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Jack of Spades
2012-08-18, 09:48 AM
Burnout is a known entity in the RPG community. Sometimes you need to stop being other people or being around other people so you don't start taking drastic measures to eliminate said other people.

But, to me it is the mark of a true addict for one to have a burnout game. That one system or setting that feels like home to the RPG-weary mind. The system that you decide to play right after you think the thought, "I want to collect and destroy every copy of Tome of Battle, so that maybe the fumes will kill the part of my brain that remembers you people."

Well, that's a bit extreme. But you know what I mean. What's your burnout game, if you have one?

Mine is Fiasco. I can tell, because I'm currently extremely burnt out as far as RPG's go, and I'm hankering for some damn Fiasco.

The DM in our group tends to use Deadlands for this purpose. It's silly enough that he can go at it with a light heart but serious enough that he can actually run a game with it.

Share!

LibraryOgre
2012-08-18, 10:02 AM
Castles and Crusades. Usually to run either T1 (The Village of Hommlet) or B2 (Keep on the Borderlands). The system is pretty much "Yeah, that looks right", and I know the modules well enough to get creative, even when I'm not feeling that bright.

rorikdude12
2012-08-18, 01:42 PM
Pitfalls and Penguins. It's fun, silly, and has piles of creative mechanics and streamlined rules, as well as non-standard races and classes while using a d20 system (3.5) based chassis.

Silus
2012-08-18, 04:35 PM
Oddly enough, my "burnout" game would likely be running a Pathfinder game. I tend to run most games in a "let's see where we can take this" kinda way, so I never get stressed about the PCs foiling my carefully laid plans.

eggs
2012-08-18, 06:41 PM
I'd definitely back Fiasco. With a good group, it's always fresh.

I've also always had fun with InSpectres, but I suspect if I tried playing it with any sort of regularity, I'd burn out very quickly.

Knaight
2012-08-18, 07:34 PM
InSpectres is one of those games I've always wanted to play, that I can never find a group for.

Jack of Spades
2012-08-18, 09:55 PM
InSpectres is one of those games I've always wanted to play, that I can never find a group for.

What's InSpectres? I've never heard of it.

Knaight
2012-08-18, 10:06 PM
What's InSpectres? I've never heard of it.

http://memento-mori.com/inspectres/ has a brief summation, as well as startup rules. Basically, it's a rules minimalist narrative control centered game that is suspiciously similar to Ghostbusters.

eggs
2012-08-18, 10:22 PM
What's InSpectres? I've never heard of it.
It's like Ghostbusters or Men In Black: the RPG. Players get a lot of room to make up plot twists and to pull Sherlock Holmes-style "A-Ha!" moments where they get to throw big twists into the game ("That was when I realized the werewolf's claws bore the unmistakable calluses of a pro-circuit pinballer!") It's a lot of goofy seat-of-the-pants game-improvisation with a fun premise. I'm not sure how it would do for any kind of long elaborate story, but it's hard not to have fun with it in beer-and-pretzels one-offs.

Jack of Spades
2012-08-18, 10:27 PM
It's like Ghostbusters or Men In Black: the RPG. Players get a lot of room to make up plot twists and to pull Sherlock Holmes-style "A-Ha!" moments where they get to throw big twists into the game ("That was when I realized the werewolf's claws bore the unmistakable calluses of a pro-circuit pinballer!") It's a lot of goofy seat-of-the-pants game-improvisation with a fun premise. I'm not sure how it would do for any kind of long elaborate story, but it's hard not to have fun with it in beer-and-pretzels one-offs.

Sounds... Pretty awesome. :smallbiggrin: I guess I have some rules to read!

Herabec
2012-08-21, 06:26 AM
OWoD, Exalted and All Flesh Must be Eaten are my three 'burnout' games.

>_>

Jack of Spades
2012-08-21, 04:13 PM
OWoD, Exalted and All Flesh Must be Eaten are my three 'burnout' games.

>_>

:smalleek: OWoD tends to be the *cause* of burnout rather than the cure in my experience....

obryn
2012-08-21, 04:20 PM
Paranoia XP is my traditional "palate cleanser" game when switching gears between systems.

I have an idea for a mission wherein The Computer starts communicating only in LOLcats, but I don't know where I can take it from there. :)

-O

Dusk Eclipse
2012-08-21, 04:25 PM
Not an usual burnout game since it isn't a RPG; but my group and I usually bust out the Heroclix miniature to rest a hit from roleplaying. I am particular fond of using my lantern corps.

olejars
2012-08-21, 04:57 PM
Lately it's been Heroscape or MtG.

Eugenides
2012-08-24, 04:05 AM
My friends and I tend to do a round of Arkham Horror or Settlers of Catan.

