Worst RPG System You Ever Palyed?

[TerraDave]

This has probably been posted millions of times, but I never saw it. Anyway what Rpg system have you played in your years of gaming that you would have to say was the worst ever? I would have to say anything done by Palladium.

I was going to originally say, I don't think I have played anything really bad, and I don't think I have, but my bottom of the barrel experiences:

Playing solo one edition of Gama World (I wish I knew the edition, because their has been such variation)...it took a few minutes to realise, this thing sucked (or that was my impression at the time)...

Playing Vampire at a con. Classic case of the Storyteller letting us do nothing except telling us how vampires are so cool, and yet don't want to do anything we wanted our charecters to do. (I should note this didn't last long, and is very much a case of YMMV).

At the same con, a modern game, maybe by Charles Ryan (who I think I saw??). Mediocre at best, but again, it could have been the session.

And yes, at the same con, a special intro session to Col Pladoh's game of the time (the one before his current one...Dangerous Journeys, Mythic Journeys?). A boring and contrived scenario that gave us no feel for the game itself (which apparently is complicated, so would have been hard to get into in a one shot). This is unfair of me on one level, but on another level, this was the "official" introduction.

There was a Diablo D&Desque RPG put out by Wizards...just played that for one session. Not terrible, but there was no desire to continue.

And finally I reach Palladium Fantasy Role Playing. Which I played a few times. Not that bad, but the worst that I actually participated in a campaign for. And, and this is the deeper criticism: close to pointless, given that their is another, far more popular, fantasy RGP that preceeded it.

 

[fusangite]

Aftermath.

A ruleset so bizarre and poorly put together that it pretty much quashed my interest in what I considered my favortie genre (Post APocalypse) for years.

A different rulesystem for everything, an entire book of gun stats without the names or descritions of the guns included, Mutations so miniscule and weak as to be pointless.

Just a huge, idiotic mess from beginning to end.

Still planning to run Encounter Critical at GenCon? I'm still dying to play one of the Ape Sultans.

 

[The_Gneech]

<hijack>Actually, has anybody played the CODA Lord of the Rings game? Is it any good? My impression from reading it was that it boiled down to the d20 system with the serial numbers filed off and 2d6 put in.</hijack>

-The Gneech

 

[Khairn]

No offense, no really, but you can't be serious... And those charts were ANYTHING but fun...

IMO the charts in RM are easy, and the system is actually quite simple, once you get beyond the fear of addition and subtraction. But no system can make everyone happy.

For me the worst system was Synnibar by FAR. Nothing even comes close.

Aftermath, Space Opera, C&S, OD&D were clunky and quirky, but at least they worked to a degree (especially C&S) but Synnibar .... <shudder>

Never again.

 

[Rasyr]

Synnibarr isn't that bad once you get used to it.

 

[Talmun]

<hijack>Actually, has anybody played the CODA Lord of the Rings game? Is it any good? My impression from reading it was that it boiled down to the d20 system with the serial numbers filed off and 2d6 put in.</hijack>

-The Gneech

Essentially yes. I ran it at the last Gen-con before Indy, a few times at the first one in Indy and also ran a storyline for my regular group.

It's not too bad, really. The rulebook layout is horrible, and it's very rules light, so it requires a rather heavy-handed GM and a trusting group of players.
The one thing I did like was actions per round. You get two. You can do whatever you want for those two actions, run twice, attack twice, one of each, whatever. You can also take extra actions, but at a -2 cumulative penalty for each additional action, which is enough that taking more than about 4 extra actions is pointless.

All in all, it's far from the worst RPG I've played, I liked it, but great it aint.

 

[mcrow]

Can I ask why you say this?

Considering that RM and D&D3.5/d20 use almost identical mechanics for resolution, I find this to be an odd comment to say the least.

Is it because of the tables? Tables do not make a bad game (even though they may not be for everybody).

mcrow - the next question is for you as well.

Have you actually played RM before?

yes, I did play it once about maybe 5 years ago. There were way to many charts and as you said character creation took to long. Maybe if I played more it wouldn't so bad , but enjoy it I did not. I'm not even sure what edition we were playing (though the book the GM was using was well warn) either because I don't own the book so if there was a newer edition I wouldn't know what improvements were made there. I'm not going to knock anyone for liking RM, if you like it and have fun with it good. I like palladium noone else hear seems like it, but I don't care. OTOH I do like HARP. It took the good elements from RM simplified them. I haven't had a chance yet to play HARP but I look forward to giving it a go.

 

[The_Universe]

Not a fan of D&D 2E. At all. In fact, I *loathe* it. So arbitrary! So very, very arbitrary. I also don't like GURPs. It's got some great sourcebooks as long as you ignore the rules - we tried to play a session once long ago - also inconsistant, also arbitrary.

Some consistency is key! Key!

 

[billd91]

On my personal worst list, I would have to put Recon and Marvel Super Heroes.

In Recon, stats were generated on d100. Skill rolls and perceptions were all on d100 as well. So a character who got lucky on his initial generation dice could do no wrong, characters who didn't do so well, sucked the tailpipe... badly. There was virtually no bell curve that I can remember. Characters could be all over the map.

I never really like MSH's task resolution system nor damage. Once you actually hit something, there was no random element at all. Also, because of the way Karma was gained and could be used, Aunt May, being a natural Karma sink because she was so nice and kept all of her appointments, could go up to Galactus and stab him in the eyes by burning enough Karma to get the right result.
I dunno. I found it to be pretty darn silly.

 

[ConnorSB]

BattleLords of the 22nd Century. Asparagusheaded psychic people, big dumb lizards with guns, Gene-humans, which are exactly like humans but with better genes, and Orian Rogues- basically fast childish humans, are ok. I can handle that. What I can't handle is the "random but enforced background quirks table" which made my character both an Intergalactic Space-ball champion, easily recognized everywhere he goes, AND a wanted criminal in seven quadrants, AND have a paralyzing fear of open spaces (spaceball is played in open vacuum...)... and also, my class was apparently "cyborg" despite the fact that I was a, uh, shapeshifting mass of ooze...