"Jumping the Shark" is that critical moment for a TV show, when you know they've just finished poisoning the show of any goodness it may have had, and everything goes downhill from there.  The name comes from the famous episode of "Happy Days" where Fonzie jumped over a shark-filled pool with his motorcycle.

I think RPGs/RPG settings can sometimes "jump the shark" too.  For example:  Forgotten Realms with the time of troubles.  It was a good setting before that, and it wouldn't be a good setting again until now, when its just slowly starting to become a good setting, albeit still hampered by all the stupid continuity crap and idiocy that came between that stupid, stupid, event and today.

Deadlands: Deadlands jumped the shark with the very earliest sourcebooks.  The main book(s, though second edition is more playable its not nearly as good in other respects) were really brilliant examples of how to make a GOOD wild west RPG, something that had never been done in the history of the gaming world until then. Sheer brilliance. And then they started almost immediately to load the setting with pile upon pile of utter crap.

Which other games can you think of as having "jumped the shark", and when?

RPGPundit

*Thinks about Vampire*

.oO(Damn thing didn't just jump the shark, it tapdanced across it's back.)

.oO(Why am I thinking out loud on the internet?)

.oO(Will anyone even realize that these are "thought balloons?" I'm typing?)

Settingwise everything after RIFTS world book 11, Coalition War Campaign, has been ironically boring. I might leave an exception for Warlords of Russia, but as much as I try, nothing after 11 really excites me.

Quote from: JamesVSettingwise everything after RIFTS world book 11, Coalition War Campaign, has been ironically boring. I might leave an exception for Warlords of Russia, but as much as I try, nothing after 11 really excites me.

Some Rifts fans feel there was a drought of good titles from around the Coalition War Camapaign until some of the more recent books that came out emphasizing more of the earlier feel of Rifts than "metropolis and huge military power shooting out of the middle of nowhere that we never mentioned before!".

(EDIT:  But it's Rifts, where we don't jump the shark, we shred it with our rail gun, keep it alive using Atlantean bio-wizardry, then rebuild it into a Juicer Shark.  With its own power armor).

I think the old ICE MERP books jumped the shark towards the end for me, but I can't say precisely where.

Quote from: Zachary The First(EDIT:  But it's Rifts, where we don't jump the shark, we shred it with our rail gun, keep it alive using Atlantean bio-wizardry, then rebuild it into a Juicer Shark.  With its own power armor).

If I didn't have to worry about legal action, I'd try a write-up for a Juicer Shark. And in its honor I will put up what I nominate as the official RIFTS smiley for theRPGsite
:verkill:

There's really never a bad occasion to use that smiley, but I'll second that designation.

Mystara jumped the shark with the 'Wrath of the Immortals' box set.

Everything that advanced the timeline beyond 1000 AC in Mystara sucked ass IMO.

Quote from: JamesVAnd in its honor I will put up what I nominate as the official RIFTS smiley for theRPGsite
:verkill:

That's 1d4 points of megadamage in action.

RPGPundit

Quote from: AkrasiaMystara jumped the shark with the 'Wrath of the Immortals' box set.

Everything that advanced the timeline beyond 1000 AC in Mystara sucked ass IMO.

Now, see, I disagree. The game took a turn in a different direction after Wrath, one that not everyone loved, but it still didn't qualify as "jumping the shark". I, for one, think that Wrath is a fairly good product, and the wizard's almanacs have a touch of greatness to them.

But where Mystara REALLY jumped the shark is when they switched it to AD&D.  At that point, it was pretty obvious to anyone and everyone.

RPGPundit

Traveller jumped the shark with the publication of Survival Margin, in my estimation.

Tharkhold was Torg's Jump the Shark moment.

Quote from: Abyssal MawTharkhold was Torg's Jump the Shark moment.

  Ooooooh.  Good one.  It served only to complete overshadow the Cyberpapacy and the victorian horror one.  What was it called?  Orrosh?

  Having said that, I was never a huge fan of the living land.  I thought it missed its target quite comprehensibly.  Was it not supposed to be a kind of "Land that time forgot" type thing?  instead it was just a jungle... with lizards.

The Living Land had the most hilariously bad art of any of them. I kinda liked it as a realm though, just because it was crazy and had dinosaurs.

Shadowrun jumped the shark when Fanpro took over and published Year of the Comet.  Everything from that point forward was pointless.

Quote from: VellorianShadowrun jumped the shark when Fanpro took over and published Year of the Comet.  Everything from that point forward was pointless.

I agree that YotC was totally wacked out goofiness (thus almost consistant with the setting ). But you do realise that YotC was actually produced by FASA. Fanpro inhereted the finished manuscript.  Now it could be argued that Fanpro should have just killed it, and are guilty by compliance. But they didn't create it.