Worst RPG System You Ever Palyed?

[beaver1024]

AD&D (2e), D&D 3.5 and Shadowrun 3.0. Gouging the customer for more money under the guise of an "improved" system whilst producing a crappier, more error prone system than the original just doesn't sit well with me.

 

[Rasyr]

Well, that and hearing the ICE guys at a con ~91 laughing at their buyers for RM describing how "all we have to do is throw in a new crit chart or two and they will buy anything. we thought we may have gone too far with the midwifing birth critical chart, but it turned out to be popular!"

Well, luckily anybody who might possibly have said anything like that or had that sort of attitude is not part of the new ICE. The folks that worked at ICE back then are long long gone, and most are no longer even in the rpg business.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Another second here for Teflon Billy's thoughts on Aftermath. In fact wasn't it FGU that made Aftermath along with Space Opera and Chivalry and Sorcery ? The latter two were one and done sessions...Aftermath I tried twice because I too like the genre.

Yes it was. Space Opera and C&S are strong candidates for Worst. System. Evar. except I think that both Space Opera and C&S deserve to avoid that notoriety by reason of some cool ideas in their respective books.

The Space Opera stasis drugs on the PC that auto-fired in to blood stream to preserve the PCs life in cellular stasis a second before death was a very cool idea. The Equipment guide to Space Opera was a gold mine of ideas as well. Any present day D20 Sci-Fi DM could profit from a reading of the Space Opera equipment manual just for its wealth of ideas.

Similarly, the original C&S had great background material for running an historically-more-accurate medieval campaign which is still useful to GMs to this day. "Drop the Rock" - a light-hearted description of a medieval siege - remains one of my all time fave pieces of RPG writing.

Aftermath enjoys all of the minuses but none of the plusses of its FGU brethren. And so it richly deserves the Worst.System.Evar title.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Well, luckily anybody who might possibly have said anything like that or had that sort of attitude is not part of the new ICE. The folks that worked at ICE back then are long long gone, and most are no longer even in the rpg business.

St. Monte of Cook, excepted.

(I think all you RM bashers are wusses!)

Seriously though - if you played RM2 with a group of players and a GM who knew the system well - you'd be quite pleased with the results. When the players and GM know the system well - combat flies along at a good pace and the criticals add a lot of fun factor to the game.

If you were trying - as a group - to learn RM cold? I could see how that would be a significant problem for many people.

For those whose venom is directed at RMSS character generation: I agree with you.

 

[Imperialus]

just to pipe in for the defence of Heros Unlimited, it takes some tweaking and I'll admit that the rules as written suck but the concept is sound and if you pull a bit of the randomness out of character generation you can actually end up with a pretty deacent team, it's just a matter of tinkering under the hood a bit.

 

[paragondragon]

Rifts Vagabond at least comes with Asprin

Well at least in Palladium's world, the least powerful character comes with a bottle of asprin, the rarest substance in the gaming world.

But I personally like Palladium, and yes a five to hit in melee seems extreme...but try it's suppose to be close to realistic. If they swing at you parry or dodge...that's what's suppose to happen. The system doesn't work on it's own in all situations, that's why I have all kinds of different ways of modding the system. Anyways, enough of why Palladium is a good system...the system I hate is anything White Wolf.

Vampire, Werewolf, Mage. I think they're all crap.

And second worst would have to be that stupid old Marvel system...you can roll a first level character with more HP then the hulk...bah.

 

[Vargo]

I've played Palladium, Rolemaster, MERP, GURPS, D&D, Battletech, Heavy Gear, and a bunch of other games. None of them struck me as particularly bad.

And then there was that one time at a 'con, when I sat down at a table with good 'ol Zak himself, and played Synnibar.

Oh sweet LORD, please give me back those three hours...

 

[SWBaxter]

Another second here for Teflon Billy's thoughts on Aftermath. In fact wasn't it FGU that made Aftermath along with Space Opera and Chivalry and Sorcery ? The latter two were one and done sessions...Aftermath I tried twice because I too like the genre.

FGU, as I understand it, was kind of a publishing house for games designed by freelancers. In addition to the games you mentioned, they also published (and in some cases technically still publish) Villains and Vigilantes, Flashing Blades, Bushido, Year of the Phoenix, Merc, Daredevils, Psi World, and undoubtedly others. Some of them weren't very good, and some are classics. Very much a mixed bag.

I never played Aftermath (though I own a copy), but I did play Bushido which as I understand it was a revision of the Aftermath rules system, and was a heck of a lot of fun.

 

[Jackelope King]

Palladium takes the cake by a longshot: it's the only game I've ever shelved never to play again (RIFTS to be specific). Within the first twenty minutes of play, there was an obvious power gap between members of the party so vast that it boggled the mind.

A distant runner up would be Castles & Crusades: after all the buildup to rules lite D&D with a classic flavor, it turned into one long appeal to nostalgia. Biggest letdown ever. Only game I've ever returned the day after buying it.

 

[TerraDave]

Marvel bashing...

I kinda liked the old Marvel game (this is way back), but I don't think we worried about the rules too much back then (and actually didn't really play it that much).

But I am still waiting to hear about Buck Rogers...