What is the most complex TTRPG of all time?

[jasper]

What is the most complex TTRPG of all time? I am thinking of a game that you would have to be a rocket scientist (or another occupation that needs an extensive education of many different areas of knowledge) to enjoy.

Life. Lost the F**&^&^&& manual.

 

[Bohandas]

I've heard that FATAL is excessively complex, in addition to being in excessively poor taste

 

[Rafael Martin]

Life. Lost the F**&^&^&& manual.

I would argue that Life is a board game and not a TTRPG.

 

[Blue Orange]

Synnibarr really sounds like fun in an over-the-top gonzo way. Has anyone tried to do it with a simpler rules system?

 

[aramis erak]

I've heard that FATAL is excessively complex, in addition to being in excessively poor taste

not really. It's pretty standard D20... plus detailed mechanics supporting the success rates and effects of sexual violence. intimate part sizes and tolerances.

Space Opera char gen defeated us as well. On top of the formulas for attributes and derived stats, you basically worked out four to six years of training through a system that looked remarkably like a technical college course calendar, complete with prerequisites and alphanumeric naming system. I’d be willing to bet the author was a grad student or prof.

It wasn't a fixed term; it was a process lifted from Traveller, but using 2 year terms. Phil McGregor confirmed that the char gen was inspired by Traveller, in a thread on RPGG. (And also that Starships & Spacemen was written to be a licensed Trek RPG, but they couldn't afford the license, so filed off the serials...) I've had characters generated to 20+ years in BRINT or BOSS...

 

[Maletherin]

This thread is conjuring memories from deep within the bowels of my mind. In the late 80s there was a game called Timelords. Character generation wasn't so complicated insofar as I can remember, but combat was ridiculous. According to Wikipedia, there were 26 areas of the body you could hit each with its own damage points and there were different types of damage such as blunt, crushing, cutting, burning, edged, etc. Who the hell needs blunt and crushing? And there were a lot of calculations you had to make during combat. The only thing I remember about Timelords, other than its complexity, is that you made characters based on yourself and you found you and your friends accidentally flitting about time.

They also had a post apocalyptic game called Warp World which used the same rules. I can't find any information on Warp World though. Warp World was weird. There was some sort of anti-technology effect on the world except it didn't work perfectly. So you might be in a part of the world where gunpowder wasn't supposed to work, but you could actually squeeze off a few shots before whatever anti-technology field existed would activate. It was an interesting premise at least.

I used to GM for a group using Warp World with my fantasy setting. It's complex, but I don't think it's the toughest game I've ran. Combat does slow things down and I don't like that much anymore. I want combat quick and out of the way.

 

[Ogre Mage]

I played GURPS 4th edition in 2009 and found it complex and confusing. After playing a character in the system for one full year I still did not understand it.

 

[Blue Orange]

Avalon Hill released a game decades ago called Powers and Perils. They had great plans for the game to rise to the top. Don't know if it's the most complex rpg ever but it was very fiddly and hard to grasp. Didn't last long.

I remember reading about that game--wasn't it possible to create a mage who couldn't cast spells, if you rolled the knowledge but not the ability?

 

[Arilyn]

I remember reading about that game--wasn't it possible to create a mage who couldn't cast spells, if you rolled the knowledge but not the ability?

Maybe? Can't remember, but it wouldn't surprise me. I think it was pretty much unplayable.

 

[aramis erak]

Maybe? Can't remember, but it wouldn't surprise me. I think it was pretty much unplayable.

Not due to complexity, but due to bad writing in general. I wound up with a copy. It's just poorly written. And once you mire through the bad writing, not very good, either.