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DontEatRawHagis
2013-01-24, 08:31 PM
Its been about a year since the last time I needed a palette cleanser. I've started 2 DnD games. Both ending prematurely. Played a runt Wookie in a Star Wars campaign. And a body jumping Demon in a super villain campaign. And I have just started probably the last game of my current game group.:smallfrown:

In the next couple of weeks I'm going to propose the palette cleanser. A game banned in several gaming conventions. Hidden from the destructive hands of the players who fear it. A game so heinous and schizophrenic even it's name is known to cause insanity in gamers.

Paranoia.

Apologies for all the melodrama, but it really is that bad to my group at least. I have one player who would rather eat his dice than play. On several occasions people have said they would burn the book if I left it alone with them.

To make a long story short:
What is your palette cleanser game?

Many people play DnD, but what do you player to break up the monotony?

Amphetryon
2013-01-24, 08:56 PM
Its been about a year since the last time I needed a palette cleanser. I've started 2 DnD games. Both ending prematurely. Played a runt Wookie in a Star Wars campaign. And a body jumping Demon in a super villain campaign. And I have just started probably the last game of my current game group.:smallfrown:

In the next couple of weeks I'm going to propose the palette cleanser. A game banned in several gaming conventions. Hidden from the destructive hands of the players who fear it. A game so heinous and schizophrenic even it's name is known to cause insanity in gamers.

Paranoia.

Apologies for all the melodrama, but it really is that bad to my group at least. I have one player who would rather eat his dice than play. On several occasions people have said they would burn the book if I left it alone with them.

To make a long story short:
What is your palette cleanser game?

Many people play DnD, but what do you player to break up the monotony?
WHFRPG, if I can ever find it.

Acanous
2013-01-24, 09:31 PM
RIFTS.

Although FATAL is probably ging to be the unspoken elephant in the room.

themocaw
2013-01-29, 02:49 PM
MAID RPG. With random character generation. Using the random events charts.

Arbane
2013-01-29, 03:27 PM
RIFTS.

Although FATAL is probably ging to be the unspoken elephant in the room.

No, nobody actually plays FATAl.

obryn
2013-01-29, 04:45 PM
IMO, Paranoia is the pinnacle of palate-cleanser games because it inverts just about everything.

Cthulhu variants are my other standby. Realms of Cthulhu, currently - basically Savage Worlds meets Eldritch horror (and punches it in the face).

Gnomish Wanderer
2013-01-29, 04:53 PM
Its been about a year since the last time I needed a palette cleanser. I've started 2 DnD games. Both ending prematurely. Played a runt Wookie in a Star Wars campaign. And a body jumping Demon in a super villain campaign. And I have just started probably the last game of my current game group.:smallfrown:

In the next couple of weeks I'm going to propose the palette cleanser. A game banned in several gaming conventions. Hidden from the destructive hands of the players who fear it. A game so heinous and schizophrenic even it's name is known to cause insanity in gamers.

Paranoia.

Apologies for all the melodrama, but it really is that bad to my group at least. I have one player who would rather eat his dice than play. On several occasions people have said they would burn the book if I left it alone with them.

To make a long story short:
What is your palette cleanser game?

Many people play DnD, but what do you player to break up the monotony?
What the hell happened to your players to make them hate Paranoia so much? o.0

Paranoia, I agree, is the best palette cleanser. My players love the thrill of being able to kill and die freely (to an extent) and it really breaks up the monotony of more serious games.

NichG
2013-01-29, 05:01 PM
I tend to flip back and forth between D&D 3.5 and my set of highly modified 7th Sea rules. Adding a third member of the cycle would be good though, but I'm not quite sure what to use there yet.

themocaw
2013-01-29, 07:32 PM
"Kobolds Ate My Baby!" is another good one.

Jay R
2013-01-29, 11:00 PM
Toon. You cannot take it seriously.

Nuclear War. Sometimes you just want to deal out some hot nuclear death.

