Really? Street Fighter was actually playable, was in full-color at a consumer-friendly price, and had a lasting, positive influence on later White Wolf games. While I'd concede it's not a great game, it's nowhere near the worst.
In fact, here are my nominations for the top 10 worst gaming books of all time.
Babylon 5: Earth Alliance (bad writing combined with bad racism, building on a franchise that deserves better)
Freak Legion: A Player's Guide to Formori (Hey kids! Want to be a sexist asshole with Overfiend super-powers? Here's an authorized book that tells you how to be one!)
Rise of the Valkyrie (the notorious Champions book pulled off the shelf because after travelling through time to kill Hitler, returning to the future reveals a Jewish World Government)
GURPS Vehicles, Version 1 (incredible amount of math + vehicle examples riddled with errors + a new edition less than two years later = incompetence on parade)
Gypsies (really not that much worse than Custos, but that's not high praise)
Unearthed Arcana, 1st edition (years later, Gygax.com would contain articles blaming the book's concepts like "negative levels" and "player-characters who hate to hang out with each other" and "let's all be evil AND more powerful" on everyone except the book's own author)
Morton's List (Building on invented controversy, this "game" is simply a bunch of random tables of things to do, and you roll on a table to do each one. Since some of the activities are illegal, it's supposed to be controversial. The publishers made up excuses to be "banned" from cons and then resorted to such unsavory marketing tactics as flyering my car at Origins. Honorable mentions: "The End", another RPG touted to be "banned from Gencon" but the owners actually hadn't bought a booth and had violated the "no soliciting if you're not an authorized vendor" rule, and "The Book of Erotic Fantasy", notorious vapor-ware that added the morals clause to the d20 license.)
Robot Warriors (A Champions book with bad art, bizarre rules, and zero support)
Synnibar (the notoriously "worst game evar", Synnibar is pretty low on this list because its only crime is being More Rifts Than Rifts.)
Immortal 1st Edition (More White Wolf Than White Wolf, Immortal took "gaming by thesaurus" to new levels by using bizarre terms for everything in it. Its central concept is that you, yourself, are a fantasic being of great power. Was in full color with horrible orange passing for skin tones.)
Honorable mentions: F.A.T.A.L. (Really, it's only in PDF form, and it's not like the Internet isn't full of hateful, spiteful things already. Plus, I'm still convinced it's just a joke in very bad taste, whereas everything mentioned above was intended to be played.) Diablo d20 (Hey, did you enjoy the whole good-vs.-evil storyline that permeated the cut-scenes? Want to play those as an RPG? Tough -- the authors of these tabletop books think you want the computer game, only watered down.)
The Guild of Blades superhero game ... Heroes Forever. (http://www.guildofblades.com/heroes/core-rules.html)
The cover sure was pretty. All the interior art is clip-art, mostly with little or nothing to do with superheroes, all skewed or stretched. The font looks like it was typed in the 1950s. And the rules themselves?
Let's just say I'm not allowed to print opinions that scathing in other peoples's LJ.
Ah, yes -- the RPG infamous for putting its company logo over part of their own title. ^.^
Ever see "Enforcers"? The superhero RPG had adds saying it was "the easiest to learn", but the sample characters had hit points to seven significant digits, and character creation required square root calculations!
I must take the stand as a Hero fanboy and get all pedantic.
A) Rise of the Valkyrie did not have the averted WWII result in a Jewish world government, but a world devastated by nuclear confrontations between the US & the Soviet Union.
B) Robot Warriors DID have a supplement, which I own but have forgotten. And its art was no worse than Teen Champions. I cannot speak to its rules.
A) Really, I only got a chance to flip through Valkyrie very briefly from someone's private collection. It was literally pulled off the shelves, though, and the reason you state doesn't sound nearly as bad as what the hype was. Why would they bother?
B) Artwork aside, Robot Warriors was a Champions supplement with rules completely incompatible with every other Champions book out there. And not only was its artwork bad, but they framed each one with a poorly-drawn frame, and then repeated more than half the interior artwork to pad out the book. Now that's a low point.
Well, for WotV, the main issue is that the plot DID require the PCs to go back in time and stop a group of holocaust survivors from killing Hitler. That was probably enough to get the book pulled.
I really can't defend Robot Warriors. I was just being pedantic. As for the art, Hero is doing art repitition in current books, too. That may be a bad sign.
