White print on black pages...

 - OR -

Overly artsy-farty flourishes in the margins of the pages and the choice of the font used.

 Just legible black text print on white pages please.

- Ed C.

Quote from: easywolf32 on January 04, 2025, 11:52:54 AM- Extreme sexualization of every female in the book while all white men are either fat, ugly, evil, etc

Have you seen a book like that? The culture wars being what they are, usually people in the "white man bad" camp are also in the "defeat the male gaze" camp.

Pronouns for characters and "SaFeTy ToOlS" make it a no go for me. Rule of thumb is if it has those it likely replaced race with some other nonsense as well.

The word problematic
BLK/YT for black/white people
 bonus point if it's followed by ppl
Capitalized Queer
 Bonus point if the author feels the need to tell me how Queer they are
Marginalized people/identities
 Bonus point of the author feels the need to tell me about how marginalized they are.
BIPOC
 bonus point if the author feels the need to tell me how BIPOC they are
Anticolonial/decolonized
Lecture on how I have to play the game
 bonus point if there are different rules for different groups
 bonus point if "because marginalized"
Space for pronouns on the character sheet
 bonus point for sample character that uses they/them pronouns
 bonus point for "because inclusivity"
Purity test in the book.  10 points
Trigger warning
 bonus point if it's in a horror game
Any modern urban/graffiti font
White text on a dark background
 bonus point if the background is an image
Text going every which way
Art project masquerading as an rpg/Mork Borging
No index
 bonus point of the book is 300+ pages long
The first thing in the book is lengthy in-game fiction
 bonus point if it's bad
Safety tools
 bonus point if there's a lecture on how Important they are
Such diversity, So Representation in the art
 bonus point if it makes no sense for the setting
Playing card resolution mechanics in a Western game.  I am so sick of this.
The suffix punk attached to whatever random word.  Hermitpunk
Capitalism bad
 bonus point if the phrase late-stage capitalism is used.

Quote from: yosemitemike on January 05, 2025, 03:36:29 AMHermitpunk

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater here, tell me more about this hermitpunk.

Quote from: Bubu on January 05, 2025, 04:29:15 AMLet's not throw the baby out with the bathwater here, tell me more about this hermitpunk.

Somewhere in the giant pile of crap that is itch .io is a game that calls itself a hermitpunk game alongside stuff like Punk Ass Sorcerers Fighting The Man Who Is Just Being Kind of a Dick To Them, Like Personally which is an actual title.

manga, AI-generated illustration, sex, violence is encouraged, superhero (but not the past I liked !)

Quote from: yosemitemike on January 05, 2025, 03:36:29 AMThe word problematic
BLK/YT for black/white people
 bonus point if it's followed by ppl
Capitalized Queer
 Bonus point if the author feels the need to tell me how Queer they are
Marginalized people/identities
 Bonus point of the author feels the need to tell me about how marginalized they are.
BIPOC
 bonus point if the author feels the need to tell me how BIPOC they are
Anticolonial/decolonized
Lecture on how I have to play the game
 bonus point if there are different rules for different groups
 bonus point if "because marginalized"
Space for pronouns on the character sheet
 bonus point for sample character that uses they/them pronouns
 bonus point for "because inclusivity"
Purity test in the book.  10 points
Trigger warning
 bonus point if it's in a horror game
Any modern urban/graffiti font
White text on a dark background
 bonus point if the background is an image
Text going every which way
Art project masquerading as an rpg/Mork Borging
No index
 bonus point of the book is 300+ pages long
The first thing in the book is lengthy in-game fiction
 bonus point if it's bad
Safety tools
 bonus point if there's a lecture on how Important they are
Such diversity, So Representation in the art
 bonus point if it makes no sense for the setting
Playing card resolution mechanics in a Western game.  I am so sick of this.
The suffix punk attached to whatever random word.  Hermitpunk
Capitalism bad
 bonus point if the phrase late-stage capitalism is used.

Greetings!

Excellent listing and assessment, yosemitemike! I agree entirely.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: yosemitemike on January 05, 2025, 05:06:53 AMSomewhere in the giant pile of crap that is itch .io is a game that calls itself a hermitpunk game alongside stuff like Punk Ass Sorcerers Fighting The Man Who Is Just Being Kind of a Dick To Them, Like Personally which is an actual title.

*rolls up sleeves and grimly makes his way to itch*

Quote from: Bubu on January 05, 2025, 11:43:29 PM*rolls up sleeves and grimly makes his way to itch*

I wish you luck.

Quote from: yosemitemike on January 05, 2025, 03:36:29 AMTrigger warning
 bonus point if it's in a horror game

I see this more often than not anymore... Makes me want to crawl into a hole and die. In horror, they'd be better off just titling their list of warnings as "Features"!

DEI bullshit. IMO, all of the bandwagon game companies who incorporate this stupidity in their products will show their age real quick. The DEI trend is already dying a slow death.

Quote from: ForgottenF on January 04, 2025, 12:50:55 AMThis will probably seem like a weird one, but if defending yourself from an attack uses up your action for that turn, I write off the system. If it just uses a reaction I still don't love it, but it can work in some games. I also strongly dislike any system where to-hit difficulty is independent of what you're actually trying to hit, though that one's not always an automatic disqualifier for me.

I feel like I have played one such game. But was so long ago I no longer remember what it was.

Quote from: Omega on January 06, 2025, 10:54:12 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on January 04, 2025, 12:50:55 AMThis will probably seem like a weird one, but if defending yourself from an attack uses up your action for that turn, I write off the system. If it just uses a reaction I still don't love it, but it can work in some games. I also strongly dislike any system where to-hit difficulty is independent of what you're actually trying to hit, though that one's not always an automatic disqualifier for me.

I feel like I have played one such game. But was so long ago I no longer remember what it was.

Dragonbane works like that, unless I've misread the rules. I've seen it in some other games as well, but I can't recall names now. Several games have it that you can't defend yourself from more than one attack per round without a special talent or piece of equipment.

Quote from: ForgottenF on January 06, 2025, 11:45:53 PM

Quote from: Omega on January 06, 2025, 10:54:12 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on January 04, 2025, 12:50:55 AMThis will probably seem like a weird one, but if defending yourself from an attack uses up your action for that turn, I write off the system. If it just uses a reaction I still don't love it, but it can work in some games. I also strongly dislike any system where to-hit difficulty is independent of what you're actually trying to hit, though that one's not always an automatic disqualifier for me.

I feel like I have played one such game. But was so long ago I no longer remember what it was.

Dragonbane works like that, unless I've misread the rules. I've seen it in some other games as well, but I can't recall names now. Several games have it that you can't defend yourself from more than one attack per round without a special talent or piece of equipment.

Most of the RuneQuest family work this way. Armor absorbs damage so it doesn't make you harder to hit. And at least in Mongoose RuneQuest you have a number of actions based on your attributes, you can make them attack or defense depending upon your whim each round (if protected by good armor using them for attack makes sense!). OpenQuest gives you one attack and one defense action so being outnumbered can get hairy. I actually like the way all of that works.