Stomp! This seventies game is a battle between a large number of elves, on counters showing them looking up, and a giant, portrayed by two foot-shaped counters.

and finally ...

Crossbows and Catapults. Yes - two grown men sitting on the floor using rubber band powered catapults to knock over little plastic castles.

tensai_oni
2013-01-29, 11:25 PM
Although FATAL is probably ging to be the unspoken elephant in the room.

You either misunderstood what the OP meant by palette cleanser, or I am very worried for your group.

Anderlith
2013-01-29, 11:29 PM
RIFTS or Shadowrun, major flavor & genre change lets us break out of our ruts, plus they both have expansive worlds & settings

Anxe
2013-01-30, 12:19 AM
I think FATAL matched the OP's melodramatic description best.

Anyways, palette cleansing games for me are board, card, and video games. We'll play Risk, or Magic, or League of Legends, or Age of Empires. Whatever. We don't have a palette cleansing RPG, but there are plenty of other games to choose from.

Stubbazubba
2013-01-30, 08:44 PM
Yeah, a good palette cleanser would be something with extremely small initial investment for a moderately decent experience, very low stakes. Probably not a new TTRPG, because that you have to learn. A board game or something similarly detached would work well.

valadil
2013-01-30, 09:52 PM
D&D is my preferred palette cleanser between other systems/worlds. I just like returning to the de facto standard after trying some odd new system that attacks my assumptions.

One of my groups prefers GURPS. I still can't tell why.

Guizonde
2013-01-30, 11:14 PM
:elan: i can help!

my group has actually avoided this in our masterstroke of a plan! (read: lucky bumbling)

3 dm's. 3 weeks. does it slow down campaigns? you betcha! does everyone enjoy it? oh, sweet gravy, yes!

week one: DnD return to the temple of elemental evil... well, it was supposed to be this, but with a psycho dm who borrowed cthulu's insanity system, and our (lack of) talent a picking up subtle hints, it's more like nalheulbeuk dungeon combined with survival-horror (still fun, if grimdark)

week two: (my turn) PF's return of darkness (word for word translation)... meant to be grimdark, but i can't resist a good pun or a running gag. think comedy movie mystery. great fun to be had by all (except by the halfling barbarian who's getting thrown in various bits of furniture, or that female gnomish bard who was mistaken for a pleasure-girl by a rich and old noblewoman...) ok, there may be some squicky elements, but hey! i'm dm, i don't like grimdark overdose!

week 3: WHFRP: (i'll write up the full campaign, it's an off-the-cuff thing) comedy-survival-horror. comedy is what we do. we survive by summoning horror. that we survive comedically! we're crazy-lucky, and unwittingly min-maxed. we're a team of one-trick ponies, so whenever we need something done, one of us is beast, the rest watch, eat popcorn, dodge lesser daemons... the usual :smallbiggrin:

in other words, we get mood-whiplash on a weekly basis, but all is not lost, since all have defining elements that can tie in to the other. we don't get bored, since all 3 dm's have very different styles of play. most importantly, we get more attached to our characters, as we know they'll all survive for at least two more weeks, and we spend that time worrying (or, in the barb's case, wondering what i'll send him flying through comedically next)

say, anyone ever heard of pendragon? meant to be an arthurian legend system, and psycho-dm is psyched about finally getting a copy of it.

Fortuna
2013-01-31, 01:17 AM
Forsooth!

...no, really. Forsooth! It's a great little game, I'm sure someone will pop up with the link, and it has the advantage of not needing to set anyone apart as GM. It's a friendly competition to see who can act the most outrageously or brilliantly, and very enjoyable once you get into the rhythm of the thing.

Greenish
2013-01-31, 01:32 AM
Yeah, a good palette cleanser would be something with extremely small initial investment for a moderately decent experience, very low stakes. Probably not a new TTRPG, because that you have to learn. A board game or something similarly detached would work well.Bang!somemoretext

DontEatRawHagis
2013-01-31, 08:54 PM
Here are a few highlights from my Paranoia game:


Lets start with the Game prep:

In Paranoia there is a scale for security clearance if you didn't already know. You start of Infared then Promote to Red and then go through the ROYGBIV until you can become an Ultraviolet citizen, as such you are the equivalent of Gods.

