Games you're dodged (the anti-addiction thread)

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Kickstarters, Bundles of Holding, Discounts and Deals....

Sometimes you just wanna give out a victory cry or yodel when you barely make your save against a game that enticed you.

I just dodged Cairn 2e. I think im done with xSR systems. I've got what I need.
 
<Crickets...>

Lol, this could be a short thread with all the games-buying addicts around here.

I was trying to think of something I didn't jump in to buy... only thing I could think of was Monte Cook Games latest crowdfunding effort for the Cypher System. Looked kinda cool, but then I got to pricing, and woof! Guess I'll wait until it hits BoH or HB...
 
Well, I've managed to dodge the whole minis scene all my life, including WH40K as well as trpg minis.
I have a set of tokens I can use for trpg minis if I want, but I haven't used them more than once or twice. I have actually used friends' minis in some trpg sessions, but not many (about five sessions since the 1980s). So I've managed to dodge all the expense with that.

I've also avoided the whole collectable trading card scene like a plague, which was much harder to do in the 90s/00s than it is for me now.

I entirely skipped D&D 4E. Not a single book, as the World of Warcraft vibe just didnt appeal to me in tabletop roleplaying form. I'm still surprised as how quick WotC was to move on from that edition of D&D.

Despite having the original Pathfinder core books, I don't have Pathfinder 2E despite the cool art and great resources. I tapped out on the D&D 3E games, so I don't like anything resembling them these days.

I skipped Crypts & Things as well as AS&SH. They were just versions of D&D, so they didnt bring new mechanics to the table. I also feel that BRP (particulary Mythras) is great for Sword & Sorcery, so I was covered there.
Despite that, I really love the rich pulpy vibe of both C&T and AS&SH, and have to keep preventing myself buying them for that alone.

I decided to skip Cairn 2E recently, because the novelty for me with Cairn is that it is basically a cheap pamphlet, whereas now it is evolving into another OSR-adjacent rules-lite rpg.
I have Shadowdark and Black Sword Hack, as well as currently backing Dolemwood and Knave 2E - so that's the space where Cairn would sit for me, and I decided to skip the kickstarter for Cairn 2E.
It's also an indicator that I don't need any upcoming OSR-adjacent trpgs as well, so there will be bullets dodged there in the future.

Zweihander Reforged keeps calling me, but then it also keeps repelling me, for reasons I don't want to go into here. So if I don't pull the trigger on that then I've dodged a bullet in a few days.

I've missed the entire Exalted and Scion phenomenomen, I have no idea what people are talking about when they reference them.

I haven't bought the Alien rpg yet, although the book looks great. I just can't see how much utility it will have, and if I decide to pull the trigger with that then I might go with Mothership instead

Shadow of the Weird Wizard looks interesting, but I buckled and spent that money on Dragonbane instead. Which has beautiful art, but I doubt I'll play as it's too similar to my other BRP games, except using a D20. So I dodged one bullet, only to be hit by another.

I collected most of the Modiphius Conan books, and I have the John Carter core book. I love Star Trek, Fallout, and many of the other franchises that Modiphius has purchased, but my experiences with Conan have forever sullied my impression of the 2D20 system, so no more of that for me.

I have Blades in the Dark as well as Scum & Villainy, but I haven't got around to running them. I have skipped all the other PbtA releases, except I am a sucker for Avatar, so I did back that kickstarter.

Blackbirds looks very interesting, yet likely too bleak and horrific for my group to play, so I haven't pulled the trigger on it. I know it would be a good read, but the ongoing playability will be minimal with my group, so it'll likely sit on my shelves for months. I have to make sure I don't impulse buy it.

I also keep swinging on whether I should grab SPIRE and HEART or not. They look like great trippy reads, but will I ever play them?
 
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I rarely buy anything unless I genuinely expect to play it, and I run 12+ month campaigns, so I'm not looking for stuff to fill empty sessions.

As a general rule, I don't have any idea what's being kickstarted or being released, and make no effort to stay up to date. If something genuinely interesting and exciting comes along, I'm sure I'll hear about it, and can decide if it makes the cut.
 
I am also in the "I don't buy a lot of games" camp. I already have a lot of excellent games - some of which I haven't revisisted in many years, some I have never even played at all - I don't need to pile on the pressure!

It also doesn't help that I have, on occassion, designed my own games. Between play-testing and then habit, they account for much of my GMing time (and some of my player time) over the past few years.
 
