Whats the best thing about a game you don’t like

And what is the worst thing about a game you love?

Best Thing: Lots of PBTA games have settings that seem like they would be great fun to play games in. A multitude of post-Apocalyspes, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Sci Fi etc etc.

Not just genres, but actual named and organized places.

Worst Thing: The Sanity mechanic in Call of Cthulhu is clunky and, the majority of the time, it really only gets acted upon RP-wise when the number starts to get really low. There’s also a swingyness to it that makes sense, I guess, but doesn’t feel too good.

The inflexibility of spellcasting in D&D / Pathfinder. I know that PF 2e have the option og using more actions to empower your spell, and both D&D 5e and PF both have metamagics, but I wish for some more improvised magics

The worst thing about Smallville RPG is the Trouble Pool. I get what it's there for and I don't hate it but I kind of wish it was different.

The best thing about Cypher is how character creation gives you a neat, snappy description that you can give for your character. It's not really a unique thing but the specific way they do it by with their "An X Y who Z" is pretty cool

Best Thing: I dislike 5e but like how popular it has made the hobby. If only more of the players it brought in would try new games...

Worst Thing: I love many games except for the actual dice/resolution mechanics, which limits the games I want to play lol I'm looking at you Eclipse Phase, Through the Breach, and Free League games). But if I have to choose something more specific, CoC's combat. For a game that shouldn't be combat heavy, the combat mechanics are very cumbersome and clunky.

Best thing about a game I hate: The entire premise of Scion: Hero, squandered by the one of the worst systems out there.

Worst thing about a game I like: resolving all the symbols to end up with the result in Genesys. I also feel the math isn't quite solid under there.
so true!

I dunno about hate, but...

Best Things in Games Not For Me: The dice mechanics from Cortex, Burning Wheel, and traditional PbtA games. The level of research and detail that goes into a GURPS sourcebook. Lovecraftian horror in CoC. The look and feel and vibe of Torchbearer.

Worst Thing in Games I Dig: Metacurrency in Fate. 3d6 down the line in Black Hack-derived / roll-under OSR games.

And agree on the Cypher thing... I think the main reason I don't dig those games is that I thought the "A X Y who Zs" piece was like a Fate aspect -- open-ended, not from a picklist. Big turnoff for me.

Last note for those lamenting CoC -- there are other games out there to look at that can provide smoother experiences. Like lots of other games. Favorites of mine include Rats in the Walls, Eldritch Tales, Cthulhu Dark, and The Cthulhu Hack.

Best Thing About A Game I Don't Like: Mouseguard, I love the setting and the evocation of mice level problems. Everything about the game just draws you into those characters and their drama. Even the skill names just feel right. I would actually like the game system itself if only the teamwork/combat mechanic wasn't so heavy in Harrigan transactions.

Worst Thing About A Game I Love: Star wars FFG. I really like the ideas in the game, but the Advantage/Threat mechanic of the narrative dice feels like it gets in the way. Contrary to my expectations, the action just full-stops whenever you try and puzzle out how to interpret the results. I'd ten times prefer an optional side roll than just an open ended interpretive result.

Yeah this. I think the narrative dice are really cool for in person games and where you roll less often. Interpreting results starts to take exponentially more time the more often you roll. A GM has to be really good about when rolls are actually needed and when not to, and they also have to be good at improv since you're dealing with 4 axes of resolution instead of 2. It's a very hit or miss system with me.

