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

[Tonguez]

Sounds great. But I was specifically referring to the true crime genre where the crime and the investigation are real and therefore progress along a specific path. If you exaggerate elements and give PCs freedom to explore its no longer ‘true’ crime, and probably approaching poor taste.

Have you seen GURPS Cops? its very realistic, very gritty and not something I would want to play, but it does get into the nuisances of real police investigation, arrest and criminal prosecution. It can and has been done

 

[MarkB]

I'm just not necessarily sold that sort of genre would be particularly bad in a game as long as everyone had buy-in. After all, we tend to have certain expectations of what genres properly are represented in graphic novels and such in this country, but a much wider range are done that way in Asia. There's a lot of embedded expectations about how an RPG plays out, and that colors what genres its used for, but that doesn't tell me it couldn't be successfully and effectively used for others if people were genuinely interested in trying.

Yeah, when you look at videogames like Unpacking, it's clear that there is a place for interactive experiences that are about bringing emotional depth to seemingly-mundane activities. I think there are more narrative-focused RPGs that could pull this off effectively for an interested group of players.

 

[TheSword]

Have you seen GURPS Cops? its very realistic, very gritty and not something I would want to play, but it does get into the nuisances of real police investigation, arrest and criminal prosecution. It can and has been done

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?

 

[SableWyvern]

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?

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.

 

[Thomas Shey]

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?

I think the problem is you're comparing fiction to nonfiction here. True Crime is, at least avowedly, a particular way of presenting nonfiction.

 

[Committed Hero]

You both are missing the point. The original question is not "can you, technically speaking, write an engine for such a game." The question is whether the medium, in general, is GOOD for the genre.

Like, technically you can tap dance on foam rubber, but is isn't a great medium for the dance style.

I would want to hear what Reynard says about his original intent. He assumes that you could "craft an appropriate ruleset," and believes that there are none.

 

[Umbran]

I would want to hear what Reynard says about his original intent. He assumes that you could "craft an appropriate ruleset," and believes that there are none.

"Approppriate" is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and you'll have to agree on what it really means.

Like, you can create a ruleset that says, "For any and all declared actions, the player rolls a die - an even result, the character succeeds, on an odd result, the character fails" and that's it.

But is that "appropriate". Does it really work for the genre, or is it an excuse to claim the rules are present to win a point of argument?

 

[Faolyn]

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?

Yes. While (apparently) far more movie-serial killer than realistic, White Wolf did put out Slasher for NWOD. And they did have that thing with vampires in Chechnya...

I think what you're actually asking is, is it possible to put out such a book in a tasteful manner, to which I'd say no.

 

[Faolyn]

"Approppriate" is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and you'll have to agree on what it really means.

Like, you can create a ruleset that says, "For any and all declared actions, the player rolls a die - an even result, the character succeeds, on an odd result, the character fails" and that's it.

But is that "appropriate". Does it really work for the genre, or is it an excuse to claim the rules are present to win a point of argument?

So, what, something needs to have a ton of rules to be "appropriate"? That seems a bit gatekeep-y to me.

 

[Reynard]

I would want to hear what Reynard says about his original intent. He assumes that you could "craft an appropriate ruleset," and believes that there are none.

Right, my general belief is that there isn't really a genre or theme you could not build into a TTRPG. But, as others have pointed out, certain genres and themes would be more difficult to implement well.

To use the true crime example, I can see the GM doing a bunch of research and collecting all kinds of information on a true crime event, and then letting the players take on the roll of cops, investigators hired by the grieving family, or just amateur internet sleuths. They would use the game system as a tool to undertake their investigation and the GM would reward successes with real world evidence and information.

Would this be fun? Not for me, but I think the true crime genre (at least for murders and other violent crime) is ghoulish. But it is completely doable and almost no different than investigating a well thought out fictional crime.