I was going to say anything White Wolf related but I did buy a couple issues of White Wolf magazine for the Nuts and Volts rpg and I did by the New World of Darkness core book which could be said to relate to Vampire and so on.
 
Dragonbane: there was a lotta noise about this one and I took a hard look but duck-based PCs?

b9c243d81cb40b09b38634727b5fb7a5.gif
 
I buy a lot of gaming stuff. Too much.

I do have a completionist streak, but I am far more likely to give in to it in situations where there is a reasonable likelihood of actually completing a collection. E.g., smaller or dead game lines. For example, I have complete collections of Over the Edge, Prime Directive, Albedo, and similar, smaller game lines. With larger lines, like WFRP or Deadlands, I will try to winnow my purchases down to the best/most essential books of the line.

As a rule, I despise "collectibility," for a couple of reasons. I was a poor kid, and could never afford to collect shit. Also, I do feel that it injects a crass commercialism into things that honestly does nothing to improve the game, or the experience of playing it.

When I first became aware of Magic: the Gathering, it was already a handful of expansions deep. I didn't feel like trying to compete with my friends, so I got into Jyhad, because I could get in on the ground floor, so to speak.

I do get FOMO, but it's getting better. As my collection has grown, and I literally have more games than I'll play, and most of the ones I want, I get choosier about my purchases. I keep wanting to sell stuff I'll never use, but I still find myself.hanging onto it. ASSH 2e, frex. Great game, cool book, way too AD&D-like mechanically for me.to.want to run it, though. Yet, I find myself hanging onto it, and others. Probably because I never saw a game.so bad that I wouldn't sell it, only to purchase it again, years later, put of sheer nostalgia.

I never did minis, as I have zero desire to paint them, and never really hung with any WFB/minis players. And I tend to use paper minis because they're cheap and require no painting.
 
I have dodged Games Workshop entirely for which I am grateful every time I game with my Necromunda crew (I use others' minis and terrain). Their conversations and collection sizes are kind of alarming.

I swerved 5e apart from buying the core books, which I later sold.

Never been remotely interested in card games like Magic:the Gathering, thankfully as the business model seems based on exploiting completist addiction.

Despite being a longtime d100/BRP fan, I have so far managed to avoid the new Runequest edition. But then my money is going on Mythras instead, so I don't know how much credit I can give myself.
 
I'm also in the buy too many games camp as my financial position has eased in recent years.
I have a lot of miniatures but mainly historical. I mainly avoid companies/games like GW and
MtG that are IMO based on exploitative pricing. However I am vulnerable to completionism
on rpg lines I like. I have tried to quell this since my return to rpgs in 2010ish and I try to focus
much more on core books +play.

I like to think I am discerning and I do avoid many things eg Cairn 2e, Shadow of the weird wizard,
Knave 2e but of course there are so many releases now...
 
I avoid most, and when I do buy something, it’s PDF only.

I’m about to wrap up a 4-year D&D 5E campaign, and then I expect I’ll be done running any D&D ever again. We did have a great time with it, but I’m pretty much done with the whole level thing. So it’s easy to avoid stuff like Shadowdark and other OSR games that look cool but I know I’ll never run.

And now that I have the PDFs from the most recent Talislanta Kickstarter, I’m probably good for fantasy games for many years.
 
I've dodged most of Free League's hype, after supporting GenLab Alpha some years back and collecting everything Coriolis until recently. And our household has long been buyers of Delta Green products but about a year ago, author's public comments began to leave a bad taste in our bank accounts, so we sold off a lot of the collectable bits and decided we spent enough on their material... and have plenty to game DG for the next few resurrections of our Essential Saltes.

My biggest rpg vice was collecting dice, but after finding the perfect dice (perfect for me, anyhoo), that addiction has been quelled. I still have cravings... I... I want... I still want more dice... MORE DICE... c'mon gimme just a little taste. I swear if you let me borrow those awsome dice you have, I'll only roll them a few times...

TheoryofGame said:
duck-based PCs?
Click to expand...

Have you ever seen duck behavior beyond them being fed inedible things in a park? They're fucking vicious critters who yield no quarter!
I haven't seen their stats in Dragonbane, but they're undoubtedly based on the Durulz in RQ. As are the Andriks in Symbaroum (an April Fool's joke that we put to full use in our Inglourious Duckterds campaign). :shock: :tongue: :gooseshades:

Inglourious Duckterds copy.jpg
 
rumble said:
I just dodged Cairn 2e. I think im done with xSR systems. I've got what I need.
Click to expand...
I wish I'd dodged Cairn 1e...

