What’s a critically acclaimed RPG you don’t like?

[Endless Flight]

I would have probably given it to Alien.

 

[EmperorNorton]

I also probably would have given it to Alien, even though I do like PF2e.

 

[Trippy]

OK, I looked it up. It's competition was:

Alien
Cyberpunk Red
Overlight: The Ivory Masoleum
Over the Edge 3e
Pathfinder Core 2e
Star Crossed
The Expanse

I own Alien and Cyberpunk Red. I'm honestly not terribly impressed with Cyberpunk Red, but Alien strikes me as a standout.

I haven't seen any of the others, but I'm going to make a very subjective statement here.

I call shenanigans.

OK, so my memory of the competition is a little flawed - I may have mixed it up with other years. Sorry fans of PBTA and Gumshoe!

Even then, the other nominees actually support the same issue. There is nothing actually innovative, really, about new editions of Cyberpunk and Pathfinder. The Expanse uses Green Ronin’s Age system. Alien is an adaptation of Mutant: Year Zero rules. Over The Edge has a new system, I guess, although it wasn’t that well received. So that, I guess leaves just Overlight and Star Crossed as original games and systems? Not very ‘Origins’ is it?

 

[Silverlion]

Tribe 8, Marvel Heroic RPG, Most 2d20 games (not all Star Trek seems pretty simplified), D&D5E (I've played a ton of it, but I'm tired of D&D conceits, NOTABLY 5E's version Note: It's not inherently bad or anything, I am just not fond of it, overmuch.), 3E/3.5E D&D, Pathfinder (though I'm liking Pathfinder 2E a tiny tiny bit.) Really? I find my interests kind of counter to a lot of mainstream RPGs. I like 5E COC but haven't seen 7E. I think it is probably easier to list games I /liked/ a lot than what I didn't like. Even that's a long list.

 

[Tulpa Girl]

And that is how I found out that getting your cock out in job interviews is frowned upon.

"Dress for the job you want."

 

[EmperorNorton]

OK, so my memory of the competition is a little flawed - I may have mixed it up with other years. Sorry fans of PBTA and Gumshoe!

Even then, the other nominees actually support the same issue. There is nothing actually innovative, really, about new editions of Cyberpunk and Pathfinder. The Expanse uses Green Ronin’s Age system. Alien is an adaptation of Mutant: Year Zero rules. Over The Edge has a new system, I guess, although it wasn’t that well received. So that, I guess leaves just Overlight and Star Crossed as original games and systems? Not very ‘Origins’ is it?

I mean the Origins awards are mostly just named after the Origins Game Fair, it isn't really required to be "innovative" to win, it's just a game of the year award.

 

[AsenRG]

"Dress for the job you want."

Or undress, as the case might be?

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

"Dress for the job you want."

They say that but if you turn up dressed as a pirate they get funny.

 

[EmperorNorton]

They say that but if you turn up dressed as a pirate they get funny.

I tried to show up dressed as a retiree, and it worked. No job!

 

[Ronin]

The games that come to mind are FATE, and PBtA. FATE too much jargon, narrative-ness, and the whole point economy. PBtA the narrative-ness, and every thing feeling really the same. It just doesnt click for me. That said, both "systems" have settings I really like. That if were attached to a different system, I would be all over like white on rice.

 

[Silverlion]

My own personal list of critically acclaimed/popular rpgs that I don't like or bounce off are the following and the reasons why.

1). Champions/Hero System. I just seem to bounce off it, I read the mechanics and my eyes glaze over and have done so
since the systems were new. :/Layout? Too many numbers tied into layout? Not sure, I just know that reading the books
always is tedious and playing the game feet the same way.

Do I want a clunky game mechanics system or one that's so heavy that it slows down game play? Nope, sure don't. I want an
elegant consistent system that allows me to learn it and then it's always just there when I need it. Narrative should always be a
part of playing a tabletop rpg, that many focus on that to the exclusion of solid game mechanics baffles me. Or that because a game
system might be more crunchy that it can't be narrative boggles me too. So games like Fate to me are like selling me a car with a
beautiful paint job, great interior but no fucking engine. WTF.

3). Genesis systems by Fantasy Flight Games. Those fucking dice. Look, let me explain it to you like this. As I mentioned above in the
narrative game issue, I like to learn something and then once I do focus on playing or running the game. Clear so far? Well the fucking
problem with Genesis mechanics system is its like living in a foreign country where you're having to parse the language that isn't your
native language all the time.

