This is the anti-post to my other one, wherein I ask the question which game has been criminally over-rated.
 
I would include in this list a sub-genre of games which are still-born, and should never have escaped the game designer's brain and committed to paper...

At the risk of being obvious, 3rd edition D&D and D20 in general. Especially D20 in general. Not that it's bad, just criminally over-rated and over-used.

Define over rated for me.

Exalted: horrible, overly-complex system that is badly broken (even according to the game's fans) hitched to a mish-mash, convoluted setting that utterly fails to interest me at all.

And yet, there are people who love this game with the burning heat of a thousand suns.

D20 would be my first choice as well, as I don't think I can name another RPG that was over-rated on quite that scale (to the point it dominated the market for half of the oughts).

RIFTS in the 90s. Maybe just Palladium in general.

Nobilis and Smallville if we're including RPGnet Darlings.

FATE 3rd Edition. There's plenty of fans who act like FATE is the be-all, end-all of gaming these days.

Fading Suns (And I like this game). It's one of those games where what you read about it, is far more interesting than the game itself.

Regards,
David R

D20 has taken more abuse than any other system.  How can it be over rated?

Most of the systems trying too hard for realism wind up boring yet still miss the mark of realism.  Yet their fans claim superiority through greater detail.  This includes Role Master, Gurps, Hero, etc.

It's really too easy to point to Sorcerer, DitV, Burning Wheel Revised, or TRoS. All of them games with rabid fandoms, who claim the game will work for everything if you'll just give it a chance (particularly the first three). When, in fact, they're highly problematic in one way or another.

However, those games really have pretty narrow followings and relatively limited publication histories.

The game that mystifies me is Paranoia. I heard of it when it came out and it seemed like a pretty funny idea. Loved reading & hearing stories of how it worked. Then I finally bought some materials used, looked them over, and realized I had no desire to play the game, let alone play multiple scenarios. It strikes me as a game that was made for certain point in time, basically as a one-shot high-concept gag, and now that I get the joke, there's no need to keep going. I wonder how much use the game actually gets over time, even as an in-between filler.

Quote from: Nicephorus;488655D20 has taken more abuse than any other system.  How can it be over rated?

You perception may be coloured by online opinions, which in no way reflect the industry as a whole. For the better part of a decade, D20 was the be-all. end-all of gaming for the majority of the hobby, and Pathfinder's continued success even after the system was "retired" has led to it providing the first real competition for D&D since WoTC bought it out.

The sheer glut of D20 products that flooded the market alone should give an indication to how over-rated this system was, if not the asinine belief held by far too many that the system was in some way a generic or universal engine that can handle any genre (it can't, the system is just cleaned-up AD&D with some bells & whistles, nothing more).

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;488657The game that mystifies me is Paranoia. I heard of it when it came out and it seemed like a pretty funny idea. Loved reading & hearing stories of how it worked. Then I finally bought some materials used, looked them over, and realized I had no desire to play the game, let alone play multiple scenarios. It strikes me as a game that was made for certain point in time, basically as a one-shot high-concept gag, and now that I get the joke, there's no need to keep going. I wonder how much use the game actually gets over time, even as an in-between filler.

Been playing it for 30 years, never had a problem. But then, I don't play "zap!" games, so there's no "joke" to get. Calling it over-rated is a bit odd, though, since most players have never heard of it, and there is no hype surrounding the game these days. Not in a long, long time.

Any time you forget this is a game you are probaly overrating it.

I agree about Paranoia. I mean the rulebook is pure genius. It is really funny and rich of ideas and it deserves it's place in roleplaying game history if for no other reason that it is most quotable game of all.

That said, in actual play, it doesn't make for quality roleplaying. And that's a problem because it just adds to the perception that comedy games are basically second class games - good for goofing around but not suited to immersive or long-term play.

By contrast Ghostbusters (also an oldie from WEG) is the kind of comedy game in which you can have proper characters with plots which are just as plausible as those of any other roleplaying game (I know, that's not saying much) simply with less blood and more embarassment.  But still when people thing of comedy games Paranoia or Toon seem to be the ones that come up first.

There's a reason why HC Paranoia players look down on "Zap!"-style players.

I get the feeling over-rated here means games I don't like as opposed to "I don't get what all the hype was about"

True20 is pretty over-rated.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: Serious Paul;488642Define over rated for me.

Seconded.