RPGs: hall of shame

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Necrozius

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What this thread is about
Please share your tales of woe, disappointment or "betrayal" due to RPGs that you were very excited about, but once you actually dove in, things just didn't work out. Could have been during your first read, or worse yet, during play.

I'm talking SO BAD that you got rid of your books without a second thought. That there were literally NO merits to the game, not even as inspiration for other games.

I'll start with...

Numenera

A few years ago I met a guy from an online marketplace (Kijiji). He was selling a pile of Numenera books. Back then, the game looked absolutely fabulous to me, having just read the Incal and Metabarons. This game looked perfect!

Anyway, the guy was selling the books at a very cheap price. I was curious, and asked him "why?". He shrugged and informed me that the game just didn't match up to their expectations, and that it wasn't a good fit for this group.

Whatever, I thought, he's a moron! LOL

...
...
...

So I read the rulebook. It "seemed" great (mostly), the artwork was cool (mostly) and the mechanics seemed very imaginative (sort of). Sure, some things were extremely vague, and the setting seemed like empty deserts with ruins. Sure, some of the artwork was just Poser models, some not even traced over. Sure, pretty much all special character abilities were about punching monsters. But... but... it was so imaginative!

I ran a game with some close friends and family. Granted, I like the simplicity of the core mechanics (and still do)! I liked the notes and references in the margins of the adventure.

The pre-written dungeon was... sort of bland. But that's okay, it's just to get the ball rolling! The map was really ambiguous. Arrows pointed to random walls or empty spaces in illogical places. Whatever, I can improvise.

My players were mostly impressed. Kind of. It WAS fun to randomly get a cool grenade that implodes! Neat! It was also kind of fun to randomly find another... grenade that made a neat sound. And that other device that... exploded too.

Hmmm....

Fast forward several years. I crack open the books for inspiration and random tables of weirdness. I mean, the books are peppered with "WEIRD" all over, right?

More than once I had to roll multiple times on "random mutations" and "random weirdness" because they were all basically: you have a new attack power like spitting poison, or "something explodes or melts the air, killing you slowly".

After about 4 sessions, I've had enough. I've made a pile of all of my Numenera books and I'm going to sell them.

WHY?

Because the game ISN'T weird. I got more out of flipping through random Moebius comics. Like, I literally did that. I opened the Incal and used THAT as a random table and had more fun.

For a Monte Cook book all about "OMG SO RANDOM WEIRDNESS GASP" I was horrendously let down.

Anyway, was a pisser.

Your turn?

EDIT:

I'm not here to shame any players or fans of particular games. This is meant to be personal and subjective. Just opinions, not attacks on anyone or "BAD WRONG FUN". If you love Numenera 1st edition and find it flawless, good for you! I envy you.
 
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Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles by Palladium Books.

Both released versions lack the centerpiece key mecha featured in the movie. As in if it was center screen in the movie then it is NOT in the book. Vastly more space is spent on things that appear in secondary continuity promotional comics than anything which actually appears on screen, and even more than that on recycled material. The initial release of the book doesn't even give sufficient stats to use the signature bad guys of Shadow Chronicles in a game. It really is just a recycling of the old Invid Invasion book with all the numbers increased by a general multiplier (1.5 for REF, 2 for Invid) with a few random things from comics tossed in.

Complaints about the system made over the years seem to have been noted and then deliberately made worse.

A "Quick Character Creation" which actually takes longer than normal character generation.

Everything about it just seems lazy, recycled, and half assed to the maximum extent. Which is really just signature post 1995 Palladium.

And to be clear, I did not expect anything good to come of this book. It was an extreme disappointment when Palladium Books got the license again. Absolutely no one expected Unca Kev and Crisis of Treachery® Palladium to put any effort into this book at all. To be honest, the book was almost exactly like I expected it to be, Unca Kev flipping the Robotech fandom the bird.

