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

[Starfox]

Players often have completely encyclopedic or just really in-depth knowledge of these kind of settings or these settings specifically. They're not usually jerks about it - they don't say "Uh you can't do that!!" or "WRONG!!!" or whatever, but they do love to bring up and discuss lore, often irrelevant-but-funny lore (SW and Marvel/DC are the absolute worst for this), or get overexcited by lore characters/events or the like. I do find that the further out from the "mainstream" you get usually the less this is a problem, but still can be one.

Not saying you are wrong, just an anecdotal example. We're playing the Free League's Alien game right now, and there is a LOT of this. Most of us are old enough to remember the early 80's, and this is the aesthetic we go for; green text on dark blue screens, space without laser coms, evil corporations, bumbling military. We spend quite a lot of time reminiscing, which slows down game play, the GM is the worst of us. Still, this is a casual game so we're mostly good with slow progress.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There are 3 or 4 Warhammer settings, most with subsettings:

• The Old World... as seen in WFB and WFRP 1-4
  • The current setting is well after WFRP 1's
  • There is a forthcoming version set in the era of WFRP1's version, and Emperor Karl Franz; unclear whether or not it will be the winds of magic flavor.
  • Each version of the tabletop splats made some changes.
• The WH40K galaxy
  • The 40k setting in at least 3 major retcons. WH40K, the BI/FFG games DH, DW, OW, BC, RT RPGs, plus Wrath & Glory.
  • the 30K aka Horus Heresy era, used in the original Space Marine and Adeptus Titanicus. And in a forthcoming RPG.
• The Age of Sigmar
  • My limited understanding is that it's a dimension hopping one... Soulbound is the RPG for it. The PDF gave me headaches.
• Talisman Adventures
  • Pegasus Spiel released the 1st ed
  • Second ed is supposedly coming from Cubical 7.

While I love deep lore settings, I had to get off that lore minefield. too many subeditions... tho' I will stay on the Talisman adventures Setting... unless C7 mangles the mechanics.

I'm mostly talking about Warhammer as it existed in the 90s. Around 4th-5th edition 40k and Fantasy at the same time.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

used in the original Space Marine and Adeptus Titanicus

Worth noting (purely for interest's sake) that whilst these were technically Horus Heresy, even the original Space Marine rapidly started slipping towards 40K as stuff came out and less than two years later the 2nd edition of Space Marine was 40K. Also the vision of Horus Heresy-era equipment, ways of fighting, and so on was pretty different to the later "proper" 30K stuff (particularly including the modern, larger-scale Adeptus Mechanics and Epic Scale).

at least 3 major retcons

Which would you consider the "major retcons"? Not going to argue, I promise, just interested! For me when I think of "biggest retcons" I think:

1) Rogue Trader to 2E (tone remains largely the same, but details change a lot).

2) 2E to 3E (tone changes completely, Squats deleted, Dark Eldar, T'au and Necrons added, details change a lot, weird pro-Imperium slant)

3) Late 7E onwards (tone and details change slowly to reintroduce some 1E and 2E vibes, also new, more factions added, Primaris added, Squats brought back!)

 

[MNblockhead]

There are 3 or 4 Warhammer settings, most with subsettings:

• The Old World... as seen in WFB and WFRP 1-4
  • The current setting is well after WFRP 1's
  • There is a forthcoming version set in the era of WFRP1's version, and Emperor Karl Franz; unclear whether or not it will be the winds of magic flavor.

WFRP 4e is set in the era of Karl Franz, pretty much same time period as 1e (this is a bit of inconsistency and retconning, 4e is set in 2501 whereas 1e was set around 2510-2512). The politics of this era feature heavily in The Enemy Within campaign books, which are an updated and added-to version of the iconic 1e campaign. The Old World will be set hundreds of years earlier (in 2276, 225 years earlier).

I'm not one of the 4e fans who is upset about The Old World. They are still putting out books for 4e. But even if they stop, I have enough to get out of the game what I want for years. But I personally don't see the point of a complete new game system. Even if the new game system is much more streamlined and one I enjoy, I just don't see myself buying a bunch of new books in a very similar setting. Hopefully, a more streamlined and easier to pick up and run set of rules will bring new players to the Warhammer universe.

