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

[Reynard]

Your both right: sports rpgs can and have been done, as video games. But a tabletop version would be slow and boring.

Not any more or less slow and boring than any other "action sequence."

Plus it probably takes less time to play a game of baseball on the tabletop than it does in real life.

 

[payn]

Your both right: sports rpgs can and have been done, as video games. But a tabletop version would be slow and boring.

Well, thats entirely subjective. I've found editions of D&D to be slow and boring, yet they have many fans.

 

[Deset Gled]

Oh yeah I forgot: Sports the RPG.

Nobody's roleplaying the Superbowl.

Hard disagree. I have often referred to various "fantasy league" things as "D&D for the people that used to make fun of D&D".

 

[MGibster]

That suggests you think TTRPGs and novels are essentially the same medium, which they obviously aren't (and in fact TTRPGs have for in common with theater).

I don't think it suggests any such thing. You said it's tough to do a musical in a novel. And you're right, because a musical is a form of theater which is a completely different medium than a novel. A TTRPG and a novel are most certainly not the same medium. If anything a TTRPG is closer to theater than it is a novel.

 

[Reynard]

I don't think it suggests any such thing. You said it's tough to do a musical in a novel. And you're right, because a musical is a form of theater which is a completely different medium than a novel. A TTRPG and a novel are most certainly not the same medium. If anything a TTRPG is closer to theater than it is a novel.

Let me clarify: the musical is a genre, not a medium.

 

[Theory of Games]

Hard disagree. I have often referred to various "fantasy league" things as "D&D for the people that used to make fun of D&D".

Harder disagree. I've been playing Fantasy Sports for years: it's for gambling not RP.

 

[Deset Gled]

Harder disagree. I've been playing Fantasy Sports for years: it's for gambling not RP.

I am feeling a lot a cognitive dissonance between this statement and your username. Do you really not understand how the narrative of a simulated sports team combined with mechanics used for gambling and games of chance could be played in a way that resembles an RPG? It's one of the most basic and literal examples of GNS theory I can imagine.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Grocery shopping: the TTRPG.

You can do that in D&D.

Doesn't Critical Rile have entire episodes about shopping?

And 3rd Edition games can spend a lot of time dealing with buying magic items.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Let me clarify: the musical is a genre, not a medium.

Yeah, you can read a musical in the form of a libretto. Which in a way, makes the cast album an audio book.

 

[Bluenose]

TTRPGs are really bad at realistic combat. At least, if you want detailed individual combat resolution. You need simultaneous action, you need players to have a a limited idea of what is going on (ot's the blow you never saw coming that kills you), and plenty of other aspects of combat are neglected. These things don't happen in an RPG with a detailed combat resolution system - although some of the more abstract ones do a better job.