Most Laughable Role Playing Product
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Post Posted: Sat Feb 03, 2007 9:38 pm 
 

HermitFromPluto wrote:As it takes so long to settle on one side, why not actually play golf with it. You could roleplay and work on your handicap at the same time.

It wouldn't last . . . the Zocchihedron isn't exactly high-impact. :lol: I wouldn't mind taking a few whacks at my d7's, though.



  


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Post Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 1:59 pm 
 

HermitFromPluto wrote:I picked up a copy of RuneQuest: Eldarad the Lost City, not perturbed by the less than shining reveiw:

http://www.glorantha.info/runequest/ava ... darad.html

I thought it can't be that bad. It is!
Hmmm... I always thought RuneQuest itself was a bit of a joke.
gyg wrote:XL1 Quest for the Heartstone.
I actually remember enjoying that, despite the lame action figure tie-in!  Not sure what I would think of it now (I'll have to try and get that one again).
bombadil wrote:Would the 100-sided percentile die qualify?  I got one in a lot I won on ebay.  It's like a fricken' golf ball.
:lol: I think so!  A friend of mine had one and the only thing it was ever used for was to threaten obnoxious players.



Sorry I can't think of any to contribute right now, but I'm enjoying reading these. Please keep them coming!

  


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Post Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 3:03 pm 
 

I have two of those d100 golfballs.  I'm not ashamed - I have something of a dice fetish.  I picked up a d2 the other week (or a "coin", as it is colloquially known) and am always on the lookout for the elusive d1.

Most useless gaming product I own?  I am thinking that my Wizard's Kit probably qualifies.  It's a 2e product that is a small plastic briefcase containing a wizard miniature, a set of dice (yay!), some card-stock cheat-sheets with wizard spells, THAC0, saves etc on them (they fold into a little pyramid, like a menu at a bad diner), and some wizard-themed stickers.  Best of all, though, is the official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons pencil.  Makes the whole thing worthwhile :D.  I used to bring it to sessions when playing my wizard PC until the derision became too much to bear, lol...

Oh, I also have a copy of the AD&D2e Trivia game.  I love it to bits, but everyone I know claims it is worthless dreck.  So I guess that counts. :(

Does the Wilderness Survival Guide count?  Think I must have opened that two or three times tops since buying the damn thing...

My AD&D pencil still gets my top vote, though.

  

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Post Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 4:21 pm 
 

I can't believe the author of Under the Storm Giant's Castle actually tried to defend it.   8O
Book of Treasure Maps had a goofy cover but some good mini-adventures inside.  
Matthias (afterglow) is alive and well as of a year ago.  He's just been really busy with work and life, and unable to check in on the Acaeum community.  He still has his collection and is not looking to sell.  
I've never read Tower of Ullision... now I'll have to dig it out some time.  Might be fun to run on an April Fool's Day session.   :wink:

  

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Post Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 2:30 am 
 

VermilionFire wrote:I can't believe the author of Under the Storm Giant's Castle actually tried to defend it.   8O
Book of Treasure Maps had a goofy cover but some good mini-adventures inside.  
Matthias (afterglow) is alive and well as of a year ago.  He's just been really busy with work and life, and unable to check in on the Acaeum community.  He still has his collection and is not looking to sell.  
I've never read Tower of Ullision... now I'll have to dig it out some time.  Might be fun to run on an April Fool's Day session.   :wink:


He didn't try to defend it.  He just wanted to know why it was generally considered, "The worst adventure ever published."

Collector Matthias Bock bought a number of game products from Badmike a number of years ago.  Badmike attached a Post-It note to Under the Storm Giant's Castle...just as an off-hand comment on the module's quaity.

The Post-It note, attached to the module, got quoted on Matthias Bock's Afterglow web page about non-TSR Dungeons and Dragons products.  

The author of Under the Storm Giant's Castle did a search on his old game project and hit upon Matthias Bock's website.

He posted his question on the Judges Guild forums.  He wanted to know what sucked about his module.  A couple of people told him.

I had also noticed the quote on Matthias Bock's website.  I wondered who the person quoted...obviously an expert...might be.  (I will leave it up to Badmike whether or not to post his real name.)

I did a web search on the name, and it led me on a chase that included Quincy Kozoil and a number of old game-related web pages...and to the determination that the person quoted was most likely a game seller living in Texas....Badmike.

