What's the WORST system you've used?

[Duck]

Ok, many of us have played lots of pen and paper games.

Some good, some bad. But what's the WORST you've used?

I've used a game called Underground. it was a post apocolypitic story with sci fi and aliens and all that. The design of the book is fairly interesting, cause it doesnt' just put text and pictures up like normal. different types of images done on different types of paper liven it up, but the core system is bland, and just not inspiring.

Cliche ridden, and well just not fun. It had potential.

[ZeroForever]

zomg... a new thread in this room.... how long has it been...

and eh don't really have a hated pen a nd paper since i barely play them as is.

[Mitera Nikkou]

I've never really "used" any, per se; more like try. Never got a handle of either D&D or BESM. The whole leveling up and using points to determine character stats is something that I never really understood the need for. You can get that on the fly with video games. Now, it's not because of the work involved that I don't like, but getting better in skills by leveling up, skills you probably haven't even used between level advancements. Like lock-picking. How can you truly get better at that without practice and application? And the total amount of skills you can actually have limited by the amount of points you get? I'm not saying that wiping your butt would need to be included for free (;p), but there are so many skills that one person can have that they have no way of learning (even though it would be possible) because of this invisible number stuff. Leveling up and adding points to something to make you better is just nonsensical and I think there are better ways for P&P RPGs (like the two that I have some experience with) to be conducted. O.o;

[Mistress Guendolen]

Speaking as a player of said rpgs, the point is to put the points into the skills your character has been using or will have had the option to learn via some means or another. It's not just a random allocation. At least not the way that I and my friends play it, anyway. For instance, opening locks. Whenever I level up, my one character always improves that skill, because she uses it constantly. For the same reason, I don't give her ranks in, say, singing and dancing, because they're skills she's not using and not likely to use. We don't have an infinite number of points to throw around. Just a few, so we have to apply them wisely, to those things which stay with the character concept and the abilities we've given them and which they use the most. I'm sure there are plenty of people who throw these things around willy-nilly; however, there is logic behind it, for those who actually apply it.

[Mitera Nikkou]

I never said that there wasn't any logic and all that. ^_^; I'm just saying that the points can't cover everything. I mean, let's say your character ends up doing something they've never done before, such as dancing. For whatever reason they have to learn a few steps well enough for whatever they're going to do at a later time, but as they improve they don't have the points to allocate to it. so how can they ever get good at dancing any steps after practice even though it's conceivably possible for this character to get better with this practice? Will he practice for nothing and the plan is foiled because each die roll makes the character step on the other's toes even after all of that practice? That's what I mean.

[Chibi MitchellTF]

Okay, I'm pimp Mutants and Masterminds, because that is the BEST system I've used, and solves some of the problems with DnD and BESM, but this is about the WORST system.

MURPG. Marvel Universe RPG. It uses stones, not dice, and every time you get hit, you get less actions. It also punishes proactive players.

[Eri Anikemi]

Hmm... the best system (for me) is probably my homebrew. What with me making it and all, it fits my play/run style like a glove.

I can get down with M&M as a game system, but I prefer the Blue Rose incarnation of the game. The True20 System. However, I must concur that the latest incarnation of MU RPG is truely horrible. Everything you said is true about it. The thing that saves it from being the WORST in my opinion is that it's so interesting in it's attempt. Leadership DOES something in the game, that's very rare. And I can see glimmers of greatness in the ideas behind the system... and then it goes and gets completely bogged down.

But the worst SYSTEM? Hmm... worst system I've ever played would probably be the Megaversal system that goes with Rifts. Incoherent rules, inconsistent layout and contradictoary information, and updates from the publisher which only make things worse.

[Alyta]

A bit of thread necromancy here, but it looks like an interesting topic.

The worst system I've seen, though not played, is Deathstalkers. Imagine the bastard child of 1st Edition D&D and Chaosium's BRP system, mixed with a huge dose of house rules and strange details. I'm not sure if it was actually bad, but it was certainly pointlessly complex and semi-famous as a heartbreaker of a game.

Regarding character points and RPG systems. Points and levelling and all those kinds of things are basically just systemisations of real-life learning. While it is possible to more accurately model how people learn IRL, iit would be very complex and in most cases not worth the time and effort to do it.

Level based systems give out all the advancement bonuses (increasing skills etc) in discrete levels, which can lead to strange things like someone practising and not getting any good until they level up, but that's an artifact of the system and it's origins. A decent GM will try and balance that by making people advance the skills they have been using or training.

On the other hand, any modern point-based system gives out experience to advance skills and abilities at the end of each session. If you're practising a skill during that game, you just spend the points when you get them to represent your learning. You wont suddenly become a master, but you can keep doing so.

[Alex Vandar]

Wire.

Ugh.

Wire was a system created by the uncle of a former friend of mine.

It had a LOT of possibilities, but ugh, the execution and stuff was just bad, not to mention your character either starts out way overpowered or way underpowered, with no inbetween.

[Lanzerus]

...wow, i feel...different....*hides in a corner* i have never played pen & paper, i have done forum style, and M.U.D. style rp's, but they have all been on the computer

[Raleigh]

No worries Keaton, I've used none of them either. They all sound overly complicated and time consuming to me, never mind restrictive against my ideal character of a master of everything or at least moderately good at them all. I stick to pretty much make up whatever you want but try to keep it within the parameters and setting rules of most forum rps. So I suppose my answer of the worst system would be most of them with the exception of some of White Wolf's stuff. I've read a lot of their rule sets and they not only make sense but in some cases, such as their game with the ghosts that got dropped, even fun.