Worst RPG System You Ever Palyed?

[Tolen Mar]

(Warning..I didnt plan on it to be this long, but I posted it and saw how long it was.)

I've played a lot of systems. Many only once and many for entire campaigns.

As far as systems go, any one that has you rolling increasing numbers of dice never floated for me. I can't stand that type of system, and whether the game is considered good or not (by the gaming public at large), if it has that kind of system I shelve it again.

Now that being said, I have no specific game to lambast as a horrible experience or bad rules set aside from the above. In fact, I'd like to take a moment or two to defends a few choices.

GURPS was the first RPG I played aside from DnD 1E. Course at the time, there were far fewer supplements available. I don't have any problem with it now, except for as was mentioned, new DM's tend to try to use everything. I once tried to start my own GURPS sci-fi game, and made the same mistake. GURPS, Hi-Tech, Ultra-Tech, Mecha, The cybernetics book....Pare it back and add the pices as you need, it isnt that big of a deal.

(I also have no problem taking time to build detailed PC's so that won't necesarily turn me off of a system.)

Rolemaster/MERP I think are getting an unfair shake. The only reason it takes so long to build new characters and has a list of skills a mile long is the same problem GURPS suffers from. The more books you have, the more choices too. It can take some time to read through them all. Make sure a copy of the charts most likely to be used are in easy reach and the game isnt that slow. (However, maybe making it use fewer charts would be a good idea.) I like RM. It plays nicely (once you get the long part, character creation, out of the way).

Palladium. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the Palladium system. Not the rules themselves of course, but I mean in a general sense. I ran two successful Palladium system campaigns, one was RIFTS, and the other fantasy. I even imported the juicer from rifts into the fantasy game for a player who wanted a dragonslayer. (I had the juicer book, and stole the dragon juicer for it.) Now I dont play it. It got out of hand. It makes no effort to balance a play group. A good GM could do that, but I just dont have time for it now.

FASA trek is good, the Ship Combat game that you are to use is too clunky for my tastes (even though Im a big Star Fleet Battles fan, and it has a lot of similarities...despite being much shorter).

Battlelords was fun. It wasn't by any stretch a simplistic game. The impression I got was that the guy who wrote it wanted to take the best parts of all the systems available (in his opinion) and cobble them together into a single game. I mean it was put out by SSDC, but the attribute tables included 'system shock' ratings, 'lift bars' and other DnDisms...stir in this mechanic from this game, stir in that one from there...The odd thing is, it worked. It didnt play that badly either. Could have been fun, but like GURPS, I just dont have the time for another system.

(When I say I dont have time, I mean d20 pretty much sucks up my time now. I'm in an Arcana Evolved game that will be wrapping up soon, and we are moving to Iron Heroes. In my face to face group, it looks like Im going to be building a d20 modern variation on spelljammer. 2 games is about all I can devote myself to these days.)

The only system I plan on bashing here is a problem for me largely because of the creeped out feeling I get from its fans. All but one, who is a good friend. That's WoD...any of them. I tried to get into Vampire, but couldn't. The rules I read first off were all about whining over your cursed existence, and second IIRC were a multiple dice mechanic. I played a vampire for a few sessions and while I could get into character, I couldnt get into the game. I never bought the rulebooks, I borrowed them. And since my friend was such a big vampire fan, I decided to. I looked over all of my options and decided to pick up wraith. The group was fine with me playing a ghost, but still it didnt fly well for me. I just cant abide the system. I eventually took the book back to the store.

Wait...I think I just remembered the worst system ever. I've played a huge number of games..cyberpunk, earthdawn, skyrealms of jorune, star wars (though not d20 yet)...you name it, Ive probably at least read the books. But the one system that I claim is the worst I feel is the worst because you only had one stat. That stat was arrived at by rolling 1d10. Everything you did was based on that single roll made during creation. No skills, no feats, no special abilities. It was called...T.W.E.R.P.S. The Worlds Easiest Role Playing System. Really. I still need crackers for all this cheese.

 

[Ourph]

Perhaps you should have given it another go with a different GM.

That's right, if you can't convince people I'm uninformed, convince them the GM just wasn't capable of presenting the game in the "appropriate light". Do you guys have a Handbook or something, because this stuff seems really formulaic.

For the record, the GM ran a fine game of C&C and is one of the best GMs in terms of creating a fun and exciting game I've known in 26 years of playing RPGs. It certainly wasn't his fault that I found the game to be completely uninspired and clunky.

Either way, no problem, but if you calm down the medication might be unecessary.

Laughter is my only medicine. I think the ridiculous levels of mirth generated by the Inquisition tag-team in this thread have just about cured my allergies.

 

[SweeneyTodd]

If you like C&C, and see someone say something bad about it, I think your best bet would be to say "It sounds like it's not the game for you" and move on.

I don't have an opinion about C&C at all, but I know people being goaded into losing their temper when I see it. You folks are being manipulated into providing bad press for something you like. Don't fall for it.