I encountered the author's forlorn inquiry on the Judges Guild forums by accident when I made a casual check on that website.

When I found the Acaeum, I discovered Badmike was already a member there.

I PM'd Badmike about it  and said, "I think this is you."  He told me the full story of the Post-It note's origin and I told him that his note had actually found its way back to the author.

I have been struck by how small the world has become.  A comment on a Post-It note crossed time and space to reach the original author.  

My own modest research has shown me how interconnected the game collecting community really is.  When I first heard of Under The Storm Giant's Castle, back in high school, I had no idea that I would eventually correspond with both the author and other collectors who would also both love and deride that publication.

The internet is a strange and mysterious sea with many perilous and interesting shores.  A mariner who goes sailing there is apt to find or solve a few mysteries of his own. This story is a good example.

Mark    8)


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Post Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:53 am 
 

FormCritic wrote:
I have been struck by how small the world has become.  A comment on a Post-It note crossed time and space to reach the original author.  

My own modest research has shown me how interconnected the game collecting community really is.  When I first heard of Under The Storm Giant's Castle, back in high school, I had no idea that I would eventually correspond with both the author and other collectors who would also both love and deride that publication.

The internet is a strange and mysterious sea with many perilous and interesting shores.  A mariner who goes sailing there is apt to find or solve a few mysteries of his own. This story is a good example.

Mark    8)


Guys;

I second all that Mark wrote. First emailing with EGG and Frank Mentzer, then through the years the august assemblage I've been able to connect with over the internet, it's something I would have never dreamed of all those years ago playing D&D on my kitchen table.  
  One of my first sales on the internet in the early 90s was to a guy named Mark Bicking, who it turned out had three published adventures in Dungeon magazine.  I remeber being blown away by the fact I was communicating with someone who had PUBLISHED RPG work!!!! Then to get inside TSR info from him, it was very cool.   BTW Bicking wrote some classic adventures, including Khamsas Folly, check them out sometime...
 I had already run House of the Brothers by then, I can only imagine the gushing hero worship if I had actually run across the author to that one online, some guy named Shipley..... :D
  The internet has done incredible things in bringing people together, none better than creating first a marketplace (the old aol marketplce, then newgroups, then ebay) then a forum (the Acaeum) where RPG gamers and collectors can all be a community.  Really wild if you try to imagine a world without this.....just think all the extra cash we would have lying around!!!

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Post Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 5:23 pm 
 

Picking on dice companies would be too easy: Koplow has a rock-paper-scissors die on the market right now.  Weirdest thing about it? It's a 30mm-wide 12-sided die.

It still vote for "Exotic Characters and Worlds for Role Playing Games" as the dumbest book I own.

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Post Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:31 am 
 

Thanks Badmike and FormCritic for sharing your post-it note story. Yes it is amazing how small the world has become. I have been quite impressed with the level of interaction between Acaeum members and many of the early writers of these role-playing products that we love to collect!

  


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Post Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:35 pm 
 

Keir wrote:Hmmm... I always thought RuneQuest itself was a bit of a joke.


I'm not the only one who thinks that?

For me there was always a disconnect: On one hand you had those gamers who claimed RQ was the ~serious~ alternative to D&D, yet so many RQ adventures were based around talking ducks, squirrels, bears, etc.

:roll:

  

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Post Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:50 pm 
 

I have never played Runquest, but the game has its adherents.

What's wrong with a few heavily armed ducks now and again?


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Post Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:27 pm 
 

red_dawn wrote:
I'm not the only one who thinks that?

For me there was always a disconnect: On one hand you had those gamers who claimed RQ was the ~serious~ alternative to D&D, yet so many RQ adventures were based around talking ducks, squirrels, bears, etc.

:roll:


*looks around for any WoD players*
(Yeah, OK, no were-squirrels, I know! :lol:)

I'm with Captain Spaulding
In fairness, the ducks are actually a really tiny and insignificant part of Glorantha. One small tribe in one small country. Letting them ruin your enjoyment of Glorantha is like letting, I don;t know, the crappy lifts at Elephant & Castle tube station ruin the whole of London for you.

I don't like ducks, so I just ignore them and get on with enjoying the bits of Glorantha that I do like.


