I Believe There Are No Bad Roleplaying Games

[s/LaSH]

Thus (by the original argument) there are no bad RPGs, just bad... what do you call the experience of playing a game? Gamplay sessions, I guess. Just bad gameplay sessions. It should, however, be possible to isolate components that detract from gameplay sessions. If a marketed product has nothing but poor components, it's fairly much worthwhile to say it's a bad RPG. After all, why buy something when something else can do everything it can do better?

Thus, the 'bad package' can exist and should be avoided.

Then, of course, there's the whole 'but what is bad?' question, and there's no real answer to that. Complexity? Simplicity? Lack of options? Too many options? Character advancement? Inevitable character death? I can think of systems that fill each of these criteria that have huge followings.

Spawn of Fashan, though, is probably unsalvagable.

 

[caudor]

I agree, so long as there is someone out there who enjoys playing it, no Roleplaying Game is a Bad Roleplaying game. Its all a matter of perspective, what sucks to you, may be the best thing since white bread to someone else.

Yep, I agree with you. 'Bad' is not an attribute of an object or thing, it is one's perspective of that thing. Whether something is good or bad is a judgement, just an value that the beholder assigns.

One can think that peaches are bad, but that does not actually change the properties of the peach. In timbuktu, they may like peaches.

When it comes to perspectives, whether you agree or disagree--you are right.

I'm sure somebody will have a good counter arguement to this; owie, my head hurts.

 

[Seaver]

I never posted in in the bad games thread but... have you ever tried to play HoL?

Not only is the whole scenario bad (everyone's on a penal planet, have at it), but any game that has a chart called 'the Chart chart' is excessive to chart rolling.

Ah come on HoL isn't that bad...

Okay yeah it IS that bad and worse, oh so very much worse, but that's one of the things that we enjoyed about it.

When I first read HoL years ago it was late at night and I was home from college for the summer. I had to go out into the garage to finish reading it because I kept laughing so hard and didn't want to wake my family.

We did try playing it once. The game lasted about an hour, half of which was just pure falling out of our chairs laughter before The Holmeister (GM) finally just had to give up. I was laughing so hard by the end I couldn't see through the tears.

Now years later we still quote passages from the two books (HoL and Buttery HoLsomeness) on occasion.

Plus ya gotta love a book where the monster/NPC section is called, "Things That Will Kill You."

I also loved the blurb on the back:

We know that look.

That "If I have to check for traps one more time, I'm going to sneak a spoonful of drain cleaner into the GM's Yoo-Hoo and start screaming "Guess you missed your save on that one, Mr. Ten-By-Ten Stone Corridor!!" look.

You need help.

You need HoL. Science Fiction roleplaying for gamers who've had a really bad day.

Get it before you hurt somebody.

Darnit, now I have to try and find my books.

p.s. Just took a look online and I prefer the original coverart to the stuff they have now.

p.p.s. Mmmm tapioca pudding.

p.p.p.s. RPGnet's review of HoL rated it as Excellent and Meaty
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_0523.html