Worst RPG System You Ever Palyed?

[Shemeska]

While I own a copy of Synnibarr just so I can say I own a copy of it, I've never played it. My players made me put it away and under the couch and not on the shelf so it wouldn't rape their 2e and 3e DnD books or something vile like that.

Of things that I've played before... GURPS. I can't stand it, with a passion. 3 hours for character creation both times I played it, and I fell asleep within an hour of playing it those times as well.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I always find it ironic that fans of 3e criticize Rolemaster, given the overwhelming similarities between the two systems.

Having GM'ed both systems extensively, I find claims by 3e fans that Rolemaster is 'complex' strange. It is actually easier in many respects than 3e. YMMV.

I like 3/3.5E. I find it simple in the fact that most of the time I don't have to open a book. I never got to that point with RM. Constantly looking stuff up on a chart annoyed me. I don't play games to be annoyed. Just because games are similar doesn't mean that offer the same experiences.

Kane

edit: Took out the snarky comment. I didn't need to go there.

 

[Ambrus]

I'm hesitant to mention it since it's gotten very few mentions so far but I'd have to say of the few systems I've tried the White Wolf Storyteller System (editions 1, 2 and 3) is the worst system(s) I've tried. I said "system" mind you, not the worst game. The backstory and flavour of the World of Darkness is, for the most part, quite elegant and elaborate. The dice rolling mechanic itself however, seems to have been tacked on as an afterthought. I think it was designed to be simple and intuitive but it frustrates me more than anything else. The nuts and bolts rules are described with flowery text and oftentimes vague description as to be largely useless when it comes time to figure out the result of an action. The statistical math behind the mechanic is flawed; failure and botches become more common and possibly catastrophic the more a character improves at a skill. Any system that requires a fistfull of dice to be rolled to resolve a single action can't possibly be well designed IMHO. I'll take my D20 any day.

I haven't tried the "new" World of Darkness or their revised Storyteller system yet so many of my concerns may have been resolved by now.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

HOL (Human Occupied Landfill)
We thought the game was a joke, but played it anyway (Come on, they had a copy of the napkin that a Denny's waitress signed and made fun of EGG because they could use: "Orcs! That's right! Big fat greasy Orcs! Big fat nasty PUBLIC DOMAIN ORCS! Eat that, Gygax!"

With things such as: "The man with no eyes!" and "Shootin' Kinda Big Guns!"

It was weird, it was fun, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense.

but, the winner, hands down was...


dum dum dum...



CYBORG COMMANDO!

My god what a heap of steaming diarehhetic moose dung fried on a skillet.

Four hours to create a character and equip them for an arctic adventure...

That we don't go on.

When the GM offered to run it the next weekend, we offered to bust open his skull.

 

[Breakdaddy]

1st Edition Twilight 2000. The rules were messy, the firearms underpowered, and the stats for vehicles were off. Having said that, 2nd edition twilight 2000 was one of my FAVORITE games, so they did clean it up (at least to my tastes!).

 

[Psion]

I like 3/3.5E. I find it simple in the fact that most of the time I don't have to open a book. I never got to that point with RM. Constantly looking stuff up on a chart annoyed me.

One again, Kane and I seem to be on the same page. I actually sort of dug RM crit charts, and was even using Arms Law in my game for a while. Just for the crit charts; I never liked the idea of looking up a different chart for every weapon for every roll.

But soon, I decided even the crit charts were too much for me and settled on a system that didn't make me look anything up.

But even then, it wasn't the charts that really killed the game for me. Though I outgrew them, they had their redeeming qualities. What killed the game for me was the accounting of character creation. I've played HERO and 3e, which are both games alledged as being dreadfully heavy. But in neither of these games did the players ask me to make their characters for them because they weren't up to the task.

That said, I wouldn't even call it close to the worst game I have ever played. It was a nice game on paper, at least.

 

[Dr. Harry]

Dr. Who.

One person gets to play a powerful Time Lord. Everyone else gets to play a wimpy sidekick. There was a huge gulf in Time Lords and humans. Think of a d20 game where one guy got to start at EL +10 and everyone else had to be EL +0.

Yeah, I gotta go along with this. Heck, if someone else hadn't originally mentioned this I wouldn't admit to ever buying the thing.

 

[the Jester]

Rolemaster.

The only game that, over the years, I have spent over 20 hours on and never gotten to frickin' play a character. Yes, twenty hours, split into four separate character generation sessions, each of which failed to finish anyone's characters.

Screw that.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

<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

Yes, I was Narrator (gamemaster) for a two month campaign. It did, indeed, feel very much like d20 using 2d6. It ran pretty smoothly - although you really need to get the errata for the core book - and was fairly rules light. I found it to be fun, but I agree with Talmun - it requires a GM that is quick on his feet (I tried to be, dunno how well I did), and players willing to help perpetuate the feel of the setting.

Luckily enough, my players really rose to the occasion and tried to keep their characters consistent with the milieu. That surprised me, since some of them were powergamers in D&D - min-maxers could really take advantage of the LotR CODA system if they wished.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the various essays about how to evoke the mood of not just LotR, but of epic fantasy in general, and found many elements of the game to be easily portable to D&D. Even the magic system could be ported, though it would require fitting a fatigue system into D&D.

The RPG system I liked the least, coincidentally (or maybe not), was MERP (Middle Earth Roleplaying). I just never felt it was able to really capture the feel of the setting. It just seemed too rules-heavy, and the crit charts really seemed too...well, jarring and bloody to me.

 

[Rabelais]

Rollmaster

A game written by lawyers, to be played by accountants. Rollmaster makes me sad