What RPG did you want to love, but just couldn't get into?

[Staffan]

I think the big one for me is, much like many others, Exalted. I loved the idea of playing essentially fantasy super-heroes but it was way too crunchy. Particularly, looking through hundreds of different charms to find the ones you want is a chore, and the systems themselves were fairly crunchy versions of Storyteller – a system that doesn't do too well with crunch.

A more recent but related game is Trinity Continuum/Aeon. There, I liked the basic idea of the setting and game with the different psion orders and the way psi powers can assist one another creating incentive to cooperation but I got a real weird vibe from the setting. I think it is trying to do too much at once – the Aeon book has a section on how different regions are suitable for different kinds of science-fiction stories, but it doesn't really provide much support for doing any of them. There are also some big threats going on in the setting that feel like ongoing emergencies that make you wonder why they are not a bigger deal for people in the setting. I think that part would have been better if it would have been designed like Eberron where there are a number of potential threats but they aren't ongoing emergencies, thus letting the GM choose what's going on in this particular campaign. Add to this the fact that there's not much support in the way of adventures that show you what you're actually supposed to be doing in the game, and the end result was that I could never get a good grasp on the game.

 

[overgeeked]

Cypher System/Numenera.

Love the fluff, love the idea of ...

For example: “I am a Clever Explorer who Explores Dark Places.” The Descriptor tells us what you’re like, the Type establishes your broad mechanical chassis, and the Focus tells us what makes you distinctive.

However my players and I found the actual mechanical system itself to be underwhelming and torturous. We couldn't wait for the sessions to end.

Yeah. I love that fill-in-the-blanks way of presenting the character. Another game that does similar is Spirit of 77, a PbtA game.

I bounced off the system, too. Love Numenera the setting. Really, really dislike the system. Lots of great ideas. Monsters just being a level and everything being determined by that is absolutely my jam. Having to roll first, then do all the negotiations, bargaining, etc before eventually determining the outcome just lost me. That's exactly backwards. All the bargaining and spends should come first. Then you roll. Once the dice hit the table, that's it. The thing is resolved. Maybe a spend for a re-roll. But not the setup Cypher uses.

 

[haakon1]

4e, 5e, and too a lesser extent, 2e D&D.

2e, I came in excited for the “rules cleanup” I expected, was disappointed that my active PC (a Half Orc Assassin) was “banned” in the PHB, and left D&D for other RPGs. When I went back to D&D, to DM 1e again in 1996-2001, I began to appreciate 2e adventures and used many. But I never ran 2e - only played it with disappointment for the 6 months or so after its launch.

(Not disappointed asides: For 3e, I ignored it for a year before converting. 3e to 3.5e was an immediate and happy conversion. I still DM 3.5e. PF1 I was happy to play, but as it grew more complex, I continued to prefer 3.5e - and use many PF1 adventures in 3.5e.)

4e, I was excitedly there at the Seattle Launch Party, expecting the AD&D/3x legacy only "cleaned up". Disappointed when I read the rules in my signed copy - too different. More disappointed when I played it. My fighter type with Per Encounter and Daily powers, and the stacks upon stacks of condition modifiers, self-healing, unlimited magic for weak spells, and the 1 hp Mooks made it feel "off" from D&D: everyone a caster, need a computer game to manage the condition piles (or different color chips under the minis as we did it, and lose of the "simulationist"/"wargaming"/PCs and monsters follow the same rules stuff from AD&D and 3x.

I did and still do appreciate the "Points of Light" setting approach and light-weighted unexplored setting. Good stuff.

5e PHB I bought not long after launch from an FLGS and I was disappointed with what I read. Still too many 4e features I didn't like.

I did like BG3, but it kept most of the rules out of the way, until Act 3 when I began to feel the weight of "must play this way with summoning and stacked effects" and said ... maybe later, not today for like 2 years now of never finishing.

(Neither disappointed nor enthusiastic is my take on 5.5e. I simply did it on D&D Beyond, as requested by the DM of our 5e campaign, and didn't notice why we switched. No value, no worse, but also unexciting to convert my Aasimar Warlock.)

FYI: Weird problems with typing on iPad. Better on PC. I assume because ENworld is being swarmed by bots.

 

[cbwjm]

2e, I came in excited for the “rules cleanup” I expected, was disappointed that my active PC (a Half Orc Assassin) was “banned” in the PHB, and left D&D for other RPGs. When I went back to D&D, to DM 1e again in 1996-2001, I began to appreciate 2e adventures and used many. But I never ran 2e - only played it with disappointment for the 6 months or so after its launch.

I think this is interesting since when I picked up 2e I came from the rules cyclopedia which meant that looking at 2e all of a sudden I could split elves into just warriors or wizard, dwarves could also be clerics and thieves, I could make an elf fighter/mage if I wanted a "classic" elf character. So from my point of view it was an improvement, but I can totally see where you're coming from, you came from 1e with different character assumptions so having them removed would totally kill your enthusiasm. That also happened with 4e, a lot of classes and races weren't available at the start which might have put some people off, also the completely different playstyle I think pushed some people away.

 

[Heilemann]

Mouse Guard just because everything about it presents as an approachable game, but it isn't. And like others I have that place in my heart for Burning Wheel, but it should have either been simplified substantially more for use with Mouse Guard, or not used.

If it had a simpler system, Mouse Guard would have been a great introduction system for people like my wife who're slightly curious about RPGs, but who aren't into dungeons and all those trappings. Cute mice with swords fighting snakes? Easier sell.

 

[Scott Christian]

"What RPG did you want to love, but just couldn't get into?"

Easy one for me - The Witcher.

In my head, there were so many ways to make it a great game. But my group and I found it almost unplayable.

 

[Scott Christian]

4E and PF2. I tried both and found the chargen too stifling and the combat ate too much play time at the table.

I really liked 4e's first three or four levels of play. After that, your criticism hits the nail on the head.

 

[Kannik]

If it had a simpler system, Mouse Guard would have been a great introduction system for people like my wife who're slightly curious about RPGs, but who aren't into dungeons and all those trappings. Cute mice with swords fighting snakes? Easier sell.

As a side note, whatever the thought about the MG game's system and its complexity (including its important GM Turn/Player Turn structure), it is crafted to emphasize the mice's relationships, foibles, beliefs, feelings, the overall functioning of the mouse alliances, and etc, rather than on only on their exploits or how they overcome something (and, in turn, it aims to use the results of those exploits to further reveal relationships/societal effects/etc). I've seen folks simply play 5e within the MG setting and that is very likely to give a very different experience and narrative outcome than using the MG rules, one that often is largely indistinguishable from playing in any other D&D game or setting. Which is certainly fine*, but it is a different animal (pun semi-intended) than what the MG system is aiming for. (And to be doubly clear, not saying that only the MG system as written could accomplish this, and that a different and "simpler" crafted set of rules couldn't, only that it has an aim that differs from more common fantasy games.)

* No surprise given my avatar I'll happily play anthropomorphic animal adventures anytime!

 

[Gradine]

Cypher System/Numenera.

Love the fluff, love the idea of ...

For example: “I am a Clever Explorer who Explores Dark Places.” The Descriptor tells us what you’re like, the Type establishes your broad mechanical chassis, and the Focus tells us what makes you distinctive.

However my players and I found the actual mechanical system itself to be underwhelming and torturous. We couldn't wait for the sessions to end.

Some day they'll let Monte Cook just worldbuild all day so that others design the details of the game mechanics, and that day will be the most glorious day of all

 

[Autumnal]

That would be great. I really want the equivalent of the Pirate’s Guide to Freeport for all his settings.