What games won't I play?

I've already mentioned Vampire. I've played a Vampire: The Requiem campaign and it was not one of my better RPG experiences.

I did learn some important lessons from this game, one of which is the importance of making sure everyone is on the same page from the start. Marc and me missed the first session and came in at week 2, not knowing much about what was going on. Since the game was set in the 11th century, and I wanted to play a powerful woman, I decided to play a nun with ambitions to become abbess. Marc liked the idea, and made a monk character.

So Sister Matilda and Brother Henry walked into a game where the other players were part of the Circle of The Crone, and where the Lancea Sanctum were the antagonists. With the party now set up with each half disliking and distrusting the other we were set for several weeks of politics, infighting and backstabbing, spread across multiple centuries, very little of which was actually any fun.

I don't know how much of this was due to the party, how much was due to one particular player who freely admits Vampire brings out the worst in him (don't worry, we're still friends) and how much was due to the fundamental nature of Vampire itself, but when combined with the fact that I've never liked the White Wolf game system and don't particularly care for Vampire as a setting, it does mean that I'm never going to play it again.

The same applies to all of World of Darkness really. I once played a one-off game of Werewolf that was alright, but it wasn't the standard setting and I wasn't playing a werewolf.

(I mentioned this on Facebook and one of the players from that game reminded me how my character attacked a werewolf with a silver teapot.  It was awesome.)

The only White Wolf games I've actually liked are Changeling: The Dreaming, which never really fitted in with the WoD anyway, and Scion, which actually isn't WoD. And even then I didn't like the system, and was playing in spite of it.

And that about sums it up really. A really good setting will let me overlook a bad system (which is why I'm willing to play Cyberpunk 2020) but Vampire doesn't have that for me.

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Anything I know to be written by certain writers.

There are a small number of writers whose work I avoid. And it's because they write stuff I don't like, not because they're controversial figures, although coincidentally everyone on my avoid list has also turned out to be a controversial figure. I knew I didn't want to play the d20 version of Macho Women With Guns long before I learned anything about the author.

(I have run a game of the original MWWG, which has a deranged charm I found to be entirely missing from the d20 remake.)

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Anything where I have to play an existing character from a TV show or movie.

Just a personal preference. I'll happily play in settings like Firefly or Star Wars, but I want to play my own character in my own way. If I was playing, for example, Kaylee Frye, I'd be worried about whether I was getting her right, and probably also be annoyed if the person playing Malcolm Reynolds wasn't playing him the way that I think is right.

And sometimes I simply don't know the characters. I'd be willing to play a game based on Star Trek Deep Space 9, but I haven't seen enough of it to even attempt to roleplay as any of the main characters. I'd far rather have a crew of original characters with no concerns about authentic portrayals.

(Has anyone done a game based on The Orville yet? I'd play that. With original characters, of course.)