Edit: I love this old thread, and I can't help but revive it every couple of years . . .
I've always been fascinated by the concept of "genre" in music and fiction, and a lot of my weirder RPG ideas start with genre --- either by wanting to emulate a specific genre [say, Bondian '60s espionage], or by wanting to define a genre that is maybe not widely recognized as such [like "Hijinx" --- the game of Rock & Roll Mystery-Solving Cartoons], or by cobbling together a genre of my own out of various bits and pieces.
So I want some ideas about the last two --- define a genre [or maybe "quirky subgenre" would be a more accurate term] suitible for gaming, citing examples of your inspiration/source material and otherwise explaining its characteristics.
It can be a twist on a recognized genre, or a set of common elements running through various films/shows/books, or something that you more or less made up.
[And give it a catchy name and write it in caps, so it can become the next big thing. If you're stuck for a name, I heartily approve of the inappropriate use of the suffix "-punk."]
To name one --- TWEENSPY. Been seeing a lot of this lately. Agent Cody Banks, Catch That Kid, Spy Kids. Adolescents get caught up in PG-rated James Bond adventures, oftentimes getting to rescue Mom and Dad, and always outsmarting the grownups. No real violence, but plenty of thrills, and a big scoop of suspension of disbelief.
[You could argue that Jonny Quest was the founding father of tweenspy...I'd almost rather save him for TWEENPULP, along with the Goonies.]
MEXIPUNK. "Desperado" meets "From Dusk Til Dawn" meets Santo. High-octane action, south of the border. Luchadores are the martial artists of the setting, every guitar player might also be a gunslinger, and horrors from before Cortez still stalk the night.
EIGHTIES NEOPULP. Buckaroo Banzai, Big Trouble in Little China...and you can stretch a little to include Predator, Rambo, and the A-Team. In the Big Eighties, Big Heroes have Big Adventures. New Wave action heroes confront everything from those damn Russians to alien invasions.
Any takers?
I've always been fascinated by the concept of "genre" in music and fiction, and a lot of my weirder RPG ideas start with genre --- either by wanting to emulate a specific genre [say, Bondian '60s espionage], or by wanting to define a genre that is maybe not widely recognized as such [like "Hijinx" --- the game of Rock & Roll Mystery-Solving Cartoons], or by cobbling together a genre of my own out of various bits and pieces.
So I want some ideas about the last two --- define a genre [or maybe "quirky subgenre" would be a more accurate term] suitible for gaming, citing examples of your inspiration/source material and otherwise explaining its characteristics.
It can be a twist on a recognized genre, or a set of common elements running through various films/shows/books, or something that you more or less made up.
[And give it a catchy name and write it in caps, so it can become the next big thing. If you're stuck for a name, I heartily approve of the inappropriate use of the suffix "-punk."]
To name one --- TWEENSPY. Been seeing a lot of this lately. Agent Cody Banks, Catch That Kid, Spy Kids. Adolescents get caught up in PG-rated James Bond adventures, oftentimes getting to rescue Mom and Dad, and always outsmarting the grownups. No real violence, but plenty of thrills, and a big scoop of suspension of disbelief.
[You could argue that Jonny Quest was the founding father of tweenspy...I'd almost rather save him for TWEENPULP, along with the Goonies.]
MEXIPUNK. "Desperado" meets "From Dusk Til Dawn" meets Santo. High-octane action, south of the border. Luchadores are the martial artists of the setting, every guitar player might also be a gunslinger, and horrors from before Cortez still stalk the night.
EIGHTIES NEOPULP. Buckaroo Banzai, Big Trouble in Little China...and you can stretch a little to include Predator, Rambo, and the A-Team. In the Big Eighties, Big Heroes have Big Adventures. New Wave action heroes confront everything from those damn Russians to alien invasions.
Any takers?
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