History NintendoHard / TabletopGames

** The original ''TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors'' module.

---> The reason for the difficulty is that Gygax was annoyed by his players bragging about their characters, and wanted to teach them a lesson. The difficulty was less about giving a proper challenge and more about giving upstart players a humiliating smackdown.

* The casino game "Diana". [[OlderThanTheyThink Surprisingly old]], predating [[OlderThanTheNES Nintendo]], [[OlderThanTelevision the TV itself]], and even [[OlderThanRadio radio!]] Was introduced to the Wild West in the 1800s, but did not gain popularity as the odds were apparently murderous.
** To clarify, Diana involved a betting system similar to Roulette where players would bet on things like suit, face value, red or black, or even a specific card against a single card drawn by a dealer.

** Three words for you: ''Masks of Nyarlathotep''. If you thought ''Call of Cthulhu'' was tough to survive in general, try a minimum-year-long campaign with globe-trotting pulp adventure in a game where [[KillEmAll you are decidedly]] ''[[CuriosityKilledTheCast not]]'' [[Franchise/IndianaJones Indiana Jones levels]] [[PlotArmor of plot-safe]]. There's ''multiple'' places the party can experience a TPK, monsters in pretty much every chapter that can [[ChunkySalsaRule easily kill you in one hit]], and there's plenty of Sanity loss to go around from the various titular avatars of Nyarlathotep to the situations experienced. Then there's at least four cults that all want the player characters dead, and that's without lengthening the campaign. The game's also on a time limit - the players have a year before [[TotalEclipseOfThePlot rituals surrounding a solar eclipse]] cause a gateway to open, allowing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Multiple character deaths are more common here than average, and even the cover of the campaign calls it "perilous". Yeah, there's a reason why most ''Call of Cthulhu'' players consider it one of the most challenging modules ever written for the game.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'': Played for laughs. The PCs are agents of an insane supercomputer who hunt down Commies, mutants, and conspiracies, which includes ''everyone in the complex'', including the PCs. (Friend Computer has not caught on ''how'' widespread the problem is, though many people have at least a rough idea.) People are cloned in packs of six, and it's not uncommon for a player to burn through an entire six-pack in the course of a single mission.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'': Played for laughs. The players are agents of an insane supercomputer who hunt down Commies, mutants, and conspiracies, when that applies to everyone in the complex, including the player characters. People are cloned in packs of six.

* ''Tabletop/ShadowsOverCamelot'' is infamous for being virtually impossible for the good knights to win a campaign, due to a multitude of bad things that can happen, some of which can occur before a player's turn even starts. [[spoiler: It is significantly easier for the Traitor in the group to win if there is one, especially since remaining undetected until the end of the game may result in a KaizoTrap for the other players!]]

* ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'' is extremely difficult. First, you have to understand that it's the players versus the game, not each other. The game usually wins. The randomly drawn opponent EldritchAbomination BigBad changes a number of rules, monsters, and often has instant-kill conditions should the game end in a final battle. Strategy and teamwork is mandatory, random events and blind luck will usually ruin your plans, and it's all a RaceAgainstTheClock. Expansions for the game generally exist to make the game ever ''harder'', such as adding TheDragon or TheCorruption to the mix. In general, you don't expect to ''win'' a given game, completely appropriate to the [[CosmicHorrorStory setting]].[[note]]This intense difficulty can be avoided by using custom characters. Even if they themselves are not unbalanced, putting them together, each designed for a certain task (i.e. one is made to close and explore gates, another is combat, another is movement, etc), makes the game from something incredibly difficult to relatively easy - even beating the end abominations becomes a fairly simple task.[[/note]]

--> As this is a highly complicated game, we strongly advise you to play a couple of trial rounds in order to learn the basics before playing a full game. In our experience the game can be finished in two hours. However, many starting players may take considerably longer. The game is quite unforgiving: famine and pollution will pile up if your economy doesn't grow fast enough, which can lead to a slow and painful death. \\
In order to make the game more easy to master, we would suggest that you skip the Famine and Pollution phases in your first couple of games. This will make the game much easier (although still competitive) and allow players to acquaint themselves with the mechanics and intricacies of the different buildings and strategies. If you rush straight into the full game, all of you may end up dead!

* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', the RPG, is usually murderously difficult to survive. Characters are at risk of death from a single rifle round, and many monsters deal enough damage that player characters who are hit have almost no chance to survive. TheCorruption is killing you, your SanityMeter is killing you, the McGuffin is killing you, the TomeOfEldritchLore is killing you... [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou They're not trying.]] They're ''succeeding.''
** Three words for you: ''Masks of Nyarlathotep''. If you thought ''Call of Cthulhu'' was tough to survive in general, try a minimum-year-long campaign with globe-trotting pulp adventure in a game where [[KillEmAll you are decidedly]] ''[[CuriosityKilledTheCast not]]'' [[Franchise/IndianaJones Indiana Jones levels]] [[PlotArmor of plot-safe]]. There's ''multiple'' places the party can experience a TPK, monsters in pretty much every chapter that can [[ChunkySalsaRule easily kill you in one hit]], and there's plenty of Sanity loss to go around from the various titular avatars of Nyarlathotep to the situations experienced. Then there's at least four cults that all want the player characters dead, and that's without lengthening the campaign. The game's also on a time limit - the players have a year before [[TotalEclipseOfThePlot rituals surrounding a solar eclipse]] cause a gateway to open, allowing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Multiple character deaths are more common here than average, and even the cover of the campaign calls it "perilous". Yeah, there's a reason why most ''Call of Cthulhu'' players consider it one of the most challenging modules ever written for the game.
* ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'' is extremely difficult. First, you have to understand that it's the players versus the game, not each other. The game usually wins. The randomly drawn opponent EldritchAbomination BigBad changes a number of rules, monsters, and often has instant-kill conditions should the game end in a final battle. Strategy and teamwork is mandatory, random events and blind luck will usually ruin your plans, and it's all a RaceAgainstTheClock. Expansions for the game generally exist to make the game ever ''harder'', such as adding TheDragon or TheCorruption to the mix. In general, you don't expect to ''win'' a given game, completely appropriate to the [[CosmicHorrorStory setting]].[[note]]This intense difficulty can be avoided by using custom characters. Even if they themselves are not unbalanced, putting them together, each designed for a certain task (i.e. one is made to close and explore gates, another is combat, another is movement, etc), makes the game from something incredibly difficult to relatively easy - even beating the end abominations becomes a fairly simple task.[[/note]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'': Played for laughs. The players are agents of an insane supercomputer who hunt down Commies, mutants, and conspiracies, when that applies to everyone in the complex, including the player characters. People are cloned in packs of six.

* ''TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'' has many scenarios which are won or lost based on victory conditions. However, before the endgame begins, players have found items, gained and lost stats, and explored the house. End-games range from fair challenges to virtually impossible.
* The ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'' dime novel adventure ''Night Train'' is alternately referred to as PC Death Train. A locomotive carrying thirty nosferatu and a zombie conductor (and not one of those relatively easy to beat head shot zombies) will do that. Rumors that its writer John Goff gets a royalty every time running it ends in a TotalPartyKill are officially denied, however.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' the board game is extremely hard for a traitor game. Often favoring the Cylon rather than the Humans. More often than not the Cylons win.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Torchbearer}}'' can be ''punishing'', rolling successes is difficult and failing gives the GM carte blanche to introduce you to new problems or let you succeed with a negative ''condition'' (your character can be left Afraid, Injured or ''Dead'' among other things). Conditions are also earned every four turns of the game, meaning that careless adventurers are closer and closer to die as far as they go down the dungeon. On the other hand it is really difficult to actually die in this game, you have to take a series of bad decisions or have a long ''long'' streak of bad luck, but, as the book puts it: "In Torchbearer death is a mercy".
* ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'', being based on ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has a long list of lethal effects of critical hits, such as "marrow flash-boiled, turning bones into frag grenades."
* ''TabletopGame/BunniesAndBurrows'': The game is about fluffy bunnies, whom [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everything else thinks is tasty]].
* ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' can be described as a cross between ''Call of Cthulhu'', ''Paranoia'', and ''{{TabletopGame/Shadowrun}}''. Player characters rarely survive missions. If they aren't eaten by a swarm of NanoMachines, decapitated by killer robots, eviscerated by mutant horrors, or enveloped by alien slime molds it's likely their benefactor will call in an [[OrbitalBombardment orbital strike]] on their position in order to contain whatever X-risk they uncovered. But at least they'll buy your [[BodyBackupDrive backup a new body]] (or more likely a used one).
* In ''{{TabletopGame/KULT}}'' you are a regular human that can be [[InstantKill instakilled]] by a shot or a bad hit. Good luck with the [[EldritchAbomination Archonts]] and they [[LovecraftianSuperpower friendly minions]].
* The Tabletop version of ''{{TabletopGame/Doom}}'' was this, potentially unintentionally. Because of the rules on ammunition making guns extremely unreliable, Marine players were forced to rely on the fist and chainsaw whenever possible, potentially putting themselves in the lines of fire of multiple hard-hitting demons.
* ''Tabletop/ShadowsOverCamelot'' is infamous for being virtually impossible for the good knights to win a campaign, due to a multitude of bad things that can happen, some of which can occur before a player's turn even starts. [[spoiler: It is significantly easier for the Traitor in the group to win if there is one, especially since remaining undetected until the end of the game may result in a KaizoTrap for the other players!]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Antiquity}}'' is a city building game set in a FantasyCounterpartCulture of medieval Italy. Here is a quote from the manual:
--> As this is a highly complicated game, we strongly advise you to play a couple of trial rounds in order to learn the basics before playing a full game. In our experience the game can be finished in two hours. However, many starting players may take considerably longer. The game is quite unforgiving: famine and pollution will pile up if your economy doesn't grow fast enough, which can lead to a slow and painful death. \\
In order to make the game more easy to master, we would suggest that you skip the Famine and Pollution phases in your first couple of games. This will make the game much easier (although still competitive) and allow players to acquaint themselves with the mechanics and intricacies of the different buildings and strategies. If you rush straight into the full game, all of you may end up dead!

* ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' can be described as a cross between ''Call of Cthulhu'', ''Paranoia'', and {{TabletopGame/Shadowrun}}. Player characters rarely survive missions. If they aren't eaten by a swarm of NanoMachines, decapitated by killer robots, eviscerated by mutant horrors, or enveloped by alien slime molds it's likely their benefactor will call in an [[OrbitalBombardment orbital strike]] on their position in order to contain whatever X-risk they uncovered. But at least they'll buy your [[BodyBackupDrive backup a new body]] (or more likely a used one).
* In {{TabletopGame/KULT}} you are a regular human that can be [[InstantKill instakilled]] by a shot or a bad hit. Good luck with the [[EldritchAbomination Archonts]] and they [[LovecraftianSuperpower friendly minions]].
* The Tabletop version of {{TabletopGame/Doom}} was this, potentially unintentionally. Because of the rules on ammunition making guns extremely unreliable, Marine players were forced to rely on the fist and chainsaw whenever possible, potentially putting themselves in the lines of fire of multiple hard-hitting demons.

* ''Antiquity'' is a city building game set in a FantasyCounterpartCulture of medieval Italy. Here is a quote from the manual:

* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'': Played for laughs. The players are agents of an insane supercomputer who hunt down mutants, commies, and conspiracies, when that applies to everyone in the complex, including the player characters. People are cloned in packs of six.

* ''TabletopGame/BunniesAndBurrows'': The game about fluffy bunnies, whom [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everything else thinks is tasty]].

** Three words for you: ''Masks of Nyarlathotep''. If you thought ''Call of Cthulhu'' was tough to survive in general, try a minimum-year-long campaign with globe-trotting pulp adventure in a game where [[KillEmAll you are decidedly]] ''[[CuriosityKilledTheCast not]]'' [[Film/IndianaJones Indiana Jones levels]] [[PlotArmor of plot-safe]]. There's ''multiple'' places the party can experience a TPK, monsters in pretty much every chapter that can [[ChunkySalsaRule easily kill you in one hit]], and there's plenty of Sanity loss to go around from the various titular avatars of Nyarlathotep to the situations experienced. Then there's at least four cults that all want the player characters dead, and that's without lengthening the campaign. The game's also on a time limit - the players have a year before [[TotalEclipseOfThePlot rituals surrounding a solar eclipse]] cause a gateway to open, allowing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Multiple character deaths are more common here than average, and even the cover of the campaign calls it "perilous". Yeah, there's a reason why most ''Call of Cthulhu'' players consider it one of the most challenging modules ever written for the game.