Wow, I totally approve. Good response, I'd forgotten about Genesys. Or whatever.

 

[carpocratian]

The games that I have played, run, or read through that I will absolutely have nothing else to do with are:

- Powered by the Apocalypse games in general.

- Modiphius 2d20 games.

- The newest incarnation of Unknown Armies.

I won't play or GM those games, regardless of the circumstances.

I am not fond of FATE, but I could probably be talked into playing a one-shot or a convention game using it, if the setting was really compelling.

In general, I tend to dislike games that use multiple types of metacurrencies, have systems that are used to establish pre-existing social links between characters, use lifepath generation of characters, focus on social mechanics in general, or have mechanics in place that are designed to control the GM.

 

[Simlasa]

]Look up the Dionaea House...

OK, THAT sent me down a rabbit hole for the past few hours!
Lovely bit of work!.. as well as the after-tale about the woman trying to find her missing child.
I love that it skipped around to various sites... including having to use The Wayback Engine to find a string of IMs.

 

[Mankcam]

I don't mind their simple approach, but I don't know why PbtA makes so many waves, it really doesn't seem all that innovative.

Savage Worlds is in the same bag for me. I just find the system a bit bland, and its all been done before.

I just tend to feel that Fate Core and Ubiquity cover similar territory for me.

I do like some of the properties and rich settings that have been used with both Savage Worlds and PbtA however, and the settings are often so good that it almost redeems these games for me

 

[Chaotic Wooster]

Marmite - the original and best. You can keep your weak tasting vegemite.

I don't love Marmite. But every now and then I need (more than money, love or freedom) Marmite on toast. Nothing else will do and I won't be happy 'til I get it.

Shadowrun. Get your orcs and elves out of my cyberpunk thank you very much.

"it's like you got elves in my Cyberpunk" is the most venomous insult in my groups. Sometimes I think all that keeps our very different players and referees united is a shared loathing for Shadowrun.

I didn't put it in my earilier post because I always bash it, and is it even popular anymore?

See, I always give Exalted a pass (and keep it at a safe distance) because I don't get it. As in, I entirely trip up mentally the moment I try to read it. I mean, it's written like shit and looks like garbage, but those are forgivable sins common to many games. I just don't understand it as a system at all... So it never feels entirely fair to slam it.

Mouseguard is obnoxious, 2d20 is frustrating, Cthulhu 7th Edition ruined perfection itself, FFG Star Wars was designed to sell overpriced dice and cards, Shadowrun got elves in my Cyberpunk. But Exalted? Nope... Not a clue. I don't like it. But I can't say why, because I don't why, because don't know how it's meant to work in the first place. Some bollocks with motes and ticks and perfects...

 

[Sharrow]

There are many games I don't care for, but don't actively dislike. OF the games I do dislike, the ones that stand out as being 'critically acclaimed' and on my really don't like' list would be (as with quite a few posters here) Fate and those games powered by it, and all the PbtA games. I don't much care for the Gumshoe system either, but I don't have an active dislike for it (yet). I'm not a fan of the WoD games either - I liked Mage's setting conceits, but the systems (all of them) blow, so even that is on a no-like list. The same goes for other WW games - if it the concept is cool, the system kills them.

 

[CRKrueger]

OK, THAT sent me down a rabbit hole for the past few hours!
Lovely bit of work!.. as well as the after-tale about the woman trying to find her missing child.
I love that it skipped around to various sites... including having to use The Wayback Engine to find a string of IMs.

Yeah, it’s an incredible job. Too bad it’s in archives now, but at least it’s not gone.

The Door Is Open

 

[Ralph Dula]

Spoiler

Look up the Dionaea House. Like that house, the Spooner House can reach out via telephone. It could just call 911 to get Police inside, or use lights and voices to get passersby to break in or call police. Unless you’re going to sit on the house 24/7/365, it will be impossible to contain. Maybe they could get the CDC to declare the whole neighborhood uninhabitable for some reason, but that’s not possible in 90’s DG when the module was written, and in the modern era only open to the Program, but seriously high profile.

Spoiler

I’ve read the Dionaea House several times over the years. Fun little story, and I’m sad the adaption of it fell through.



My apologies for the delay in responding, but I was trying to get in touch with some of the folks I ran the scenario for to see how they handled the phone calls, as they’re a blank spot in my memory. I think I recall how a Program team dealt with them, but I may be confusing that with a haunted house story for another game that I ran. The rest are a memory sink for me.