But at least the Robotech RPG Tactics disaster happened and even a group as scummy as Harmony Gold realized how bad a relationship with Palladium Books was for them.
 
I won't be naming any titles because I don't want to poo poo on someone else's favorite game but generally speaking the ttrpg industry has just about the lowest quality standard imaginable.

I think there are a few reasons for this:

1. We're playing cooperative game of make believe. I could probably split this one in two "cooperative" and "make believe". With what these terms imply, I won't spell it out, we are quick to collectively dismiss ambiguous rules or change their meaning to fit our needs because.... well... the rules don't really matter because we're all just trying to have fun with the adventure.

2. The common response of "we always house rule anyway" or "I love to tinker". How many times will we see an online argument of someone detailing how the rules are poorly constructed or at the very least poorly presented only to have its supporters reply "just ignore it if you don't like it" or "houserule it".

Yes we can all houserule any game, but I didn't pay for that. I assumed when I bought the game that it would be a professional product containing ideas I couldn't come up with myself....

3. We are nerds who are ultimately far too grateful someone made an rpg about whatever nerd topic we're into. Nuff said.

I have purchased countless rpg books which when you read blow you away with all the detailed rules and subsystems. You sit up at night fantasizing about all those rules coming together to make the ultimate gaming session... Except the game is unplayable because actually implementing those rules is impossible or sessions would come to a screeching halt under its weight.

My favorite is watching live plays with the actual game designers discarding their own rules...

Sorry for the mini rant. Nothing to see here. Carry on.
 
I have purchased countless rpg books which when you read blow you away with all the detailed rules and subsystems. You sit up at night fantasizing about all those rules coming together to make the ultimate gaming session... Except the game is unplayable because actually implementing those rules is impossible or sessions would come to a screeching halt under its weight.

Without generalising, I think you have a point there. There can be rich, innovative, luxurious mechanics in a roleplaying game that capture the GMs imagination and get players excited when creating characters. These sort of things have a big influence on which game you decide to buy or campaign you sign up to. But as you noted during actual play, the can take too much time and concentration to execute consistently during play. I have seen plenty of GM bite off more than they can chew from a system point of view.

So maybe better off with simpler, blander mechanics, something the really just focuses on what you really use duinng play and will get you where you need to go without fuss or strain. But form a game designer point of view, if you can't grab your audience''s attention long enough to even try your game, or make the case that your game is different from 100 other simpler, blander games out there, what's the point?
 
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Rifts. Always and forever. I bought the rules waaaay back in the day because it looked and sounded so fucking cool. I was so stoked to get it out on the table, and a bunch us of rolled up characters. Well holy suppurating shit was the MDC/SDC thing a kick in the face. Our Glitterboy was like Wooo!!!!1! and everyone else was like I'd chime in there, but greasy spots don't talk much. So very disappoint. I still love the setting though.
 
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But form a game designer point of view, if you can't grab your audience''s attention long enough to even try your game, or make the case that your game is different from 100 other simpler, blander games out there, what's the point?

Considering the amount of people who buy rpg books with no intention of using in play but to analyse from a game design perspective, I think there is a market for these types of games. Hell, I'm sure it's significantly bigger than the rpg "for play" market. So I don't have a problem with them existing. I just have a problem with them being presented as something people actual use to play a session. For a long time I just figured something was wrong with me because I couldn't get these types of games off the ground. With the internet and live plays I've realized no one else can either... lol

Imho I just think those games needs to be published and titled as game design for computers. Lol
 
I've been trying to think of any nominees. I've purchased bunches of RPGs I'll hardly or never read, more that I'll never play, and bunches I've dumped including some I HAVE read or even played. But most of the games I've never played or even read, I purchased during periods of time where I was way overbuying. I don't feel like my not doing a bit more discernment before purchase consigns a game to a hall of shame just because it turned out useless to me.

For the games I've played and then sold, I can't think of any that so disappointed me as to justify nomination. Sure, there were some that were a horrible disappointment, but usually that was a mismatch with my style, not some fatal flaw in the game.

