Worst Sci-Fi Games In History
- Thread starter Ganidirsii O'Flynn
- Start date
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
Isn't that the one with the world's most complicated chargen?
A bit of background, a combat system, and not a lot else.
I seem to remember Metamorphosis Alpha was pretty crap.
Havocatalyst
SOC-6
I think I should post here because my name was used in the open credits......
Rifts suffers from a common problem, rules creep, the characters and machines in the latest supplement can totally destroy the same from all previous supplements. This is also a problem that GW has.
Aftermath was the worst thing FGU produced. I was a Gamma world freak at the time and got Aftermath for a different setting, shelved it shortly after see "combat flowchart".
Many of the games mentioned were of course products of there time as has been mentioned, but others are bad no matter what time it is.
ICE space game also suffered from a bad system that may have worked some what in a fantasy setting but really broke down in Sci Fi.
I agree Leading Edge's Aliens and other space adventure games just left you scratching your head wondering what they were thinking.
And, unfortunatly, Marc Millers T-4 could have been and should have been a great game but, as has been mentioned, it suffered from very poor editing to the point that it was unplayable. But, some of the supplements are now must have books for any die hard Traveller player.
Rifts suffers from a common problem, rules creep, the characters and machines in the latest supplement can totally destroy the same from all previous supplements. This is also a problem that GW has.
Aftermath was the worst thing FGU produced. I was a Gamma world freak at the time and got Aftermath for a different setting, shelved it shortly after see "combat flowchart".
Many of the games mentioned were of course products of there time as has been mentioned, but others are bad no matter what time it is.
ICE space game also suffered from a bad system that may have worked some what in a fantasy setting but really broke down in Sci Fi.
I agree Leading Edge's Aliens and other space adventure games just left you scratching your head wondering what they were thinking.
And, unfortunatly, Marc Millers T-4 could have been and should have been a great game but, as has been mentioned, it suffered from very poor editing to the point that it was unplayable. But, some of the supplements are now must have books for any die hard Traveller player.
Gallowglass
SOC-12
Was it actually worse than Freedom Fighters? I only ask because, although I never read Aftermath! I have very fond memories of both the original Phoenix Games and 2nd FGU edition of Bushido, which IIRC was by the same author(s) (Bob Charette, one of the creators of Shadowrun?)
Cheers,
Nick Middleton
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
Aw, I loved Aftermath! Okay, so it was badly organised (chargen was scattered across 2 or 3 books), and it took about a week to run a combat, but I've had a lot of fun with it.
To me, Gamma*World was, at best, even more mediocre than T4. TSR's Star*Drive setting was fair, but it wasn't really supported well and was a bit too cybernetic and real-history using for me (GW 1&2 = WW 1&2, Galactic Concord = U.N., not enough technological non-humans).
I never cared for Rifts, and it never seemed even worthwhile. But I'm not much for giant mecha games in the first place.
Oh yeah, the new "Star Empire" or whatever it is from WotC (or whomever), with its Terran Empire setting. Good illos, but crap and mediocre crap at that. Can anyone say "unrealistic?" After all, no real sci-fi game is like Star Trek for "certain elements" other than, well, Star Trek.
I never cared for Rifts, and it never seemed even worthwhile. But I'm not much for giant mecha games in the first place.
Oh yeah, the new "Star Empire" or whatever it is from WotC (or whomever), with its Terran Empire setting. Good illos, but crap and mediocre crap at that. Can anyone say "unrealistic?" After all, no real sci-fi game is like Star Trek for "certain elements" other than, well, Star Trek.
Ganidirsii O'Flynn
SOC-12
I think your mixing up your games.Littleton was Aftermath & Riverton was Morrow Project.Love Morrow but could never stand Aftermath.Originally posted by WarriorKnight:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Ganidiirsi O'Flynn:
After reading 'Havoc's "Some People Don't Get Traveller" thread, I had to ask:
IYHO, What is the worst sci-fi game ever published and why.
I confess to having a split decision in my judgement. Morrow Project was pretty awful. Still, taken in the context of the times, and taking into consideration the state of game design at the time, I suppose it could be called a fair to good idea with truely awful execution. And I confess to having a fair mount of fun in Littleton...
