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

[grankless]

There's plenty of great sports RPGs. Full Court is a thing of beauty, Gravity RIP has the best racing mechanics I've ever seen.

Also, yes, RPGs, being fiction, are hard to make non-fiction (which is not a genre).

 

[TheSword]

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...

In true crime the investigation is unusually inextricably linked with the crimes. The investigation is as much a matter of public record as the crimes themselves. If you change the investigation you change the events - it’s not true crime anymore: it’s just inspired by. Agency to investigate, changes what has happened.

 

[TheSword]

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.

You can’t split the crime and the discovery process in the true crime genre. They are all part of the case. In many respects the investigation is more fixed, more detailed because it’s the part that usually has more evidence. Officers involved can be interviewed etc. it’s the part we can more readily see.

There is a difference between a roleplaying game that replicates life at Tudor court during historically accurate events and a game that got players to act those events out. One looks for interest in the gaps and fiction has show time and again there is a lot of space to explore the unknown and fill the gaps the further back you go. Though it is still fiction. In true crime there isn’t that freedom. The salient details are the most important bit, and there isn’t the space to explore gaps and still be relevant to the true crime itself and it’s investigation.

Podcast the roleplaying game might work but what roles are you actually playing. How is your character at all relevant to the actual events?

In short, the medium does not work for the genre.

 

[Reynard]

You can’t split the crime and the discovery process in the true crime genre. They are all part of the case. In many respects the investigation is more fixed, more detailed because it’s the part that usually has more evidence. Officers involved can be interviewed etc. it’s the part we can more readily see.

There is a difference between a roleplaying game that replicates life at Tudor court during historically accurate events and a game that got players to act those events out. One looks for interest in the gaps and fiction has show time and again there is a lot of space to explore the unknown and fill the gaps the further back you go. Though it is still fiction. In true crime there isn’t that freedom. The salient details are the most important bit, and there isn’t the space to explore gaps and still be relevant to the true crime itself and it’s investigation.

Podcast the roleplaying game might work but what roles are you actually playing. How is your character at all relevant to the actual events?

In short, the medium does not work for the genre.

The documentarian is the PC. There. Fixed.

 

[Committed Hero]

You can’t split the crime and the discovery process in the true crime genre. They are all part of the case. In many respects the investigation is more fixed, more detailed because it’s the part that usually has more evidence. Officers involved can be interviewed etc. it’s the part we can more readily see.

There is a difference between a roleplaying game that replicates life at Tudor court during historically accurate events and a game that got players to act those events out. One looks for interest in the gaps and fiction has show time and again there is a lot of space to explore the unknown and fill the gaps the further back you go. Though it is still fiction. In true crime there isn’t that freedom. The salient details are the most important bit, and there isn’t the space to explore gaps and still be relevant to the true crime itself and it’s investigation.

Podcast the roleplaying game might work but what roles are you actually playing. How is your character at all relevant to the actual events?

In short, the medium does not work for the genre.

What about games like Brindlewood Bay where the crime and evidence is generated during play?

 

[TheSword]

What about games like Brindlewood Bay where the crime and evidence is generated during play?

That’s a crime RPG. There are lots of those.

Though I would strongly argue that True Crime is a popular and separate genre that has developed.

 

[TheSword]

The documentarian is the PC. There. Fixed.

Sorry I just don’t think an RPG is the right medium when the players decisions and actions have zero outcome on events because they have already transpired. Not to mention the ‘documentarian’ making a really one dimensional PC.

The FBI team of investigators is plausible. But not in a true crime genre setting.

 

[Epic Meepo]

I can imagine a TTRPG where participants play characters having a philosophical debate about the nature of the world they inhabit. In a round-about way, that game could handle any genre, up to and including non-fiction, because the goal isn't to have characters participate in events. The goal is to explore how the world views of those characters change as they encounter new information.

 

[Committed Hero]

I can imagine a TTRPG where participants play characters having a philosophical debate about the nature of the world they inhabit. In a round-about way, that game could handle any genre, up to and including non-fiction, because the goal isn't to have characters participate in events. The goal is to explore how the world views of those characters change as they encounter new information.

I kill the philosopher with my fireball.

 

[Reynard]

Sorry I just don’t think an RPG is the right medium when the players decisions and actions have zero outcome on events because they have already transpired. Not to mention the ‘documentarian’ making a really one dimensional PC.

The FBI team of investigators is plausible. But not in a true crime genre setting.

I legitimately don't understand your problem with this. If it was just a fictional murder mystery, it would play out exactly the same way. It being true crime has no bearing on how the investigators would explore it versus if it were fiction. You are asserting a distinction with no difference.