History Horrible / TabletopGames

* '''''TabletopGame/RapRat''''' is a board game for kids made in 1992 which used [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW5m3ix8KuI a VHS tape]] as part of the game. You would put in the tape, roll a color-coded die, and move around the board. Every time you land on a space in your color, you would get a MacGuffin piece; you get ten, and you win. Except the board is an infinite loop, making it pretty much useless[[note]]although not in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkSx9Sd83PI the PAL version]], which uses a numbered die[[/note]]. Instead, the TV was used for Rap Rat, an insufferable and [[NightmareFuel frankly creepy]] cartoon, to interrupt the players to [[ContinueYourMissionDammit tell them to do things]], rap (or rather talk while skipping over the same word several times), or eat a block of cheese for 10 minutes -- with all players losing if he finishes before a player wins, which is extremely difficult to do because the whole game is a LuckBasedMission. It says something when Rap Rat has a [[http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Rap_Rat creepypasta]], which is pretty much the only reason why anyone nowadays has heard of it. Most damningly, its publisher was already known for the much better horror-themed VHS board game ''TabletopGame/{{Atmosfear}}'', suggesting it was a matter of just trying to market to kids and failing miserably. Matt Sall of the website ''Bell of Lost Souls'' reviews it [[https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2020/04/board-games-retro-rap-rat-is-pure-nightmare-fuel.html here]].

'''''Important Note:''''' Merely being offensive in its subject matter is not enough to justify a work as Horrible. Hard as it is to imagine at times, there is a market for all types of deviancy (no matter how small a niche it is). It has to ''fail to appeal even to that niche'' to qualify as this. Additionally, to ensure that the work is judged with a clear mind and the hatred isn't just a knee-jerk reaction, as well as to allow opinions to properly form, '''[[Administrivia/NoRecentExamplesPlease examples should not be added until at least one month after release]]'''.

'''''Important Note:''''' Merely being offensive in its subject matter is not enough to justify a work as Horrible. Hard as it is to imagine at times, there is a market for all types of deviancy (no matter how small a niche it is). It has to ''fail to appeal even to that niche'' to qualify as this.

* The original version of the '''''Space Phenomena''''' set of ''Top Trumps'' cards is embarrassingly bad. The parent game is well-respected and has had a ton of expansions, mostly from its simplicity; you compare statistics on each card, whoever had the better one wins the round, and you learn about various things in the process. ''Space Phenomena'', however, is filled with cards that have statistics that are uselessly low or have almost every category listed as "N/A", use incompatible units like displaying the speed of some objects in kilometers per hour but others relative to the speed of Earth's orbit in Earth years, have many identical statistics due to the objects being located on Earth, use misleading statistics such as suggesting that Venus wasn't discovered until 1990 or the Moon wasn't discovered until 1651[[note]]the "year of discovery" for objects with no traceable discovery date is instead the year of important discoveries around them, although this leads to absurd things like Ganymede being known for longer than '''the Sun'''[[/note]], or just plain incorrect like Halley's Comet being -6,000,000 Earth masses as if it somehow weighed a negative amount. All of this combined to make a game that was dubiously educational and no fun to actually play. A year after its release, ''Top Trumps'' apologized and reprinted the set with better objects and more consistent stats. You can watch [[Creator/StuartAshen Ashens]] rip the original version apart [[http://youtu.be/1Us3iSgixRI here]].

* '''''[=BreaKeys=]''''' was a collectible trading game whose main gimmick was literally breaking your opponent's game piece when they lost. ''[=BreaKeys=]'' pieces apparently came in bags of 20 for $20, which could be wasted in less than a minute in a game. Because the weaker pieces would always be the first ones to break, the law of collectible games -- the rarer the game piece, the stronger it is -- does not apply here. Furthermore, the broken plastic pieces were fairly sharp and could cause messes and small injuries. And the icing on the cake: you could just feel, with your fingers, how strong each key was before using it. Watch [[WebVideo/FamiliarFaces CR]] review it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu6Vqco4rpk here]].