Jay R
2012-08-24, 11:07 AM
Crossbows and Catapults (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2129/crossbows-and-catapults).

Yes, really.

Twenty minutes of a couple of adults firing rubber-band powered catapults and crossbows (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHxrYgps5iU)at the other guy's plastic walls and keep and we're all just giggling away.

kyoryu
2012-08-24, 11:30 AM
Crossbows and Catapults (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2129/crossbows-and-catapults).

Yes, really.

Twenty minutes of a couple of adults firing rubber-band powered catapults and crossbows (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHxrYgps5iU)at the other guy's plastic walls and keep and we're all just giggling away.

That's.... AWESOME.

(Wish I still had my copy of the game from when I was a kid!)

Hiro Protagonest
2012-08-24, 08:39 PM
OWoD, Exalted and All Flesh Must be Eaten are my three 'burnout' games.

>_>

That emoticon at the end is well-placed. Because the first two of those are RP-heavy games, the first with massive metaplot problems, and the second with metaplot problems if it's 1e and a major power-and-responsibility theme for either edition. I don't know much about the third, but I imagine that zombie apocalypse would be more a logistics-and-combat game, like a turn-based strategy game on a personal scale, so I could see that as a burnout game for guys who just want to play a strategy game, but want to play it with their friends and not in a PvP mode.

For me? Well, I play way too little to even get burnout, but I guess that any turn-based strategy board game or RTS video game (turn-based is good for board games, but RTS just feels more fluid and realistic, and the video game industry has tons of RTSes) could work for me. Not much storyline, my brain has to think about resource allocation but not about social interaction between characters (my low Manipulation score and average-low Charisma score does not help me get stunt dice for my Exalted characters' Socialize and Presence rolls).

Herabec
2012-08-25, 04:22 AM
That emoticon at the end is well-placed. Because the first two of those are RP-heavy games, the first with massive metaplot problems, and the second with metaplot problems if it's 1e and a major power-and-responsibility theme for either edition. I don't know much about the third, but I imagine that zombie apocalypse would be more a logistics-and-combat game, like a turn-based strategy game on a personal scale, so I could see that as a burnout game for guys who just want to play a strategy game, but want to play it with their friends and not in a PvP mode.

For me? Well, I play way too little to even get burnout, but I guess that any turn-based strategy board game or RTS video game (turn-based is good for board games, but RTS just feels more fluid and realistic, and the video game industry has tons of RTSes) could work for me. Not much storyline, my brain has to think about resource allocation but not about social interaction between characters (my low Manipulation score and average-low Charisma score does not help me get stunt dice for my Exalted characters' Socialize and Presence rolls).
Yeah, you'd think I'd get burnt out on RPing other people all together, but that's not even it. I get tired of RPing archetypes of people. XD So when I burnout on D&D, it's because I'm tired of being an adventurer (or...more often, a DM).

So then I go and play Vampire, which has a radically different feeling and tone to it. It's refreshing. When I get tired of that, I play Exalted, which is still different - now we're just frikken' Demigods going around punching other gods in the face. Why? Because it's cool. Maybe we don't play the game right, but our Exalted games tend to run on High Octane Rule of Cool. I've seen less crazy stuff happen in anime. @_@

All Flesh Must be Eaten is a pretty unique example. It's actually fairly roleplay heavy, or at least, that's how I play it. It lets me play characters I otherwise would never get the chance to. All while trying to survive the zombie apocalypse with an ever-dwindling supply of food, ammo and safe havens. Pretty fun, actually.

TuggyNE
2012-08-25, 04:40 AM
Maybe we don't play the game right, but our Exalted games tend to run on High Octane Rule of Cool. I've seen less crazy stuff happen in anime. @_@

From what little I know of Exalted, I'd say you're playing exactly right. :smallamused:

Hiro Protagonest
2012-08-25, 02:59 PM
From what little I know of Exalted, I'd say you're playing exactly right. :smallamused:

It depends, really.

Exalted is sometimes run as a simple game, where you're the heroes, those are the villains, go punch them.

I feel those games would be better with a different system. Spirit of the Century, Champions, etc.

The other type of game, the one that I see the merit in using the Exalted system and world for, is the one the designers have written. Yes, the Guild is a snake. But it's also a mortal-run organization, and is most likely vital in keeping the Realm off the Scavenger Lands. Yes, the Fair Folk are soul-eaters, most of which don't care about human life. Well when the Solars have lived for a couple thousand years, they pretty much stop caring about the mortals too. And Creation is like a vacation spot for Fair Folk. And when it comes down to it, the Fair Folk were here first, before Creation was even formed. Yes, the Yozis are legitimately bad, but they weren't always like that, and it was the Unconquered Sun and the Solars who turned the reasonable, if alien, Primordials into the Yozis, who, except for the unchanged (although not undiminished; they're still bound by their oaths. They were simply stuffed inside Malfeas rather than getting their Fetich Soul killed, I believe) such as Isidoros and possibly Cytherea, are all bad guys. Yes, the Neverborn want to end all existence, but if they found some other way to achieve final rest, they would be fine with that. Yes, Autochthon sided with the Incarnae and created the exaltations, but the whole war was supposed to be his revenge fantasy; it just turned out worse than he'd expected. Yes, Luna is pretty okay. But she's also the most cunning, devious, seductive, and strong of Oramus' nightmares.

