Is FATAL really as bad as it sounds? I mean, you'd think that would be impossible . . .
FATAL's an easy joke. Nobody's who jokes about it has actually played it, and the common knowledge of it's heinousness comes from the
RPGNet review which uses hyperbole for effect.
Nobody plays FATAL because the rulebook is 900-odd pages long and the vast majority of those rules are esoteric mathematical
blasphemies that take control away from the player. Character creation takes hours, the character sheet is eight pages long to my memory
and there are about 30 pedantic and often contradictory stats. Little to no choice is provided in charcater creation mechanically.
The setting is either bland, illogical, or insultingly sophomoric depending on which parts you look at. There are rules that trivialize rape and sexism.
There are thousand row tables of shitty death metal lyrics. Spell ingredients use charming colloquialisms like "cunt-pipe"
Like any RPG it's really only as bad as the people who you play it with but with the exception of the creators and a few micromanaging rape enthusiasts
nobody has played it. You haven't played it. Goombageek hasn't played it. That guy in the purple shirt in the comic hasn't played it. I've never gotten more than a quarter into the steps required to play it. It's not fun.
(You might be able to kill someone with it if you got the hardcover. I had a PDF so I don't know.)