Never bit the CCG bait, and only bought into one big boardgame monstrosity (Shadows of Brimstone, which is a Warhammer Quest-like).
I still occasionally buy some tempting GW thing, but never from GW directly and preferably 'pre-owned'.
 
Teotwawki said:
I've dodged most of Free League's hype, after supporting GenLab Alpha some years back and collecting everything Coriolis until recently. And our household has long been buyers of Delta Green products but about a year ago, author's public comments began to leave a bad taste in our bank accounts, so we sold off a lot of the collectable bits and decided we spent enough on their material... and have plenty to game DG for the next few resurrections of our Essential Saltes.

My biggest rpg vice was collecting dice, but after finding the perfect dice (perfect for me, anyhoo), that addiction has been quelled. I still have cravings... I... I want... I still want more dice... MORE DICE... c'mon gimme just a little taste. I swear if you let me borrow those awsome dice you have, I'll only roll them a few times...



Have you ever seen duck behavior beyond them being fed inedible things in a park? They're fucking vicious critters who yield no quarter!
I haven't seen their stats in Dragonbane, but they're undoubtedly based on the Durulz in RQ. As are the Andriks in Symbaroum (an April Fool's joke that we put to full use in our Inglourious Duckterds campaign). :shock: :tongue: :gooseshades:

View attachment 80472
Click to expand...
Not to mention ducks have horrid corkscrew dicks
 
Teotwawki said:
And our household has long been buyers of Delta Green products but about a year ago, author's public comments began to leave a bad taste in our bank accounts, so we sold off a lot of the collectable bits and decided we spent enough on their material
Click to expand...
What was that about?
 
I avoided White Wolf almost in it's entirety and the only GW games I think I own have been acquired through gifts of others. (except buying the Total War line either through HB or BoH)
Not big on most narrative style RPGs so my holdings of Fate and Powered By Apocalypse are minimal.
 
Teotwawki said:
Have you ever seen duck behavior beyond them being fed inedible things in a park? They're fucking vicious critters who yield no quarter!
Click to expand...

No argument from me -- I was bitten by a duck once (a domesticated one), and was chased by a mother duck another time while on a canoe trip when she thought I got too close to her ducklings.
 
I never got into Magic beyond buying a starter deck and some boosters from the first few sets. It was really popular in my high school for about a year when it first hit the scene, but then the local casual players moved on and only the hardcore players were left around here.

Never really got into anything GW either, despite interest and several fleeting attempts -- I bought a partially painted WFB army off someone for a good price, but didn't finish it. Looked at Warmaster and Mordheim, but didn't pursue them either. Later I bought one of the boxed starter sets for 40K, but same thing there.

For 5E, I bought the PHB for a game I've been in for a while, but didn't go beyond that, as that was as engaged as I wanted to be.

I guess I'm pretty comfortable walking away from systems and companies if they're not providing something I want, plus these days I have enough systems that I feel most possible bases are covered. Free League's Alien looked good, for example, and I had backed T2K and Blade Runner on Kickstarter, but I already had Hostile (whose author also worked on Alien), so I figured I was already good to go.

I also refuse to deal with limited release nonsense or anything else that tries to induce FOMO -- either it's available when I want it, or I'm not interested.
 
Teotwawki said:
My biggest rpg vice was collecting dice, but after finding the perfect dice (perfect for me, anyhoo), that addiction has been quelled. I still have cravings... I... I want... I still want more dice... MORE DICE... c'mon gimme just a little taste. I swear if you let me borrow those awsome dice you have, I'll only roll them a few times...
Click to expand...

Ok, so I gotta ask: What were the perfect dice? Inquiring minds *have* to know!
 
I tend to be intrigued by the systems that people mention. So, for example, someone mentioned Marvel Super Heroes and I was suddenly struck with wanting to know more about that system even though I have absolutely zero interesting in superhero games. Sorry, maybe less than zero interest.

Of course, I have no real intention to use those systems so... Yeah.
 
I've dodged most of Hero/Champions due to having started with GURPS*, all the 2d20 games after Conan**, dodged DragonBane, and I'm planning to skip on D&Done as well:thumbsup:!
Also, I'm skipping on all of the 5e clones as a matter of principle. As well as avoiding most OSR titles...
I'm not sure whether Shadowdrark is a 5e clone or an OSR game - probably the answer is "yes" - but it fits right there. And hey, it does make me feel better:tongue:!

