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

[Committed Hero]

If you can identify what a genre's core activities are, I'm pretty sure you could craft mechanics to support them. In terms of investigation, Robin Laws' Gumshoe system is even simpler than the coin flip example, and it works fine.

 

[Tonguez]

I don’t think you’re getting me. I’m not talking about realistic investigations. I’m talking about actual crimes that have occurred. That fairly morbid genre of documentary that pores over the investigations of actual cases. (A genre that my partner loves, worryingly).

There is a clear distinction between CSI style fictionalised genre no matter how gritty and True Crime as a genre. Do you honestly think it’s possible to produce the Jeffrey Dahmer RPG with a Harold Shipman expansion pack?

Jack the Ripper has become a stock character despite being a real serial killer, so while the more recent ones would be bad taste, I could see a game covering the real facts of who was Jack, or the crimes of H.H. Holmes, the Bloody Benders or Lizzie Borden - time and distance makes things more acceptable

 

[Thomas Shey]

Jack the Ripper has become a stock character despite being a real serial killer, so while the more recent ones would be bad taste, I could see a game covering the real facts of who was Jack, or the crimes of H.H. Holmes, the Bloody Benders or Lizzie Borden - time and distance makes things more acceptable

Probably a bad example because we're not entirely sure every murder ascribed to the Ripper was actually done by them or even who they were, unlike Holmes or Borden. He's mythologized quite so intensely partly because there's still a considerable mystery there.

 

[TheSword]

I see nothing stopping a GM from gathering the facts of Jeffrey Dahmer's life and running a game where the PCs are professional investigators, victims, fans, copy-cats, or whatever the participants want. It can be done seriously or slapstick or sanitised or however you want. You can focus on investigation, or the trauma of the victims' families, or play the various aspects of Dahmer's psyche if that's your jam.

I have no personal interest in any of those things, but they are absolutely gameable in a tabletop RPG sense if you can find two or three people that want to make it so. Even if such a thing would be, as you suggest, "approaching bad taste", that's a subjective call and, more importantly, beside the point anyway. Being in bad taste doesn't prevent something from being done.

And when the PCs actions departed from the events it would cease to be ‘true crime’ and instead be fictionalised and inspired by. The very act of bestowing player agency which is so
Important in the RPG medium would prevent the genre fulfilling its core principle - that it’s true. This isn’t just a question of taste. Though I do think that also would be problematic.

I think it’s worth noting that True Crime is particular in this regard because the key events and discoveries are a matter of record and are integral to the ‘story’.

The only way to make it work well would be to remove the agency and follow a script. At that point it ceases to be a good RPG, and it becomes a play.

 

[Reynard]

And when the PCs actions departed from the events it would cease to be ‘true crime’ and instead be fictionalised and inspired by. The very act of bestowing player agency which is so
Important in the RPG medium would prevent the genre fulfilling its core principle - that it’s true.

I think it’s worth noting that True Crime is particular in this regard because the key events and discoveries are a matter of record and are integral to the ‘story’.

This doesn't make any sense at all. The crime us done. Nothing the PCs uncover can change that. A true crime RPG would be about the discovery process-- you know, like the way true crime is consumed in podcasts and on Netflix.

This idea that "you can't do history/reality because player agency immediately turns it into fantasy" is only true for a specific narrow use in which one assumes that the PCs are the main drivers of the historical/real event. It doesn't have to be Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. It can just be Mindhunter.

 

[Tonguez]

And when the PCs actions departed from the events it would cease to be ‘true crime’ and instead be fictionalised and inspired by. The very act of bestowing player agency which is so
Important in the RPG medium would prevent the genre fulfilling its core principle - that it’s true. This isn’t just a question of taste. Though I do think that also would be problematic.

I think it’s worth noting that True Crime is particular in this regard because the key events and discoveries are a matter of record and are integral to the ‘story’.

The only way to make it work well would be to remove the agency and follow a script. At that point it ceases to be a good RPG, and it becomes a play.

Give the players say 3 dossiers profiling suspects - their job is to roleplay the investigation, identify motive, interview witnesses, gather evidence, come up with a reasonable case and then justify their verdict...

 

[Bedrockgames]

Give the players say 3 dossiers profiling suspects - their job is to roleplay the investigation, identify motive, interview witnesses, gather evidence, come up with a reasonable case and then justify their verdict...

Campaign premise: okay you guys are making a Netflix documentary

 

[MGibster]

And when the PCs actions departed from the events it would cease to be ‘true crime’ and instead be fictionalised and inspired by. The very act of bestowing player agency which is so
Important in the RPG medium would prevent the genre fulfilling its core principle - that it’s true. This isn’t just a question of taste. Though I do think that also would be problematic.

I'll concede. An RPG would make a poor medium for a documentary.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I'll concede. An RPG would make a poor medium for a documentary.

You have to do it Hong Kong Action Theatre! style

 

[SableWyvern]

I'll concede. An RPG would make a poor medium for a documentary.

Or, more broadly, unsuited for any activity where you don't actually wish to participate in an RPG.

An RPG would certainly make for a poor art class.