 

[Necrozius]

Put me in the crowd of being disappointed with Mouse Guard and Torchbearer. So many great ideas, creativity, art, layout and publishing quality. Completely un-intuitive game design. Like… why on Earth do designers make the simple concept of “attempt a task by rolling vs difficulty” so abstract, convoluted and pretentious?!

I bought Mouseguard when I knew I was going to be a parent because I knew that my kids would love it. True, they love the comics but only love the props of the game (not the game itself). I plan on someday stripping it down into something basic and usable.

 

[robertsconley]

Put me in the crowd of being disappointed with Mouse Guard and Torchbearer. So many great ideas, creativity, art, layout and publishing quality. Completely un-intuitive game design. Like… why on Earth do designers make the simple concept of “attempt a task by rolling vs difficulty” so abstract, convoluted and pretentious?!

I bought Mouseguard when I knew I was going to be a parent because I knew that my kids would love it. True, they love the comics but only love the props of the game (not the game itself). I plan on someday stripping it down into something basic and usable.

Because Story! And folks need to be protected against the evil autocratic Dungeonmaster ruining their story.

 

[TristramEvans]

Bad GMs are the leading cause of Burning Wheel...

 

[Jenx]

I was agreeing so much with the earlier suggestions I kind of lost track of the 'you don't like' part as opposed to 'agreeing with others not liking the stuff you don't like'.

Rolemaster. MERP yes. Harp maybe. Rolemaster no. Crunchy to the point of being pointless. Same goes for Spacemaster. Wanted to love it, bought loads of stuff over the years for it and there are better fits. Still love the crit tables though and totally recommend a D&D style high fantasy game with MERP (and no tolkien) because the crits are awesome.

Traveller. Character creation was the most fun we had with it. Game was deadly dull, combat lethal.

Star Trek or Starships and Spacemen or ANY game with a military rank/follow orders or else. My players didn't like chain of command, orders or any kind of funnelling down a route. They had lasers, spaceships and a handful of dice. Someone was gonna get it. Then the PCs would undoubtedly get it. In spades. Judge Dredd was like this too but with a bit more leeway. A death sentence for cussing was harsh, mind. More a problem with the setting than the rules.

Mutants and Masterminds. Wanted to love it. Character creation makes my eyes glaze. All the fiddly twiddly bits that mean you need to look up in the book every 10 seconds to see what it does and how it applies. In theory it should be right up my street but I keep making a wrong turn.

Icons. This should be an easy like for me. I just don't for some reason. Maybe need to revisit.

Marvel Superheroes RPG. There. I said it. Loved it back in the day. Took over as our favourite game from D&D and played it to death. DC Heroes came along and that was it. I'm playing in a MSH online pbp at the moment and it's good but the rules don't do it for me anymore to run. A definite case of burn out from GMing it too much.

Shadowrun. Clunk. My brain after reading, re-reading and giving up on the dice pool system. 1e killed my enthusiasm for taking on Dragons with laser guns. The hacking system. Uhhh.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Burned out on perpetual rain, mud, disease, misery and mutations. System was fine. We could have tried running it in cheerful bright big 80s hair Elmore and Dragons land but it wouldn't feel like WFRP without someone dying from leprosy or whatever.

Call of Cthulu. Tried it. The group didn't like it.I mean, pulp 30s, battles on plane wings, ghouls, cultists, insanity, what's not to love? CoC apparently. Maybe I was running it wrong. tried it once. That was it.

Runequest. It felt clunky compared to D&D and didn't it have talking ducks in it? That was decades ago. Maybe need another luck.

Marvel Heroic. RPG.net darling for a year. I was all over this and... didn't get it. Bunch characters up into three tiers of D8, D10 and D12 and they all start to look the same, especially as players basically looked for a reason to use their best die all the time (and why wouldn't they?).

Probably others. I'm a grumpy so and so sometimes. Oh yeah. Toon. Less fun than we thought it would be but it was fun for one session then we moved on.

 

[Necrozius]

All I want is a game system wherein I, as the GM, can always, and without fail, know exactly what the player should roll at pretty much anytime. "Story" should*** come out organically from what happens. As in, the "Story" is the anecdotes and memories of the session.

Even if I forget a subsystem like piloting ("nevermind what page that rule is on, make a Piloting check vs. the bad guy's Piloting check!"), there should always be a evidently obvious fallback.