I mean really, what else could they do but add the Aftermath! combat rules to it???
Ah well. I did indeed mean Riverton. And we absolutely ransacked that place....Ganidirsii O'Flynn
SOC-12
Hey! You leave Metamophosis Alpha alone
! Like many of you Real Geeks (not these johnny-come-lately geeks who started gaming after it got art), I have a warm fuzzy spot in my heart for that game. I had a ball aboard the Starship Warden... I mean really, how many games have you ever played where the greatest treasure from a fight that nigh-on killed you was a plastic wristband! 
Havocatalyst
SOC-6
Was it actually worse than Freedom Fighters? I only ask because, although I never read Aftermath! I have very fond memories of both the original Phoenix Games and 2nd FGU edition of Bushido, which IIRC was by the same author(s) (Bob Charette, one of the creators of Shadowrun?)
This is the thing about FGU, they were very hit or miss. Bushido is an excellent game, the best fuedal Japan game I have seen. But they also produced some real dogs.
Gama World was the first RPG I ever owned, bought it when it first came out, I will always love it even with all its faults.
Does anyone remeber a game that was advertised in Dragon magazine way back when, the advertisement was "Are you tired of Travelling But not getting anywhere?" I was wondering what the name of this game was.
This is the thing about FGU, they were very hit or miss. Bushido is an excellent game, the best fuedal Japan game I have seen. But they also produced some real dogs.
Gama World was the first RPG I ever owned, bought it when it first came out, I will always love it even with all its faults.
Does anyone remeber a game that was advertised in Dragon magazine way back when, the advertisement was "Are you tired of Travelling But not getting anywhere?" I was wondering what the name of this game was.
jchurchill
SOC-12
Does anyone remeber a game that was advertised in Dragon magazine way back when, the advertisement was "Are you tired of Travelling But not getting anywhere?" I was wondering what the name of this game was.
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Obviously it was not memorable enough to unseat Traveller.
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Obviously it was not memorable enough to unseat Traveller.
Havocatalyst
SOC-6
It was one of those small 1 inch by 2 inch ads about half way thru the mag. I remeber it because of the tired of Travelling thing.
Alos, Paul Hume and Bob Charrette wrote Bushido, so if Bob's name is on Shadowrun then it is probably the same designer.
Alos, Paul Hume and Bob Charrette wrote Bushido, so if Bob's name is on Shadowrun then it is probably the same designer.
The Hinterworlds Rambler
SOC-14 5K
Space Opera, definitely... Other Suns was the early one, but featured awesome art by Jeff Dee
Another fine FGU product was Villains and Vigilantes, The KING of Superhero games...
Bow your heads!
Ps: dont go talkin smack about Gamma World, it pisses off my Yexil...
Another fine FGU product was Villains and Vigilantes, The KING of Superhero games...
Bow your heads!
Ps: dont go talkin smack about Gamma World, it pisses off my Yexil...
As a campaign game, it blew dead ursine forms.
But as a one-off adventure style game, with the right GM, it was positively brilliant. Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues was the best of the modules, but it was one of the few games that I, as a ref, have hurt myself (rib stress) laughing so hard while reading the rules - some of the skills and all of the little captioned illustrations were rib-busting.
Geez, this is a tough one. I own and formerly played Star Frontiers (Knight Hawks wasn't bad and SF is a reasonable juvenile SF game and did provide at least a concept of tactical combat with chits/maps), Star Trek the RPG, Star Wars, Aftermath (I gotta fondly remember the knockdown chart that said things like "hit, spin 180 degrees, fall to one knee, drop weapon"), Morrow Project, Gamma World, T2K (It's near future SF...), High Colonies (a neat little background), All versions of Traveller, Ringworld (whose only memorable mechanic was for the flashlight laser),
and I'm sure there are others if I took a trip into the archives (basement). Lord knows, I used to buy any new space game that came out at one point.
