Is there any genre or theme that the TTRPG medium does not work for?

[Thomas Shey]

TTRPGs are really bad at realistic combat. At least, if you want detailed individual combat resolution. You need simultaneous action, you need players to have a a limited idea of what is going on (ot's the blow you never saw coming that kills you), and plenty of other aspects of combat are neglected. These things don't happen in an RPG with a detailed combat resolution system - although some of the more abstract ones do a better job.

I think that's more a case of getting the balance between what the player chooses to do, and what the dice produce properly. After all, part of the point in die rolls is to represent the elements of a situation that are below the level of player and GM engagement.

 

[Tonguez]

Your both right: sports rpgs can and have been done, as video games. But a tabletop version would be slow and boring.

 

[Theory of Games]

I am feeling a lot a cognitive dissonance between this statement and your username. Do you really not understand how the narrative of a simulated sports team combined with mechanics used for gambling and games of chance could be played in a way that resembles an RPG? It's one of the most basic and literal examples of GNS theory I can imagine.

Can you make a ttrpg about playing a sport like basketball? Sure. Can you make a ttrpg about sex? Sure. Will they be commercially successful like the OSR segment of games? Nope.

Anyone can make any trash game. Look at Apocalypse World

 

[Deset Gled]

Can you make a ttrpg about playing a sport like basketball? Sure. Can you make a ttrpg about sex? Sure. Will they be commercially successful like the OSR segment of games? Nope.

Anyone can make any trash game. Look at Apocalypse World

Maybe it wasn't clear, but the point of the thread was literally "can you", not "will they be commercially successful". Also not "what is your gaming preference".

Also, I'd consider the Fantasy Sports genre to be pretty commercially successful. So your answer here still doesn't make any sense.

 

[Reynard]

Anyone can make any trash game. Look at Apocalypse World

Literally the most influential game in probably 15 years is "trash." Okay. Well, at least now we know how to take your theories of games.

 

[Theory of Games]

Literally the most influential game in probably 15 years is "trash." Okay. Well, at least now we know how to take your theories of games.

No. The most influential game in the hobby has always been D&D, which influenced the design of Apocalypse World.

 

[Thomas Shey]

No. The most influential game in the hobby has always been D&D, which influenced the design of Apocalypse World.

D&D was not published in the last fifteen years. It was published in 1974.

 

[Theory of Games]

My last bit on it:

We've got all these designers trying to create the "next D&D" right now. MCDM, DC20, Daggerheart, Dragonbane, PF2e and so many more.

NOBODY is trying to make the "next Apocalypse World". Why? Because nobody plays that trash game.

 

[Reynard]

My last bit on it:

We've got all these designers trying to create the "next D&D" right now. MCDM, DC20, Daggerheart, Dragonbane, PF2e and so many more.

NOBODY is trying to make the "next Apocalypse World". Why? Because nobody plays that trash game.

Did you know that the highest grossing TTRPG Kickstarter ever, at about $10 million was, in fact, a Powered by the Apocalypse game?

But you won't care, because you're just trolling. Flair is a giveaway.

 

[aramis erak]

A brief interchange about sex in RPGs in another thread got me thinking:

Do you personally believe there are any genres or themes that the tabletop RPG medium will not work for? Game systems vary, of course, and there are certainly games that are not good fits for specific genres or themes, but that is a different issue. Are there any specific types of stories that you can't do with the medium, assuming you could craft an appropriate ruleset?

I don't think there are. Assuming you could get consent and buy in on whatever it is, you coulld TTRPG it.

Thoughts?

Non-alternative history.
As in players being expected to act in accordance with the historical events.
It becomes alt-history the instant someone makes a choice different from the historical path.

That's about the only one that simply cannot be done, because playing it turns it into alt-history or historical dramatization.