Of course, Exalted is still about racking up as many stunt dice as you can.

qwertyu63
2012-08-26, 08:36 AM
Me, I tend towards Risus when I'm burnt. Simple, silly, and lets me play with new people, rather then the one that burnt me.

Aidan305
2012-08-26, 09:40 AM
I'm another one who tends towards Paranoia. Simple, straightforward fun, where I can ruthlessly crush players who have been annoying me in other games.

It's like therapy for GMs.

GeekGirl
2012-08-26, 11:15 AM
We usually drop off and play Magic: TG for a few weeks while every one gets their heads together

Archpaladin Zousha
2012-08-26, 02:42 PM
I don't really have a "Burnout" game because none of our games tend to last long enough for me to "burn out" on the system or setting. There's a long enough gap of NO GAME AT ALL that I'm eager to return to whatever my addiction was before (Pathfinder at the moment).

Techwarrior
2012-08-26, 10:12 PM
I have to also say Paranoia as one that I like falling back on, but my big one is Vampire the Masquerade 2nd edition.

Rizhail
2012-08-26, 10:43 PM
It used to be that I didn't have such a game, for two reasons: 1) I always end up DMing, and 2) I'm thus limited in the games I have access to/am familiar with. A potential third reason is that my players are over the top insane. That can be a hell of a lot of fun, but it wears the DM out after a while trying to keep things at a high pace, or dealing with the players ramping things up to that pace.

Then, a month or three ago, one of my players introduced me to the game I can now comfortably call my Burnout game: Scion.

He says to me,'I figured you could use a break, seeing as you're the Forever DM, so I'm running a game of Scion.' This player always plays the most over the top characters imaginable, in an attempt to break every game in the best ways possible. He played a half-ogre changeling in Dresden Files that regularly hit people with cars because he could. He played a Long Fang in deathwatch that never missed a shot, and outsniped a Broadside battlesuit via heavy bolter, and that's when he shot second. To put it nicely, he's part of the reason I was burned out. A DM can only take so much crazy before he wants to take a break.

So, the session comes up on a Saturday night. I'm part way through character creation, working on a serious swordsman of some sort, when I got this urge to say 'Screw it. We're playing a game where our characters are the gods made manifest; I'm going to have some fun!'

In twenty minutes, I whipped up a biker-viking son of Tyr with a sawed off shotgun made from a bone fragment of Ymir and a Predator-style minigun with infinite ammunition who acts like a Warhammer 40k Space Wolf (drinking, fighting, protecting the innocent and the weak; good times). My roomie made a scion of Haphaestus who is the world's biggest jerk, yet still funny as hell to have in game.

The rather free-form rules and over the top abilities, combined with our crazy playstyle, meant that the tutorial game was one of the best RPG sessions I'd had in years. The followup sessions have just gotten crazier and better.

Though the part that cemented it for me as my burnout game: the ST looking at me after one of my character's shenanigans with a look of dawning apprehension and saying, '...this is what it's like for you when I'm playing, isn't it?'

Dimers
2012-08-29, 01:10 PM
When I burn out, it's almost always because "argh these mechanics are @$#%@!^*@#$ insane and stupid ... dammit, *I* could make a better system than this!" So I do. My burnout game is my own gameworld+system. I'll probably never use it with anybody else, but it's been working fine for washing the bile out of my soul.

EDIT: Rizhail, I like the story behind your pick. :smallsmile:

Jack of Spades
2012-08-29, 03:45 PM
Me, I tend towards Risus when I'm burnt. Simple, silly, and lets me play with new people, rather then the one that burnt me.

Wait, you're telling me other people have heard of Risus? :smalltongue:

BootStrapTommy
2012-08-29, 11:20 PM
It might sound weird, but GURPS. Space cowboys. I know GURPS, I like GURPS.
And I've always wanted to have my own space ship, be a smuggler, and play Robin Hood in the 22th Century. And with GURPS I can.

It's like being able to fulfill my childhood fantasies.

Vknight
2012-08-31, 09:08 AM
Monsters & Other Childish Things.
But I always want to play more of that, being one of my favorite games in general

My other option would have to be Shadowrun