In all fairness, "people > snacks > setting > system" is a pretty common rubric around here (or used to be). As is "don't play with gamers, teach your friends to play your games".  How seriously everyone takes the game is definitely a part of the social contract that tends to get glossed over too much.  I know if I invite a bunch of people over to play Project Ninja Panda Taco and they play it with Puppetland's meta-rules, I'm not going to be too happy either.

You know, I've had a couple of games that were prepared for considerably and ended up collapsing after one or two sessions, but I can't say I've ever had one that was definitely planned for and ended up collapsing before even starting.

A friend of mine got us all hot and bothered with this worldbuilding he was doing that involved giant insects that people could get into and control like vehicles (pulling nerves and what not). Then it never materialized because he got disappointed with it. It didn't matter how cool we thought it was, he came to hate this creation of his, so we never got to experience it.

This same friend also went cold like that in the middle of a campaign just when it was getting interesting for us, and dropped it. We were pretty bummed about it, but you can't force a person to game if they don't feel it. I have a feeling he just got burned out with gaming in general. Too bad because he was a good GM.

I inherited a Mage the Ascension game when the GM crashed and burned (and moved across the country) after his girlfriend dumped him.  That game lasted 3 years real time.

since then I've had a Call of Cthulhu game flop out 2 sessions in, been in 2 Champions games that failed, a Mutants and Masterminds game that bombed when the GM told us that while, yes we were leveling up, and facing tougher foes, no we wouldn't be getting XP, and an Earthdawn game that 2 players walked out of when the GM told them they were playing their characters wrong in the first session.

I was so stoked after the first LotR film came out, because folks in my group were finally in the mood to play some Middle-earth RPG.

I ended up dropping almost $500 to buy the entire wave of FotR minis from Games Workshop, as well as dropping cash on all the Decipher RPG stuff as it came out, and picked up a bunch of old MERP modules. Spent countless hours figuring out the campaign arc, too. It was going to be set after the Battle of the Five Armies, and be a generational campaign spanning 75 years and detailing the reign of King Bard and his descendants. It was going to end with the "Second Battle of Dale", which took place during the War of the Ring.

And then during the third session, and unrelated to the game at all, simmering tension between a couple of the players finally came to a head, and the group imploded. I was so discouraged I ended up selling off all the unpainted minis and books.

I still have all my notes, though. Maybe someday I'll run that game.

Quote from: Headless;919333I had a summer where we played every week, and every week we played a new system.

Quote from: cranebump;919336Were you sitting in with me?:-)

(I'm just the WORST system hopper, historically--cured now [fingers crossed]).

You two, are you from my last group:)?

Also, I don't have any such stories that I remember at the moment. Most campaigns I wanted to start saw at least a couple sessions of play, though sometimes they didn't last past that;).

Quote from: Herne's Son;922451...
And then during the third session, and unrelated to the game at all, simmering tension between a couple of the players finally came to a head, and the group imploded. I was so discouraged I ended up selling off all the unpainted minis and books.

I still have all my notes, though. Maybe someday I'll run that game.

Was it a lame implosion, or an interesting in-character one? If interesting enough, you might add it to the lore and start the next run in its aftermath.

Oh wait, I remembered a game that never started. We heard about Scion. We actually contacted friends that love mythology as much as we do, and persuaded them to play in a campaign. We had appointed a GM, too.

Then we bought the rulebook from Drivethru.
That game never started.