Weekend Nonsense: Favorite Bad RPG

[Ace]

Marauder 2107, Witchcraft, Nephilim, Legacy: War of Ages, Hong Kong Action Theatre...if you were an indie RPG studio in the late 90's, early oughts...I'm one of the three guys who bought your book and tried to get people to play it.

Yeah me too.

Witchcraft would eventually morph into Buffy and Angel , same system just streamlined . It got played a lot as did All Flesh Must Be Eaten which used the same mechanics as Witchcraft . I have everything for Witchcraft except the Storm Dragons playtest, all legit as I was a playtester for Eden . That system is my #1 favorite of all time.

Legacy aka Highlander the Serial Number Filed Off was pretty weird.There were too supplements Blades and Sentinels: Mortal Enemies as well as another setting book only in PDF IIRC Warlock Black Spiral . Apparently the 2020 unpleasantness delayed the game but It kind of exists today, a starter version by Battlefield Press. It may come back with Warlock integrated at some point. Maybe.

I never played it but to be fair I basically never played World of Darkness either other than one hour after which everyone left

HKAT is still out there in its second edition but Hong Kong Action is not a thing now really. We never tried as I really stopped gaming in the 90's mostly and frankly no one I gamed with liked those movies . This seems to be a problem with a lot of media driven games. More collected than played.

I was the only person who liked or had seen Highlander for example or Star Trek . It seems like as the SF/Fantasy field grew the notion of any kind of collective "we've all seen this stuff" kind of went away. For along time in my neck of the woods it was Star Wars , World of Darkness and D&D basically.

Happily I like D&D

 

[James Gasik]

Oh Nephilim, how I would have loved to play thee....with a system that had a hope of fulfilling the fantasy. Really cool mythos and backstory too.

Oh hey that reminds me! Immortal: The Invisible War. Amazingly bad art. Intriguing-as-heck dice pool system. Really weird mythos and backstory. Would have liked to kick the tires on that one for the system.

The idea of creating a thousands of year old character, by rolling for each previous life they have had, was crazy and amazing. Actually playing the game, however, was a chore.

 

[James Gasik]

Yeah me too.

Witchcraft would eventually morph into Buffy and Angel , same system just streamlined . It got played a lot as did All Flesh Must Be Eaten which used the same mechanics as Witchcraft . I have everything for Witchcraft except the Storm Dragons playtest, all legit as I was a playtester for Eden . That system is my #1 favorite of all time.

Legacy aka Highlander the Serial Number Filed Off was pretty weird.There were too supplements Blades and Sentinels: Mortal Enemies as well as another setting book only in PDF IIRC Warlock Black Spiral . Apparently the 2020 unpleasantness delayed the game but It kind of exists today, a starter version by Battlefield Press. It may come back with Warlock integrated at some point. Maybe.

I never played it but to be fair I basically never played World of Darkness either other than one hour after which everyone left

HKAT is still out there in its second edition but Hong Kong Action is not a thing now really. We never tried as I really stopped gaming in the 90's mostly and frankly no one I gamed with liked those movies . This seems to be a problem with a lot of media driven games. More collected than played.

I was the only person who liked or had seen Highlander for example or Star Trek . It seems like as the SF/Fantasy field grew the notion of any kind of collective "we've all seen this stuff" kind of went away. For along time in my neck of the woods it was Star Wars , World of Darkness and D&D basically.

Happily I like D&D

Witchcraft really struck me as a "Mage: the Ascension Lite". Similar concepts, but more approachable (at least, I thought). Then I tried to get people to play it...

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Mythus / Dangerous Journeys. The wife and I played that for a while. I like heavy intricate games and that was even too much for me.

I'm not going to talk about the time I took three months to write rules to merge it with Rolemaster (hey they are both percentile, this should be easy.... oh the folly of youth.)

 

[Campbell]

Characterizing one of the most popular RPGs ever published as "bad" is definitely a take.

There are a number of roleplaying games that I believe have been popular (despite what I regard as some fairly poor mechanical design) largely because they were conceptually appealing and had setting material that was least compelling to think about, if not always the most gameable. I put pretty much all of the World of Darkness games, Shadowrun, L5R until the current edition and Exalted in this category.

