Quote from: Elliot Wilen;449729I'd seen an account of play where it was used for some sort of modern occult game of international intrigue, and that sounded pretty cool. Ironically, the author of the account later went on to say that Heroquest sucks.

Were they playing 1e?  I heard that 2e cleans up a lot of the iffier parts and makes everything more clear.  

I bought the PDF recently but haven't had a chance to really give it a thorough reading.  It seems...different, but then the closest thing I've used to "story-logic" mechanics are BITs in BW, so my experience is limited.

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;449496In short, it was the system that made me decide that "define on the spot" or "roll your own" traits are untenable. The borders of PC abilities are entirely too fuzzy for my comfort.

I definitely don't think they're "untenable," but I can definitely understand why they might not be to your taste. They definitely require cooperation between the player and GM in order to work.

Quote from: Peregrin;449731Were they playing 1e?  I heard that 2e cleans up a lot of the iffier parts and makes everything more clear.

Yes, 1e of HQ. (Note, to avoid confusion: not Hero Wars.)

2e does sound like it fixed some stuff, but then it also sounds like it added in some stuff I wouldn't like, so it's probably time to punt. The Mythic Russia game based on 1e sounded kind of interesting, and it might do a better job of contextualizing the numbers and abilities/traits (though I'm just guessing)...but ultimately, my problem isn't too few games and too much time on my hands. For something very roughly like what HQ seems to be trying to do, at least as a generic system, I'm pretty happy with Mythic.

Supers games in general. No supers game has ever scratched my itch.

Quote from: KenHR;449567I keep getting tempted by Witchcraft, but my experience with AFMBE holds me back.

You know you can download it legally for free, right?

Quote from: Dan Davenport;449764You know you can download it legally for free, right?

Yes, I have it.  I just am not sure I want to run a game of it despite liking a lot about it from a reading because of my experience with AFMBE.

Quote from: KenHR;449775Yes, I have it.  I just am not sure I want to run a game of it despite liking a lot about it from a reading because of my experience with AFMBE.

Ah, gotcha. Well, that's understandable. The system's designed to fade into the background, which can translate to it feeling too bland to some people.

That said, I think WitchCraft does a great job of making different supernatural powers have different feels mechanically.

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;449496In short, it was the system that made me decide that "define on the spot" or "roll your own" traits are untenable. The borders of PC abilities are entirely too fuzzy for my comfort.

That's interesting, because to me OtE was one of the only RPGs of that type that I feel did it right.

RPGPundit

Amber Diceless.  So good in theory, so crap in practice.

Too many

Mythus - Gygax's supposed masterpiece of the time. Excellent info, horrible system.

Starsiege - nice little system, atrociously small font and crammed layout makes reading tough. Couldn't really get into it.

Starblazer Adventures - good game, but too many stunts and special rules.

Conan OGL - awesome game, but I can't get past the whole d20 thing.

Earthdawn - cool races and background, but the system killed it. I also couldn't stop picturing elves with cybernetics since the art reminded me of Shadowrun.

And I agree with Pundit. OtE works really well, because the system disappears and the setting shines.

QuoteStarsiege - nice little system, atrociously small font and crammed layout makes reading tough. Couldn't really get into it.

My problem with StarSiege is that what I really wanted was something more like Stars Without Number, and what I got was Lala Land.

Quote from: J Arcane;449937My problem with StarSiege is that what I really wanted was something more like Stars Without Number, and what I got was Lala Land.

I know, right? I can't even specify where it went wrong, just that it added un-needed renames and increased complexity to the Siege "engine," and meandered around in circles with its writing.

I could add dozens to this list: D&D3E, D&D4E. Neither one scratched my itch for fantasy gaming. I didn't want to go "back" to the dungeon. Sure I've got dungeons in my D&D games, but most adventures were western fantasy based--all sorts of things outside the dungeon.

Everything from stopping rampaging monsters, to finding the lost ring of Amsoruil the Enchanter. All with an aim at greater impact on the world. I didn't want "dungeon heavy" or "dungeon only" play.

I wanted the classic fantasy that I'd had since I played basic D&D the first time.


Marvel Universe RPG, The abacus-stone driven one. Man what a waste. They should have bought the rights to the previous Marvel RPG's, or hired known designers. Instead it was developed in house with obviously too little playtesting. A nitpicky system where tracking battles of more than a few foes became a nightmare. What could have been a great idea--an RPG with art FROM the Marvel Comics company. A company who could use the RPG stats to stat the characters in there next Marvel Handbooks. Instead we got something without any elegance of design at all.

Quote from: One Horse Town;449759Supers games in general. No supers game has ever scratched my itch.

What do you need for one to do that? A backscratcher power?

Quote from: J Arcane;449498I've also basically decided that I don't like D&D outside of video games.  I had a blast with the Neverwinter Nights series, I really did, but by and large my experience with the game outside of that context is that the game just doesn't work when a computer isn't doing the math, and the artificiality of the game constraints I find both hard to roleplay around, and increasingly boring the more I play.

There's only so many times you can play the cleric, before you realize it's given you all the gameplay it ever will.  It's too formulaic, and the alternative of multi-classing too book-keeping heavy and counter-intuitive.  

So no more D&D for me.

What's your preferred game for fantasy? GURPS?

Oh, mention of Marvel reminds me of Castle Falkenstein. Wanted to like the cards, wanted to like the setting. Have a generally positive impression of Mike Pondsmith as a designer. But as I've posted here a while back, I found the card system pretty nonfunctional on reading, and I wasn't too crazy about the setting either.