Worst RPG System You Ever Palyed?

[ZuulMoG]

All this talk about DL has reminded me of my least favorite Setting to play in. Krynn always seemed like a pointless waste of time to play in, because all of the interesting things one might do in any of the interesting places were/had been already done by characters from the books.

As far as the worst Game I ever played/DMed in, that's Shadowrun. Bought the books, got my friends together, we rolled up characters (even me, the ostensible DM), and roleplayed for about an hour before we got to our first fight...

...and not one of us could find a whiff of combat rules anywhere in the blasted book.

Worst.
System.
Ever.

 

[Professor Phobos]

...and not one of us could find a whiff of combat rules anywhere in the blasted book.

Worst.
System.
Ever.

Wait, what? You couldn't find the combat rules in Shadowrun? Most of the rulebook is...

Oh, wait, irony. Hah!

 

[ZuulMoG]

No, I'm dead serious. There are absolutely no rules in the Shadowrun book that detail how to even determine initiative, let alone resolve an attack. I've said it once, and I'll say it again...

Worst.
System.
Ever.

 

[Brakkart]

Oh for me it's gotta be MERP. I just couldn't understand how that system worked (thankfully I wasn't DMing) and the one and only game I ever played of it we (3 characters) set out to head to another town, got attacked by 2 orcs as we camped for the night. the next day we went back to where we had came from and resolved NEVER to leave town again. Of the three intact people who set out, we were missing 2 eyes, 2 hands and a leg. No combat system should be quite that brutal.

 

[Professor Phobos]

No, I'm dead serious. There are absolutely no rules in the Shadowrun book that detail how to even determine initiative, let alone resolve an attack. I've said it once, and I'll say it again...

Worst.
System.
Ever.

Huh? Look, I don't like Shadowrun either, but the book has those rules. Lots of them, in fact. What's the title of the book you're referring to?

 

[Breakdaddy]

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.


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.

LOL! I feel like I am arguing with my sisters kids here. If you can deflect your broad generalizations enough back to me then somehow you are credible, is that it? I have played C&C twice, ever. Currently playing SWD20. If that makes me a me a member of the inquisition tag team then *shrug*. Either way, thanks for the laugh!

 

[Psion]

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.

I didn't care to much for the system on a fundamental level. FWIW.

 

[M.L. Martin]

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

From everything I've heard (most of it from the SAGA/DL:5A designers and Weis & Hickman), this is largely backwards. Dragons of Summer Flame was written by W&H with little restriction from TSR; the only major change was that they were only contracted for one book instead of the trilogy they wanted to do. Sales on it were good enough that TSR gave the go-ahead for the game line to be revived. Various ideas were brainstormed, and at some point, management mandated that it not be AD&D (apparently because of poor sales on the original line, and possibly to get DL out from under the D&D movie deal). They may have demanded that it be diceless; my information's unclear on this point. In any case, the removal of the gods and D&D-style magic from the setting predate the design of the system.

I rather liked the SAGA System, even if I've come to think it was wasted on Dragonlance.

Matthew L. Martin

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

No, I'm dead serious. There are absolutely no rules in the Shadowrun book that detail how to even determine initiative, let alone resolve an attack.

Okay.

I'll just point out that the sections involving combat are clearly marked as such, and are findable both using the Table of Contents and Index in both Second and Third editions.

SR Third Edition, p. 100: Combat section. The very first heading is Initiative, which details, unsurprisingly, how to determine initiative. Subsequent sections detail how to blow peoples' heads off, break necks, etc.

SR Second Edition, p. 76, Combat section. Initiative appears on page 79. Subsequent sections, of course, detail how to have combat, with nice examples, such as Wedge blowing away some gangers with autofire.

Brad

 

[Professor Phobos]

Okay.

I'll just point out that the sections involving combat are clearly marked as such, and are findable both using the Table of Contents and Index in both Second and Third editions.

I think I know where his problem is; which is why I asked him what the name of the book they were using was. You see, there *is* a book in the Shadowrun product line that you could make characters with but wouldn't have the combat rules...the Companion. My theory is, based on their description, is that they mistook it for the corebook. It's the only plausible explanation; say what you will about Shadowrun, it has combat rules.