Two beer is grammatically correct when talking about the number you had, but beers is correct if talking about different types.
That being said, the colloquial use of two beers in Canada is very evident. English is a living language, we don't have l'Académie Française standing on its hind legs ever year to tell us what is and isn't proper. So two beers is just fine.
Gypsies. An odd book. Ever since my ol' nagyanya used to call me cigán I was always kind of fascinated by them. Although I thought the book was disappointing, I think if Gypsies came out as a supplement to nWoD it would have worked a little better.
First of all: Where I come from (south central Ontario), the plural of beer is beer. Like deer. You would not believe the amount of grief I get from Alex about this. I guess they do things differently in Tronna, eh?
Second: Anything by Mongoose automatically loses in a hoo'd win contest. Even I know that.
Blame Old English. Which is a Scandanavian (and thus Germanic) language, and follows all kinds of strange rules. And then blame Middle English, for trying to make sense of a blend of Old English, newer Scandanavian languages, and Norman French, with a bunch of Church Latin thrown in for good measure.
Because in old English (where gen. singular ale was ealoð and gen. plural ales was ealeða but beer was just beer.
It's also why we used to have hung and hanged, but now the latter pretty much only refers to people who are on the business end of nooses.
I haven't really played LARP, so I must base my answers on 1) my distaste for whiny goths and 2) my distaste of Babylon 5, or rather the idea that B5 is anything other than an OK show. I will add the next person who tells me it is a classic show, let alone the best science fiction show ever, to the ranks of the Nation's Punched.
But, really, what can equal the annoyance of a truly clueless whiny goth?
And why the hell was there a gypsy module for that game anyway? Was it not pointless enough already?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 02:19 pm (UTC)two beers if you are in Ontario, and likely other places.
Both books are horrific. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 02:55 pm (UTC)2. Street Fighter: The RPG
Nominations for Top 10 Worst RPG Books of All Time
Date: 2006-05-26 03:39 pm (UTC)In fact, here are my nominations for the top 10 worst gaming books of all time.
- Babylon 5: Earth Alliance (bad writing combined with bad racism, building on a franchise that deserves better)
- Freak Legion: A Player's Guide to Formori (Hey kids! Want to be a sexist asshole with Overfiend super-powers? Here's an authorized book that tells you how to be one!)
- Rise of the Valkyrie (the notorious Champions book pulled off the shelf because after travelling through time to kill Hitler, returning to the future reveals a Jewish World Government)
- GURPS Vehicles, Version 1 (incredible amount of math + vehicle examples riddled with errors + a new edition less than two years later = incompetence on parade)
- Gypsies (really not that much worse than Custos, but that's not high praise)
- Unearthed Arcana, 1st edition (years later, Gygax.com would contain articles blaming the book's concepts like "negative levels" and "player-characters who hate to hang out with each other" and "let's all be evil AND more powerful" on everyone except the book's own author)
- Morton's List (Building on invented controversy, this "game" is simply a bunch of random tables of things to do, and you roll on a table to do each one. Since some of the activities are illegal, it's supposed to be controversial. The publishers made up excuses to be "banned" from cons and then resorted to such unsavory marketing tactics as flyering my car at Origins. Honorable mentions: "The End", another RPG touted to be "banned from Gencon" but the owners actually hadn't bought a booth and had violated the "no soliciting if you're not an authorized vendor" rule, and "The Book of Erotic Fantasy", notorious vapor-ware that added the morals clause to the d20 license.)
- Robot Warriors (A Champions book with bad art, bizarre rules, and zero support)
- Synnibar (the notoriously "worst game evar", Synnibar is pretty low on this list because its only crime is being More Rifts Than Rifts.)
- Immortal 1st Edition (More White Wolf Than White Wolf, Immortal took "gaming by thesaurus" to new levels by using bizarre terms for everything in it. Its central concept is that you, yourself, are a fantasic being of great power. Was in full color with horrible orange passing for skin tones.)
Honorable mentions:F.A.T.A.L. (Really, it's only in PDF form, and it's not like the Internet isn't full of hateful, spiteful things already. Plus, I'm still convinced it's just a joke in very bad taste, whereas everything mentioned above was intended to be played.) Diablo d20 (Hey, did you enjoy the whole good-vs.-evil storyline that permeated the cut-scenes? Want to play those as an RPG? Tough -- the authors of these tabletop books think you want the computer game, only watered down.)
