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

[Committed Hero]

If one hallmark of a musical is that things can suddenly switch from a dramatic situation to a choreographed bit of singing and dancing, that's kind of what happens in a game that switches from role playing a scene to a tactical setpiece.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Silents film was a dunk but I'll add a foul shot: P O E T R Y.

You just can't RP rhymes and stanzas and verses.

There needs to be a Visionaries RPG, where you have to say the little rhymes in order to activate your powers.

 

[Reynard]

If one hallmark of a musical is that things can suddenly switch from a dramatic situation to a choreographed bit of singing and dancing, that's kind of what happens in a game that switches from role playing a scene to a tactical setpiece.

Oh, that's interesting: combat as dance number.

 

[Celebrim]

RPGs don't work for situations where the number of NPCs (with personalities and motivations, not just MOBS) on stage tends on average to be greater than the number of PCs. AKA, Monsters and other Childish Things and it's setting is probably unplayable as written. I note that the published campaign setting for MotCT seems to accept that, since it heavily modifies the assumptions. RPGs are driven by primarily PC to PC interaction, or group of PCs to single or few NPC interactions. Any situation where the average conversation is between an NPC and another NPC tends to be a problem.

RPGs don't work for situations where on average the players can't communicate with anyone especially each other. AKA, the original Wraith the Oblivion and it's setting is probably unplayable as written. This turns out to be one of the problems with using realistic language within an RPG setting. Barriers to communication breakdown the basis of the game.

RPGs don't work for situations where on average the players and the player characters don't have enough information to form a plan or where the amount of hidden information is so great that no secret keeper can track it. This turns out to be one of the problems with making magic anything but a form of technology.

RPGs tend not to work for situations where heroism is not plausible. RPGs tend to need to be set in settings that allow for the heroic because the game is only meaningful when the outcome is determined at least to a large extent by player choice. Artillery fire tends not to be particularly conducive to RPG play unless for some reason the PCs have explicit plot protection.

 

[Celebrim]

There needs to be a Visionaries RPG, where you have to say the little rhymes in order to activate your powers.

Those are literally 'cantrips'.

 

[Reynard]

RPGs don't work for situations where the number of NPCs (with personalities and motivations, not just MOBS) on stage tends on average to be greater than the number of PCs. AKA, Monsters and other Childish Things and it's setting is probably unplayable as written. I note that the published campaign setting for MotCT seems to accept that, since it heavily modifies the assumptions. RPGs are driven by primarily PC to PC interaction, or group of PCs to single or few NPC interactions. Any situation where the average conversation is between an NPC and another NPC tends to be a problem.

RPGs don't work for situations where on average the players can't communicate with anyone especially each other. AKA, the original Wraith the Oblivion and it's setting is probably unplayable as written. This turns out to be one of the problems with using realistic language within an RPG setting. Barriers to communication breakdown the basis of the game.

RPGs don't work for situations where on average the players and the player characters don't have enough information to form a plan or where the amount of hidden information is so great that no secret keeper can track it. This turns out to be one of the problems with making magic anything but a form of technology.

RPGs tend not to work for situations where heroism is not plausible. RPGs tend to need to be set in settings that allow for the heroic because the game is only meaningful when the outcome is determined at least to a large extent by player choice. Artillery fire tends not to be particularly conducive to RPG play unless for some reason the PCs have explicit plot protection.

I feel like this presents a pretty narrow definition of "RPGs working" as well as not really answer the thread topic, which is about genres not "situations."

 

[Celebrim]

I feel like this presents a pretty narrow definition of "RPGs working" as well as not really answer the thread topic, which is about genres not "situations."

While I generally agree, that is my answer. There are not "genres" that RPGs can't handle but there are cross genre conventions that RPGs cannot handle in the general case of being a social game. Genres are so broad that I don't feel like they are a useful description of the limitations of an RPG. You can handle for example 'Science Fiction' within an RPG but I can think of a lot of Sci Fi novel experiences that you can't deliver as an experience of play in a traditional RPG. You can deliver 'Starship Troopers' or 'Star Wars' or you can deliver 'Not Dune but within the Dune setting' and possibly even 'Not Shadrach in the Furnace but within the Shadrach in the Furnace setting', but you can't deliver 'Dying Inside', 'The Dispossessed', or 'Time of Changes' in any meaningful way. For lack of a better word, let's call those things much more narrow than a genre "themes".

I will put a caveat in that that I think an RPG can handle just about anything for the case of 0-1 players (or 1-2 participants in the case of GM-less games) and that many of the critics of traditional RPG play (Ron Edwards for example) are really thinking about games with at most 1 player and wondering why games with 2 or more players can't produce the same results or handle the same content. For example, I suggested that games like Wraith the Oblivion or Monsters and other Childish Things are unplayable as written, but really what I mean by that is unplayable for a group according to the micro-fiction. You could totally run those games and deliver the experience described in the micro-fiction and examples of play if you had only a single player being catered to by a game master. Or you could deliver some sort of functional game that did not correspond to the fiction described by the rules but if it isn't the fiction described by the rules then either there is a disconnect between the intention and the implementation or that fiction isn't an RPG fiction.

 

[Reynard]

While I generally agree, that is my answer. There are not "genres" that RPGs can't handle but there are cross genre conventions that RPGs cannot handle in the general case of being a social game. Genres are so broad that I don't feel like they are a useful description of the limitations of an RPG. You can handle for example 'Science Fiction' within an RPG but I can think of a lot of Sci Fi novel experiences that you can't deliver as an experience of play in a traditional RPG. You can deliver 'Starship Troopers' or 'Star Wars' or you can deliver 'Not Dune but within the Dune setting' and possibly even 'Not Shadrach in the Furnace but within the Shadrach in the Furnace setting', but you can't deliver 'Dying Inside', 'The Disposed', or 'Time of Changes' in any meaningful way. For lack of a better word, let's call those things much more narrow than a genre "themes".

I will put a caveat in that that I think an RPG can handle just about anything for the case of 0-1 players (or 1-2 participants in the case of GM-less games) and that many of the critics of traditional RPG play (Ron Edwards for example) are really thinking about games with at most 1 player and wondering why games with 2 or more players can't produce the same results or handle the same content. For example, I suggested that games like Wraith the Oblivion or Monsters and other Childish Things are unplayable as written, but really what I mean by that is unplayable for a group according to the micro-fiction. You could totally run those games and deliver the experience described in the micro-fiction and examples of play if you had only a single player being catered to by a game master. Or you could deliver some sort of functional game that did not correspond to the fiction described by the rules but if it isn't the fiction described by the rules then either there is a disconnect between the intention and the implementation or that fiction isn't an RPG fiction.

RPGs are still a specific medium. I don't think we can fault them for not being able to replicate other mediums specific strengths. Just like you couldn't fault a novel for not providing a interactive social experience.

 

[Celebrim]

RPGs are still a specific medium. I don't think we can fault them for not being able to replicate other mediums specific strengths. Just like you couldn't fault a novel for not providing a interactive social experience.

Well, again, agreed but I was never trying to denigrate RPGs. I was just suggesting that as an interactive social experience they deliver particular themes and settings well and others not so well.

 

[John Dallman]

Artillery fire tends not to be particularly conducive to RPG play unless for some reason the PCs have explicit plot protection.

Having had to cope with it, it creates areas where you don't go unless you really need to, or you can turn immaterial.