Products That Overwhelmed You

[Dannyalcatraz]

Man, I loved me some SFB. I was pretty wicked at it with certain races (especially Hydrans & Tholians), and a tricksy hobbit in general. I won’t lie and say I won every game I played, because I didn’t. But a lot of my victories left my opponents utterly disgusted with how they lost.

Because I came to SFB first, games like Battletech and Crimson Skies were always like rules-light versions of SFB for me. Very enjoyable. But because the various mechs were more similar to each other than the varied tech between species in SFB, there were fewer wrinkles to exploit. Combats were more straightforward.

(Not saying one is better than the others, just noting differences.)

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Transhuman Space for GURPS. I still have the books, and maybe someday i'll get back to reading them; but Transhumanism can be really hard to wrap ones mind around and hard to make sure to share spotlight around the table. Add in the Space/Solar System stuff and it got to be too much.

 

[darjr]

Traveller campaigns. Mine always petered out as soon as the players could afford big weapons and armor. It wasn’t until years later that a seasoned Traveller GM clued me in to the fact that wealth and gear “are” leveling up in Traveller and the key to a long campaign was busting the PCs down by metered controlled access, taxation, theft, and just plain breaking their stuff.

 

[Deset Gled]

Synnibarr. I read the reviews online. I saw a copy in a used book store, and thought about picking it up to run as a gag. Purusing it, I realized the reviews were not exaggerating, and it definitely wasn't worth the price. Bullet dodged.

On the board game front:

Arkham Horror. Sat down and spent an afternoon teaching myself this a decade ago. Then we decided to just play Elder Signs instead. Still haven't played a full game.

Civilization. Just too many pieces.

 

[Retreater]

Arkham Horror. Sat down and spent an afternoon teaching myself this a decade ago. Then we decided to just play Elder Signs instead. Still haven't played a full game.

My Arkham Horror story. Signed up to play in 2007 at GenCon with a group of a half dozen other players. The turns were so long, the gameplay so long and boring (and I'm not much for board games anyway), that I walked away from the table and started aimlessly wandering the vendor's hall.

Then I ran into Gary Gygax. He was signing copies of a book he wrote with Jeffrey Talanian (who later went on to write Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea). I got to hang out with Gary and get an autograph at his last appearance at GenCon.

Moral of the story: life's too short for games you don't like.

 

[Wolfram stout]

Man, I loved me some SFB. I was pretty wicked at it with certain races (especially Hydrans & Tholians), and a tricksy hobbit in general. I won’t lie and say I won every game I played, because I didn’t. But a lot of my victories left my opponents utterly disgusted with how they lost.

Because I came to SFB first, games like Battletech and Crimson Skies were always like rules-light versions of SFB for me. Very enjoyable. But because the various mechs were more similar to each other than the varied tech between species in SFB, there were fewer wrinkles to exploit. Combats were more straightforward.

(Not saying one is better than the others, just noting differences.)

Hydrans. Man on man. I had the same experience with them. Early on, I didn't always win, but when I did WOW. It was usually because I was able to get 4 or 5 fighter ships with hellbores a 1-3 hex range. And yes, "disgusted" is the only way to describe the other team.

I got really lucky learning SFB. Two guys in the group played from the very beginning, so they learned it step by step as new books came out. Then others of us joined and had the benefit of their expertise. That said, I think we avoided some of the more complicated weapons, ie no x-ray drones, only very occasionally using Andromeda or ISC ships.

Once you got energy allocation and damage charts down, it fell into a pretty predictable routine.

 

[Democratus]

Pirates of Drinax
I'm running this Traveller campaign right now. But I'm having to work very hard at not being buried by the cognative load.

There are 4 hardback books and about 10 more PDF books covering this campaign. It's sweeping in scale, beautiful in execution, and utterly overwhelming in volume!

We're about a year into the campaign and I think there is enough material for 3 more years.

 

[Deset Gled]

My Arkham Horror story. ...

Moral of the story: life's too short for games you don't like.

Pun intended?

The really weird part? I liked the time I spent with Arkham Horror. I love the setting, I enjoy crunchy games, I liked the combination of strategy and luck involved in it. I still occasionally get a urge to learn it and play it. But I know I couldn't handle teaching it to anyone, so it remains unplayed.

 

[Retreater]

Pun intended?

The really weird part? I liked the time I spent with Arkham Horror. I love the setting, I enjoy crunchy games, I liked the combination of strategy and luck involved in it. I still occasionally get a urge to learn it and play it. But I know I couldn't handle teaching it to anyone, so it remains unplayed.

Completely pun-intended coincidence.
I didn't like that it's so difficult (like most co-op games are). You can play a game for 8 hours that you know you have no hope of winning. I just don't like feeling that way when I'm trying to have fun.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hydrans. Man on man. I had the same experience with them. Early on, I didn't always win, but when I did WOW. It was usually because I was able to get 4 or 5 fighter ships with hellbores a 1-3 hex range. And yes, "disgusted" is the only way to describe the other team.

I got really lucky learning SFB. Two guys in the group played from the very beginning, so they learned it step by step as new books came out. Then others of us joined and had the benefit of their expertise. That said, I think we avoided some of the more complicated weapons, ie no x-ray drones, only very occasionally using Andromeda or ISC ships.

Once you got energy allocation and damage charts down, it fell into a pretty predictable routine.

One of my favorite battles, we were using all the rules, including pre-plotted movement. I was piloting a Gorn Dreadnaught Vs it’s Federation counterpart.

Both of us opened hyper-aggressivley, closing as fast as possible with weapons overloaded and shields maxed & reinforced. Alpha strikes were exchanged at close range, with both ships surviving, but with front shields dropped and some internal damage done.

The next turn, I gambled on a HET- successfully executed!- turning tail with my REAR shield reinforced. He followed at the fastest speed he could muster.

...and ran smack dab into the nuclear space mines I had been dropping behind me (with my rear shields down) on the final approach to the face-off. Damn near blew his saucer off.

As that turn ended, I was doing a languid turn, preparing to release some more plasma torpedoes at range as he took his shambles of a starship as quickly to the board edge for an escape.

Whole game was 4-5 turns.