• • Each version of the tabletop splats made some changes.
• The WH40K galaxy
  • The 40k setting in at least 3 major retcons. WH40K, the BI/FFG games DH, DW, OW, BC, RT RPGs, plus Wrath & Glory.
  • the 30K aka Horus Heresy era, used in the original Space Marine and Adeptus Titanicus. And in a forthcoming RPG.
• The Age of Sigmar
  • My limited understanding is that it's a dimension hopping one... Soulbound is the RPG for it. The PDF gave me headaches.

Soulbound is set post End Times, after the world is destroyed. Basically Sigmar comes back, discovers the Mortal Realms, vast dimensions formed by fragments of the destroyed world. There is an age of Myth and civilization flourishing, then Chaos invades forcing Sigmar to retreat to the Azyr realm. Sigmar eventually returns and pushes back chaos during the Realm Gate wars. Soul Bound takes place late in the Age of Sigmar, thousands of years after the setting of WFRP 4e.

I played in a game at Gamehole Con last year and enjoyed it. It uses a d6 dice pool based on attributes and skills. Each role is compared against a target number. The number of successes is compared to the success requirement. I found it very easy to pick up and it flowed nicely at the table. A much easier system to get into compared to WFRP. But it also kinda feels like a magical superhero game. Very different flavor from WFRP. I ended up not buying the game, but I'm thinking that when my current WFRP campaign ends, I may run a mini-campaign where the PCs come back in Soul Bound.

• Talisman Adventures
  • Pegasus Spiel released the 1st ed
  • Second ed is supposedly coming from Cubical 7.

While I love deep lore settings, I had to get off that lore minefield. too many subeditions... tho' I will stay on the Talisman adventures Setting... unless C7 mangles the mechanics.

Yeah, I like reading Warhammer fiction and lore, but I ignore most of it for my campaign's "cannon". And it is easy to ignore because there is no way for PCs to know any of this stuff.

I mean, I went from the 80s until a year ago without engaging with anything Warhammer. I was kinda bummed that they completely divorced the WFRP universe from the 40k universe. Yet they still keep many of the races and gods.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Re: the OP

I like to read the occasional Romance, but don't really want to do romance with folks I know, much less folks I don't know. So games like StarCrossed I'm a nope on.

I just typed this in another thread, that I used to like superheroes, but no longer. That said, I'd play in a supers game, but never run one. Well, retract that - I might run a Masks (PbtA teen supers) game. But I'd play something if I was on par with most of the other players, aka mostly newbies.

 

[MNblockhead]

Re: the OP

I like to read the occasional Romance, but don't really want to do romance with folks I know, much less folks I don't know. So games like StarCrossed I'm a nope on.

I just typed this in another thread, that I used to like superheroes, but no longer. That said, I'd play in a supers game, but never run one. Well, retract that - I might run a Masks (PbtA teen supers) game. But I'd play something if I was on par with most of the other players, aka mostly newbies.

Are you just burned out with running supers games or is there something about them (either the typical systems or just running games for powerful PCs) that you don't enjoy as a GM?

I'm in the same boat regarding romance. I might include it in a campaign I'm running with my regular group, but I wouldn't enjoy running or playing in a game where that was the theme and focus. It never really comes up in my campaigns with my regular group. But if it did, I would narrate it rather than role play romantic conversations. Any anything sexual is just fade to black. I'm not going to narrate it. I don't mind it in live play shows I listen to, if done tastefully, such as Critical Role. But those are professional actors.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Are you just burned out with running supers games or is there something about them (either the typical systems or just running games for powerful PCs) that you don't enjoy as a GM?

I've never run or played in a supers game. I don't want to yuck other's yums, but the actual fictional superheroes genre in comic books no longer appeals to me like it did when I was younger. (The mega prose web-serial Worm being an exception - recommend, a lot)
That said, D&D 4e was sort of like playing superheroes, but in a fantasy setting.