For the longest time Exalted was the game I just could not quit. I kept going back to time and time again because I loved what it was/is conceptually despite the fact that it always felt so damn unwieldy in play, and I often felt like I had to make significant changes to setting material to run a game that put the focus on the player characters. I was so hopeful that 3e would solve the issues I had with the game. It was a much better experience, but still incredibly unwieldy. The changes to the setting were a step in the right direction, but it still does not feel like it was built for a game to people are like supposed to play.

I had similar experiences with Scion. I so want to like it and there are so many things that I love about the game conceptually (especially Second Edition), but the overall game is so baroque and bringing together the setting elements into an actual game is insanely difficult.

 

[Reynard]

Popular doesn't mean it's good. Shadowrun has death spiral, overpowered magicians, Physical Adepts, and The Decker Problem. I loved FASA's games (Earthdawn is my favorite) but man oh man, did they have issues.

I LOVE Earthdawn. It's the most 90sest of 90s games.

 

[Ace]

Witchcraft really struck me as a "Mage: the Ascension Lite". Similar concepts, but more approachable (at least, I thought). Then I tried to get people to play it...

I though the setting of Witchcraft was far better than that of Mage but too many of my players saw it as Wicca the Wiccaning and noped it. I did get them to play All Flesh which wasn't bad and years of Buffy and Angel, the best gaming period I ever had so it ended up a win in my column

Mage got it even worse with an outright refusal on some players . No one really liked the solipsistic reality conceit I guess

Probably the worst offender was Sorcerer by Ron Edwards, Its a non standard game (more talk than rules) with a narrow focus and requiring a lot of setting buy in. Far too erudite. Honestly at my very limit as well/

One of my players at the time did give a novel excuse "Its too much like my real life" given the game is kind of about dysfunctional relationships and magic, he wasn't BSing me.

 

[aramis erak]

Aces and Eights. I think it was done by the rolemaster guys?

Nope. The Hackmaster guys... Kenzer & Company.

It's close to HM5e mechanics. Way too expensive in dead tree.

There was also this shot wheel that determined, if, where, and how much damage your shots scored.

It's your to hit roll (1d20, scales like D&D) and a card draw, to determine hit. Card determines direction of deviation, to hit roll distance from aim point.
Basic rules don't modify damage; if the location is in the silhouette, it's a hit for rolled damage.
Advanced rules halve damage if the "pie slice" defined by ± 1 location isn't entirely on the silhouette, and reduce it to 1 point if not at least half on.

Neat odeas but just too crunchy for a good pulpy western adventure. I did like how the rulebook had everything in it. Characters, GMing, and setting. If I recall, it was slightly based on actual history, but might have had some alternate universe shenanigans going on. A neat idea just too heavy to really grok for my buds and I.

It's set in an alternate history where the US CW goes different.
I think the major change point is the 1848 Presidential, with Cass beating Taylor, and Fillmore being VP instead of Butler. Also, an 1851 start (vs historical 1861) to the Civil War, and a resolution of it in a sort of stalemate...
The USA, The CSA, the Republic of Texas, Republic of Mexico, Sequoya, Dominion of Canada, and the US and Canadian territories are the dominant nations of A&8's alternate history.
Cuba is part of the CSA. All the borders are slightly off.

It's not as far out as, say, Deadlands, which also has an alternate USCW. Or the alternate earth in Castle Falkenstein. Both of which have native magic halt the union.

The GM guide has a number of interesting extractable minigames - cattle drive, trials, and a few others...

The intended tone comes across to me as more Bonanza or Shane and less The Rifleman or Lone Ranger. So, not being
pulps seems intended.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Nope. The Hackmaster guys... Kenzer & Company.

Aces & Eights, specifically. With a little house ruling, it runs exceedingly well. Used the system for several campaigns. Kenzer's presentation, as usual, is sub-par.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Mine is Tribe 8 1st Edition. A truly innovative horror setting concept (set in Canada for greater horror effect), ok-ish system, but all hampered by a presentation style best described as 'get stoned to the max and then write up the setting and system in narrative fashion', often in cursive-like fonts.

Despite that, I ran a long and very memorable campaign.

They went with a more conventional presentation in the second edition. If it were available in pdfs that weren't scans, I would run it again, but I would be very hesitant to recommend it, as it is a truly odd game.