Products That Overwhelmed You

[Retreater]

Recently I got Chaosium's "Horror on the Orient Express" two volume campaign adventure for Call of Cthulhu. Paging through these two massive hardcovers totaling 700 pages, I am looking at NPCs, background history, plot intricacies, etc. I think "maybe I'm not smart enough to run this."

This got me thinking about other products I've purchased, including the original edition of Ptolus (seeing that the 5e revision Kickstarter recently funded.) It was so involved, so difficult to run, that I've been hesitant to run another urban campaign for the past 15 years or so.

In general, I have yet to encounter a campaign setting that doesn't completely overwhelm me - the one that was the closest to manageable was the Ravenloft Campaign Setting, because each location was presented in an unrelated, demiplane.

For campaigns, I'd say "Orient Express" is probably the most overwhelming I've seen - more than Masks of Nyarlahotep or any of the 5e campaign adventures. (Taken as a whole, maybe the Pathfinder Adventure Paths would be as overwhelming, but since they're published individually, they don't seem as daunting.)

What do you think? Have you ever been overwhelmed like this?

 

[Wolfram stout]

Dragon Mountain for 2nd edition. It was the first "mega" adventure I bought (I had been playing since early 1st using homebrew and the various 32 page adventures). I got it and looked at all the maps and tried to read the adventure. I remember being disappointed because I just didn't know what to do with it all.

So, yes, I have been overwhelmed like that. Because while that was the first time, it was not the last.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Phoenix Command.

Then I was like, hey, maybe let's give it another shot. I know this game is based on Phoenix Command, but boy, that graphic on the box looks really cool!

Living Steel, contrary to my hopes, was not "really cool." Or I should say that it hid the coolness behind a realistic combat system that I lacked the time and the inclination to run.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Undermountain was my first.

 

[Marc_C]

Eclipse Phase 1e, great setting but too much trans-human, tech and faction information to absorb. My brain shut down.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Dragon Mountain for 2nd edition. It was the first "mega" adventure I bought (I had been playing since early 1st using homebrew and the various 32 page adventures). I got it and looked at all the maps and tried to read the adventure. I remember being disappointed because I just didn't know what to do with it all.

So, yes, I have been overwhelmed like that. Because while that was the first time, it was not the last.

Interesting, Dragon Mountain whelmed me just about the right amount when I got it, but I had been running D&D for like 5-6 years by then. It was about exactly what I was looking for.

AD&D 2E was technically the first that overwhelmed me. I was 10 when I got it, and had only heard about RPGs and D&D from other people. Luckily, as if summoned, a never-seen-before 20-something second-cousin of mine suddenly appeared in my house, and she proceeded to meticulously explain D&D and how to write adventures and be a good DM to me, ran a cool adventure for us, and then left, leaving some amazing notes how to do stuff. She also explained that we needed the Monstrous Compendium, which we hadn't managed to work out!

Ignoring that, Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth would be the first that overwhelmed me after my introduction to RPGs, if anyone remembers that system. It was a ridiculous 500+ game where you generated by the mythology of the world, and characters, but also at the same time, Aria Worlds, which was technically a supplement (and another 304 pages) came out, which let you create the world that the mythology and characters existed in. I got both, and good freaking god, I was completely out-of-my-depth, despite trying to understand it all and get it all working. Even looking at some of the paragraphs now, it's like "What the hell is this?!

Like:

"If a persona is within the range of a particular reputation, the persona might be recognized. If he is recognized any interaction or reactions will be colored by the persona's Renown. When in an area where such recognition is possible, a Recognition Trial may be required when the persona interacts with strangers. This Trial is slightly different from most Trials; its Base is Half of the observer's Intelligence, and its Rank is equal to the Renown Value of the Trial's object. The Mythguide should apply any additional difficulty modifiers that he deems appropriate."

And that's one of the clearer bits. There's paragraph after paragraph after paragraph of this sort of thing. Can you work it out? Sure. Is it worth working out? Absolutely not. There are zillions of traits and systems and so on. And that's the game. Creating a world and myth was absolutely no joke either. Or a huge joke depending on how you look at it. Certainly it could take you a staggering amount of time.

Today I can really see how much of a disaster of RPG design the RPG bit of it was, but at the time I sort of wondered if I was just dumb.

 

[Undrave]

Not as a GM (though trying to wrap up my Cartoon Action Hour game with only 1 player who seemed to even care about was a pain in the butt) but as a player... the equipment tables in Shadowrun. WHY isn't there some standard packages available?! Buying drones was annoying as all heck!

AD&D 2E was technically the first that overwhelmed me. I was 10 when I got it, and had only heard about RPGs and D&D from other people. Luckily, as if summoned, a never-seen-before 20-something second-cousin of mine suddenly appeared in my house, and she proceeded to meticulously explain D&D and how to write adventures and be a good DM to me, ran a cool adventure for us, and then left, leaving some amazing notes how to do stuff. She also explained that we needed the Monstrous Compendium, which we hadn't managed to work out!

You were visited by the D&D Fairy! :O

 

[Voadam]

Horror on the Orient Express was a big one where I thought, "That looks really cool! Its on sale! Woah now that I own it, it is a lot, maybe I will put it aside for now."

I played and DM'd a ton of Pathfinder 1e, the Occult book's new magic classes look cool thematically, but I have not done more than skim over the intro descriptions, despite them being free in the PDFSRD.

A lot of NWoD core books fall into this for me too. I've played a ton of Vampire the Masquerade and enjoyed Werewolf the Apocalypse and Mage the Ascension, these new ones seem neat without the metaplot. Wow they are high page count PDFs. Maybe I will get motivated to dive into specifics later.

Funny enough Ptolus was no problem. Probably because I had started off with the free Player's Guide and later used the big book to supplement.

 

[Arilyn]

Champions Superheroes. I could play it no problem, but creating characters with all that number crunching and the almost mini-game of buying powers in the most efficient way possible was too much. As for GMing it? I tried...

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The latest edition of Warhammer Fantasy RPG. It was just too much. I thought about having to know the game well enough to run it, well enough to teach other people how to play it, and didn't even finish reading the book. Shame, as it's a gorgeous-looking one.