My first RPG was BECMI. I bought the Basic, Expert, and Companion sets as my start into RPGs. But I also lived in the country. And there weren't a lot of people around I knew that pursued the hobby.

I had just moved into a new school district. And the only people I knew of with experience in D&D was a small group in my science class a couple of years before in a prior school district. The extent of my gaming knowledge at that point was Star Fleet Battles and the D&D books I had just bought.

So I met a new kid from the neighborhood. Told him I was into D&D. Just bought it. And was looking for a group to play with. And I asked if he knew of anyone from the school who did. Well he never answered my question. But instead launched into a rant about how much D&D sucked and how Runequest was oh so much better.

I finally got mad after about an hour of him berating the game system I actually owned. And told him that D&D is what I had. Deal with it. And I walked away from him and never spoke to him again.

That was my first encounter with a system snob. And it left a burning fire in my gut regarding Runequest. A game I have never owned, never touched, and likely never will.

I have touched several other Chaosium games over the intervening years of my hobby. Superworld, Stormbringer, Call Of Cthulhu. And I overall liked them to varying degrees.

But Runequest? That's a bridge I have never crossed. And am content to just leave it be.

While I can understand that snobbery putting you off from that player at least, you really can't blame the system. I personally loved Runequest, but it was mainly because I enjoyed the lore of Glorantha and  was my first percentile system. It had a lot of the things that I thought D&D was missing (though I was still playing in two AD&D campaigns at the time which were great), or a different perspective on the same trope. I would say that unless you are a big fan of Glorantha (which you are not) then there is no impetus to try it. Though this really doesn't sound like a grudge, just a preference. Not every system is for everyone.

Quote from: Darrin Kelley on November 23, 2020, 01:50:20 AM
And it left a burning fire in my gut regarding Runequest. A game I have never owned, never touched, and likely never will.
But Runequest? That's a bridge I have never crossed. And am content to just leave it be.

Uh... Don't you think you took that encounter as a kid a bit too seriously? I had fun with RQ and D&D. Seems like you missed out not the snob.

I personally don't give two fucks what someone thinks of a game I like.

It sounds more like you have a grudge against a kid you met more than 3 decades ago.

Quote from: K Peterson on November 23, 2020, 08:32:42 AM
It sounds more like you have a grudge against a kid you met more than 3 decades ago.

Agreed and seconded.

either the OP has the worst luck imaginable when it comes to tabletop rpgs and those who play it. Or simply feels the need to make up these scenarios where we are supposed to feel sorry for him while patting his back and going "atta boy". How many times can one gamer have such horrible luck and continual negative experiences in the hobby.

Maybe it's just me yet a I sense a pattern of it's never the OP fault when something goes bad during such encounters it's the other party. Not to mention unknown gamer XYZ goes on for a rant about the OP favored game at the time and stays to listen for an hour long rant. After ten minutes I would have simply just walked away. It just seems each time with the op it's worst case scenario upon worst case scenario. After awhile one stops caring as so many times one wants to hear "woe is me, feel sorry for me."

Yeaaaah, I'm sorry Darrin, but this reads less like 'I don't like RQ and here's why' and more like 'I'm holding a grudge against a system I've never played because I ran into one spergy tard who was probably bitter because he couldn't game BECMI the same way.'

Jeez, of all the things to complain about...

Quote from: K Peterson on November 23, 2020, 08:32:42 AM
It sounds more like you have a grudge against a kid you met more than 3 decades ago.

Rent. Free.

Have no fear. I looked up "That Kid" and he was struck by lightning and died. All that was found was a 20-sided die shaped piece of bone with the number "1" on it.

You can rest assured, the Gaming Gods have wreaked their vengeance upon him and you can let you grudge go.

And you can even ease your way into it - pick up Mythras, and pretend it's not Runequest!

(Full confession - I picked up Mythras and have never run it but it looks *awesome*. But it's going to happen! It will!)

Sounds like you have a grudge against an annoying system snob you met 3 decades ago, not necessarily the game.

I mean, you aren't wrong for feeling this way. Plenty of people have popular franchises poisoned for them by annoying, snobby nerds.  Still if it's been more than 10 years, I would recommend trying it.  You never know, you might enjoy the game.

Full disclosure, I am actually not a big fan of Runequest either for a number of reasons.  Most of them have to do with the stranger elements of the lore.  I've never really liked the Runequest interpretation of Elves and Dwarves.  If you're going to change them so much from what's recognizable, why even call them Elves or Dwarves in the first place. Also the Ducks.  It's so strange to me that everything in this universe is so naturalistic, until suddenly you encounter a tribe of Scrooge McDucks.

Or Howard the Duck, or Donald Duck.  Or whichever stylized cartoon representation of the family Anatidae you prefer.

What some of the posters here seem to be glibly forgetting is that first impressions can be the absolute deal breaker if somehow presented poorly, or worse.

A game can be really great. But if the person presenting it is an ass then no amount of greatness is going to get you to play it if it comes across that negatively. Even just a bad first session can turn a person off a game permanently or colour their perceptions of it way off kilter. We see it over on BGG fairly often with everything from bad presentation, low behavior from a company, to just a really poor first session.

I mean we have had members here with exactly this sort of reaction and even some of the above have to this or that game.

And sometimes a really bad experience with a game you really like can turn you off it. Possibly permanently.

Personal example being gurps. Some of my players love it. Im ok with the system but not impressed with the hype. But every damn time I try to get into the game SJG comes along and pulls some new wretched or just idiot stunt and I lose any urge to do anything with it. Pretty much the same with White Wolf. Orpheus was the last WW product I bought and thats only because certain individuals were not involved.

And theres two other RPGs I'll never touch because I happen to know the designers for both and what absolute dirt they are.

4e D&D's advertising alone put who knows how many people off ever touching it.

Omega it's not being glib and your point about someone poorly presenting an RPg by being negative about another is spot on to myself at least.

The Op seems to be in the wrong hobby imo he seems to hate too much of it. What next in 4-5 months " How I hate MDC or how Kevin Seimbeda killed my interest Rifts". I never thought to meet let alone experience a self hating tabletop gamer. Almost every thread is negative while venting and being too cheap to go to qualified psychologist.

I had a similar experience less gamer and more publisher whose selling point was bashing D&D on the back of his product. Which rpg who knows. I have better things to do then obsess on an incident that happens 20 years ago.

The Kid was right.

Darrin you have a grudge? I'm shocked.  Shocked I tell you.   




Also that kid you still hate after three decades or more? He was right. Runequest is better than D&D.

In the intervening years, I have found the Runequest fans period to be just as obnoxious as that one system sob. So I don't see myself as losing out on anything by avoiding them.

Well... then is this thread a service announcement post that all Runequest players, and those that like the game are hereby proclaimed as "DICKS"?

You should have just led with that.