Gurps 3/4e and 4e D&D.

4e, I can't stand and plan to never play again. Gurps, I put up with because the rest of my gaming group enjoys it. Still intensely dislike chargen, disadvantages, and the extreme levels of complexity that can be piled on top of Gurps.

Quote from: gonster;663025Air War was the hardest game I have ever played, but I was in 7th grade when I played it.

Air War and ASL in the hex and chit boardgame division.

For RPGs, Aftermath and Space Opera.

GURPS 3ed Vehicle book. A bunch of equations to build stuff, but man did I love it.

Quote from: KenHR;663008I'm with you.  But not many others are.  I used to tutor algebra for college undergrads; they could barely do multiplication without begging for their calculators.  That was about 10 years ago...don't want to think what the situation is like now.

Hell 10 years ago people whined to high heaven about subtraction on RPGnet and the like.

Nah, My daughter is 8 and I have taught her up to her 20 times table. She still stumbles on the top end eg. (18 x 15) or (17x 19) but I will have that beaten out of her by secondard school.

Another thiong I liked about FGU was that weapon damage extrapolted from real world physics.
So to work out the damage of a firearm (this is in Aftermath but also daredevils and others) you worked out the kinetic energy of the round and then divided it out to get dice damage.
I used the same model myself later for a modern merc game I wrote when i was a kid but I went to momentum of the round as reading the medical text books I go t the impression that trasfer of momemtum was a better measure than transfer of energy as very fast rounds pass through the body and only transfer a fraction of their energy whilst slow heavy rounds, like a webley .455 practially stop dead and trasfer all their energy (but based on 1/2mv^2 a high speed round has much more energy).
the difficult thing back in the 80s was getting hold of the data and the Encyclopedia of modern small arms was the best book I ever stole from the library

Quote from: Sacrosanct;662989Probably Top Secret.

What do you normally play? Uno? TS is not a complicated game.

A Time of War, the new(ish) Battletech RPG. Inexplicably complex, with no real payoff. I ended up just making characters using a quick-n-dirty d6 hack that directly corresponded to piloting and gunnery skills in the minis game and ditched that pos. It's too hard to even use as background material due to the shitty layout.

Someone else mentioned SFB...easily my favorite game, and it's insanely complicated, but you know that going in.

Quote from: RPGPundit;662968Which was the most mechanically complex game you ever participated in (playing, or GMing)?

And, importantly, did you like it?

RPGPundit

Chivalry and Sorcery 3e/4e -- complicated, but flavourful. I like it.

Hero 5e -- complicated, bland, and since I don't care about balance, anyway, it's all for nothing

Quote from: 1989;663050Hero 5e -- complicated, bland, and since I don't care about balance, anyway, it's all for nothing

Gotta agree with you here, and I like HERO. 6th edition is one of the best designed games I've ever seen, and yet provides no compelling reason to play due to a complete lack of flavor. I wrote up a fairly extensive SciFi campaign using Star Hero, but ended up just using Traveller because it was...I dunno, more gritty and realistic? The more I play RPGs, the more I'm a fan of systems tailored for genre; the "universal" system just doesn't work.

Quote from: Benoist;662976I think this honor would be bestowed to Rolemaster with at least elements of Companions I, II, III, IV and VII involved...

Same here. I ran a several year campaign with sometimes between 8-15 players (!!!), and it worked because I distributed tables to different players to help manage combat.

Hard to decide which were the most complicated as a player - Aftermath, Space Opera, Timelords (1st edition by BTRC), Bureau 13/Fringeworthy/Incursions (all Tri-Tac system).  But, I had fun with all of them.  I've run Timelords, Bureau 13, Fringeworthy, and Incursions with their original systems and it was tough going, but yes we had fun.

Now, I'll run those settings, but I'll use either GURPS or BRP for the system.

Quote from: estar;662987SPI's Dragonquest and Universe. RPGs made by wargame companies are a class into themselves.

Not exactly hard.  But I detest having to convert PC attributes and skill values to another number range to roll against at every skill check.

Rolemaster
Powers & Perils
Champions 3e (only edition I've played)
Aliens RPG

Quote from: jibbajibba;663029FGU standard system for Skill score is -  ((Stat + Stat + Trait)/y + optional number) + accrued skill points)/x
So climb might be ((Strength + Agility + athletics)/2 + 20 + skill points)/20

Nope, that's not it.  FGU was primarily a fulfilment / vanity press house.  Lee Gold of Alarums and Excursions fame and author of Land of the Rising Sun and GURPS Japan designed Lands of Adventure as her ultimate rpg.  It had a sourcebook covering Arthurian England and Greek Myth.  I've really got to get up to The Sentry Box and
pick up the copy they've had on their shelves for the last thirty years.  

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;663062Not exactly hard.  But I detest having to convert PC attributes and skill values to another number range to roll against at every skill check.

Or you can just write down the result the first time you work it out.  But IRRC the per rank multipier did change to reflect the difficulty sometimes.  Don't take my word for it, it's been years.

Quote from: 1989;663050Chivalry and Sorcery 3e/4e -- complicated, but flavourful. I like it.

Yeah, great system except that a first level fighter who puts 25 points into Strength and weilds a maul can kill trolls in a single blow.  I like so much about C&S 3e but there are some holes that are hard to plug.

Still, why fight when you can bring a case of liquor at the bottom of the supply cart and use it to bribe the orcs?

Quote from: jibbajibba;663029Aftermath is the winner for me. All that FGU complex goodness so you have stats and traits (traits being combativeness, Esthetics, athletics etc) hundreds of skills with arcane formulae. 30 Hit locations with piecemeal armour rules that vary for different weapon types. Complex rules for survival, foraging, radiation, disease, laser trauma cuased by water evaporation from laser wounds, weather, and of course the effect of wind direction on bow fire.

Aftermath, absolutely loved it.

Where do I sign up?

I kid.  I tried that game when it first came out, but settled for The Morrow Project (the pre-BRP version).  More of a sourcebook than a game.