonight, in fact. I talked him into A Game of Thrones instead. Great game.

 

[Agamon]

Settlers of Cataan for me. I find it absolutely tedious. I find Monopoly more engaging.

I'm not sure how it's tedious, but it sure can be frustrating. "Isn't 8 supposed to come up more often than 11?"

 

[Wormwood]

The following games are full-stop won't play:

Rolemaster
Gurps
old D&D editions (BECMI being the only exception)
d20 games with lots of 3e artifacts
Hero system
Warhammer FRP/Dark Heresy
Palladium
Shadowrun
Riddle of Steel
old World of Darkness

 

[Bluenose]

There aren't many genres I refuse to play, and there aren't many types of character I refuse to play. What I won't play is any game where I'm expected to be amoral or immoral. If it's an option that's fine, I probably won't take it but having it there doesn't bother me. But there's enough nastiness around that I don't want to be compelled to bring it into my fun time.

I'd also be very reluctant to play any game set in a time period which I or people I know lived through, which effectively means no 20th century or later unless it's quite explicitly an alternate reality version.

 

[Agamon]

If we are going for board games, I would try valiantly to avoid Caracassonne. And Monopoly with some people, as it has this magical ability to bring out the very worst in some people.

There was a popular game out a few years back, can't remember it, had the word Brain in it, was sorta trivial pursuit except you did little puzzles as sub games, had clay, charades, etc., and was imho badly designed. It really doesn't click for me and when I played it I decided I didn't want to play it again.

Yeah, I'm not a bif Carcassonne fan either. I don't understand the draw to that game.

The other game is called Cranium. It's more of a party game, which is better with lots of people that have imbibed a bit.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

It's dull, too.

This is all coming as news to me, as I was led to believe that Axis & Allies was a great game and I was only hurting myself by not giving it a try.

So thanks for the reassurance, all.

 

[Umbran]

So in my case, it's Me not LARPs.

To be clear, I don't have a problem with people not liking a thing - not all games are for all people, by a long shot. So, I wouldn't say it is you. I'd say there's a mismatch between you and LARPs, just like there can be a mismatch between you and a particular tabletop GM's way of doing things. Neither one of you is wrong, you just aren't for each other.

 

[aurance]

The people I game with are more important than any system. I would try any crappy system with my friends.

Exactly this, for me.

 

[Oni]

Hurm...Most of these aren't 100% refusal, I could probably be induced with proper motivation.

LARPing of any sort.

The darker WoD games, Wraith being the top of the list. It's not really that I dislike dark so much as how emo they come across to me. GM is probably a huge factor here.

Anything where you have to check more than one chart on a regular basis, and I only make exception for the one chart because I'm fond of the old Marvel Supers game. I really just don't like charts.

Anything with a tedious focus on relatively unimportant minutia, especially if there is math involved.

Anything where you have to spend a lot of time figuring out what happened. If I have to do anything resembling homework to figure out how far back someone has been knocked I'd just rather not know.

One shots. I like to craft interesting characters, and I like them to stick around, hard to get invested in a one shot game.

Games I haven't played before and I'm not already interested in. Not really a no go, but I have to be sold a little to be convinced it's worth it to learn a new mechanic for a game that'll only be played a couple of times in all likelyhood.

Sci-fi, certain subgenres. Star Wars, sure I'm there, something more in the vein of Star Trek, not so much.

Any system where dying to one poor die roll is relatively common.

Any system where there is a really large failure chance on common die rolls. Repeatedly failing over and over again gets old quick.



I'm curious about the people that like certain genres in other venues like supers or anime (Not sure I'd really call this a genre, but whatever) but don't like them as games. Is it a failure to capture the spirit of the thing or what?