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

[RoughCoronet0]

I'm not as big a fan of normal urban or cyberpunk style genres, or genres of Sci-fi that lack fantastical or cosmic themes in their games/stories. I love fantasy and magical forces and crazy monsters and grand cosmic themes and cosmologies both whimsical and eldritch.

 

[JConstantine]

What do you mean when you say, "the Alien RPG is increasingly being eclipsed by Mothership"? Do you have sales numbers, or have you just heard better things about the latter, or believe more people are playing/talking about it?

The sheer amount of enthusiasm for Mothership, the relatively much higher number of actual-plays involving it than Alien (especially now, rather than when Alien came out), and so on. It's obviously not scientific, but I think you'll agree it's nearly impossible to be scientific here because we simply don't have the kind of hard data needed.

That's not to say Alien isn't successful - it obviously is - they just did a Kickstarter for an sort of "deluxe" edition. But I'd suggest - and I think that the nature of that Kickstarter supports it, that the main audience there is a more "collector"-ish one, one who is less interested in playing the hell out of game, and more interested in cool stuff

In the online RPG discussion space, Mothership is certainly brought up more than Alien, but I think this is less about Alien's audience being collectors, and rather that the Alien IP works against the game as much as for it. From what I've seen, there's a false perception that in Alien, you're going to be dealing with Xenomorphs, and only Xenomorphs. The idea that the game can involve other entities as antagonists doesn't seem to occur, even though the Alien franchise is riddled with them. Mothership being billed as general sci-fi horror means people assume it can do Alien, The Thing, Annihilation, etc., while Alien can only do Alien, even though Alien is the better designed game.

 

[TiQuinn]

In the online RPG discussion space, Mothership is certainly brought up more than Alien, but I think this is less about Alien's audience being collectors, and rather that the Alien IP works against the game as much as for it. From what I've seen, there's a false perception that in Alien, you're going to be dealing with Xenomorphs, and only Xenomorphs. The idea that the game can involve other entities as antagonists doesn't seem to occur, even though the Alien franchise is riddled with them. Mothership being billed as general sci-fi horror means people assume it can do Alien, The Thing, Annihilation, etc., while Alien can only do Alien, even though Alien is the better designed game.

This tracks - I tend not to play or even consider games about a particular IP, especially one that seems as narrow as Alien.

 

[Reynard]

A genre I just can't seem to care about: anything "cozy." I need stakes.

 

[Laurefindel]

This tracks - I tend not to play or even consider games about a particular IP, especially one that seems as narrow as Alien.

That’s always the boon and danger of an IP; it’s narrow scope gives players a clear expectation of what a game is about and rides off the IP’s buzz, but it also tends to limit the game to those expectations, regardless of what t he game is capable of.

Aliens RPG is capable of doing much more than Aliens, but if you’re not doing Aliens, players will feel cheated if your intentions weren’t crystal clear.

Otherwise as for the popularity of Mothership, that’s a game I’ve never heard of outside of these forums, and which I’ve never seen, let alone played, whereas Alien RPG is a game that is known and played in my circles. My anecdotal experience is anecdotal, but perhaps not unlike that of many groups who are not hardcore hobbyists lurking around forums like us.

 

[Scribe]

Cozy
Farm Sim
Romantasy
Slice of Life

I'm not going to spend my limited time playing a game where I can just...do those things in real life.

 

[TiQuinn]

Otherwise as for the popularity of Mothership, that’s a game I’ve never heard of outside of these forums, and which I’ve never seen, let alone played, whereas Alien RPG is a game that is known and played in my circles. My anecdotal experience is anecdotal, but perhaps not unlike that of many groups who are not hardcore hobbyists lurking around forums like us.

It's certainly a more niche game in a niche area of the hobby - the OSR space. But once I heard over and over about how good it was, and finally got to play it, I was hooked.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No. That would be some weird tangent you could go off on as an ad hominem, but that's on you if you want to do that. I clearly outlined my reasons for thinking why Mothership worked better as a horror RPG, you ignored those.

Re: profit I mention it because nerds love to claim something making a lot of money means it's broadly popular, but I think you need to examine things a little more closely than that.

I didn't ignore your opinion. I'm not sure I even disagree with it (don't know enough about either game to do so). I merely object to any support of a subjective opinion based on popularity.

 

[Heilemann]

Nah.

CoC is absolutely medium crunch. I suggest you re-read the actual, surprisingly overdetailed rules, which refute the "It's just percentile roll under man" shenanigans. By that logic, all of 5E "It's just d20 roll over man". I say this having played CoC recently a few times and being kind of shocked about how clunky the rules are, because I didn't remember them being that bad, having played it last a decade or two earlier. 5E is at the lower end of heavy crunch, but clearly heavy.

And my point isn't that the poster meant that, it's that the reasoning given makes most RPGs "horror-friendly" or a huge proportion of them. SAN being this slowly draining resource with limited consequences supports my argument that CoC isn't very well-designed for horror, as I explained.

Well I'll certainly concede that 7E is a game overburdened by unnecessary details, in reality it doesn't play the way it presents. I've played CoC since the mountains were young, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone use the <checks rulebook> brace rules, say, for firearms. If that's what you mean by crunch, then sure. In my mind crunch is a non-linear number of modifiers, multiple rolls per action, table lookups, asymmetrical subsystems (especially ones like WFRP 4E where eg. traits require memorizing or looking up how something works often), tracking several concurrent effects and point pools (hello Rolemaster!) and a sea of special case rules (ten ways to disrupt initiative!).

That said, Trail of Cthulhu is my own go-to. I do think rules-light supports horror better by moving the attention of the table to the shared narrative; same reason minis and maps have no place in a horror game.

Regardless I've never played in a game where we looked at one another and said "You know what, the mechanics were really what caused the horror to work!". It's always about buy-in, a GM who knows how the genre works and the mood the follows. At best mechanics can stay out of the way, at most they can support the genre in other ways (the sanity shattering reality of an uncaring universe is a staple of Lovecraftian horror); but the purpose of the SAN mechanic isn't to scare you as a player...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Regardless I've never played in a game where we looked at one another and said "You know what, the mechanics were really what caused the horror to work!".

Maybe because you've never played a game where the mechanics actually helped the horror to work, rather than just not getting in the way? I don't mean that in a sarcastic way, just that that, is in fact highly likely to be the case.

In fact you seem to confirm this:

At best mechanics can stay out of the way

Nope.

That's not the "best" case. I know that for a fact because I've played RPGs where the mechanics did help. People have always engaged in this kind of denialism, about every possible set of mechanics support every kind of playstyle. I've been on the internet since the 1990s. There isn't a single play style or tone I haven't seen someone grandly and happily claim is impossible to support mechanically, and that said play style or tone is entirely down to RP or buy-in or w/e. It was nonsense in 1993, the first time I heard it, and it's massively more obviously untrue in 2025.