I guess I would consider nominating things like FATAL as being so egregious that I feel they don't deserve the space on the shelf or the bits in the cloud to maintain their existence. But I'm not sure I'd even go that far with FATAL.
 
I have a feeling someone is going to come here and talk about Hellboy shortly.

It is just a feeling.

I resemble this remark!!

That said, though I was incredibly underwhelmed by the final product, I wouldn't describe it as so bad that I felt I had to give it away. (Though I suspect I will.) There's some value in it, at least.

The Quickstart scenario, on the other hand, is bad. Really bad. It's certainly saveable with some significant work, but, I mean, a Quickstart is meant to be...quick.
 
I was a system junkie in my younger years. I looked at (and sadly, wasted money on) a LOT of unplayable games.

Feng Shui and Savage Worlds are two of my biggest disappointments.
I'm naming those because they're easy for others to defend. Bottom line...the systems never felt fast enough to match the advertising.
The Feng Shui system, in particular, just felt lifeless to me, compared to its setting.

The One Roll Engine and Whispering Vault were unplayable, but I loved the ideas behind them.
 
Rifts. Always and forever. I bought the rules waaaay back in the day because it looked and sounded so fucking cool. I was so stoked to get it out on the table, and a bunch of rolled up characters. Well holy suppurating shit was the MDC/SDC thing a kick in the face. Our Glitterboy was like Wooo!!!!1! and everyone else was like I'd chime in there, but greasy spots don't talk much. So very disappoint. I still love the setting though.
Me trying to figure out my Rifts players attacks, to hit, parry, dodge, missile bonus, etc:

 
Yeah there was definitely a mismatch of expectations vs reality with Savage Worlds. In my experience, anyway.

Likely going to ditch my Rifts SW books at some point. Theoretically SW works best with just the core book, in a simpler setting.
 
First edition Shadowrun was this for me. It looked like it would be my dream game, and I couldn’t wait to play it.

Another person in my game group really wanted to run it, and while I’m the GM about 90% of the time, I was happy to try it regardless of which side of the GM screen I was on.

We started by playing out the Stuffer Shack scenario in the core rule book. Got into a firefight and I blasted a guy full in the face with my shotgun. I rolled well, too.

Guy took a light wound.

Then we proceeded to play out the rest of the fight, which took 2 fucking hours.

Gave the game a few more shots, but it was pointless. My character who had maxed out his climb skill, while using a climbing kit, grappling hook and rope, was utterly unable to climb to the roof of a single-story strip mall take-out pizza joint.

And the published adventures were the fucking worst. Quite often the most trivial tasks had stupidly high difficulties, like looking for a folded piece of paper in the equivalent of an empty Amazon box (no hidden compartments or anything funky) had a difficulty of 5. On a fucking d6.

Needless to say I traded that sucker in at a local gaming store first chance I got.
 
Me trying to figure out my Rifts players attacks, to hit, parry, dodge, missile bonus, etc:


iu
 
Needless to say I traded that sucker in at a local gaming store first chance I got.
Any game which makes one player *cough* DECKER *cough* sit around for an extended period of time while the others go and do their thing (and vice versa) is not necessarily designed to be the ideal group experience.

I haven't picked up a cyberpunk game in a long time, so I don't know if this problem has been solved.
 
First edition Shadowrun was this for me. It looked like it would be my dream game, and I couldn’t wait to play it.

Another person in my game group really wanted to run it, and while I’m the GM about 90% of the time, I was happy to try it regardless of which side of the GM screen I was on.

We started by playing out the Stuffer Shack scenario in the core rule book. Got into a firefight and I blasted a guy full in the face with my shotgun. I rolled well, too.

Guy took a light wound.

Then we proceeded to play out the rest of the fight, which took 2 fucking hours.

Gave the game a few more shots, but it was pointless. My character who had maxed out his climb skill, while using a climbing kit, grappling hook and rope, was utterly unable to climb to the roof of a single-story strip mall take-out pizza joint.