In all fairness, Burning Wheel games CAN be played more simply (and adding on the card-based rock paper scissor minigame only when you're comfortable to), but the character sheet is sooooo complex and jargon-y. So many weird things (XP are... "checks"?).

*** in my personal, humble opinion. If pre-planned stories is your table's fun, may you be happy forever.

 

[robertsconley]

Traveller. Character creation was the most fun we had with it. Game was deadly dull, combat lethal.

The various Mongoose Traveller adventures released in the past few years have been pretty damn good, like Pirates of Drinax and Deepnight Relevation. While for Mongoose Traveller 2nd edition, that version (as well as 1e) is only a hop and a skill from several Traveller editions including classic Traveller. The only downside is that they are a bit overpriced. But the whole 2nd edition line is much better written than the 1e line. Personally if it shows up on sale or in a bundle of holding like Pirates of Drinax, get it.

And for folks who want to get that whole "Let's die in character creation" thing going . I offer this.

Classic Traveller Character Generator

 

[Ralph Dula]

Marvel Superheroes RPG. There. I said it. Loved it back in the day. Took over as our favourite game from D&D and played it to death. DC Heroes came along and that was it. I'm playing in a MSH online pbp at the moment and it's good but the rules don't do it for me anymore to run. A definite case of burn out from GMing it too much.

I appreciate you posting this. Just yesterday I was talking to friends who were around when I ran multiple sessions a week for multiple games for years, and they have no comprehension that I’ve had my fill of those games and don’t wish to go back to them.

 

[Gabriel]

Oh man, Exalted got mentioned above. I had managed to forget about Exalted.

I remember when RPGnet might as well have been ExaltedNet. There were months where you could sign in and the same group of posters would be spamming the board with Exalted topics so that nothing else would be on the front page. Then, whenever anyone would complain, the mods would jump in, bump a couple of old topics about other RPGs or use a sock to start a new disposable topic on something, then they'd say, "Look! Exalted isn't dominating the front page! It's barely even on there! You're just imagining things." The Exalted followers would derail any non-Exalted topics towards Exalted, or just threadcrap them so they could be locked.

At one point I had the Exalted 1e corebook. I didn't think it was anything special and I never played it. Mainly I just remember the fans/promoters/shills being complete asshats.

 

[EmperorNorton]

Oh yeah, I'm not a fan of Exalted. It's way too byzantine mechanically imo.

 

[Endless Flight]

This thread has been very insightful.

I found out who doesn’t like DC Heroes around here!

 

[Tommy Brownell]

Marvel Superheroes RPG. There. I said it. Loved it back in the day. Took over as our favourite game from D&D and played it to death. DC Heroes came along and that was it. I'm playing in a MSH online pbp at the moment and it's good but the rules don't do it for me anymore to run. A definite case of burn out from GMing it too much.

I appreciate you posting this. Just yesterday I was talking to friends who were around when I ran multiple sessions a week for multiple games for years, and they have no comprehension that I’ve had my fill of those games and don’t wish to go back to them.

I don't have any real desire to revisit FASERIP, but I don't have a problem with it, per se. I would just rather run other games before it, for both Marvel in specific and supers in general. I haven't ran a session of FASERIP once I got my players to adopt Marvel SAGA.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I don't have any real desire to revisit FASERIP, but I don't have a problem with it, per se. I would just rather run other games before it, for both Marvel in specific and supers in general. I haven't ran a session of FASERIP once I got my players to adopt Marvel SAGA.

That’s interesting. I was thinking about this when I saw the posts you quoted where folks mentioned MSH. My feelings on it are a bit mixed.

On the one hand, I really enjoyed the game and any flaws I can find with the system are minor or can be easily addressed. We played the hell out of this when I was a kid.

On the other hand, I don’t have any strong desire to revisit it, except as the occasional one off for the sake of nostalgia. The idea of playing the game doesn’t get me excited in the way another game might, whether old or new.

I don’t know if that means I kind of wore the game out, so to speak, or if there’s something more to it.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

That’s interesting. I was thinking about this when I saw the posts you quoted where folks mentioned MSH. My feelings on it are a bit mixed.

On the one hand, I really enjoyed the game and any flaws I can find with the system are minor or can be easily addressed. We played the hell out of this when I was a kid.

On the other hand, I don’t have any strong desire to revisit it, except as the occasional one off for the sake of nostalgia. The idea of playing the game doesn’t get me excited in the way another game might, whether old or new.

I don’t know if that means I kind of wore the game out, so to speak, or if there’s something more to it.

