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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8269597" data-attributes="member: 18">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.</blockquote>

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