Survey Says... (Worst Game System?)
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Post Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 2:21 pm 
 

Badmike wrote:
Back to Worst Game System, did anyone here ever try to play Powers and Perils?  I don't have a copy anymore but I distinctly remember saying "WTF?" several times while reading through the boxed set.

Mike B.


I want to like this game, I really do.  I have a couple of copies on the shelf.  I attempted to make a character, got about 75% through the process and could not find one of the charts the next step required.  My head 'asploded!  There is a blog (mesmerized by sirens blogspot) and the author is a rabid pro P&P / anti-AD&D supporter.  Loves the game and supposedly played the heck out of it but I just can't wrap my head around the rules...and that's just character creation!


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Post Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 4:00 pm 
 

Chucho68 wrote:
bbarsh wrote:
Oh, It's on! You run your SI and I will run 1e. While our group is having ours shaken (not stirred) and having a blast, your group will be wondering how they get back the last few hours of their lives they just dumped down the crapper. :lol:


Oh my goodness...the allure of a Top Secret game...must resist...can't go to NTRPG...maybe I can squeeze it in...

:D

hector.


Hector, you gotta be there, dude!


And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

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Post Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 9:40 pm 
 

Holy sh*t! I'm giving serious thought to it now!

And just to, maybe, play a game I haven't even looked at in more than 20 years...Jesus H. Christ.

Hector.


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Post Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 1:23 am 
 

I have to go with Synnibar, and closely follow it with 3E+. Great Cleave was what did it for me as far as 3E. The second I saw that, I realized Final Fantasy had made it to paper. I half expected them to have three-handed swords and whatnot. I still have my half-pixie/half-gray ooze character sheet from my stab at 3E.


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Post Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2013 7:23 pm 
 

Chucho68 wrote:Holy sh*t! I'm giving serious thought to it now!

And just to, maybe, play a game I haven't even looked at in more than 20 years...Jesus H. Christ.

Hector.


I know it is a long way for you H, but you show up and you will definately enjoy the event.


And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

Everything Pacesetter at http://pacesettergames.blog.com/

 WWW  

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Post Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 11:58 am 
 

bbarsh wrote:I know it is a long way for you H, but you show up and you will definately enjoy the event.


We'll see...it's just my family and I may move to the US in the summer...don't know for sure yet...but that will eat a chunk out of the Entertainment budget this year.

I wouldn't even remember how to play, but I treasure my Top Secret days. We'll see...thanks.

"If you run it, they will come (maybe!)", said the voice from the corn field.

Hector.


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Post Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 3:10 am 
 

Bill speaks the truth about NTRPGCon.  I attended last year and it was my first real Con experience.  I can't even begin to put into words how much fun I had!  Hoping to be able to attend again this year.

Regarding Top Secret, the original is so much better than the SI version.  The SI version might be a decent set of rules but I've never been able to really get through a reading of it because it is so bland.  The original has so much more character and quirkiness.  And I honestly don't remember it being that complex of a system out of the box.  I do remember some Dragon articles that added things like stopping power of different types of bullets that really increased the complexity but the rules in the original red rulebook were easy enough to comprehend.  Yes, there was some math involved and some table lookups but overall it was a blast to play.

So Bill, are you adding an original TS game to the schedule for this years Con?  :wink:

  

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Post Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 8:58 am 
 

Toric wrote:Bill speaks the truth about NTRPGCon.  I attended last year and it was my first real Con experience.  I can't even begin to put into words how much fun I had!  Hoping to be able to attend again this year.

Regarding Top Secret, the original is so much better than the SI version.  The SI version might be a decent set of rules but I've never been able to really get through a reading of it because it is so bland.  The original has so much more character and quirkiness.  And I honestly don't remember it being that complex of a system out of the box.  I do remember some Dragon articles that added things like stopping power of different types of bullets that really increased the complexity but the rules in the original red rulebook were easy enough to comprehend.  Yes, there was some math involved and some table lookups but overall it was a blast to play.

So Bill, are you adding an original TS game to the schedule for this years Con?  :wink:


I think the difference between TS and TS S/I is the genre of play. TS is an espionage game designed to mimic a James Bond sort of universe ( up through Roger Moore). Colorful characters, actual spy-craft, deadly combat with guns. S/I is not an espionage game though it retains elements of the original game. S/I is a commando RPG pure and simple.

On to NTX. I always run a Satuday night game. If there are enough interested people, I will run Top Secret.


And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

Everything Pacesetter at http://pacesettergames.blog.com/

 WWW  

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Post Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 1:28 pm 
 

Not a bad system necessarily, but I nominate Monkey God Enterprises for some of the most unfortunate & awkward titles ever published...

Ruins of Rackfall... Hero Snare... Broken Magic... Song of Storms... Race to the Yellow Lotus.... Maze of Screaming Silence...  Jade Magi Sewer Crawl (!)... and sadly, The Magic Dump.

Good grief  :roll:


I draw the line at collecting... D&D beach towels.

Shoulda been: ".. from Pangreenia to Floratopolis, from mystical Treeonia of spectral Forests to Schruborial dimensions." - The Forests of Leng

  

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Post Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 2:41 pm 
 

The Magic Dump, text header from the back cover:  Bring Me Her Carcass!

Attachment:
magicdump.jpg

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I draw the line at collecting... D&D beach towels.

Shoulda been: ".. from Pangreenia to Floratopolis, from mystical Treeonia of spectral Forests to Schruborial dimensions." - The Forests of Leng

  

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Post Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2013 3:01 pm 
 

I had one of those yesterday, thanks to my wife's attempts at tacos. Fortunately, I have a +3 Plunger of Plunging, so it all worked out.
I did briefly look at the Powers and Perils before I sold it. It seemed complicated.


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Post Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 7:22 pm 
 

Zenopus wrote in Survey Says... (Worst Game System?):Has everyone seen this hilarious review of CYBORG COMMANDO?

Review of Cyborg Commando - RPGnet

"On its third dice-rolling table?" The tables in question aren't actually part of the rules, but are part of a three page section of the rulebook, which includes three tables and five graphs, showing the reader how the d10x system is the best possible dice system for a game. This tone is symptomatic of the rules. At several times the reader is lectured on how they should use the metric system in play, rather than the "archaic and unwieldy English [sic] system". The rules, of course, go on to tell you that the standard units of measurement can be either miles or kilometres; they are, apparently so similar as to be interchangeable. Rather than using a single system of measurements, the rules lecturer the reader on what they should be using, but provide poorly matching approximates in both systems and end the GMs book with a useful reference table of weights and measures, including conversion equations of troy grains to troy ounces because we're apparently playing the game of cyborg f***ing jewellers or something.

For a game with such attention to detail, character creation is remarkably simple. The player selects their character's stats and skills and then apply the modifiers imposed by the cybernetic body. There are games which elegant in their simple execution. This is one of the other games.


Fundamentally, the problem with the Cyborg Commando game is the idea that playing cyborgs shooting lasers out of their fingers, in a world overwhelmed by aliens, was in some way cool. The writers were sadly mistaken in this. The background seems ridiculously silly and contrived. The alien race has invaded earth "just because" and is virtually undefeatable despite the fact that the book points of there being only one alien for every 11,600 humans. The aliens may be tough, but, at those odds, it is hard to believe that the various world militaries shouldn't be able to defeat them.


Apologies to Gygax, Mentzer and Mohan for posting this...


I played the game the first year it came out at GenCon.  Luke Gygax was the gm - and despite it being pretty silly, I had fun playing it. Just goes to show that a good gm can make even bad games good!

  
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