WFRP - Played (and ran) the hell out of it from around '88-'97. Tried playing it when I got back into gaming several years ago, and the overfamiliarity just drained all enthusiasm from the game.

This was 1st edition btw. I don't think 2nd edition would make any difference since we always used low-magic settings.

Quote from: Cylonophile;394381While I'd rather not encourage people to play gurps, in all fairness to you if you use the character assistant software it does speed things up a lot in terms of chargen.

Personally, I have a rule: If I have to use software for character generation, the game is officially Too Much Work.

Champions -- I played and ran this quite a bit in the early 1980s, but it was a very crunchy game and with each edition it got longer and more complex. Marvel Superheroes came out in 1984 and started replacing Champions in my group. The Advanced version in 1986 killed off any interest I had in Champions or other superhero games.  Nowadays, I couldn't be forced to play a Hero System game as the rules have just kept growing and growing. However, I'd still play Advanced Marvel Superheroes.

Not a game per se, but I don't see myself going back to the 1E AD&D Forgotten Realms grey box + first several FR supplements/modules from 1987-1988.  Back in the day, I thought it was a cool sandbox setting.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;394407Personally, I have a rule: If I have to use software for character generation, the game is officially Too Much Work.

Not true in this case.

Playing around with the GCA is actually kind of fun.

You can change one attribute stat up or down - then watch the ripple effects on skill rating and other numbers.

It also helps make quick NPCs with the templates included.


- Ed C.

Quote from: Koltar;394414Not true in this case.

Playing around with the GCA is actually kind of fun.

You can change one attribute stat up or down - then watch the ripple effects on skill rating and other numbers.

It also helps make quick NPCs with the templates included.


- Ed C.

Yeah...that doesn't exactly sound thrilling to me (except maybe the quick NPCs part)...but I figured out a long time ago that GURPS isn't for me (at least as a GM, with an experienced GM, I'd still give it a go as a player).

Tunnels and Trolls - once I'd discovered RuneQuest, I don't think I ever went back to that beautiful yellow box. I still kept the solo adventures, but as every year went by, TNT moved further to the bottom of my wardrobe.

Star Frontiers - my first science fiction RPG, which I adored. It suited my desired for Space Opera and was closer to the Star Blazer comic/RPG that the Fate System.

Marvel Superheroes Advanced - I played in 3 separate campaigns in my teens, each one was a joy. I don't think I could run it again. It was certainly a game of its time, and that time isn't now.

Funny, my experience of MSH was quite the opposite. I bought it when it first came out but I never really did much with it. It seemed to me like a typical TSR nasty, an unsophisticated superhero slugfest game aimed squarely at kiddies.

I only actually gave the game a proper shot last year, partly because despite everything I kept reading good things about it  (yup I;m looking at you Tim) ... and it was sensational. By the second session the players were saying think like "To think we could have been playing this all along!".

Now I'm not saying MSH doesn't have its clunky bits, but the Karma mechanics really makes the game sing. It's actually a lot more subtle a game than I expected and strangely modern.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;394407Personally, I have a rule: If I have to use software for character generation, the game is officially Too Much Work.

This applies to me too.

My game I used to love is GURPS. I really loved it, and I keep loving the system, but I can no longer stomach chargen, it's a chore, too open for my taste, and the long list of skills is a deal breaker for me (not only with GURPS, I can't stand any game with a long list of skills).

But as I said, I keep thinking that the system is great. That's why I like Capitán Alatriste so much, it uses more or less the same system (well, it's a simplification) but does away with the tiresome chargen. As I usually say, the Capitán Alatriste RPG has the good parts of GURPS, without the bad.

D20 D&D (3.0/3.5)

I used to like both of these in the beginning. I still find myself taking part in it to keep my social life intact, but vie grown very tired of it. It's the lack of customization. Everything about your class comes off a table, so you're all just clones with only weapons, race, feats, and skill choices separating you. Prestige classes aren't that good and just weaken you overall just for a couple of class features that seemed cool at the time. It started to feel very repetitive and as a GM, I had to move to third party resources to keep my own interest and curb the metagaming by throwing non-canon critters, races, templates and other such. Thank you Sword & Sorcery.

I still find myself enjoying the challenge of making a unique character, and there is some nostalgia when I first play it, but it starts to feel like an old lady that keeps getting plastic surgery to stay with the times. And most of the available players in my gaming circle aren't willing to let this old horse lie and try new fantasy systems. Sorry, old girl. You got to work a little longer. *sigh*


Cyberpunk.

 This was the first exposure I had to the cyberpunk genre  I only played on two games. There was only one person who has the books. It was so much fun. I preferred it over Shadowrun because it always felt grittier to me, at least how the GM ran it. shadow run was okay, but I didn't care much for the magic component. I never settled into it. I was very sad when the MUX I used to code for decided to switch from Cyberpunk to Shadowrun. I was the one working on the chargen.


D&D /AD&D

Oh, remember the days when elf and dwarf were class choices? I can't even remember how many discussion I was apart of on the side of it being stupid. Still, I always had a lot of fun playing it, and my GM, the one who got me into the hobby, was able to turn it into more of an RPG than module-of-the-week. I remember always getting excited when I got more than one skill. I loved playing Dark Sun and Spelljammer and Hollow World was interesting. Planescape I jumped all over when it was released. After awhile, though, the games just felt like fantasy cheese and it was time to move on.


