The worst Roleplaying game ever!!!

[Gothmog]

Just wondering for those who placed Kult as one of the worst games- why? Its mechanics weren't too bad, although it was pretty deadly.

I played a Kult campaign about 5 years ago with a GM who knew the system and world really well. I have to say that it was the most unnerving and disturbing game I have ever played, and it was a blast. CoC is great for being weird, alien, and creepy, but it doesn't approach Kult for personal horror. Kult is really dark, and very mature, but not in a "blood & boobies" kind of way.

 

[Steven]

Star Frontiers

I would say that star frontiers is the worst game ever, but I have never played F A T A L.

 

[Capellan]

Gothmog: different strokes, I guess. I've not read or played Kult, so can't comment on it, but several people have lambasted Underground, which I really liked, and there are people out there who like games that I detest. *shrug*

Keep these candidates coming, folks. I'm slowly building up a list of games to go looking for (actually, I already own a disturbing number of the candidates listed ...)

 

[s/LaSH]

I've finally given in and gone looking at FATAL. I can read it. That's more than you can say for Hybrid. Hybrid is supposed to be a game, but I showed it to a friend and he never even got through the disclaimer (I think the colourscheme changed from epileptic to soul-scarring halfway through his experience, and there are more nested brackets than in a bottom-up AI program). He thought he was strong. He is, but he wasn't strong enough to endure Hybrid.

FATAL is at least readable.

Ranking a distant third I'd put MERP. It's well-intentioned, and the rulebook is great reading in places, but I've owned it for ten years and I still don't really know how to make a character. Let alone try playing it - there are some really odd things in there and I don't relish attempting to turn all those pages.

My experience, however, is limited. MERP is not all that bad - I'm sure I could crack it if I put my mind to it. I've heard of much worse things.

Oh, and a distant fourth choice? Anything with prestige classes in it (AFAIK, only D&D). I think the concept is broken.

I'm reminded of an article I saw in InQuest, actually. Aftermath and Synnibar both came up. They also mentioned a wargame (something to do with North Africa, I forget the name) that was truly intense in the book-keeping. Why do you have to keep track of water supplies all across North Africa? More to the point, why do the Italians need more? To cook their spaghetti. Shudder.

 

[Capellan]

Why do you have to keep track of water supplies all across North Africa? More to the point, why do the Italians need more? To cook their spaghetti. Shudder.

The sad thing is, that game mechanic is actually based on historical reality. Italian soldiers had serious provisions shortages due to lack of water to cook spaghetti during the African campaign.

The even sadder thing is that some friends and I were just discussing this very fact a few days ago.

 

[PJ Mason]

I've seen nothing of this Fatal and i think i'll keep it that way!

For my experiences there a a handful of games that i'd rather forget.

There was Cyborg Commando by Gary Gygax. Nothing like playing characters who, when going on an adventure, have their brains ripped out of their skulls and inserted in a cyborg bodies that come with kung-fu training and laser-fingers. They then proceed to make war against the marauding aliens who looked like cracked-out termites with bio-laser weapons sticking out their a-holes!! The Dice mechanic was 2D10 , but they weren't percentages, you actually multiplied the two dice's results, giving you result generally from 1-100 but it left out a string of numbers like 13,14, 17, etc. I am still confused. It had a nice graph chart explaining the odds. i just refused to read it!

Then there was Conspiracy X. ugh. Nothing like a game where you all have to have senior citizen cards to be any good at anything. sheesh. Some of their ideas were cool, but who ever thought up that system should get an award. Er, oops, i meant be in A WARD.

I looked through that Synnibar, which of course was my first mistake. Showing it to my group was my second. Even my power gamer crinkled his nose and said "no thanks". I can't explain with mere words the gravity of that snub!!

Maybe the worst would have to be D20's own...Foundation. I did a review of it back when i was Warchild, before my password was hi jacked and/or deleted by angry Greyhawk fans!!
I've never been more incensed by a game purchase then after that one.

 

[haiiro]

I've finally given in and gone looking at FATAL. I can read it. That's more than you can say for Hybrid.

You're right. FATAL is funny-bad, but clearly took a lot of work to put together -- and it's painful but readable. I hadn't seen Hybrid before, so I took a look at it after reading your comments, s/LaSH.

Hybrid is bizarro-bad, confusing and more or less completely unintelligible. Wow.

Oddly enough, the most unnerving thing about it is that it's littered with <font color="blue"><u>things written in underlined blue text that aren't links</u></font>.

(For the curious/foolish: http://philippe.tromeur.free.fr/hybrid.htm.)

 

[Capellan]

Cyborg Commando by Gary Gygax.

Critical Miss had some things to say about this little gem of RPG awfulness ...

http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue3/worst1.html

Warning: do not read this anywhere that loud laughter is frowned upon

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Palladium: the dice rolling system, I hate! You don't even get to pick the order of your stats, and you will end up with a very high Strength score even if you try to avoid it.

You roll 3d6 per stat, but there are like 12 stats. The 6 we are used to, as well as speed, physical beauty, and a couple of others.

Then you get skills that boost your Strength. I played elves, and one each of troglodyte, thri-kreen and gnome - and each time I was stronger than I was agile, and was always slower than a dwarf!

PS guess what the penalty was for playing an ogre? There aren't any!

I've played Vampire as well, and ... um ... you can't dodge. I found the Vehicle skill more useful for killing people than the Firearms skill.

Having cuddled with the FATAL rules on and off throughout the day, I'd have to agree: it's shudderingly bad. Squamous, even.

Here's a tidbit: with a mere two rolls, I can determine that my elven PC has 1.5" diameter areolas (a roll of 86-95 on the Aerola Diameter Table), and that their color is "difficult to identify" (a roll of 1-10 on the Areola Hue Table). That's one character stat that needs a d20 treatment -- pronto.

I... see...

Stalking the Night Fantastic: great ideas, good read, shocking system. Hit locations for the left testy anyone?

OMG! Werewolf had rules for war wounds like that. One was called "ahem" and it actually gave you an "advantage" - if you consider being immune to seduction an advantage.

Worst that I actually tried to play? First edition Traveller. First time, after rolling up a character for 1 1/2 hours, he died DURING character creation. Second time only 1/2 hour into creation.

This reminded me of 2e psionics...

I fold. I'm downloading FATAL right now. I should charge you for the 'net time I'm wasting

 

[Eldorian]

Man, I feel out of the loop. I just play what my DM gives me to play. I found WEG's star wars to be pretty bad, but playable. What took the cake was Dragonlance's Fifth Age. Those cards made no sense, and, unless you were an elf and drew every sword card in the deck, one after the other, you couldn't kill a red dragon, or something like that. It was pointless.

Eldorian Antar