And the published adventures were the fucking worst. Quite often the most trivial tasks had stupidly high difficulties, like looking for a folded piece of paper in the equivalent of an empty Amazon box (no hidden compartments or anything funky) had a difficulty of 5. On a fucking d6.

Needless to say I traded that sucker in at a local gaming store first chance I got.
I had a 1E Ogre Street Samurai stick a grenade down his pants and set it off, just to prove to the GM that no, my PC wouldn't particularly notice, which he did not.
 
Trying to run D&D 5e outside of a WotC adventure path has frankly sucked.

I was high on it after successfully running the supposedly unplayable Tyranny of Dragons arc, as well as Curse of Strahd.

My own homebrew with it? Bleh. Survival and exploration are completely trivial when a Paladin can't get lost and can always gather enough food for the whole party because of his background. And that's with a Ranger in the group.

I have a longer list of complaints but, all in all, I'm ready just to get this game wrapped up and move on to something else...and probably never run 5e again. (I figure I'll use Savage Pathfinder to run my D&D fantasy from here on out).
 
Rifts for me definitely... The mechanics are too wonky and fiddly and completely miss-matched for certain characters. But even beyond that, I think the setting is so bloated the Earth feels like a golf ball. Initially, the core idea was fantastic but as more and more sourcebooks were added it just became ridiculous IMO. The creator KS had no self-filter and just threw everything he could into the world. Which is a shame I mean, it's a game I want to love but can't. Although we did have some epic games back in the day.
 
There are no books I get rid of without a second thought. I just have a horder mentality. But Alpha Omega was close. First the format of the book is I think 11"x8.5". Looks a bit cool but doesn't fit well on the shelf, the pages pull heavily on the binding. The art is pretty good and has some real high spots. Feels a bit like Witchcraft/Armageddon mixed with Rifts. But the system is where it really falls apart. Take GURPS and HERO and multiply them together. And the multiply the starting points as well! You have possibly thousands of points to spend on dozens of attributes, skills, powers etc. Then add in its 6d6 system which I can't actually comment on enough because I gave up.

The whole book is written like it's supposed to be a hyperlinked webpage, but isnt.
 
Any game which makes one player *cough* DECKER *cough* sit around for an extended period of time while the others go and do their thing (and vice versa) is not necessarily designed to be the ideal group experience.

I haven't picked up a cyberpunk game in a long time, so I don't know if this problem has been solved.
My shadowrun players:
"Wait. . .how much does a cyber deck cost???"
For a decent one with the right software? About 500K.
"And how much are we getting paid for this job?"
5K each if there's no troubles.
"Can we hire a decker for support?"
Sure! His name is Ice-Razor!

The decker shows up and they kill him and take his deck to sell it.
 
The not even worth using to mine for ideas, and selling without a second thought pretty much keep everything off my list (selling game books, who does that? :grin: ).

The closest I can come up with are Savage Worlds and 3E D&D, but neither are truly horrible, they just didn't match my hopes. I really want to like Savage Worlds but the mechanics just don't grab me. The material though tends to be pretty good.

3E D&D seemed to do a lot of things I like, but it just ended in frustration. Not as quick to run as earlier editions, and to much work to fall flat of games like RQ, HERO or Gurps. Again not an awful game but it doesn't do what I hoped it would.

Powers and Perils.

What even was that shit? I do not need a different algebra formula for each skill, cheers.

Yes, I remember getting this thinking it sounded really cool. Then reading it I was like what is this, why would they do that.
 
My shadowrun players:
"Wait. . .how much does a cyber deck cost???"
For a decent one with the right software? About 500K.
"And how much are we getting paid for this job?"
5K each if there's no troubles.
"Can we hire a decker for support?"
Sure! His name is Ice-Razor!

