I've been gaming forever. And back in the good-ol'-days(tm) I never actively avoided new systems post-Moldvay, I just played what I played and whatever attracted me to run. But there are games and systems that simply never got their chance for whatever reason.

For me - here are the GLARING classics that I never engaged with.

Traveller - I have no idea why? I love Sci-fi RPGs. Traveller always escaped me. I have friends that love it. I know tons and tons of people love it. Anytime I've got an idea to look into it, it seems opaque to me, which happens with older games with multiple editions.

Warhammer - I used to read White Wolf magazine back in the day, and I love the lore, but as a wargame it was something I comfortably never engaged with. When I got into miniatures, I felt this pull towards it, but for *some* reason I never got into WHFRPG when by every right I should be all-in. Yet I've never run it. I plan on it tho (2e).

Shadowrun - Well this one is easy for me. I was a Cyberpunk purist. I tried Shadowrun 1e and 2e, I hated the mechanics. I've grown much softer towards Shadowrun in terms of setting concepts, and I'd be willing to run it, but not on the systems from its various editions which I still find horrible.

Runequest - I *have* run Stormbringer, but I completely skipped out on Glorantha. Again, it's become kind of opaque and unapproachable to me. However - I do own Mythras and I do intend on running it at some point.

Call of Cthuluhu - I've played various one-shots, convention games etc. I personally have *never* understood the draw to running a long-form campaign of CoC. I think I basically don't get the fun of playing doomed PC's that can do very little to affect things - but I do get that's not the point of CoC, where the goal is to defeat the machinations of mythos-corrupted cults/individuals etc. I do use a lot of mythos elements in my other games... but for some reason CoC as a game itself just never took.

What popular games have never graced your table? (I'm sure others will remind me of more that I've missed out on).

As a blanket to save time, I'm nearly always interested in Fantasy, and particular slices of that.  So if the game isn't either Toon, Traveler, one of the Champions derivatives, or fantasy, I haven't run it, popular or not.

In the fantasy cross-section of classic and in a sub genre that I'm likely to want to run, the main entry is probably Pendragon.  I really enjoy Arthurian myths, even down into some of the more obscure related source literature, such as Yvain, Knight of the Lion. Just never had a group of players interested in playing it.   

Quote from: tenbones on July 14, 2023, 10:55:29 AM
I've been gaming forever. And back in the good-ol'-days(tm) I never actively avoided new systems post-Moldvay, I just played what I played and whatever attracted me to run. But there are games and systems that simply never got their chance for whatever reason.

For me - here are the GLARING classics that I never engaged with.

Traveller - I have no idea why? I love Sci-fi RPGs. Traveller always escaped me. I have friends that love it. I know tons and tons of people love it. Anytime I've got an idea to look into it, it seems opaque to me, which happens with older games with multiple editions.

Warhammer - I used to read White Wolf magazine back in the day, and I love the lore, but as a wargame it was something I comfortably never engaged with. When I got into miniatures, I felt this pull towards it, but for *some* reason I never got into WHFRPG when by every right I should be all-in. Yet I've never run it. I plan on it tho (2e).

Shadowrun - Well this one is easy for me. I was a Cyberpunk purist. I tried Shadowrun 1e and 2e, I hated the mechanics. I've grown much softer towards Shadowrun in terms of setting concepts, and I'd be willing to run it, but not on the systems from its various editions which I still find horrible.

Runequest - I *have* run Stormbringer, but I completely skipped out on Glorantha. Again, it's become kind of opaque and unapproachable to me. However - I do own Mythras and I do intend on running it at some point.

Call of Cthuluhu - I've played various one-shots, convention games etc. I personally have *never* understood the draw to running a long-form campaign of CoC. I think I basically don't get the fun of playing doomed PC's that can do very little to affect things - but I do get that's not the point of CoC, where the goal is to defeat the machinations of mythos-corrupted cults/individuals etc. I do use a lot of mythos elements in my other games... but for some reason CoC as a game itself just never took.

What popular games have never graced your table? (I'm sure others will remind me of more that I've missed out on).

Toss FATE and Apocalypse World and Vampire and Ironsworn and Burning Wheel on that fire, as well. Just reading most of those felt like being fondled by transients.

Gamma World: I asked for this game multiple times at my local hobby store, but apparently it was out of print or something and all they had was a supplement for it, taunting me with its presence, but not the core books themselves. I don't care for it as much anymore, but it was always the top game I never got to play back in the days.

World of Darkness/White Wolf Games: I only got to play maybe one session of Werewolf when I was in my early 20s, but I always snubbed at the idea of playing Vampire and co when they started to become popular in the 90s, cuz I found the idea of "storytelling games" too pretentious and figured people who played them were assholes. Then later I got the books and loved them so much (despite the literal pretentiousness) I regretted never seeking out a group while I had the chance to play regularly ever since.

Palladium Games other than RIFTS or Robotech: Robotech was actually the 2nd TTRPG I ever played (1st was Basic D&D) and RIFTS may have been the 3rd or 4th (not sure if I played AD&D 2e first), but I never got to play or even own the books for any other Palladium games. Might have tried Fantasy or TMNT if I had the chance to get them. But the system is kinda crap so I wouldn't at this point.