The original context of a cursed race was kinda lost by non-RQ players with regards to where the seriousness stopped and in-joke started.


In terms of game mechanics; yeah, definitely was (and still is) a serious alternative to the often abstract, if not downright absurd, approach to combat and magic as presented in D&D.

Anyhow, getting back on-topic, if RQ had been intended to be taken non-seriously they'd've had mutant crawdads rather than ducks. ;3

jm-02c, of course. :)

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p.s. btw. most armor is too heavy for ducks... ^^


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Post Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:45 am 
 

I've never played RQ. I am picking up the odd item from time to time as I collect Avalon Hill games.

But, the lost city of Eldarad is giving me much joy. Every time I look at it I laugh - it's so bad. If I have talking squirrels to look forward to, I'm going to try to buy more - I love products that are so bad they are funny! :)

  

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Post Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:43 am 
 

HermitFromPluto wrote:I've never played RQ. I am picking up the odd item from time to time as I collect Avalon Hill games.

But, the lost city of Eldarad is giving me much joy. Every time I look at it I laugh - it's so bad. If I have talking squirrels to look forward to, I'm going to try to buy more - I love products that are so bad they are funny! :)


Well, actually, there really aren't any other RQ products that approach the level of Eldarad in badness.  The Big Rubble and Griffin Mtn box sets are actually quite good (with lots of very cool maps).  I stole a lot of ideas from Griffin Mountain for my own campaign. Pavis and Borderlands boxed sets are quite usuable, lots of good plot ideas you can take from there to your own campaign.

The RQ system is actually quite elegant and very easy to use.  I've always enjoyed percentile type approach to abilities (better and truer range than just d20).  The idea that anyone can cast spells obviously way ahead of it's time.  I've never formally played a RQ campaign, but from reading most of the supplements, it looks quite fun.

And ducks as characters aren't any worse than about half the creatures in the Fiend Folio.... :D

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Post Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:25 am 
 

Sheet Phantoms anyone?



  

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Post Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:05 pm 
 

Traveller wrote:Sheet Phantoms anyone?


And ducks as characters aren't any worse than about half the creatures in the Fiend Folio....  


Actually, I was thinking of crap like Envelopers, Cifal and Umpleby, but yeh, Sheet Phantoms are pretty stupid..... :D

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Post Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:36 pm 
 

We BOTH missed the boat.

FLUMPH!

'Nuff said.



  

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Post Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:39 pm 
 

Traveller wrote:We BOTH missed the boat.

FLUMPH!

'Nuff said.


You can go far wrong with a Nilbog! (not sure if they were FF or MM2 - seems like it might be a bit of a WD UK monster though so I'll say FF)


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Post Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 11:02 pm 
 

jasonw1239 wrote:My vote would be the 1978 Chaosium publication of 'Real Magic' by Isaac Bonewits. The picture of the goofball author looking 'pompous' complete with pipe clenched between his teeth is hilarious.

It was no doubt items like this that helped feed the late 70's early 80's D&D=Satanism hysteria...


Hey, at least it was an early Chaosium publication, and popular enough that they did 2 editions, and then SJG did an updated version just a few years back. The Chaosium '78 and '79 versions are a real hoot. The artwork is amazingly bad, cheesy, and funny all at the same time. The picture on page 74 of the high priest and his groupie is something you seldom see in RPGs anymore...

And the guy's name is PEI (Philip Emmons Isaac) Bonewits, the world's only academically accredited Ocultist, with a BA in Magic from the University of California in Berkeley. I for one think Pagan Theologians should be pictured in hooded robes with a Meerschaum pipe. The two Chaosium editions have different author shots on the back, but the same pipe. Bigger afro in '79 too.

Authentic Thaumaturgy is enjoyable, quirky, etc.

Eldarad is just absolute rubbish. Only Daughters of Darkness comes close. As the guy who wrote the review mentioned above, and found at glorantha.info, I still stand by what I said in that review, which is from about 10 years ago.

In Germany, we actually burn a copy of Eldarad or Daughters of Darkenss at a convention each year, alternating products each year. We've had upwards of 100 people attend the ceremony. We auction off a lighter with an original copy of the module thrown in for free. The book is usually still in the shrink and sold as a fund raiser. The purchaser gets the "honour" of leading the masses to the awaiting torch. We've been doing it since 1996.

Hope that helps,
Rick

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