The decker shows up and they kill him and take his deck to sell it.
The whole campaign ends up as a catfishing serial-killer cautionary tale for freelance Deckers.
 
I don't have that much of an RPG-buying habit, and what I do buy is mostly .pdfs that cost less than what a pint at my local would, so it's hard to get too disappointed, even when they don't work out.

I don't remember the specific games where this happened, but I will say one frustration I've repeatedly had is buying games that describe themselves as "rules-light," "fast-playing," etc., and then, when I actually read the rules, they turn out to be, IMO, very crunchy.
 
I don't have that much of an RPG-buying habit, and what I do buy is mostly .pdfs that cost less than what a pint at my local would, so it's hard to get too disappointed, even when they don't work out.

I don't remember the specific games where this happened, but I will say one frustration I've repeatedly had is buying games that describe themselves as "rules-light," "fast-playing," etc., and then, when I actually read the rules, they turn out to be, IMO, very crunchy.
HERO system, the new fast-paced, quick start system for all your superhero needs, available now on DTRPG.
 
Man, Myth, and Magic. A game so bad that the person I borrowed it from never asked for it back. The mechanics were a total mess, and the character classes were problematic, to put it mildly; for example, if you were Irish, you could play a Leprechaun ...
 
I really wanted to like 13th Age, but it was a big disappointment to me. The classes seemed wildly unbalanced from each other, and there were to many dice gimmicks where things only trigger depending on what number you rolled. I cannot stress how much I did not enjoy just that aspect.

Anyways, neither me nor my players were really having fun, but I finished the campaign through gritted teeth. Took all my books to the used book store the next day.
 
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The One Roll Engine and Whispering Vault were unplayable, but I loved the ideas behind them.
Oh! Check your hyperbole!
'Unplayable' is a tall order...
Maybe they don't match your expectations? Maybe the 'cool' dice gimmick read better than it played?
The Whispering Vault is quite playable, though the common complaint from people is that they don't feel as badass as they'd like... but that's far from making it 'unplayable'.

Myself, I don't have any that I was so disgusted with that I burned/tossed/sold or gave them away. I can just about always find some gold in the ashes. So far I've been pretty good at resisting the siren call of VPGs (Very Pretty Games) that try to just get by on their looks.
 
Then you can definitely play an Irish Leprechaun. Was that what you were asking about?
I thought they spelled it "arsehole."

Oh! Check your hyperbole!
Hey, I can hyper my bole however I want.

Seriously though, if you're pushing the characters' bad-assery, and the mechanics fail to support that, doesn't that automatically mean that you have a terrible implementation? Just because I can roll dice and *something* happens doesn't mean I created a successful design.

This is the main problem I have with most RPGs, and why I've gone down the path of ultra-lightweight mechanics.
I love action games. But if it takes longer to figure out what happened than it does to talk about it, I lose interest.

In a typical game, there are 3-5 players and a GM. Negotiation/down-time is just not viable for an action game. And most RPGs want to give you the minutiae of action in the mechanics. That's almost always a fail. Great to read--but definitely doesn't appeal to me in play.
 
You're right but Hellboy and GURPS weren't as bad as some people claimed. I still like my copy!
I think this comment actually meant the new Hellboy.
 
In a typical game, there are 3-5 players and a GM. Negotiation/down-time is just not viable for an action game. And most RPGs want to give you the minutiae of action in the mechanics. That's almost always a fail. Great to read--but definitely doesn't appeal to me in play.
So it's not your taste... OK. But that's still not the same thing as 'unplayable'... or even a 'fail', except for you.
 
You're right but Hellboy and GURPS weren't as bad as some people claimed. I still like my copy!