I think Star Ace and Timelords rank pretty lowly, as does Gamma World (As does classic module Beyond the Barrier Peaks for AD&D which was sort of a Gamma World crossover and old Blackmoor LBB format AD&D book which had some sci-fi stuff IIRC). Rifts looked like something ... avoidable... as did a lot of GURPS (not GT). And similarly, Role (ROLL) Master's Tech Law and Spacemaster were pretty icky. Space 1889 initially seemed very retarded, but in the later days, I've discovered it presented an interesting twist on an interesting time period, and now that I know a bit of the real history predating it slightly, it would hold much more appeal.
I (sadly) missed Metamorphasis Alpha and I've avoided Alternity.
and I'm sure there are others if I took a trip into the archives (basement). Lord knows, I used to buy any new space game that came out at one point.
I think Star Ace and Timelords rank pretty lowly, as does Gamma World (As does classic module Beyond the Barrier Peaks for AD&D which was sort of a Gamma World crossover and old Blackmoor LBB format AD&D book which had some sci-fi stuff IIRC). Rifts looked like something ... avoidable... as did a lot of GURPS (not GT). And similarly, Role (ROLL) Master's Tech Law and Spacemaster were pretty icky. Space 1889 initially seemed very retarded, but in the later days, I've discovered it presented an interesting twist on an interesting time period, and now that I know a bit of the real history predating it slightly, it would hold much more appeal.
I (sadly) missed Metamorphasis Alpha and I've avoided Alternity.
Don't get me wrong...other than the mathamaticians nightmare mechanic of other suns I rather liked it...
Morrow Project (with the skill suppliment) was a real favorite (you should see what I did to lake tahoe...remmber, the game gave the GM a list of nukes to drop where ever he wanted?..I did )
Alternity, I had never played, interesting mechanic...
I WAS gaming with 1st edition MA/Gamma World...EWWW!, I feel old
I really likes FASA's Star Trek..especially the ship system...fast, deadly and the PC's RPGing the bridge positions was way cool... unlike star fleet battles, my first (and only experience) involved argueing over how fast a ship had to be going to launch a wild weasel, one capatians log changed the rule, but a later one changed that again, etc...took over an hour for ONE TURN !!!
T$R had a buck rogers RPG based that was the dnd mechanic (1 & 2nd ed.) in space....
Morrow Project (with the skill suppliment) was a real favorite (you should see what I did to lake tahoe...remmber, the game gave the GM a list of nukes to drop where ever he wanted?..I did
)Alternity, I had never played, interesting mechanic...
I WAS gaming with 1st edition MA/Gamma World...EWWW!, I feel old
I really likes FASA's Star Trek..especially the ship system...fast, deadly and the PC's RPGing the bridge positions was way cool...
unlike star fleet battles, my first (and only experience) involved argueing over how fast a ship had to be going to launch a wild weasel, one capatians log changed the rule, but a later one changed that again, etc...took over an hour for ONE TURN !!! T$R had a buck rogers RPG based that was the dnd mechanic (1 & 2nd ed.) in space....
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
Oh, the critical/fumble tables in all their games were *wonderful!*
"Distracted by imaginary deceased turtle..."
I have bad memories of Psi World, but that's mostly 'cos of the scenario.
This is the same game system that let my friend Pete who was non-profficient throw a warhammer that was majorly cursed at long range, and due to some ridiculous open ended roll (I think over 200 IIRC), he hit and killed the dragon in one shot. That's just stupid.... though it did make him decide he had some sort of magic dragon slaying hammer... (No one said his character had a high Int)
Andrew Boulton
The Adminator
I never said the rest of the system was any good!
True, but that was a critical hit, IIRC....
And on another note: Some of the suppliments were badly broken. We used the basic rules to gen up some fantasy characters. Then we made the mistake of going to the suppliments for 'optional' stuff. Some of the optional stuff ended up with the party being composed of murderers, sexual deviants, etc. Not terribly heroic. The random tables produced such... social deviants... that the GM just gave up and packed the effort in a-borning. When the GM figured instead of us getting heroes he could throw nefarous villains at that we would in fact *BE* the nefarious villains, he just had a mental collapse....
The game tried to have a lot of colour and optional rules. Sadly, some were... poorly contrived. And sometimes that wasn't immediately obvious on first look-by.
But I can't really say how broken TechLaw/SpaceMaster was. We never really got into playing it.