And another thread just reminded me that all the Zweihander games are an easy skip as well, because of the lead designer if nothing else:grin:!

So, overall, not that bad as restraint goes...::honkhonk:


*I see them as quite similar, and thus, redundant:gooseshades:!
**I mean, I've added "doom pools" to my short list of mechanics that make me auto-skip games. Alas, that one is going to apply to Coriolis 2e as well, it seems, but so it goes.
 
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Andrew J. Luther said:
I’m about to wrap up a 4-year D&D 5E campaign, and then I expect I’ll be done running any D&D ever again. We did have a great time with it, but I’m pretty much done with the whole level thing. So it’s easy to avoid stuff like Shadowdark and other OSR games that look cool but I know I’ll never run.
Click to expand...

Yep, me, too. Wrapped a 5-year one last year, would love to never touch a class and level-based game again.
 
I managed to get through last year without backing any Kickstarters, and most likely won't back any this year, either. I've reached the point where I want to see a complete flip-through of a game before I buy it, and don't want to wait a year or more to get it.
 
Mankcam said:
I collected most of the Modiphius Conan books, and I have the John Carter core book. I love Star Trek, Fallout, and many of the other franchises that Modiphius has purchased, but my experiences with Conan have forever sullied my impression of the 2D20 system, so no more of that for me.
Click to expand...
Hey, we tried to make it less crunchy but it just wasn't what others wanted.
 
AsenRG said:
I've dodged most of Hero/Champions due to having started with GURPS*, all the 2d20 games after Conan**, dodged DragonBane, and I'm planning to skip on D&Done as well.
Also, I'm skipping on all of the 5e clones as a matter of principle.

And another thread just reminded me that all the Zweihander games are an easy skip as well, because of the lead designer if nothing else:grin:!

So, overall, not that bad as restraint goes...::honkhonk:


*I see them as quite similar, and thus, redundant.
**I mean, I've added "doom pools" to my short list of mechanics that make me auto-skip games. Alas, that one is going to apply to Coriolis 2e as well, it seems, but so it goes.
Click to expand...
I named it Doom for Thulsa, but it wasn't my invention mechanically. So, you can only blame me so much.
 
Dyrnwyn said:
\

I guess I'm pretty comfortable walking away from systems and companies if they're not providing something I want, plus these days I have enough systems that I feel most possible bases are covered. Free League's Alien looked good, for example, and I had backed T2K ...
Click to expand...
I'm being personally attacked! Help!
 
The trend of releasing Quickstarts at the start of Kickstarters has saved me a fortune. At the very least it's softened the blow from buying the full hardback Deluxe book to just getting the PDF. And sometimes it's put me off entirely.
 
Parkaboy said:
Hey, we tried to make it less crunchy but it just wasn't what others wanted.
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I wish you had been given a louder voice in that!
I think Conan would of felt more pulpy if it didnt have all the Skills - perhaps more like what I see in the John Carter character sheet
But there were other issues for me beyond that - I liked Momentum Pts for the PCs, but I just dont think the Doom Pts worked for me as a GM, and that mechanic pervades in some form throughout most of the 2D20 games

I like lots of other stuff in the Modiphius Conan books however, and I'm glad they are on my shelf
 
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Parkaboy said:
I named it Doom for Thulsa,
Click to expand...
...ah, thank you for confirming my suspicions:tongue:!

Parkaboy said:
but it wasn't my invention mechanically. So, you can only blame me so much.
Click to expand...
But I don't blame* you at all, man:shock:!

I mean, I've long ago realized other people like stuff that I dislike::honkhonk:.
That is fine** - when an RPG with an IP I like is announced, sometimes I'm lucky enough to get a version I'd like to use, at other times, not so much. With Conan, Dune and John Carter, I got the short straw, but I must clarify, I'm not blaming* Modiphius, either. Not any more than I'm blaming the Beowulf guys. Though I've been a fan of Beowulf-the-epic since, what, 7th grade?
They made their decision, and I actually hope it works for them. It just doesn't work for me:crygoose:!

...but, conversely, I'm not going to purchase any of those. After years of getting titles "for the setting", I've decided that I'm now only going to buy books where I can at least tolerate the core mechanic.
Otherwise, I'm sending the message that my preferences can be ignored safely:madgoose:!

