Hi all,

This is something I think about from time to time and have discussed in other fora, but it occurred to me today it might have relevance here too.

Essentially, the question is a simple one, how many rpgs have you bought (if you want, do feel free to create a time limit like say over the last couple of years) and how many of those have you actually played?

By bought, I include rather counterintuitively free downloads if you then saved it to your hard drive and freebies given as comps for review, trade or whatever.

By actually played, I mean actually used in a game. For these purposes if you just used it as a general ideas springboard that does not count (though if you pulled out a particular piece of advice and directly applied it to another game that does), actual play means you actually used that game product in a game that you played or ran. Yes, I realise lots of folk count general inspiration as actual play, but for the purposes of this thread I don't.

If you can say why you haven't played the stuff you haven't played, that would be cool too.

So, what games have you bought/acquired/downloaded? What have you actually played? I'll post mine in a bit, but it'll take a while.

Games: D&D, Marvel Superheroes, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Exalted, Babylon 5

Played: All except AFMBE, which I got for a one shot game. We haven't had an empty night, so I haven't had the time to run the one shot.

I've probabaly aquired about seven since I got back into the hobby, i've played and still play one, which is True20.
I haven't played the others mainly becuase I don't have a lot of time for prep- M&M really looks cool, but I just can't find the time to figure out how all the powers work, for instance.
Conan RPG got derailed by the arrival of my True20 book, and we decided to play that instead.
star frontiers, I just downloded to look at, and i still haven't.
CoC d20 is awesome and I love to read it, but again- not time.
Basically I have no time.

In the last two years or so, I have bought, with the played ones in green and the not-played ones in red,

Advanced Runequest - GW edition
Active Exploits - Take 2
Ars Magica - 4th and 5th editions
d6 Adventure
GURPS - 4th edition
HeroQuest - 2nd edition
Skyrealms of Jorune - 3rd edition
Unknown Armies

Active Exploits I'm supposed to begin playing this Thursday. HQ and Jorune no-one I game with regularly has been willing to play with me, they were interested in other stuff instead. Ars Magica 5th edition I wanted to change to from 4th, but some of the players were unhappy with that and walked out on me, and anyway the 4th ed had only got a couple of sessions of play so it barely counts.

The other games in green all got lots of play.

I couldn't possibly guess how many free pdf rpgs I've looked at in the last two years. Those still on my hard drive, setting aside joke games like Redneck and A Man and His Pet Flea Spot and those I've got from Better Mousetrap, as well as those foisted on me by some gamer when I knew I wouldn't be interested, what we're left with is...

OSRIC - I got Osric because it was recommended. I got two minutes of nostalgia as I glanced over it, then closed the pdf and forgot about it.

EABAnywhere - This is pretty good and I'd like to play it, but no interest from the gamers around me.

Forgotten Futures - based on the 19th century sci-fi stories, I think you'd need big readers of the stuff for them to appreciate it, so I've not pitched it.

Fate 2e - pretty good, needs some fleshing out like most Fudge-type stuff, but was an excellent and thespy engine for my Tiwesdaeg 2 campaign.

TriStat dX - someone was running an irc game and wanted to use this, but the players rejected it in horror at its mess, and the GM wandered off.

GEAR - actually a pretty good game engine, but it has no authour listed, and no references online, I've no idea where I got it from...

Warlords - a good game of the ancient Near East, no player interest.

Steal - Lock, Stick and Two Smoking Dice! I didn't feel I could run a crime-based game, so set it aside regretfully.

Spookengine - spies and mercenaries, could be fun if I had players who could choose a leader, make a plan, be patient, etc.

Overall I guess the reason things weren't played was that others weren't interested in them. In my game circle of perhaps 20 players over the last couple of years, only a few of us have been keen to run games, I'm open to many games, but the others have pet systems they insist on. The players I get are spoiled for choice, really - they'l usually go with whatever the GM shoves on them, but when given a choice, go with what they know, mostly.

Quote from: BalbinusEssentially, the question is a simple one, how many rpgs have you bought (if you want, do feel free to create a time limit like say over the last couple of years) and how many of those have you actually played?

I've purchased tons and only played a small percentage of those.

Quote from: BalbinusIf you can say why you haven't played the stuff you haven't played, that would be cool too.

I don't have enough time, nor does the group.

