Monopoly. Literally designed to be frustratingly unplayable to represent the frustratingly unplayable user experience of capitalism, but people insist on playing it anyway.
AD&D 2e. Insists it’s a game about exciting fantasy adventuring, then all the rules are about painfully slow tactical minutiae. The combat mechanics are taken from a game about modern naval warfare, hence bigger Armor Class means easy to hit. It’s unclear why anyone thought ships with guns was a good model for medieval sword fighting. Entire sections of rules have to be ignored - hello encumberance - and gameplay regularly has to stop to look up charts, tables or niche rules like grappling.
Screamball. Like ping pong, except the point goes to whoever screams the loudest during a volley. We made it up as teenagers. It was awful.
AD&D 2e has, primarily, a presentation problem. The rules are best suited for a gritty game about the minutiae of exploring uncharted wilderness and delving into the dungeons you find there—one where you keep a watchful eye on your dwindling supplies of lamp oil and arrows as you calculate how to bring as much loot out of the dungeon as possible before getting killed by running into a particularly lucky orc. The rules are very similar to AD&D 1e, which is presented this way.
At some point, someone at TSR must have decided that heroic adventure sells better, because all of the 2e fluff and art makes it look like you play as heroic badasses who stare down dragons, which if you start at level 1 and play by the XP rules, will take you many months of weekly play to achieve.
Monopoly. Literally designed to be frustratingly unplayable to represent the frustratingly unplayable user experience of capitalism, but people insist on playing it anyway.
AD&D 2e. Insists it’s a game about exciting fantasy adventuring, then all the rules are about painfully slow tactical minutiae. The combat mechanics are taken from a game about modern naval warfare, hence bigger Armor Class means easy to hit. It’s unclear why anyone thought ships with guns was a good model for medieval sword fighting. Entire sections of rules have to be ignored - hello encumberance - and gameplay regularly has to stop to look up charts, tables or niche rules like grappling.
Screamball. Like ping pong, except the point goes to whoever screams the loudest during a volley. We made it up as teenagers. It was awful.
AD&D 2e has, primarily, a presentation problem. The rules are best suited for a gritty game about the minutiae of exploring uncharted wilderness and delving into the dungeons you find there—one where you keep a watchful eye on your dwindling supplies of lamp oil and arrows as you calculate how to bring as much loot out of the dungeon as possible before getting killed by running into a particularly lucky orc. The rules are very similar to AD&D 1e, which is presented this way.
At some point, someone at TSR must have decided that heroic adventure sells better, because all of the 2e fluff and art makes it look like you play as heroic badasses who stare down dragons, which if you start at level 1 and play by the XP rules, will take you many months of weekly play to achieve.