Middle-Earth (MERP)/Rolemaster

This was the the LOTR game by ICE that made use of Rolemaster. I really loved this expensive game, but I no longer have the books. I never actually got to play or run it, though. I just read the books a lot and made characters, NPCs, and planned campaigns that just never happened. How sad. Ironically, though, I did get some Rolemaster games off the ground and a few members of my group at that time really enjoyed it, especially character creation and the impressive, what, 8 page character sheets? They somehow became addicted to the clerical side of the game. I would print copies of their race, class, weapon tables, and spell sheets, and they'd sit happily with all this information and rulers ready to go. Plus, at the first session, I presented each of them with all this stuff in those mamilla envelopes. I really want to do that again.


Castle Falkenstein

I think that is what is was called, or I, really close. I can't really say it's a game I miss, as I had never gotten to play it. An old GM had it, and I would look through the book and ask him to run it, but he never would. I don't know if it's good, or bad, but I miss it and now I'm going to have to look for it.


Star Wars D6

I posted about this on the D6 What of it Thread. It was always fun and a lot of times we were going by the seat of our pants and spending a lot of time in cantinas all over the galaxy to celebrate another day of life. I had a good group back then and I miss a lot of those people. I'm sad to hear a lot of them don't game any more and they sound pretty embittered by it. I felt pretty chastised when they made it sound like it was fun, but they're adults now with families, why haven't I grown up yet? I haven't played it in a long time. I was so attached to that getup, I just haven't been able to shake this feeling of loss.


Paranoia

GM  Hello citizen!

PC Hello friend computer. Is there something I can do for you?

GM Yes, citizen. What colour is the sky?

PC Blue.

GM Knowledge of the outside is treason. Lose 1 clone.

PC now hates himself for falling so easily into this trap.

RE: Gurps

I can still make characters by hand--I just don't care to, there are more elegant and simple systems that give me the same results for less work. That's it, nothing wrong with GURPS for those who like it. Just not for me anymore. I'm playing in a GURPS game now for the record. (The game is not so hot--but it isn't the game system's fault. But I've had words with the GM about it already.)

Re: Top Secret S.I
I got out Top Secret S.I for a game recently and I'm still amazed at how elegant combat is with hit locations. Far easier than any other game for its time in that respect. I don't think its perfect. Lord knows the skill "requirements" for careers is clunky as hell. Yet some aspects remain. Though I can understand why its clunky completely for someone else. I'm still going to run a F.R.E.E. Lancers game with it. Using my own organization M.A.S.K (Metable Applied Strategic Knowledge or Metable Applied Subversive Knowledge)

Re: MSH

I'm glad you like it Soylent Green. I still do. Oh sure I like other superhero games as well, but MSH had effective design elements when it was created  It still gets a lot of love for a reason online. I just wish I had time right now to work on SMITE! Since it will use a very "related" system.

I still like GURPS and I still play it. In my experience things go smoother with character creation when you limit your sources. The day my friend ran GURPS saying all his books are a go was an awfulmexperience. he had every book up to the release of Steampunk. Rather than think of a concept for your char a ter and go with that, people spent weeks browsing books and cobbling random things together, whereas I knew what I wanted to play and just pulled the relevant books. We had a mecha piloting hamster (bunnies & burrows with some biotech weirdness), a Vampire the Masquerade vampire wild west gunslinger, the requisite gun bunny with super strength from our otaku player, and I played an older woman, the cat lady on the corner with a knack for steam punk gadgetry and an ability that made cats attracted to me and another that  allowed me to speak with them. It was a non serious game that basically involved IOU. We were all taken out of our universes to become staff. I don't normally like non serious fluff like, but IOU is fun, and then group had good chemistry.

I would never allow all books in a game. If I did, I wouldn't openly say it. I'd just say you could play whatever you wanted and once you had an idea, help you make the character without sounding weeks saying "here's my massive collection of every GURPS book to date. Have at it" like my friend basically did.

I wouldn't try to talk anyone into liking GURPS (although I like it myself), but I don't get why having a fast, useful software tool is somehow a detriment for any system. Pathfinder's chargen isn't anywhere near as math-intensive and I still use PCgen just to cut down on time and chances I'll miscalculate something.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;394553I wouldn't try to talk anyone into liking GURPS (although I like it myself), but I don't get why having a fast, useful software tool is somehow a detriment for any system. Pathfinder's chargen isn't anywhere near as math-intensive and I still use PCgen just to cut down on time and chances I'll miscalculate something.

It's more that "this will fix your problems with Gurps!" Rather than "this is a tool you can use or not."

One is saying that the problems with Gurps requires an additional tool to be workable, instead of a tool that might be a nice option to be utilized. Mind you that isn't the case for me--and I am more than happy to pick up a (Free) tool to assist me with any game that I'd like to speed up. Of course GCA isn't free unlike almost all other tools I use and it doesn't solve my problems with Gurps anyway.