TTRPG Genres You Just Can't Get Into -and- Tell Me Why I'm Wrong About X Genre I Don't Like

[payn]

Sci-fi is a favorite fiction and movie/tv genre for me because I like weird mysterious, and it’s a genre where that is very easy to intrigue me. I don’t care for it in TTRPG because I’d probably be the DM, and I’d know the mystery, and the unheimlich, the uncanny aspect, wouldn’t be there for me, and I have little confidence in my ability to pull it off to the degree i would want for others. I don’t have the confidence in my abilities to deliver the experience I would want if I were a player.

To inform that, I primarily TTRPG in fantasy, a genre I have fairly little fiction or movie/tv interest in. I find it a bit silly. And THAT is something I can do at a table. I can do, what I think are, interesting mysterious fantasy encounters because I’m not super invested myself, but like the details of.

Anything modern day drama or romance or everyday not weird or silly, also not for me, because I would just feel awkward, like role playing sales calls at work. Ridiculous or otherwise non-serious modern day, doesn’t have the same awkwardness for me.

This is what I can’t get into, not what doesn’t work.

This is me too. I'd kill to play in a Traveller game but nobody but me will run it.

 

[payn]

I didnt like Supers for a really long time. Part of it was mechanics. I didnt like how Batman and Hawkeye worked in systems alongside Superman and Thor. Another thing I learned was that I was often after an experience, not a simulation or world of an IP. So, mechanically things felt off for me.

I did enjoy Masks and it opened up the genre to me. I finally, seen how a supers game could run to my satisfaction when less emphasis is placed on building supers, and more on the drama surrounding supers. YMMV.

 

[John Dallman]

. . . comic book style Supers I can’t. I’m not a comics guy, I don’t get the tropes, I can’t tell what makes a Supers story a Supers story.

Much the same here. The only superhero campaign I stuck with was built round mythic archetypes rather than comics tropes.

I have zero interest in Romance rpgs. Just none.

I've no objection to romance spontaneously happening within a campaign, but a game where romance is the point isn't the kind of drama I can readily deal with.

 

[John Dallman]

Post-apocalypse does not appeal much. I've enjoyed a game set a few centuries later, trying to rebuild civilization, but some people seem to glory in the collapse, and that doesn't appeal at all to me.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Post-apocalypse does not appeal much. I've enjoyed a game set a few centuries later, trying to rebuild civilization, but some people seem to glory in the collapse, and that doesn't appeal at all to me.

That's interesting. I'm currently running a game that is exactly that: set during the Apocalypse in my local area, with science fiction elements since it's about 100 years from now. My wife and I love that genre.

As far as supers go, that genre occupies a unique place in my gaming interests. I absolutely love supers and supers games, but the genre I feel really needs mechanical support (and strong player buy-in) to play like any kind of comics story even resembling four-color. Otherwise players IME inevitably use their powers in logical and realistic ways that have little to do with how most supers settings operate. Because of this, supers games I favor are an exception to my usual desires for realism and verisimilitude, and narrative mechanics. I still prefer powers to be individually modeled, but in general I'm fine with rules that support the genre rather than the physical world in many cases.

Basically, I feel classic comics-style stories need more enforcement from the DM and the system than other genres.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I think the genre I have the hardest time getting into is supers. Mostly because I don't really know the source material at all

 

[Arilyn]

Sci-fi horror. Don't care about the Alien franchise at all. Mothership is a great design but I don't want to play or run it. The other genre that leaves me cold is cyberpunk. I think those are the only 2 genres that really turn me off.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I've played Supers before in short games... one-shots or several-session runs. But I've never run or played in a long-term campaign about Supers, and I'm pretty sure its because the Supers genre is really focused on one primary thing-- combat.

We make all kinds of talk here about how D&D is a "monster-fighting game"... most of the stats on a character sheet is geared towards fighting monsters, most of a monster statblock is used in fighting against PCs... but the actual genre of "fantasy" is not one about fighting. Fighting happens of course... but fantasy was never designed with fighting being the end-all-be-all of what the genre is for. Whereas superhero comics have always have. The fight of the superhero versus the supervillain is always the climax. 9 out of 10 issues of any comic book will involve Supers combat. It's entirely a genre focused about this premise and promise... Supers characters using their super-powers to fight against other people with different super-powers. Yes, there will of course be other things that happen in any Supers book-- romance, communication, mystery, espionage, science, etc... but Supers books aren't about those things, those things merely are the ways that build towards that final fight.

Which of course is also why I think people sometimes see D&D as a game to be superhero-like... because D&D's "monster-fighting game" premise matches the Supers genre in that the climax of any session or any campaign ends up being a big fight against the bad guy.

And I believe this is why I've never really trucked much with the Supers genre in TTRPGs... because I just don't have the interest in combat when it comes to roleplaying games, I'm in it for the interactive story. How and where things progress. It's why every CRPG I play is always set at the easiest level... because once I reach a point in the story that turns into a fight... it's the fight's and story's resolution and where things go after that which interest me-- not spending countless times playing and replaying a fight over and over and over trying to "win" it at more and more difficult levels. To me that's entirely missing the point of an RPG. In an RPG of any type or genre, combat should be no more difficult or take any more time or be no more important than anything else one can do in the game. A fight and negotiation and an exploration of a location should all be of equal time, energy and import. And if it's not? And one thing holds way too much import (like combat is to the Supers genre)... I just don't have a desire or need to play it for extended lengths of time.

 

[Retreater]

The genres I don't do well with...

Sci fi. There's just too many varieties to get a consistent expectation of play. Also, technology can destroy traditional adventure set-ups. Additionally, they tend towards crunchy rules, over reliance on gear, and lots of fiddly numbers.

Westerns. They don't capture my imagination. Same thing can be applied to any "realistic" games. (Actual medieval history, modern "slice of life.")

Supers. Really, it's the same issue I have with sci-fi. With an additional issue that some players end up making Superman while another has Hawkeye ("I'm good shooting arrows.")

 

[Maxperson]

I've never been a fan of sci-fi RPGs, and I have even less interest in cyberpunk games. And zero interest in modern games. Give me fantasy or supers any day of the week, though. I also like the occasional post-apocalyptic game.