Re: Nominations for Top 10 Worst RPG Books of All Time
Date: 2006-05-26 04:07 pm (UTC)The Guild of Blades superhero game ... Heroes Forever. (http://www.guildofblades.com/heroes/core-rules.html)
The cover sure was pretty. All the interior art is clip-art, mostly with little or nothing to do with superheroes, all skewed or stretched. The font looks like it was typed in the 1950s. And the rules themselves?
Let's just say I'm not allowed to print opinions that scathing in other peoples's LJ.
Doug.
Re: Nominations for Top 10 Worst RPG Books of All Time
Date: 2006-05-26 04:56 pm (UTC)Consider this a dispensation.
Re: Nominations for Top 10 Worst RPG Books of All Time
Date: 2006-05-26 06:22 pm (UTC)Doug.
Re: Nominations for Top 10 Worst RPG Books of All Time
Date: 2006-05-26 05:46 pm (UTC)Ever see "Enforcers"? The superhero RPG had adds saying it was "the easiest to learn", but the sample characters had hit points to seven significant digits, and character creation required square root calculations!
Re: Nominations for Top 10 Worst RPG Books of All Time
Date: 2006-05-26 04:42 pm (UTC)A) Rise of the Valkyrie did not have the averted WWII result in a Jewish world government, but a world devastated by nuclear confrontations between the US & the Soviet Union.
B) Robot Warriors DID have a supplement, which I own but have forgotten. And its art was no worse than Teen Champions. I cannot speak to its rules.
Re: Nominations for Top 10 Worst RPG Books of All Time
Date: 2006-05-26 05:43 pm (UTC)B) Artwork aside, Robot Warriors was a Champions supplement with rules completely incompatible with every other Champions book out there. And not only was its artwork bad, but they framed each one with a poorly-drawn frame, and then repeated more than half the interior artwork to pad out the book. Now that's a low point.
Re: Nominations for Top 10 Worst RPG Books of All Time
Date: 2006-05-26 06:43 pm (UTC)I really can't defend Robot Warriors. I was just being pedantic. As for the art, Hero is doing art repitition in current books, too. That may be a bad sign.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 03:01 pm (UTC)That being said, the colloquial use of two beers in Canada is very evident. English is a living language, we don't have l'Académie Française standing on its hind legs ever year to tell us what is and isn't proper. So two beers is just fine.
Gypsies. An odd book. Ever since my ol' nagyanya used to call me cigán I was always kind of fascinated by them. Although I thought the book was disappointing, I think if Gypsies came out as a supplement to nWoD it would have worked a little better.
Doug.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-27 12:15 am (UTC)I've never quite understood why everyone seems to loathe Gypsies.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 03:10 pm (UTC)Second: Anything by Mongoose automatically loses in a hoo'd win contest. Even I know that.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 03:21 pm (UTC)The correct answer is:
One pint of beer, two pints of beer --> One beer, two beer.
One kind of beer, two kinds of beer --> One beer, two beers.
And don't even get me started on the word "email"... 8)
As to the second question, I own neither book, but I understand that a certain amount of pain comes with both...
no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 06:21 pm (UTC)Blame Old English. Which is a Scandanavian (and thus Germanic) language, and follows all kinds of strange rules. And then blame Middle English, for trying to make sense of a blend of Old English, newer Scandanavian languages, and Norman French, with a bunch of Church Latin thrown in for good measure.
Because in old English (where gen. singular ale was ealoð and gen. plural ales was ealeða but beer was just beer.
It's also why we used to have hung and hanged, but now the latter pretty much only refers to people who are on the business end of nooses.
Doug.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-27 01:06 am (UTC)When people bother to remember even that much. Apparently people get hung all the time, depending on who you talk to.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-27 03:33 am (UTC)Like I said, crazy vestigal rules left over from when our language was entirely different.
Doug.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-27 11:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-28 12:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 09:42 pm (UTC)But, really, what can equal the annoyance of a truly clueless whiny goth?
And why the hell was there a gypsy module for that game anyway? Was it not pointless enough already?
no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 09:55 pm (UTC)Now, I liked a lot of things about oWoD, but I loahted how it dealt with ethnic and national groups. Oh, and whiny people are lame.