Well, based on the thread title, i *was* going to say "'generic' heroic high fantasy"--though i suspect Arcana Unearthed or Everquest might have that one sufficiently covered (haven't played the former, or fully read the latter). But, based on your actual message, i have to reject that genre: while i don't think it's been done right yet, i also don't think anyone has a chance of getting such a thing on the market and really doing well unless D&D falls off the face of the planet.
So, as to genres niches that are both unfilled and could be filled:
I'll second the vote for Western. Cyberpunk is on the way. D20 *finally* made a fantasy Africa possible, but i'd love to see more. There are a *lot* of cultures in Africa, especially with how many thousands of years of history to play with. Pseudo-Native American would also be very cool.
Oh, and if people who love Blake's 7, Dr. Who, or VR5 as much as Mongoose loves Dredd and B5 (respectively) could do RPGs explicating those worlds, and helping with appropriate style-of-play issues, i'd probably even forgive them for being D20.
I'll second the general call for high fantasy inspired by non-Western cultures, in general. I'm not too keen on D20 for actual historical settings--even if it can do things realistically enough, it doesn't *feel* like it can.
While we have CoC D20, i don't think there's a more heroic/visceral/splatter or intellectual horror D20 game yet. Something like Chill or Kult.
'Course, my real feeling is "why keep reinventing the wheel?" There's no point in doing a new RPG for any setting that a GURPS or Hero book has already covered. If all i want is D20 Ancient Egypt, i'll grab GURPS Egypt and the D20SRD, and have at it. Invent something new, something that hasn't been done before. How about...a fantasy setting based on the mythology of India, where reincarnation is a very real part of the world and people *all* remember dozens of past lives, to the point where death has become trivial for even everyday citizens--who cares?, you'll come back in a week.
Or...film noir Renaissance. Or...prehistoric orichalcum-powered dino-mechs, fighting against the evil incursions of the reality-altering cromags from another dimension, one where the dinos were wiped out--and they want to do that to *your* world!
I dunno, maybe those were all lame--i'm making them up as i go.
Hell, even something like the revisionist take of Orkworld would be cool.
So, as to genres niches that are both unfilled and could be filled:
I'll second the vote for Western. Cyberpunk is on the way. D20 *finally* made a fantasy Africa possible, but i'd love to see more. There are a *lot* of cultures in Africa, especially with how many thousands of years of history to play with. Pseudo-Native American would also be very cool.
Oh, and if people who love Blake's 7, Dr. Who, or VR5 as much as Mongoose loves Dredd and B5 (respectively) could do RPGs explicating those worlds, and helping with appropriate style-of-play issues, i'd probably even forgive them for being D20.
I'll second the general call for high fantasy inspired by non-Western cultures, in general. I'm not too keen on D20 for actual historical settings--even if it can do things realistically enough, it doesn't *feel* like it can.
While we have CoC D20, i don't think there's a more heroic/visceral/splatter or intellectual horror D20 game yet. Something like Chill or Kult.
'Course, my real feeling is "why keep reinventing the wheel?" There's no point in doing a new RPG for any setting that a GURPS or Hero book has already covered. If all i want is D20 Ancient Egypt, i'll grab GURPS Egypt and the D20SRD, and have at it. Invent something new, something that hasn't been done before. How about...a fantasy setting based on the mythology of India, where reincarnation is a very real part of the world and people *all* remember dozens of past lives, to the point where death has become trivial for even everyday citizens--who cares?, you'll come back in a week.
Or...film noir Renaissance. Or...prehistoric orichalcum-powered dino-mechs, fighting against the evil incursions of the reality-altering cromags from another dimension, one where the dinos were wiped out--and they want to do that to *your* world!
I dunno, maybe those were all lame--i'm making them up as i go.
Hell, even something like the revisionist take of Orkworld would be cool.