I've briefly played in a genesys game on here and the dice didn't really click with me there. I think they might be much better in person than for pbp. Or maybe I just needed to roll them a few more times before they'd start making sense 😄

For weird symbol dice, I really liked the ones from L5R (whichever edition it is that has the weird dice). The setting didn't super click with me but I loved the dice system

Haha! That's actually my favorite part of the system. Even in PbP. It's basically improv fuel. But you have to have players who are willing to roll with the improvisation side of things, and (especially in PbP), players who are proactive in suggesting uses for symbols. (That said, Nezzeraj is actually in a Star Wars game of mine—same system—and has justly accused me of calling for rolls too often there. ;P)

The thing I actually dislike about Genesys/Star Wars is not the multi-axis dice resolution (love, love, love it), but the default way the games handle money. Both Star Wars and Genesys default to bean-counting. Buy an axe? That'll be 50 currency. Stay in an inn? That's 10 currency. Whatever. If you're playing cash-strapped smugglers or something, that make senses, but I tend to hand wave such nickel-and-diming in most of my games, especially if the focus is on other stuff (like mystery solving, or empire building, or whatever).

Something I admire in a game I otherwise dislike? Len ran a game of Troika here a couple months back. The system was fairly inelegant—sometimes you're supposed to roll high, other times low, etc. But I loved the way the game used random tables for character generation in a way that truly sparked your imagination to make a really memorable character. We all ended up with some off-the-wall character concepts, and roleplaying them out under the direction of our amazing GM was lots of fun.

I also really liked the dice of FFG's edition of L5R, but was meh on the setting. I also loved the art. I bought a couple of the books just because I like the art. I've been thinking about filling off the serial numbers and making my own setting with that system at some point.

What is a Harrigan transaction? I'm not familiar with that phrase and Google has failed me.

Term popularized by Harrigan in this video (but he didn't name it after himself!)



It represents the back-and-forth between a GM and player to achieve a goal. In PbP the goal is to reduce the transactions.

e.g.
Player: I look for traps
GM: Roll perception
Player: 14
GM: You don't find any traps.

vs

Player: I look for traps
GM: (rolls dice for player - gets 14) You don't find any traps.

Thank you very much. That is an insight I had not considered before.

The Harrigan principle is great, but my issue with it is that it robs the player of one of the joys of roleplaying games, the dice rolling. To that end, I've adopted a similar idea that I first saw Emsquared propose. Namely, you deputize your players to put on their GM hats and guess at difficulties and the like rather than wait for you as GM to set them. In the above example, it might look like this:

Player: I look for traps. Here's my Perception check. 14.
GM: You don't find any traps.

In a system with GM-set difficulties, it might look like this:

Player: I look for traps. From what you've described, this is a small but cluttered room, so I'll make a Hard check. Success with 2 advantages. If this stands, I'll use the advantages to impress the noble we're escorting.

GM: Perfect. You don't find any traps, but Lord Fontleroy is very impressed by your speed and efficiency.

In other words, trust the players to do some of the GM-work for you. Worst-case scenario, the GM adjusts the roll if the player severely under- or overestimated the difficulty or modifiers. I've had mixed results getting players to do this, as I think many are reluctant to step on perceived GM toes. But I do think it's potentially the best of both worlds.

Sure. I was using it as an example of reducing back and forth. Discussion of how to do this should be a whole new thread.

I love D&D 5e. One thing I dislike about it is crafting item rules are very boring. Crafting your own weapon or suit of armor or staff should be a storied and meaningful process.

I love the Cypher System. One thing I dislike about it is the abstract wealth system. It's probably just my inexperience with it, but I prefer resources with tangible numbers that I can add up.

I love Traveller. One thing I dislike about Traveller is the reaction system in combat. You can react on anyone's turn as much as you like, but you get worse and worse doing things the more actions you take. It can be very clunky for new players or in PbP. There are house rules to get around it.

I don't love Palladium's Rifts. But some parts of the setting are interesting and a place to tell compelling stories.

So why don't you just roleplay it? Come up with a plan, a story arc, whatever, with the GM and/or other players. What are rules going to provide that roleplay wouldn't?

The mechanics that govern group dynamics in PbtA games just bug me. However, by contrast, I love that there's a way to create obligations on other characters. "Remember that time I bailed you out? I'm calling that debt. Here, take this bullet." (Metaphorically speaking, of course.)

Speaking of PbtA, I love Apocalypse World but hate the sex moves. Just...why? I always take those out.