Who's read it?  Who played it?

Is it Palladium's best RPG ever?

I hath read it and I hath played it!!

I've  combined Systems Failure with Chaos Earth, and I've used the Bugs in Rifts too. I much prefer the Bug Apocalypse to zombies.

I am surprised Palladium didn't do more to support the game.

SF is a very good game, but Palladium's best? I am interested in why you give it that moniker.

Read it but didn't play it. The opening fiction in the book is awesome. And I usually find 99% of game fiction to be a waste of space.

Had it. Lost it with alot of gaming stuff stolen.

Was a pretty interesting setting. Felt though like it was lacking a bit of spark Wormwood, Nightbane or Scraypers had. Lack of personality for the aliens? Not sure. Easy enough to flesh out though. But it has that "incomplete" feel to it.

I suspect that is being Bill Coffin's game and his departure from Palladium is the reason it received no support and is no longer available through the company's store.

I was in a great campaign ran by a friend and had a lot of fun. I liked playing the Sawbones so much that I bought the original artwork for it from Scott Johnson.

As for lack of supplements it was planned as a stand alone game from the start. There are Rifters with additional content for System Failure.

It was a gem, loved it back in the day (tm). It's up there with TMNT and N&SS as my all time favorites. Pre RIFTS.

Quote from: Spinachcat;885202SF is a very good game, but Palladium's best? I am interested in why you give it that moniker.

I think it was the best single-book product in terms of just how much was in one package.

have it and use it and if its not the best Palladium game it certainly ranks near the top right up there with Beyond the Supernatural and Ninjas & Superspies and Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles. Palladium made some fun, fun games and their rules work just find despite all the naysayers.  Yeah, they could stand a better organization but so could Gygax's DMG and PHB. Never stopped anyone from playing that game.

I loved a lot of Palladium's games, for sure. This one just stood out to me as a weird lost gem.

I own it. I think it is one of their best. Definitely an under appreciated gem.

The Y2K Bug premise may be a bit of a dated joke these days, but as a unique apocalypse for PA gaming it holds up just fine.

I put it up there with The Mechanoids for fun from Palladium.

See, on the other hand I always felt like the Mechanoids was over-rated. I think maybe that's because I discovered it later, and maybe at the time it actually came out it was very special. But by the time I came along to it, the premise seemed very old.

I think it may have been that I discovered Mechanoids back in '81 or '82. Also I ran some very fun campaigns with it, which can definitely add a rosy glow to any system.

If I were coming to it today I think it wouldn't seem so special. Giant robots are kind of passe now.

I loves me some post-apocalyptic games. I still have and cherish my original copies of the first printings of Gamma World 1E and Metamorphosis Alpha. The 1992 edition of Gamma World is my favorite. Though the second edition of After the Bomb has the best mutant animal creation rules ever. Spider-goats! What I don't like are PA settings that take place during and immediately after the Apocalypse, whatever that may be. Why? Because I 'project' myself into the setting. I start down this really dark rabbit hole of, "what would I do?" It pushes all of my anxiety buttons with a sledgehammer. System Failure was well done, no question. It just fell into that category of PA settings I can deal with. Give me a nice, nonsensical 'two hundred years after the Death, Thundarr the Barbarian' vibe.

Quote from: RPGPundit;888217See, on the other hand I always felt like the Mechanoids was over-rated. I think maybe that's because I discovered it later, and maybe at the time it actually came out it was very special. But by the time I came along to it, the premise seemed very old.

It may be that most of the positive was from the first and maybe second books?

All I know is that the Rifts version was underwhelming.