So, what games have you bought/acquired/downloaded?  [/QUOTE]

I have a lot of games, far too many to list.

Seanchai

Oops, forgot Star Frontiers. I also downloaded it in order to check it out and perhaps run a Nostalgia campaign but haven't gotten around to it. Not because I don't want to, just because it's third in line behind Exalted (shaping up to hopefully be a long lived campaign) and AFMBE.

If we're going to be totally honest, you should also exclude any game you exclusively have played at conventions as being 'actually played'.

Further excluding "playtests", "demos", and "tryouts".


This will reduce some people to an 'actual play' count of zero, I'm fairly certain.

To: JimBobOz: Forgotten Futures is brilliant, and I own a copy from 2000. I've enever gotten anyone interested in it either.

Quote from: Abyssal MawIf we're going to be totally honest, you should also exclude any game you exclusively have played at conventions as being 'actually played'.

Further excluding "playtests", "demos", and "tryouts".


This will reduce some people to an 'actual play' count of zero, I'm fairly certain.

Brutal, good follow up test too.  Hell, that takes my indie play straight down to zero.

The list would be long, the ratio of bought-to-used unflattering.

Quote from: Abyssal MawFurther excluding "playtests", "demos", and "tryouts".

Are you including "one shots" in "tryouts".

Because I run one shots of games I rarely get to run at gamedays and GenCon just so I'll have a chance to play games I don't normally get a chance to play.

Only game i've ever bought that i haven't played is Mutants & Masterminds, which makes me incredibly sad.

Ooh, i got Hawkmoon for free and haven't played that either.

Ars Magica 4th (although i got zero use from the Religious books)
Pendragon 4th
CoC (still waiting to run Spawn of Azathoth)
d&d (a few books that see little use)
WFRP
Talislanta 4th
Traveller

Poring back over the soewhat porous membrane of my memory, I am still confident in stating almost exactly none.

I generally don't buy the games I'm actually playing, by and large I've been fortunate enough to always wind up in groups with plenty of corebooks to go around.

Instead I generally focus on checking out new games I'd like to play, but thanks to my lack of GM experience and corresponding lack of confidence, plus a general difficulty in getting enough people interested and together, that by and large my attempts pretty much tend to fail and the books wind up collecting dust.

The two possible exceptions to this are John Garwood's Monsters & Mazes (which proved to be a disastrous session as I'd botched up the encounter balance by misinterpreting an odd die notation on the tables), and a loosely Palladium-based Wing Commander game I'd found on line, with which I ran a short patrol mission.  

Two near exceptions are D20 Modern, which I bought solely for a game someone else was running online, but then died after that first session when several players plum disappeared, and GURPS4, for which I almost got a game started, before a combination of my own nervousness and some unforseen scheduling conflicts with the players led to that one dying a crib death shortly after chargen.

D&D3 is a special case, as a I bought it at release time mostly as a statment of support for the $20 price point, and never did more with it than making a character once.  I eventually sold the book, only to come back to D&D much later after discovering NWN and meeting my D&D group.

I'm trying to think back to the last new game I purchased and I'm coming up blank.  I have shelves loaded down with RPG crap, but I just haven't found a new game in a while that did anything for me.  I got a copy of Rifts in January, but I had owned a copy before so it wasn't really a new game for me.  Before that I got Spaceship Zero almost a year ago.  I'm not rushing out to play either because they both have the same problem for me: a nifty setting married to a dubious system.

As a general rule I buy a lot fewer games when I'm running or playing in satisfactory campaigns, and I've had a good two year stint of awesome 3.5 play.

If I (we) buy a game I (we) play it. The crew has a library of stuff we have played. There's also a small stash of stuff we have got to get to. I haven't looked through it, but I do know games like PTA, Buffy, MlwM, Traveller (no idea what version), AFMBE, Tribe 8, Promeathean, Don't Rest Your Head, Blue Rose is part of it...only a matter of time.

As for the library...Jeebus, too many to mention. The thing is, if we download a game or something...the group has to play it immediately so this kind of fucks up our  regular schedule...

Regards,
David R

Empire of the Petal Throne (TSR) [Play by Post]
Dime Heroes [Play by eMail] and [Play by Post]
Savage Worlds

Used to play EPTand RuneQuest I & II face to face back in the day.
Now only Savage Worlds (Thank goodness it doesn't take the time other games do.)

D&D is the legacy game of desperation.
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