And I've decided I don't like sending this message...:gooseshades:

So it's not about "blame". It's just a statement: these games don't work for me, I'm NOT going to buy them.
Which, of course, allows me to post about them in a thread like this one:thumbsup:

*Except when I'm really down and lashing back. You'll just have to forgive me for those occasions, I'm afraid:shade:!

**Much as I'm persuaded in the doubtless superiority of my own preferences and that if everyone played games I like, all of us would be happier, yes...:grin:
 
With the exception of the Pathfinder Remaster and Star Trek Adventures 2E . I am not buying anything D&D related past 5E with the exception of the books needed to complete my collection. Or older edition 1E or 2E products. I cannot personally justify buying them or in the mood to jump on the edition train. If I do the material has to be a minimum of 70% new material anything less feels like I’m wasting my money.

No Kickstarters from Palladium Books. Between funded books being years late and Kevin inability to focus on a project imo money not well spent.

Zewhinder as the owner pretty much made me not want to buy anything else from him.

Any rpg company that insults its fans or insults the genre or creator of the material they use in their rpgs. Or worse claim they don’t want fans money or apparently don’t need money then in the same post or announcement remind players to kickstart their new product. They hate the author of the source material yet willing to profit from it.

You want to kill any interest faster I had in your rpg being an hypocrite is the sure way to do it. I won’t go into detail about the last part of the post as it would break a board rule.
 
Mostly I’m just glad I dodged electronic games of all varieties with a small, brief exception for a couple versions of Civilization in the 90s.

OTOH, my (non-GW) minis is collection is absurd and I wish it was bigger still and I did briefly get into CCGs in the early 90s as well.

Financially, I still suspect that my expenditures have been a fraction of that of my pals who did get into different sorts of computer games and have gone through umpty-leven systems and games at this point. At least mine don’t become obsolete, merely unfashionable
 
I mostly avoid it by thinking that Kickstarter is kinda bullshit.

The original concept, at least as I saw it, was that Kickstarter was a place with ideas to get the startup money to get things off the ground so that they could then become profitable and conduct business in the traditional fashion. These days, mostly what Kickstarter does is reverse the traditional model of risk so that instead of people making a thing needing to take on risk and then find customers who get a product that they know exists and probably can take a look at themselves and probably find reviews, opinions, etc. from others who've seen it, they can transfer all their risk onto customers that get a product of unknown quality in the future, assuming they get it at all, and with the risk of late delivery transferred onto them.

I'm particularly cynical of any Kickstarter coming from an established company.

This post was brought to you by a old middle aged man yelling at clouds.
 
bleys21 said:
Ok, so I gotta ask: What were the perfect dice? Inquiring minds *have* to know!
Click to expand...
The perfect dice for me are Chessex heavy lab Orange/Turquoise & Turquoise/Orange sets. They're about one point five to two times as heavy as their regular dice, and the interference colors are clear without being an eyesore.
 
SJB said:
What was that about?
Click to expand...
Although they were ostensibly talking about another game, another creator, I think sureshot sureshot said it well a few posts above:

"Any rpg company that insults its fans ... or worse claim they don't want fans money..."

The mouthiest of the DG authors likes to use social media platform to personally insult anyone (fans included) that don't agree with his hypocritical and often factually incorrect political opinions and tell them they're not only unwanted as fans, but reprehensible people, while of course ignoring their own solipsistic behavior.

I can enjoy the work of people who I don't care for or don't agree with. Film directors, musicians, artists, writers. I don't need to be alignment with their ideology to find value in their work, but when I am personally denigrated by someone who spews ignorance based on kneejerk politics, I suddenly find myself not really wishing to provide them with my financial patronage any more. Not that I'm going to campaign to boycott them or anything. They have the right to be a public idiot if they want to, and Great Cthulhu knows they have enough monied fans who will provide them with mortgage payments for years to come.
 
I would have to say minis, also. Despite a very good friend who buys and paints and buys and paints and buys and paints…

My objection is mostly for a strange personal reason. It’s not the cost (though that can be very high) or the storage (which can be excessive), it’s because I like having an exact representation on the battle map.

Maybe it’s a bit OCD, but I hate when a bugbear mini “stands in” for a troll, or my Colonial Space Marine is represented by a cyberpunk guy with the “wrong”gun. I’ve been printing up tokens for years instead, and there’s enough free monster and character art online, for every genre, that I can have 20 bandits in the fight that all look differently.
 
Ooooff.
Yes, I've held tight and avoided buying a bunch of enticing games.... but I still have more books than I'll ever be able to use in my lifetime.
Let's call it even and never speak of it again?
 
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