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

[billd91]

I enjoy superhero games. Played a LOT of Villains and Vigilantes back in the day but my favorite now is Mutants and Masterminds. Cortex Prime is kind of interesting but there’s a little too much contriving to apply a particular die to the pool that’s kind of immersion busting.

I love Call of Cthulhu and am OK with most other horror. But I don’t like Vampire or other WoD games. Vampire is just kind of disgusting to me.

I like Cyberpunk to a point, but the campaign has to have structure to it other than being a free lance edge runner team doing odd jobs. I just can’t get motivated. But have us set up as cops in a neighborhood precinct or a media team and I’m in.

 

[MGibster]

My avoid genres include Zombies (not a fan in any medium), moderns/near-future, and romance. I'm not enthusiastic about slice-of-life, but am not hostile to it.

I love zombies but I don't know if they make for a really great game. But then the good zombie movies aren't really about the zombies they're about the people.

100% of GMs I've played with or seen run the genre do it like a mystery. Horror and mystery can combine like most genre do but horror and mystery are actually two different genres with different tropes. If I'm playing in a horror ttrpg I expect my PC to be terrified at points because horror.

I think Call of Cthulhu really set the standard and most other horror games followed suit. I hadn't ever thought about it, but I think you're right as I'm hard pressed to think of many horror games that don't revolve around investigation. Vampire, Alien, and Werewolf are the three immediately that come to mind that don't revolve around investigation (even if a particular scenario might have some investigation).

I'm really glad you brought up expecting your PC to be terrified. One of the biggest problems I have running horror games is many players don't really get into the right mindset. They don't want their characters to be terrified. They're so used to playing more action oriented games, delving into dungeons and fighting dragons, so something mundane like a vampire just doesn't strike terror into their hearts. Even worse, there are some players who aren't interested in having their character engage with the scenario. "Oh, the house is haunted? Let's just burn it down and be done with it."

Are there any non-investigative horror games you enjoy? For investigative games, Delta Green has a campaign that's one of the most horrible I've ever played. It involves child abuse and perpetuating a cycle of violence and it's just horrible which feels way more real than some stupid cult trying to summon Nyarlathotep or something.

 

[MGibster]

At the same time, a game like Starfinder doesn't scratch my sci fi itch. To me it just plays like D&D with lasers. I would love to find a system more grounded in science (with some highly speculative, sci-fi elements like FTL travel or wormholes), but abstracted so you don't have take a correspondence course in physics to play it "correctly." Also, one not weighed down with decades of TV, movies, and books.

Blue Planet might be of interest to you. I think a 3rd edition is coming out, and I don't know much about those rules, but the 2nd edition had rules that felt realistic without being overly complicated. But the setting revolves around the titular Blue Planet, Poseidon, which lies beyond a wormhole located just passed Pluto. It's got transhuman elements with genetically modified humans and uplifted cetaceans. If you've ever wanted to play an uplifted orca this is the game for you.

 

[MGibster]

I like Cyberpunk to a point, but the campaign has to have structure to it other than being a free lance edge runner team doing odd jobs. I just can’t get motivated. But have us set up as cops in a neighborhood precinct or a media team and I’m in.

This is how I run most of my games regardless of genre. I don't mind have a few side stories, but here's what this campaign is about and once these conditions are met we're through with it.

 

[overgeeked]

I'm really glad you brought up expecting your PC to be terrified. One of the biggest problems I have running horror games is many players don't really get into the right mindset. They don't want their characters to be terrified. They're so used to playing more action oriented games, delving into dungeons and fighting dragons, so something mundane like a vampire just doesn't strike terror into their hearts. Even worse, there are some players who aren't interested in having their character engage with the scenario. "Oh, the house is haunted? Let's just burn it down and be done with it."

Are there any non-investigative horror games you enjoy? For investigative games, Delta Green has a campaign that's one of the most horrible I've ever played. It involves child abuse and perpetuating a cycle of violence and it's just horrible which feels way more real than some stupid cult trying to summon Nyarlathotep or something.

That’s one of the main reasons why it’s far easier to do comedy in RPGs than horror. It’s wildly easier to get players to loosen up and be a little silly than it is to either get them to RP scared and vulnerable or, Great Old Ones forbid, actually scare the players. Hell, most times you have to beg them to stop being silly and take all this nonsense seriously.