Yeah, I don't think there's anything WRONG with the game, per se. I just get a more enjoyable experience out of Marvel SAGA and ICONS than I do FASERIP these days, and so I don't have any compelling reason to go back to it.

 

[Sharrow]

Oh yeah, I'm not a fan of Exalted. It's way too byzantine mechanically imo.

My issue with Exalted 1e is/was that it's mechanically unsound. So you've got all these cool charms and such, and half of them are badly designed, and half of them don't work as they should because the system is naff. I never did look at the 2nd and 3rd editions.

 

[3rik]

Spoiler: spoiler

A HUMAN SACRIFICE! OMG THIS IS A GIGANTIC MORAL DILEMMA THAT WILL TEST YOUR PLAYERS MORALITY

Spoiler: spoiler

I bet someone somewhere is on death row. Problem solved?

 

[Teotwawki]

Most of Free League's pandering stuff. Each game seems to have one mechanic that's pretty good and the rest of the system and fluff tends to have too much saccharine hand-waving for us.

Most, but not all, game re-boots/redeux. e.g. Over the Edge 3e and Twilight: 2000 4e (fits two categories of dislike!)

Some, I--or we as a long-term group--like well enough to invest time in retrofitting aspects we don't like. e.g. Cyberpunk 2020/Red; the fluff of history, politics, and culture is enough to cause my desk to become dented from head-smashing frustration, but that's easy enough to rewrite with sensible progression.

 

[AsenRG]

In general, I tend to dislike games that use multiple types of metacurrencies, have systems that are used to establish pre-existing social links between characters, use lifepath generation of characters, focus on social mechanics in general, or have mechanics in place that are designed to control the GM.

One of these things seems quite unlike the others.

 

[finarvyn]

Paranoia is fun if everybody is on exactly the same page about what they're expecting from it. It can cope with a lot of diverse game styles. But it falls apart quicker than most games if they aren't; a given Paranoia game can only do one style at a time, whereas other games can vary more during a session.

I had a friend in high school who was sort of a whimsical, quirky guy. He ran an excellent whimsical, quirky Paranoia game. Super fun. I played in some other Paranoia games years later and they fell flat. I think Paranoia requires just the right kind of GM.

 

[Voros]

Put me in the crowd of being disappointed with Mouse Guard and Torchbearer. So many great ideas, creativity, art, layout and publishing quality. Completely un-intuitive game design. Like… why on Earth do designers make the simple concept of “attempt a task by rolling vs difficulty” so abstract, convoluted and pretentious?!

I bought Mouseguard when I knew I was going to be a parent because I knew that my kids would love it. True, they love the comics but only love the props of the game (not the game itself). I plan on someday stripping it down into something basic and usable.

I'd suggest just getting the nicely designed OSRish Mausritter instead.

 

[Skarg]

Mine all boil down to games not being the type of game I like. I like at-least-somewhat-logical reality-based games with good tactical combat sytems. So I don't like many entire types of RPGs. Not that they might not be good at what they do. But I don't like most of what they do, nor most of the way they do them. e.g.:

Fate & PbtA & Modiphius - Narrative gameplay? Metacurrency? Abstract mechanics? Genre expectations? All describe not the type of game I want to play.

D&D - So dumb and arbitrary and about 40% of describes quite what I DON'T want in my RPGs. I dislike most of the tropes and cliches, most of the races and monsters, the alignment systems, the levels, the classes, the approach to religion, the treasure classes, the high and abstract hitpoints, the steep hierarchical power scale, the infravision, the easy healing and ressurrections, the many things that are immune to physical damage, much of the magic system, the lack of rationality, the lack of a good reality-based mapped tactical combat system, and apparently, most of the ways most of the authors think.

White Wolf - Ok, I've only actually read Mage: The Ascension. The emptiness of the rules. The style of play they like. I don't. Also, what may go beyond not liking the type of game: The attitude of superiority and supposed coolness. The assumption I like their style (I don't).

Star Frontiers - I wish I liked it. I love that it has giant battle maps and cardboard counters for mapped combat, and space combat rules. But I hate the game mechanics. Too much like D&D, in space, where D&D works even worse than it works for fantasy. Piles of hitpoints. Adventure design where you get forced to be stranded, and then have 120 encounters on your way home, all of which will wear down your hitpoints with a surreal number of obviously fake and silly monsters who will hit and slightly reduce your hitpoints in very tedious combat using the combat system I don't like. Unbelievable gamey race design. Argh.

