Worst RPG Ever?

[Wild Karrde]

I'm not really sure what I consider the worst system out there but I am surprised by all the people who don't like Champions. I'm an agreement with alot of people on here as placing it as the best RPG to be made to date. This game simply rocks.

Maybe the problem alot of people are having is the first time they made characters with someone they went overboard with all the rules. My very first experience with it was just making straight point for point characters. No power pools, disads. or ads. or anything like that. Then once we got a feel for the nature of the game and we all really dug it the GM let us revamp our characters. Needless to say we were all hooked and are hardcore Champions players to this day.

 

[Henry]

By mere word of mouth, the two games "White Warriors" and F.A.T.A.L. have to take the cake. This may sound insane, but I would love to find a copy of FATAL, just to see how bad it truly was. I'm the type of person who has collected a video of Allied force cleanup efforts of Nazi Death Camps, just so people can't tell someone I know that it never happened. And in my neck of the woods, this stands more than an improbable chance of happening.

Beyond this, the worst game I have attempted to read and play falls to Champions, or to Cyberpunk 2020, and used to be Shadowrun, before it's 3rd edition revision. I dislike any game, in fact, that uses the tallied number of successes on individual dice to determine how successful I am. Increases in skills DO NOT AFFECT THE DICE in these type of games; it only allows more chances to attempt the action. Only things such as equipment increases, circumstance modifiers, etc. affect the actual roll - which I don't mind; but not having equal increases with skill makes it harder and harder to attempt an action, and really annoys me.

Champions requiring so much time to build a character and to play through a combat, which are both staples of 4-color Super-hero games, is counter-productive to me. Advanced Marvel super Heroes, by Jeff Grubb, while not the best super-hero game around, had the tremendous advantage of being fast. Powers were flexible enough so as to build individualized super-heroes with the same basic rules. 2 Heroes could have the EXACT SAME POWERS, yet look and feel very different. I would love to see a Super-Hero game with that much speed and flexibility produced. I hold out some expectation for both Godlike and, should I run across it or some Fast-play rules, BESM.

 

[Tsyr]

Sadly, F.A.T.A.L. still exists. Its original webserver got taken down, but some guys on RPG.NET posted a link a while back to the new site...

http://www.fatalgames.com/

 

[Jezrael]

I'm not a big fan of Rolemaster; in fact I downright loathe the basic system (ICE did put out some great Middle Earth supplements for it though, that were easily convertable to just about anything else); just not my bag.

Conversely I love Champions/Hero System, complexity and all.

Immortal was crap, were there actually any rules in that book?

 

[sineater]

Worst RPG game I ever tried was an old game called BOOTHILL. A western game where if you got into a gun fight you were pretty much goin to die or be severly wounded and end up dying. It was impossible to live.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Worst RPG game I ever tried was an old game called BOOTHILL. A western game where if you got into a gun fight you were pretty much goin to die or be severly wounded and end up dying. It was impossible to live.

I loved BOOT HILL for that very reason. You know, you get shot, you are supposed to die.

The whole game had a very fatalistic "Young Guns" feel to it. I thought it captured the genre beautifully.

Of course, my GM at the time was the reigning KY state storytelling champion, who also worked volunteer time at the local Wild West show...


Wulf

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Worst RPG game I ever tried was an old game called BOOTHILL. A western game where if you got into a gun fight you were pretty much goin to die or be severly wounded and end up dying. It was impossible to live.

Boot Hill is a classic. The whole point was that gunfighting is dangerous - just like in real life. If you stayed away from fights which involved you against more than one, you had a good chance of living. If the odds were greater than that, you'd better be the Man With No Name.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I feel better having the Colonel behind me with basically the same sentiment.

 

[JPL]

Top Secret/S.I. was a seriously flawed game...but I loved it.

I loved it when two guys were punching each other, and the hit location kept coming up "leg".

I loved the Athletic Ability advantage...+20% to your speed and most of your useful skills.

I loved the Freelancers supplement, set in the far-flung future of 1998.

We did everything from Delta Force commandos to a private eye campaign modeled after "Spenser: For Hire" to a ninja street gang.

Man...to be fifteen again...

 

[Turlogh]

As I have not seen all RPGs I cannot truely say which is the absolute worst ever but from the ones I have seen there are a few I really don't like. These are-
White Wolfs World of Darkness- terrible layout, lousy rules (if you can find them)
Gurps
Champions
The old DC Hero's Game
TSRs attempt at a Conan RPG