Horrible games that you couldn't resist. . .

[jdrakeh]

So now we can only mention games we feel are "tasteless"? (whatever that means)

I'd like to hear what about SenZar's content is tasteless. Silly, sure. But tasteless?

Also, Cyborg Commando, which YOU cite in your first post. What's tasteless about it?

I'm asking this question as someone who understands the appeal of "badness". I've watched House of the Dead four times for a reason.

I politely suggest that you try reading my posts in their entirety before you respond to them. I've cited some specific examples of what I was referring to. Here:

. . . though I'm talking more about truly tasteless, unapologetic, romps into Bad, Wrong, Fun Land.

and here:

I am not talking about "Trash" in the sense of "unplayable games" or mere "disappointments" but in the sense of "deliberately, unapologetic, over-the-top, tastelessness"

Or, to use a word that you be more familiar with, "campiness". Again, I'm not talking about games you personally dislike (Forge: Out of Chaos, apparently) or games that were unintentionally bad (the island thing in CotS was an unintentional mistake), but games widely panned as indulging in the Bad, Wrong, Overpowered, Campy, Fun intentionally.

These are things that, to the best of my knowledge (which, in this regard, is fairly vast), that neither Forge Out of Chaos ot CotS were accused of. They were accused plenty of sucking, but not on the grounds that they were chock full of crazy character archetypes, offensive schlock tropes, or puerile humor. Hope that clears things up. That said, you can drag this thread off-topic as much as you like with discussions of mechanics that didn't work, but you'll be missing the point of the thread entirely.

This isn't a thread about broken games or disappointing games, but one about Games That Should Not Be. Games that Should Not Be But Are. And games that Should Not Be But that You Personally Love (not ones that you'd rather never play again). Also, for the record, I never said that you couldn't mention the games that you have, only that you're talking about something entirely different than I am. And that, in this regard, references to games that merely have broken rules or that you personally didn't like very much are entirely off-topic.

If this were merely a thread about games that were unplayable due to broken/unworking rules, I'd throw DangerQuest out there. It's not. It's a thread about intentionally campy games with gonzo weirdness, over-the-top powercreep, and all of that other stuff deemed "inappropriate for games" by a wide audience who might possibly ostracize you if they knew that you played said games. This is a thread about love, not hate.

 

[jdrakeh]

Man, I think I am the only person who thinks Synnibar is a pretty fun read. I mean, it's packed to the gills with retarded content...but tasteless?

I think that for as much love as Gamma World is given on RPG boards for it's "Wahoo" flavor, Synnibar--which has about 400 times the "Wahoo" factor of any other game I've ever crossed paths with--would get some love.

I mean, it's insane, and reads like it is written by someone who is on a steady diet of Caffeine, Gunpowder, Animation and Testosterone...but it is damnably fun to read, and the one time I played it it was at least as fun as Gamma World.

Tasteless (adj.): Lacking style and good taste: inelegant, unbecoming. Informal: tacky. Lacking in delicacy or refinement.

I think the problem is that people seem to think that "tasteless" means "offensive" when, in fact, it means something entirely different (see above).

 

[Doug McCrae]

games widely panned as indulging in the Bad, Wrong, Overpowered, Campy, Fun intentionally.

You mean like Dungeons & Dragons?

 

[jdrakeh]

You mean like Dungeons & Dragons?

No. Does D&D have a wide audience of detractors who pan it for indulging in over-the-top, gonzo, weirdness and/or tackiness? If it does, I don't think that I've ever seen them in ten plus years of posting at online gaming communities. It has people who slam it for not catering to their personal tastes, sure, but that's not the near omniversal contempt that I've alluded to elsewhere. D&D is the best selling game system ever. That, if anything, seems to indicate that it's widely loved as opposed to maligned.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Lords of Creation. I own a copy somewhere but I've never run or played it.

 

[DeadlyUematsu]

Senzar is far from a bad game, but it has a bad reputation in some circles. So I'll choose it.

 

[WayneLigon]

I got Amazing Engine back in the eighties. I thought it was going to be the next big thing and wanted to get in early. From the ads it sounded like it was going to replace OD&D (1974) fast.

Say wha? OD&D had already been replaced twice before by '93; by AD&D and 2E.

I ran into the same problem with Nephilim. I really liked the concept, but I just couldn't figure out what, exactly, to do with it.

Me neither. Same with In Nomine. I admit on that one that the backstories, setting and cool art sold me. I never could really figure out how you were suppossed to run a campaign with it.

 

[The Green Adam]

Wow, some of the games listed here as horrible are amoung my all time favorites. Toon? You don't like Toon?! What are you some kind of commie?

I'm kidding about the commie part (or at least I'll give you the benefit of the doubt ) but truth be told I love Toon, Changeling:The Dreaming and probably many other games considered to be bad by the majority. But then, I pick my dice by how garrish the colors are.

My favorite really bad games are Space Opera (FGU), Gamma World and Star Frontiers. Space Opera was an especially inane game, with 4 pages of rules on throwing and catching objects, complete rip-offs of well known SciFi properties (the Lens from E.E. 'Doc' Smiths Lensman series and the United Federation of Planets...there was no other name for an interplanetary government?) and just the most convoluted character creation rules known to man. That said, we played at least two long campaigns of it and I still have occaision to go back and read through sections of it from time to time.

Long live the horrible game! At least their different.

 

[Capellan]

It's a thread about intentionally campy games with gonzo weirdness, over-the-top powercreep, and all of that other stuff deemed "inappropriate for games" by a wide audience who might possibly ostracize you if they knew that you played said games. This is a thread about love, not hate.

Synnibarr is not intentionally campy and full of gonzo weirdness. It's pretty clear from McCracken's various postings that he was completely serious about the game. That doesn't make it less deserving of mention here.

There are a lot of people out there with a passionate hatred of all things D&D, particularly the "god-like abilities of high level characters" (their words, not mine). For them, D&D is gonzo weirdness with over-the-top powercreep. Definitions of gonzo, weird and over the top do vary.

I don't hate Forge or Children of the Sun. I bought them, after all. I would hate to play them (I think that's taking masochism a little far), but they make for an amusing read. I think they're terrible games, but I think House of the Dead is a terrible movie. Doesn't stop me owning it

And if CotS isn't full of gonzo weirdness, I don't know what is. Have a read of the PC races sometime. It's wacky stuff

Go read Johnny Nexus' awesome Critical Miss and read his article about playing Cyborg Commando

Oh believe me, I have. I agree entirely that Cyborg Commando is a terrible game. I really need to get a copy so I can make my own jokes about the French having better cyborgs because they use the metric system

Oh - another thought - Blood Dawn probably deserves an honourable mention simply for having the worst example of play I've ever seen outside of Spawn or Fashan. I don't remember if it had over the top powercreep, and its gonzo weirdness was certainly no more than that of Gamma World, but man oh man that example of play is a doozy. It's a whole book of tasteless compressed into a single page.

 

[SavageRobby]

Me neither. Same with In Nomine. I admit on that one that the backstories, setting and cool art sold me. I never could really figure out how you were suppossed to run a campaign with it.

Same here. Love reading In Nomine, not sure how to run it. Over the Edge falls into the same category. Way over the top.