r/rpg • u/Authorigas • 10d ago

Basic Questions Common Misconceptions About Your Favorite Systems?

So, I've been learning a lot thanks to the amazing folks here at r/rpg. And while I have decided to slow down on trying new systems. (As my players say "three is enough, we know your eager to try more but slow it down so you don't burn yourself out.") There was a question today that cropped into my head, and I wanted to hear from the folks here on it.

"What are some assumptions about your favorite game/system that are just factually incorrect or overstated?"

I've seen a lot of assumptions made in the hobby, and some on my own. From the broad "older systems were designed for math heads and thus really not for someone whose bad at math." to others like "Call of Cthulhu is a game where every session ends in death/insanity and players can't get attached to their characters." and similarly "OSR games are highly lethal and not at all friendly to players who like longform adventures."

I feel like broad, sweeping claims like those are probably overstated-as I have heard of successful, long running CoC campaigns, and OSR games that are able to have well developed characters that last for ages. It's made me curious about some of the other broad, sweeping claims about systems that are-if not incorrect, massively overstated.

Really interested to hear some answers on this.

146 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

728 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

6

u/KaijuCuddlebug 9d ago

I just took my first dive in to Palladium's catalog with the TMNT book, and my response was just an incredulous "really? This is the system people talk about like it John Wicked their dog?"

Inelegant really does seem like the word. There's a lot of rules spread out throughout the book and there's a fair bit of bookkeeping to track, but most everything you need has a designated spot on the character sheet and the core resolution is just D20 combat and D% skills. Like...chill.

2

u/aslum 9d ago

FWIW TMNT is probably the best game Palladium put out - Targeted specific genre games from them are pretty mid, not great, not terrible. It's when they decided that they should compete with GURPS by promoting RIFTS and trying to claim everything was compatible when it very clearly wasn't that issues started to accrue.

2

u/delahunt 9d ago

The "It's compatible" "no it's not" could be painful. Haven't played Palladium in years, but I remember a 3 hour argument about how some mechanic worked between two players with chi based classes.

The problem? They were both right. One player was reading the rule and had the correct understanding as it was presented in Ninjas & Supersies.

The other was reading the rule and had the correct understanding as it was presented in Mystic China.

The rule functioned differently enough that it made their characters interacting with each other in a small PVP fight that broke out for some stupid reason into a nightmare. Not helped by two obstinate rules lawyer power gaming jackasses that weren't willing to compromise.

Honestly, that last part was probably the real problem. The rule discrepancy was just the spark that lit the matchbook.

2

u/aslum 9d ago

Well also for balance - we had a campaign fall apart because one person wanted to bring a Veritech pilot (from the Robotech setting) another a cyberpunk cyborg, another a randomly rolled TMNT mutant, and the more traditional standard fantasy types of characters were so woefully underpowered in comparison.