Warhammer: I used to run into books or ads for this stuff regularly back in the day, but it involved miniatures, so it was an instant pass for me, cuz that was too much money and too much work for me. And while I have the artistic inclination to paint minis I'm just too damn lazy to do it and too stingy to sink that much money into a side hobby, even if I had the disposable income.

Runequest: I may have run into books for this, but never even grabbed my attention. And I had played CoC before, but never got into BRP, so I ignored it.

Mythras: Often comes up in forums (specially another one I visit, where it's one of the most loved games for some reason) and I have a digital copy, but as mentioned in Runequest above, I don't click with BRP. Interesting, farmable concepts for Animism in particular, though.

D&D 4e: The most hated edition of D&D. I never considered it to be "true" D&D, but I would still have tried it out if I had the chance at one point, but not really interested anymore. The system had a couple interesting concepts I wanted to see how they handled in actual play, but deviated too much from D&D for me to consider it actual D&D.

Savage Worlds: Came close and made a bunch of characters testing it out. But chance to get a group together to play it fell through, and I'd probably just test my own system next time I get to play instead. It's the #1 game other than my own I'd like to play at this point.

Other Stuff: There's a bunch of other games I haven't had a chance to play, but they either escape me right now, or I wouldn't be interested regardless. Traveler falls kinda close to that second category, but I'm kinda curious about it, so who knows. But I wouldn't go out of my way to try it.

I played Vampire the Masquerade once when it first came out and I absolutely loved the system, but I hated the milieu.  I thought that White Wolf's d10 system would make for a great sci-fi game. 

FGU games - except Chivalry and Sorcery, which I ran for about 6 months at the request of my players (history undergrads), before they begged me to return to AD&D. I own Bushido, Privateers and Gentlemen, Space Opera, Villains and Vigilantes and Aftermath - and they have all been a nice read, but I never played them or found anyone desiring to play them.

The other is Top Secret - again I bought it, read it, never played it.

The White Wolf games appealed to me until I met the am dram goths who then had a game of it going and put me off.

The list would be too numerous to count here.  There's a lot of games that were super popular I didn't run and many I didn't even play.  Here's a few notables with thoughts as to why.

WOD: This stands out as being the most important one that I didn't play because it's the only one I intentionally avoided right from the jump.  I first heard of it when listening to coworkers talking about it.  I loved the whole idea of the factions but I was quickly turned off when I started to see the players who played it.  Also, a big reason I really started to doubt the system itself is when I ready the core rule book and saw that was really about creating the internal moral dilemma of struggling with the corruption of becoming a vampire.  To me the solution was obvious, either embrace becoming the monster and just go with it or take a walk outside at noon and burn the corruption out as soon as you can.  Anything else is just taking up stall time.

Anything PbtA  Again, the biggest turn off for me was seeing the people who gathered around the table to play these games.  Generally, I will play with all kinds of people.  It doesn't take long around certain groups for your in character decisions to be how they judge the person you are IRL.  Part of the appeal of RPGs to me is the ability to explore alternate moral codes and approaches to working things out.  If I have to uphold certain social standards in a game or be condemned, it's a toxic table.  I'm not saying that I would engage in cannibalism or gratuitous sexual violence in character in detail during a session, but if I'm playing an amoral and selfish schemer it doesn't mean I'm that way.  Also, the bare bones rules set is a bit too free flow for me.  It basically gives the GM a lot of game play authority without framing the limits of PCs or the world.

Quote from: tenbones on July 14, 2023, 10:55:29 AM
Traveller - I have no idea why? I love Sci-fi RPGs. Traveller always escaped me. I have friends that love it. I know tons and tons of people love it. Anytime I've got an idea to look into it, it seems opaque to me, which happens with older games with multiple editions.

I'm seriously biased here.  Traveller is one of my favorite systems for a number of reasons.  It has the best PC creations system for any game I have ever played.  Done right, it does an excellent job of creating a background of your PC while stitching the PCs together.  The task resolution system works well.  PC growth is meaningful but it avoids the large jumps of power in some other systems.  It is well worth your time, imo.

If you want to learn how the system works, Seth Skorkowski does a great job of covering it.  He covers Mongoose 2e but the variants of Traveller are very similar to the point that many modules and supplements are compatible without conversion or modification.  Here's his video series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdCq91MP9wE&list=PL25p5gPY6qKVUg6ys5N1oRlsBI7DTByyI&pp=iAQB

D&D, all editions.

Contrary to some statements I've made, I'm not a D&D hater.   I just never needed to play it as we bought Palladium RoboTech as our first RPG, then other games by Palladium like Rifts and Heroes Unlimited.  Once that was all done I both didn't feel the need to try D&D, and wasn't impressed by the game when I did see it in the form of 2E with Thac-0.   Sue me for libel if you want, TSR, but Thac-0 is just plain stupid.