* '''''TabletopGame/RacialHolyWar''''' was made by a white supremacist group called The Creativity Movement, and it's pretty clear that pushing their ideology was more important to them than making a good RPG. The plot is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin right there in the title]]: set in the future, the Jews have taken over the world, and you play as the plucky white LaResistance who will overthrow them. It reads like an over-the-top parody of neo-Nazism, or like someone read ''Literature/TheProtocolsOfTheEldersOfZion'' but didn't feel quite up to tackling ''Literature/MeinKampf''. The game's most ridiculous feature is that every enemy race has a SpecialAttack based on racial stereotypes, which ends up making the whites look far less badass than what the writers intended; Jews can [[GreedyJew bribe them not to attack]], and Black people can debilitate them with their body odor. Even if you're not offended by its hateful premise, there's no fun to be had with this game, as the rules are horrible, broken, and unfinished, including complete omission of rules regarding player-character attack resolution -- put simply, the game forgot to tell you how to attack things. The Intimidation mechanic is the most broken, adding up the score of every combatant on each side, meaning a handful of heavily armed White Warriors could be scared shitless by a hundred Jewish babies. And the game's cover is outright stolen from ''Film/TheHillsHaveEyes1977'' with almost no changes. It's so bad, [[Website/FourChan 1d4chan]] [[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Racial_Holy_War considers the game]] worse than ''TabletopGame/{{FATAL}}'' -- the material lacks shock value, doesn't [[CrossesTheLineTwice cross the line twice]], and is too reprehensible and pitiful to be enjoyed ironically. More info [[http://web.archive.org/web/20080212094700/http://atrocities.primaryerror.net/rahowasucks.html here]].

* '''''Myfarog''''' (which stands for "Mythic Fantasy Role-Playing Game") was made by former Music/{{Mayhem}} bassist Varg Vikernes, who is infamous for murdering one of his bandmates and taking part in multiple church burnings in Norway, but also for his racist political beliefs. Set in the world of Thule (which is the name of a German occultist organization that counted people who would later join the Nazi party among its members), the game only lets people play as white characters, whereas the "Copper Men", who are meant to represent people of Middle Eastern or African descent, are unplayable and described by the rulebook as "vulgar", "poorly educated" and "ruining the lifestyle and culture of Thule". Not only is its premise racist, it is also horrible to play, due to its mechanics : Vikernes tried to make the game as "realistic" as possible,which apparently means it needed [[https://www.metalsucks.net/2015/08/21/advanced-discrimination-dragons-critical-look-varg-vikernes-myfarog-rpg/ an extremely complex rule set that makes an action as simple as swimming extremely difficult to roll]].

* '''''Myfarog''''' (which stands for "Mythic Fantasy Role-Playing Game") was made by former bass player of Music/{{Mayhem}} Varg Vikernes, who is infamous for murdering one of his bandmates and taking part in multiple arsons that targeted churches in Norway, but also for his racist political beliefs. Set in the world of Thule (which is the name of a German occultist organization that counted people who would later join the Nazi party among its members), the game only lets people play as white characters, whereas the "Copper Men", who are meant to represent people of Middle Eastern or African descent, are unplayable and described by the rulebook as "vulgar", "poorly educated" and "ruining the lifestyle and culture of Thule". Not only is its premise racist, it is also horrible to play, due to its mechanics : Vikernes tried to make the game as "realistic" as possible,which apparently means it needed [[https://www.metalsucks.net/2015/08/21/advanced-discrimination-dragons-critical-look-varg-vikernes-myfarog-rpg/ an extremely complex rule set that makes an action as simple as swimming extremely difficult to roll]].

* Myfarog (which stands for "Mythic Fantasy Role-Playing Game") was made by former bass player of Music/{{Mayhem}} Varg Vikernes, who is infamous for murdering one of his bandmates and taking part in multiple arsons that targeted churches in Norway, but also for his racist political beliefs. Set in the world of Thule (which is the name of a German occultist organization that counted people who would later join the Nazi party among its members), the game only lets people play as white characters, whereas the "Copper Men", who are meant to represent people of Middle Eastern or African descent, are unplayable and described by the rulebook as "vulgar", "poorly educated" and "ruining the lifestyle and culture of Thule". Not only is its premise racist, it is also horrible to play, due to its mechanics : Vikernes tried to make the game as "realistic" as possible,which apparently means it needed [[https://www.metalsucks.net/2015/08/21/advanced-discrimination-dragons-critical-look-varg-vikernes-myfarog-rpg/ an extremely complex rule set that makes an action as simple as swimming extremely difficult to roll]].

* '''''Spellfire''''' is a CCG based on ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' made in the FollowTheLeader rush after ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' popularized the concept of collectible card games. Unfortunately, several factors helped kill the game. They had bad rules, artwork recycled from ''Dragon Magazine'' and old book covers, and horrendous craftsmanship -- rare and powerful figures were depicted as ''photographs'' of dressed-up employees, mundane household items, or poorly-made models. When your cards being printed on flimsy photo paper is the least of your concerns, you know you're in trouble.