I loved Call of Cthulhu for a long time, and horror gaming generally, but I’ve mostly lost my taste for it. At this point I’d much rather have a laugh than try to spend hours contriving just the right atmosphere to elicit horror…only for a player to inevitably belch or fart or simply refuse to play along and destroy the mood.

 

[Deset Gled]

Hell, most times you have to beg them to stop being silly and take all this nonsense seriously.

And unfortunately, it often requires everyone agreeing to a real horror vibe to make a horror vibe; but it only takes one person being silly to make the whole thing silly.

This was the problem with the last Ravenloft campaign my group tried. We had most of the group leaning into the serious stuff, but one player wanted to be funny bard. You can guess how that went.

 

[Theory of Games]

Are there any non-investigative horror games you enjoy?

None, and I stated why in my previous post (GMs lacking the skill to produce true horror). Weird that you brought up Vampire and Werewolf though: I've always saw those as "dark superhero" games where the PCs struggle to avoid being consumed by their own power. The tropes normally associated with horror don't really fit with the WoD games IMO.

 

[cranberry]

I enjoy just about any TTRPG that allows you to increase in power of over time and acquire neat stuff.

My played my first superhero TTRG back in the mid 80's. I don't remember the game's name, but I had a blast with character creation. my PC was an "Incredible hulk" type that I named Bison.

I also enjoyed Star Frontiers, pure Sci-Fi game that, again, I played in the mid to late 80's. The setting and character types were unique and interesting, and the math was straight forward (In most cases), you had a base 40% chance to hit +10% for each level, adjusted down for distance, cover, etc. (It was a d100 system) Not surprisingly, PCs could only reach 6th level. Although, near the end of it's run, TSR published additional rules that allowed PCs to go to level 10, added more class types, and gadgets. I really wish they hadn't canned it.

I played, but never got into Gamma World, although the concept sounded neat, it just felt kind of boring.

Star Finder - I love the lore and the world, but I'm not a fan of mixing science and magic. (No, wizard in my sci-fi game, thank you very much...)

 

[payn]

First, a surprising benefit of this thread are the mentions and discussions of games I was unaware of. The great thing about ENworld is the diversity of people with diverse gaming experiences who are members. What I don't like about ENworld is that it is mostly a D&D discussion board and trying to start a discussion about any other game just gets buried in "TTRPG Other". I with there could be more system specific forums. When I'm running a non-D&D game I generally go to other forums and Reddit to discuss. I wish the forum list would be more representative of the diversity of coverage in ENworld's news posts. ENworld discusses lots of games in various news posts, in their flagship podcast, and they even have a Not D&D podcast, but the discussion forums don't reflect this at all.

I think it reflects more than you think. I find EN World Is the rare gem in that you can actually compare games without folks getting defensive over their game of choice. You are going to get the most diverse opinions and get them fairly. D&D chocking out everything is just the sad reality of the TTRPG hobby space.

Yeah, this is a big one for me as well. I would happily play in a Star Wars, Star Trek, Expanse, Lord of the Rings, etc. game and I wouldn't care if the GM does violence to the canon. But I wouldn't run games in them, because many/most players want to play these games because they enjoy those worlds and expect some level of staying true to canon.

I ran a one-shot of The Expanse and I felt even more constrained by the canon because it is much more narrow lore. With Star Wars or Star Trek, you can at least just make up some world and new aliens and play outside the politics and events covered in the movies, TV shows, and books. The other problem I had with The Expanse is the hard science element of it. It really only came up in space travel and, to some extent in fights, and just made me want to handwave most space travel and I found fighting in a space ship or on ground more fun than spaceship on spaceship fighting.

At the same time, a game like Starfinder doesn't scratch my sci fi itch. To me it just plays like D&D with lasers. I would love to find a system more grounded in science (with some highly speculative, sci-fi elements like FTL travel or wormholes), but abstracted so you don't have take a correspondence course in physics to play it "correctly." Also, one not weighed down with decades of TV, movies, and books.

I should take a closer look at Traveller, but when I read discussions about it, it feels like it might be more crunchy than what I'm looking for. If I had the free time, I'd like to kitbash something with Cortex prime, but I just don't have the time to do everything from scratch.

Long time Traveller player here and current Mongoose 2E is my edition. Game is not that crunchy but still flexible enough to be interesting. I highly recommend checking it out.

 

[TiQuinn]

I tried Lancer and bounced off of it because I realized I really have no interest in giant robots nor do I have any grounding in the fiction - Voltron, Robotech, Gundam, even Transformers just didn’t resonate with me when I was a kid.