There are games or systems we might like the idea of, but when we play them, they just leave us flat or uninspired.  Nothing against those games, but they just don't "click" for us.

I'm not talking about games we hated/extremely disliked, but games that just weren't...quite there for us?

Do you have games like this?  For me, the first one that jumps out (sorry Ed) is GURPS.  I've played GURPS and GURPS Lite, would do it again, think SJ Games has made some of the best sourcebooks on the planet, but for some reason I just can't get into the system.

Quote from: Zachary The First;418517There are games or systems we might like the idea of, but when we play them, they just leave us flat or uninspired.  Nothing against those games, but they just don't "click" for us.

I'm not talking about games we hated/extremely disliked, but games that just weren't...quite there for us?

Do you have games like this?  For me, the first one that jumps out (sorry Ed) is GURPS.  I've played GURPS and GURPS Lite, would do it again, think SJ Games has made some of the best sourcebooks on the planet, but for some reason I just can't get into the system.

Witchcraft/All Flesh Must Be Eaten - I would include Armageddon, Terra Primate and Conspiracy X, but I only bought those, we actually tried these two. Witchcraft was doubly painful, because my players loved it, and I just didn't really. That said, karma is a bitch because I love the Cinematic Unisystem as much as I tried to love the Classic Unisystem, and Buffy/Angel kills my group every time, unfortunately.

ICONS is very much on the fence here, as I really do wanna like it, but my first time running it felt like such a trainwreck to me. My six year old loved it, though...so I may be looking at a Witchcraft redux...=P

Fate 2.0. The degrees of difficulty / success are way too coarse for me, and I find it too easy for PCs to top out at a small set of core skills and dominate everyone else.

GURPS would be one for me, too. I like a lot of the world books, but I've never been able to get the game itself past "more trouble than it's worth" in play.

Earthdawn was a setting I liked the idea of, but it didn't turn out to play too well in practice for me. System elements that seemed novel didn't survive the novelty factor after a session or two. The setting's "spins" on the traditional fantasy races, etc didn't come out too well in play either without a lot of 'reinforcing.' I think this could stand in for a lot of fantasy oriented games, this was just one I happened to try and not have a big success with.

I did not get as far as actually running it, but despite liking the grand concept, I was not pleased with the execution in Iron Heroes for many reasons recently discussed.

I liked the idea of playing "a game about Vampires" but when I originally picked up Vampire the Masquerade it was really disheartening - it made me think 'well, this is not what I'd want such a game to be like' and also made me think 'I actually have little idea what I actually would want one to be like either.' I think in some ways it was an early turnoff for me toward 'urban fantasy' as a whole.

Ars Magica was similar in a way, but I tried very hard to like this one. I guess I felt like it wasn't providing me with a great sense of interesting things for PCs to be doing unless I was either forcing a villain of the week, or setting-specific clique power struggles, neither of which were modes of play I have generally favored. I think it also was the beginning of my moderate distaste for free-form magic systems, an idea I had liked in theory, but in context had started to view less as 'magic being magical' and more as 'magic as TV episode scripting."

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;418522Fate 2.0. The degrees of difficulty / success are way too coarse for me, and I find it too easy for PCs to top out at a small set of core skills and dominate everyone else.

This is indeed a challenge for Fudge or Fate GM's. It takes alot of work on an adventure to ensure there are sufficient challenges so that each player gets an opportunity to shine.

There needs to be a framework for teamwork activities which are currently not well developed (at least for fudge).

D20 Modern - Yeah, it's D20, which has many other iterations that are palatable to me. But the more I actually played it, the less happy I was with the way it played out.

WEG Star Wars - It was certainly playable, but compared to other SF games at the time, it just came off as weak.

Mutants & Masterminds is on the cusp here. It comes close to what I want out of a supers game, but no game I've played with it really ever felt over-the-top.

GURPs - I've played it, GMed it, have a vast collection of wonderful sourcebooks for it, but the system is just so bland and clunky. I have no real complaint against it except that it's just aesthetically unpleasing.

Toon - I've simply no idea what to do with this game. The idea of roleplaying out a Looney Tunes cartoon seems boring as hell to me.

Hero System - Again, some good sourcebooks, but I simply cannot play a game with that much crunch. Totally undermines my style of GMing.

Fate 3.0 - I loved the second edition of Fate rules available free online for almost a decade. I don't understand any of the Fate 3e games, especially ones like Diaspora, where the author has some weird anti-GM chip on his shoulder.

Dogs in the Vineyard - the system seems pretty neat, but the setting... "Let's see guys, tonight we could play fantasy warriors, superheroes, occult investigators, or...Mormon missionaries."

Exalted - I just don't get it. I know everyone loves this game, but it pushes exactly none of my buttons.