 

[Dammit Victor]

So, I've had this post eaten twice now-- not on the forum's end, not the forum's fault-- so... may be tetchier than normal.

I've got a few games I'd like to list... and I'm really glad I'm not the first person to name any of them.

First and foremost, Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. It still persists, and doubles down on, everything wrong with WotC/Paizo D&D while managing to preserve not a single fucking thing WotC D&D ever got right, making it the worst of both worlds; it gives me absolutely nothing that I want from playing D&D, and most damning of all... everyone else loves it and it's the best-selling version of D&D ever, guaranteeing that Wizards of the Coast will never again produce a single fucking product for official D&D that I will ever be interested in.

I don't like Savage Worlds. I don't like the task resolution, I don't like the way attributes and skills work, I don't like the combat system and... much like people have griped about Modiphius, I don't like so many of the properties I'm interested in being vacuumed up by it. (Modiphius isn't on this list because, aside from cannibalizing a bunch of worlds I really want to play in... I don't deal with nearly as many people telling me it's the best thing ever.)

World of Darkness, because I... just... can't... relate to horror media the way other people describe it, and the way the system tries to evoke personal horror in the characters strikes me as contrary to the sort of personal agency that I want in roleplaying games. The number and variety of deadly supernatural predators the world crams into every urbanized area strikes me as ludicrously unsustainable. And I find the game's Victorian association of moral depravity with mental illness unforgivably offensive, especially given the game's historical reputation for inclusivity.

I also can't stand Exalted, almost entirely on a mechanical basis as the game just can't deliver the experience it promises and a lot of it... boils down to the same problem a lot of D&D and D&D-adjacent games have, and almost any "fantasy game" built on a universal system does: it doesn't present a fantastic world, it presents a mostly (and in this case, grimly) realistic world with the fantastic draped awkwardly over it. It's a poor fit for high fantasy and it's jarring, incongruous, and a little sad for the kind of epic fantasy that Exalted promises. The mechanics are too fiddly and bookkeeping-intensive to be intense and trading whiffs until one of the opponents melts doesn't make either of them feel powerful.

Mostly... mostly I fucking hate Exalted because of every time, between around 2008 and 2016 or so, that I tried to describe the kind of D&D-adjacent game I was looking for-- weird/space/gonzo fantasy with over-the-top martial arts (think Dragon Fist meets Tome of Battle)-- and despite the fact that Exalted is none of those things, it was the only game anyone has ever advised me to check out. It's literally all of the reasons I didn't just use D&D, but fucking worse, but... if you want high-power fantasy that isn't D&D, it is apparently the only fucking game anyone has ever heard of.

I don't like Powered by the Apocalypse games, because... well, it's just not my cup of tea, it's not how I want the relationship between gameplay and narrative to function. I've got nothing bad to say about these games, or their fans, and I can understand why they have such a glowing reputation. I'm just not interested.

 

[Sharrow]

So, I've had this post eaten twice now-- not on the forum's end, not the forum's fault-- so... may be tetchier than normal.

I've got a few games I'd like to list... and I'm really glad I'm not the first person to name any of them.

First and foremost, Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. It still persists, and doubles down on, everything wrong with WotC/Paizo D&D while managing to preserve not a single fucking thing WotC D&D ever got right, making it the worst of both worlds; it gives me absolutely nothing that I want from playing D&D, and most damning of all... everyone else loves it and it's the best-selling version of D&D ever, guaranteeing that Wizards of the Coast will never again produce a single fucking product for official D&D that I will ever be interested in.

For all its vulnerability to game-breaking builds, I liked D&D3.x a lot. I never got to play D&D4 much, but by the time it came to an end I think it had become a pretty darned good system, and I liked its cosmology. Pathfinder (1e) messed up more of 3e than it fixed, IMO. D&D5... it just feels soul-less to me, even more than 2e did (and I hate its weapons and armour - too many that are pointless, too many that a silly).

I don't like Savage Worlds. I don't like the task resolution, I don't like the way attributes and skills work, I don't like the combat system and... much like people have griped about Modiphius, I don't like so many of the properties I'm interested in being vacuumed up by it. (Modiphius isn't on this list because, aside from cannibalizing a bunch of worlds I really want to play in... I don't deal with nearly as many people telling me it's the best thing ever.)

I'm not a fan of SW either. Aside from anything else, some of the weapon stats are nonsensical (though at least the latest edition has toned down the katana to something reasonable).