That being said, I do want to try it out in the form of an OSR game like Basic Fantasy or RPG Pundit's own Star Adventurer.   I also may not try it as I have a stubborn and illogical desire to keep my record of never playing D&D intact.

Where do I start? There's only so much time, so while I've played lots of games I haven't run nearly as many. Here are popular games (at least I think they were) I never happened to run, but would like to:
Runequest 2e
Warhammer Fantasy 1e, Warhammer 40k "generic activities" (most likely using Rogue Trader as a base)
FASA Star Trek
Metamorphosis Alpha
Thieves Guild (Gamelords)
Lamentations of the Flame Princess
Cyberpunk (any edition)
MERP
Arduin
Firefly / Serenity
Hackmaster 4e
Paranoia 1e
Prime Directive
Space 1889

My three regrets in all the decades that I have been playing RPGs, of the systems that I never tried or got into when they came out are: 
Traveler.  When I would see the books in the hobby store, I thought they looked so boring.  Although I flipped through them from time to time, other games just were presented in a much more fun and appealing way, and so I never gave Traveler a chance.

Marvel Superheroes.  I was never much of a comic book kid, but now when people have shown me how fun and fast the system was, I regret not giving it a chance.

Warhammer Fantasy 1st Edition.  When I saw this in the hobby store, I thought, "oh, another D&D knock-off".  BOY WAS I WRONG!!  I now own all of the 2nd edition books and had I given Warhammer a chance back in the '80s I would have never have gone back to D&D.  That really shows my D20 snobbery at that time.

Mothership and Mork Borg.

Was interested in running both, but heard the authors/companies are woketards.

None of my money nor energy goes to woketards.

As for ancient game "regrets", I wish I played more Palladium titles back during their heyday in the 80s/90s. Now, the ruleset is too clunky to care about returning to.

Not commonly popular, but Judge Dredd. Watched the Karl Urban movie again and thought this would make a great one-shot or short campaign. Was there a D20 version? Mongoose Traveller version? Can't recall.

World of Darkness - Some supplements were better than people credit them for, but as a good reading. I never felt the need to run anything (one of my players did a session of Live Role-Playing with Vampire, out of curiosity, and returned just astounded by how a bad experience it had been).

Traveller - I never "got" it. I bought the base game and some supplements and I found them boring. Maybe it is a question of taste but I don't see how I can play/run a game if it doesn't excite me in the first place.

Warhammer - I actually ran a couple of sessions, before both me and my players wondered what we were doing with our lives.

D&D 4E - I told this story many times. I bought and read the books while vacationing in Washington D.C. and, when I left, I threw them in a bin at the airport. I then prayed for years that the Homeland Security would not have seen that as a form of attack.

Twilight 2000 - This was a strange experience. I wanted to play this one but, for some reason, I never came up with an idea I liked for an adventure. Years later the first "Fallout" CRPG made me understand the potential of the setting - but by then I had lost that group of players.

Shadow World - I bought A LOT of boxes and supplements for this at a fire sale (a FLGS was closing doors) and I found it fascinating. At the same time, however, I got my new group. They were newbies who, of course, wanted to start with D&D. We got so involved that it became the start of my 13 years campaign - and Shadow World remained untouched. I a corner of my mind I still want to play it. Someday...

Not All GURPS - My third favourite RPG after Call of Cthulhu (first) and D&D (second). It actually gave me a lot, from Cyberpunk/Horror to "The Lost World" in the 1920s. HOWEVER, supplements like Martial Arts and Vehicles were simply too much. The first turned one second of combat into one hour of actual play; the second made me learn MS Excel and I even created a home-made spreadsheet - before I decided that my time was better spent creating adventures, not spreadsheets.

MERP - The supplements were great but the "Role Master-lite" system was as unTolkien as you get. I worked on the Italian edition and, for this reason, I played some sessions to better grasp the game - but it was work, not an hobby.

Harn, Glorantha et. al - I always had a deep respect for these games - because I never had a clue on what they are about.

Quote from: Aglondir on July 16, 2023, 05:54:36 PM
Not commonly popular, but Judge Dredd. Watched the Karl Urban movie again and thought this would make a great one-shot or short campaign. Was there a D20 version? Mongoose Traveller version? Can't recall.

There is a "version" out there, uses D6s. I think it was Mongoose but not any longer.
Games I've never played/run:

Any Palladium games.
Pendragon
Werewolf
MSHRPG (any supes games really, apart from Golden Heroes)
TFT
Tekumel
Hero
Pathfinder
Star Trek
Toon

Rarer games I own but haven't run/played
Macho Women with guns
Hawkmoon

Quote from: spon on July 17, 2023, 06:17:32 AM

Quote from: Aglondir on July 16, 2023, 05:54:36 PM
Not commonly popular, but Judge Dredd. Watched the Karl Urban movie again and thought this would make a great one-shot or short campaign. Was there a D20 version? Mongoose Traveller version? Can't recall.

There is a "version" out there, uses D6s. I think it was Mongoose but not any longer.

That sounds like the version by ENPublishing, based on their WOIN system.

Me personally, I've never played RuneQuest despite buying three different editions of the system.