GURPs Hellboy was fine. If you play GURPs, I'm sure it's useful, I didn't see any glaring errors. As someone who doesn't run GURPs, the value in GURPs books is as a resource for gaming, and the only really unfortunae thing there is that the game came out very early in the comics' run, and so very quicly became outdated.

still have my ltd edition leatherbound copy, which is pretty

s-l1600.jpg
 
GURPs Hellboy was fine. If you play GURPs, I'm sure it's useful, I didn't see any glaring errors. As someone who doesn't run GURPs, the value in GURPs books is as a resource for gaming, and the only really unfortunae thing there is that the game came out very early in the comics' run, and so very quicly became outdated.

still have my ltd edition leatherbound copy, which is pretty

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Me too! It is!
 
I remember being very disappointed with Chaosium’s Nephilim and RTG’s Castle Falkenstein after being hyped for both of them and excitedly picking them up at GenCon. Traveller: The New Era felt like kind of a punch in the gut. Hero Wars was another one I initially had high hopes for that were sorely dashed. And Cyborg Commando is of course famously awful.

The common element is these were all companies, settings, or designers whose previous work I had liked and had (misguided) faith in.
 
I feel a bit disenchanted with Pinnacle, Modphius, and Chaosium at times, for different reasons. I guess I’m using this post to get a few things off my chest, but here it is.

****

PINNACLE

I absolutely love the idea of Savage Worlds being a generic pulp action game. I have a wide range of their setting books during their earlier phase, although I think I haven't bought a SW setting for at least five years or more. I do have the core rule books up to the SWD edition in hardcover, and up until the SWADE in pdf.

My biggest issue was that the mechanics just didn't seem to feel right for me. On the one hand the Toughness pass/fail didn't work for my group, and on the other hand the system felt it should have had less working parts to be able to live up to it's 'Fast!Furious! Fun!' tagline.

So I wasn't actually burned here, I just kinda moved on

I found other systems like Fate Core, PDQ, HQ, Everywhen, and more recently Tricube Tales, hit the spot for me much better when it comes to a rules-lite pulpy action game, and I'll happily run my sizable collection of Savage Worlds settings with any of these instead.

MODIPHIUS

Yes a relatively recent burn-out for me.
Everything this company does in terms of production value and art direction seems excellent.

Conan: An Age Undreamed Of is the main game line I have collected from Modiphius, but I also have John Carter as well. I also have bought the Star Trek and Fallout core books in pdf format, but haven't read them as much as John Carter and Conan, both of which I backed as kickstarters. For Conan I have most of the product line in pdf as part of the kickstarter, and have also purchased the majority of those titles in hard cover as well.

The setting content is good, the art direction is good, but the rule books can be vague (especially Conan), however it is the core game mechanics themselves that I find to be a bit of a two-edge sword

On one hand, I love the idea of rolling 2D20, and gaining/spending Momentum Points, it's really lends itself well to pulp action.
However on the other hand, the converse mechanic of Doom Points surprisingly just leaves me cold. I tried my best to handle this, but it always ends up feeling very restrictive for my loose GM style, whereas in other systems I feel I have much more narrative freedom as a GM.

As far as I know, all versions of the Modiphius 2D20 system have some version of the Momentum/Doom Pt mechanic, and Doom Pts just ruins it for me. I shouldn't need to have a tally of points as a GM to do stuff, it goes against my creative style and this is a bit of a straight-jacket for me.

As I have previously said in other threads, if we ever want to roll up new characters for a Hyborian Age game, I'll just used Mythras or BoL with the Modiphius setting books as a guide.

I thought I would be lining up for the DUNE rpg, but I fear I will get the same let down as I have with the other lines.
It is a big shame, as it affects me running some great game lines which Modphius is rolling out.

Again, Modiphius didn't burn me, it's more that I burnt myself on Modiphius.
Another system that I briefly heavily invested in, but I've now moved on.

CHAOSIUM

This is probably because of my familarity with BRP games over the years, so it is all a bit pedantic, but it's been niggling me for sure. BRP has been the most consistent rpg system I have run, and one I often return to. For a while I could do no wrong with the BRP BGB, but these days BRP Mythras has replaced it.