Ghost Dog - a rather obscure liscensed game by Tri-Stat based upon the film of the same name. I'm not sure who could watch that film and think "this needs to be a roleplaying game". I mean, it's right there with the Dallas RPG in my mind as far as WTF game premises. But I have held onto it mainly because the information on using the mafia and organized crime in a campaign is bar none the most comprehensive, clear and useful treaty on the subject I've ever come across.

Dungeons & Dragons Mainly anything from 3rd edition onwards. I have nothing against D&D, but comparing the game that exists now to my Moldevay boxed set from the 80s, I can't even comprehend these as the same game.

Tekumel - the buy-in for players is just too high.

AD&D2 - At the time, I played enjoyable games with it, but it seemed to be more because of what came before, rather than what changed with it. Now, it either doesn't go far enough to be a 3rd ed tool box, or is just too lame to really be First Ed. So I discard it.

Superhero games - I like the idea of superhero games. When you think about it, lots of games out there, like Vampire or (some versions of) D&D or whatnot, can be taken as superhero games in disguise. But the overt, explicit, modern superhero genre itself... the dudes in tights flying around saving the world from supervillains, justice league style, that doesn't do much for me.

Savage Worlds - want to like, love lots of stuff coming out for it, but somehow it's not clicking with me at all. Which sucks (see related thread, entitled "[SIGH] Savage Worlds" or something like that).

Lone Wolf RPG - Huge fan of the Magnamund and Joe Dever's books, but the d20 game just doesn't do it for me. I would go about it in a completely different way. The background part of the game is really cool, but the mechanics leave me cold.

True 20 - WAY too bland for me.

A lot of my friends like Cortex, but I can't find anything about it I like. Too bad, too--They have some nice licenses attached to it.

I like Savage Worlds as a generic sort of tabletop game. I've run a number of fun scenarios with it. But it's not really much of what I look for specifically in a role-playing game.

I don't like 21st century D&D.

Hero - Love the sourcebooks, kinda like the system. If 6e had removed 200 pages of rules, I'd love this game. Instead, I think they added 200 pages.

Gurps - Same as Hero.

Earthdawn - Barsaive is one of the best settings ever published, but those rules are clunky.

Red Dwarf seemed pretty cool on paper but when I actually ran it it was so clunky.

Never liked D20 3.0-3.5 despite writing 4 books in it.

D20 4.0 was just so damn silly for a game which people take seriously. I take no game seriously but I felt it spoilt it for those that do. Yes more than my camp Tiefling Warlord, Jamaican Gnome Paladin or Frankie Boyle impersonating Dwarf Beastmaster.

oWoD I'm not too keen. It is kind of clunky for a story heavy game.

Quote from: Benoist;418569Superhero games - I like the idea of superhero games. When you think about it, lots of games out there, like Vampire or (some versions of) D&D or whatnot, can be taken as superhero games in disguise. But the overt, explicit, modern superhero genre itself... the dudes in tights flying around saving the world from supervillains, justice league style, that doesn't do much for me.

I'm not much for the JLU style game either (although I loved the show). I find that supers can work well, but you have to marry it to another genre(s) or find some other way to avoid the reactive/railroady nature of the genre. Another thing, I am completely not interested in the playing out Peter Parker's love life. Fuck that.
For what its worth, our BASH game came alive when I worked in the occult mystery elements and let the PCs look for clues- before that it was fucking painful for me, although the players were digging it. I actually have a document around here somewhere that I wrote on how to make a good supers adventure. I'll post it sometime if I can find it.

Oh and for me GURPS, HERO and D&D 3.x, for all the usual reasons (i.e., they objectively suck).

All Superhero games
Gurps
Hero system
FASA Star Trek
WOD etal.
Cthulhu
Battle Tech RPG
Cyber...etal.

to many to list really...

Supers.  I just don't like most supers stuff, unless it's extremely gritty or lacks the spandex aesthetic.  Unfortunately most of the pop stuff has at least a hint of the spandex.

Battletech.  I love the universe, I love the PC games and the tabletop game, but the fluff, IMO, is pretty bland in terms of inhabiting the life of a character.  Great setting for battles, meh setting for roleplaying.

Tons of experimental and/or "pushing the envelope" story-games.  Either too weird in terms of system or too weird in terms of content.

Talislanta.  I don't know.  Maybe it's because I grew up with high-fantasy instead of oddball sword and sorcery stuff, but the setting does nothing for me.

Off the top of my head...

Unisystem, Classic or Cinematic. It's straightforward and no-frills, qualities I just love, but I just. Don't. Like. It. It feels bland and uninspiring, neither here nor there, know what I mean? Yeah, me neither.

Exalted. I like the "fantasy superheroes" side, even though the anime/manga aesthetics do nothing for me. The implementation, both in setting and mechanics, is a mess, though.

Iron Heroes. Frank Trollman and others had a big huge thread on this while I was away, so let's leave it at that.