I decided to take it a step further and have my players choose from multicolored pens. With enough reds for everyone, but one blue. The person who immediately picked up the blue pen lost his first Clone.

The Characters and Players:

Powergamer
Friend
Friend's Wife
DnD Vet
Team Leader

There were a few more, but I can't remember. Friend's Wife would have won had I not penalized her an extra clone. She still hates me for that.


The R&D Items:

The Query Orb:
Team Leader: Equipment Guy ask the Orb where we should go.
Equipment Guy: Yes, sir. Will the Corridor to GRU sector take us where we want to go?
Orb: Reply hazy, try again.
Equipment: Okay, Is GRU Sector a shortcut to our mission objective?
Orb: Outlook good.
Equipment: Its safe to go leader.
Team Leader: Alright, lets go.

*Team Leader enters darkness. No one follows. After five seconds I tick his clones down by 1.*

Me: You were eaten by a Grue.

The Treason Detector:
Team Leader: I will have you for treason.
Equipment Guy: I haven't done anything wrong.
Team Leader: Will let the treason detector decide.
Equipment Guy: Here it is. *Pulls out a huge box with a slit in it* Put your hand in there and it will tell you if I am treasonous.
Team Leader: Are you sure that's how it works?
Equipment Guy: Of course, I'm the equipment guy.
*Team Leader puts hand in slit. Blades inside box cut off his hand.*


That's all I can remember, but there was a part where someone hacked a couple painting bots to paint the walls purple. Which caused one of the players to die in a very horrible way painted purple.

nedz
2013-02-01, 08:53 AM
Bridge or Britannia — though we are down to three people who can actually play Bridge and Britannia requires exactly 4 players. We did have a stint of playing Carcassonne, but we've mastered that game now.

Jay R
2013-02-01, 10:27 AM
I also like the Avalon Hill multi-player games - KingMaker, Britannia, Civilization, Age of Renaissance, etc.

(Palate cleanser, by the way.)

CarpeGuitarrem
2013-02-01, 03:11 PM
I think Fiasco can be an excellent palate cleanser: a one-shot game with dead-simple rules where the point is to act with reckless abandon in a hilarious manner.

nedz
2013-02-01, 04:54 PM
Actually — now that I've read the thread title correctly — Turpentine or White Spirit, depending upon the medium, though giving it a good scrape is usually enough.

Jack of Spades
2013-02-04, 06:50 PM
I think Fiasco can be an excellent palate cleanser: a one-shot game with dead-simple rules where the point is to act with reckless abandon in a hilarious manner.

Link! (http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/games/fiasco/)

This. Dear God this. Simple and free-form set up, the game is whatever you want it to be, only takes 2-3 hours to play, and most of the characters end up dead or suffering at the end :smallbiggrin:

It's also a great game for "training" your players to get detached from their characters, if that's ever a problem in your group.

Upsides: Hilarious, quick, fun, versatile, low investment ($25 book or $12 PDF, couple handfuls of d6's), good support (new content pretty regularly on publisher's site)
Downsides: Works better with more creative groups, caps at 5 players (there's rules for more, but it takes some gymnastics).

Acanous
2013-02-04, 07:07 PM
Actually — now that I've read the thread title correctly — Turpentine.

Thus, FATAL.

Joe the Rat
2013-02-06, 12:31 AM
Thus, FATAL.

That's more of an emetic, though.

neonchameleon
2013-02-06, 06:51 AM
One more vote for Fiasco. It does almost all Paranoia does as a change of pace in one tight two hour session. There's even an authorised Paranoia playset for Fiasco (http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/news/2012/06/15/a-very-special-paranoia-fiasco/).