 

[Bihor]

What no SAGA

Seven pages of thread and no one mention the Saga system from TSR.

The system that use not dice but card, and was suposed to make roleplay more important.

I'm suprised that no one mentioned it, maybe I'm the only one that played it and lost money out the window to by the books/box.

 

[wingsandsword]

Seven pages of thread and no one mention the Saga system from TSR.

I was trying to pretend it didn't exist.

Also, it's the "worst system you've ever played". I took one look at that system and knew I didn't want to play it. Mutilating Dragonlance to shoehorn it into that system was bad enough, playing through the system would have been far worse.

 

[tec-9-7]

DM'ed - Flame away, but it was 3.0e. I know there are probably worse systems out there to DM but I found this one the least fun of any game I DM'ed. Of course I haven't DM'ed every system by a long shot.

I'll second this adding 3.5 as well. I don't mind playing these games w/ the right players, but I'd as soon take a beating as DM them.

 

[Staffan]

Also, it's the "worst system you've ever played". I took one look at that system and knew I didn't want to play it. Mutilating Dragonlance to shoehorn it into that system was bad enough, playing through the system would have been far worse.

From what I understand, it was more the other way around.

1. Dragonlance doesn't sell well enough to keep supporting with game stuff, so the AD&D Dragonlance line is cancelled.
2a. Weis & Hickman write Dragons of Summer Flame, nuking the setting.
2b. Simultaneously, someone at TSR comes up with the SAGA system.
3. That someone says, "We need a setting for this game. Hey, they just nuked Dragonlance, so why don't we use the remains to build a setting for SAGA?"

 

[wingsandsword]

From what I understand, it was more the other way around.

The way I'd always heard it told (dating back to when this first happened) was as follows:

1. TSR was supporting almost a dozen lines, so no one line was selling particularly well (except maybe the Realms).
2. Trying to cash in on the "heavy roleplaying" fad that White Wolf was championing, they used the same creativitiy that brought us Dragon Dice to create the SAGA system as a rules-light/plot heavy system for people who couldn't be talked into playing AD&D.
3. TSR wanted to introduce SAGA as a way to bring plot/roleplaying heavy players from other (mostly White Wolf) games to TSR games. Since Dragonlance had a big fan-base for it's novels that crossed over beyond gamers, this was a good way to lure them in with SAGA.
4. SAGA system was unable to portray Dragonlance properly, since DL was written with D&Disms integral to the setting, while the simplified SAGA system coudn't easily depict normal vancian/D&D magic.
5. TSR owned the rights to Dragonlance, and thus they decided to change Dragonlance to fit SAGA, and Weis & Hickman are directed to produce a novel that gets rid of all magic, but leaves open the option for another magical system. Dragons of Summer Flame is the result.
6. TSR releases Dragonlance SAGA, which goes down as a huge flop as AD&D games won't touch it, and the expected waves of crossover fans never materialize.
7. Dragonlance fans generally hate the "5th Age", setting, as it removed much of what was good from the setting (say bye to Wizards of High Sorcery, fan fave Raistlin goes bye) and gave us weird things like angsty, goth Kender and alien super-dragons.
8. WotC buys TSR, and produces 3e D&D.
9. The War of Souls novel series is written, restoring the gods and magic, and retconning away some of the events of Dragons of Summer Flame.
10. The Dragonlance Campaign Setting is released by WotC/Soveriegn Press, finally restoring Dragonlance to it's D&D roots.

 

[James Heard]

I don't understand this at all. Why should the behaviour of people who had nothing to do with the design of the game -- and who will probably never play it with you -- affect your judgement of the game?

Yeah, but it shows a consistent theme of the sorts of people I might run into and since I'm not hugely interested it in the first place it's enough. I'm sure professional wrestling can be interesting too, but a few vocal fans have convinced me that I don't want to bother with that either. In other words, if the majority of what I hear about anything is from a few vocal people whose attitudes I find offensive or even simply uncooth then there's a fairly good chance that I'm going to want to not associate myself with it. That's why I don't go to Cons either.

If it makes you feel better, consider it time management criteria.

 

[VirtualWizard]

The worst game system for me has been Shadowrun 3rd edition. Not that I liked 1st or 2nd edition any better. I love the world setting where man meet magic and machine, but the dice rolling mechanics really dragged the game to a halt.

One would think that a success based system would be simple to implement. Roll some d6 vs. a target number, count up the number of successes, and check for the results, what could be easier. However with dice pools and karma re-rolls, the game becomes a giant dice fest with players spending more time rolling their dice that actual role-playing.

On top of that, the system for physical combat, magical combat, and matrix combat are different enough that they could be called separate systems. Don't get me started on the rather complicated vehicle rules.

Also with some skills, you don't count your successes only your highest roll?!? I've both played and GMed several editions of the game, but I don't care for the game system. I hope that the coming 4th edition will be better, but I'll wait and see.