On the one hand I absolutely love Chaosium's current output in terms of setting content development and actual production quality.
Call of Cthulhu remains as rich as ever, and Glorantha is presented more in depth and 'authentic' than it has ever been, which I really like.
On top of this, the current books look really great with hard covers and high quality art direction.

I guess it's more that it is a case of the game mechanics letting me down.

Regarding Call of Cthulhu 7E...

I see no reason why even minor changes were made to the character sheet/stat block for Call of Cthulhu 7E.
This is not a big work around at all, but expressing core Charactersitics as percentiles is just out of synch with all the other BRP stat blocks.
I agree that it is a logical idea, but the horse bolted on that long ago, and I think I would have just preferred some consistency.

I love that finally there is a Pulp Cthulhu book published, however the entire tone of CoC 7E is leaning in the Pulp Cthulhu direction, so having a separate book for it doesn't feel as important as it once did. BRP shines for gritty settings, but I'm not sure if BRP really lends itself to high rollicking action. These days I prefer other systems for this rather than trying to shoehorn BRP into it.

Regarding RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha...

I have been a huge RQ fan since the 1980s. My first full tabletop rpg was the RQ2 box set, followed by RQ3 a year or two later. So I’m more than a passing fan of RQ.

When development was proposed for RQG, several authors were initially involved, including TDM authors who were already producing RQ6, which I just loved. All RQ6 needed was to be immersed in Gloranthan content that had an affinity with the RQ2 flavour. So I was optimistic regarding RQG until I found out that TDM were no longer involved, and the other authors were now considering using the earlier RQ2 engine as a framework, due to the unexpected success of the RQ Classic kickstarter ( reprinted RQ2 core book).

I was really prepared for TDM's version of RQ6 to remain as the core system for RQG, even if adapted somewhat under Chaosium's umbrella. This is a big deal for me, as although I loved RQ2 and RQ3 all those years ago, I felt that TDM moved the core BRP system mechanics more in a direction that I prefer with RQ6, and returning to using RQ2 as the mainframe build for the BRP system feels like a huge clunky step backwards

No offense intended to RQ2 fans, I love it as well, but I really wanted RQG to be closer to RQ6/Mythras.

I greatly prefer adding core Characteristics to calculate base chances for Skills as it is done in RQ6/Mythras, and returning to the nominal Skill Category Mods for RQG feels very clunky, not to mention de-emphasising core Characteristics in the character concept.

Additionally having huge skill lists in RQG really feels stale to me these days.

I am all for more simple character sheets, as it helps me visualise the character much better, and it suits my loose play style. If BRP character sheets were not much more than what is required in the typical BRP NPC stat block, then I would be happy with that.

Using an analog of Pendragon's Virtues/Passions system is a reasonable way for to portray how integral Runes are for Gloranthan characters, but unfortunately it has added so much static to the RQG character sheet. The way TDM would have done it would have been to just have three additional Passion (Rune) skills alongside the usual three Passions chosen in character generation. This would have portrayed Runes every bit as well, with far less clutter on the character sheet.

I read that the RQG authors felt that RQ2 was more simple, and that’s another reason why they used RQ2 as a base framework for RQG. However what they intended and what they Frankensteined here seem to be two different things. RQG is far from a simple, straightforward system, so in some ways the game developers may have distanced many of the RQ2 fans almost as much as they discarded the RQ6 fans.

If I have my way I’ll just run the new Gloranthan stuff using Mythras. It’s BRP and close enough for me, although I am wary of running into unforeseen dramas doing this. Lots of fiddily things with Cults abilities and whatnot, it could possibly end up being a total mess.

****

Anyway, I guess these issues are more just mixed emotions rather than feeling harshly burned. However I do feel a bit gutted, especially with the RQG game mechanic direction of BRP, and I'll probably never get over it


****

So not sure if all this really meets criteria for this thread or not, but they are my main rpg gripes these days.
This has been cathartic, and I’m appreciative of anyone who has stuck with this wall-of-text post.
 
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