What Genre Do You Wish Inaugurated TTRPGs?

Reynard

aka Ian Eller
Supporter
Gygax and co. were fans of sword and sorcery fantasy, of course, but there were also proto-RPG wargames with strong sci fi and old west themes, as well as the strongly historical.

So, in an alternate universe, if you were to play God, what genre would you have preferred RPGs to emerge from other than sword and sorcery fantasy? Note that this is a different question than what if RPGs had grown out of something other than tabletop war games.

You can couch your hypothetical however you want, but I am going to come from the perspective that it was still the mid 70s when it happened.

For my part, I think it would be a much better world if TTRPGs had emerged out comic book superheroes. 1970 is often considered the start of the Bronze age, so by the mid-70s the more "mature" themes compared to the Silver age had taken root. Especially at Marvel, scowling heroes were all the rage, but even DC was experimenting in that direction. So mid 70s comics had all the compneents necessary for compelling roleplaying aimed at adolescents and young adults. I think a start in superheroes would have endowed the early industry with a broader appetitie for genres and made coloring outside the lines more the rule than the exception.

What about you? What genre do you think would have made for a better start to the hobby/artform/industry?
 

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Traveller and Sci-Fi was it for me. Id love if it sat in the D&D throne, but im still able to have great games and products out of it.
 




Is there a particular work, author or sub-genre that you think would have made a solid foundation for the hobby?
Well D&D wasn't of a particular work or genre. It's its own genre, really; although it has dozens of inspirations.

But I guess space opera as a whole is the most similar in scope to high fantasy?
 

It would be interesting to see how the game would have developed if Gygax had been a Tolkien fan, rather than begrudgingly adding in Tolkien influences.

Considering that magic systems are the primary differentiators between fantasy works, having a game with a different magical basis than the deeply idiosyncratic Vancian system would have radically changed the evolution of the game.
 

Well D&D wasn't of a particular work or genre. It's its own genre, really; although it has dozens of inspirations.
It is its own genre now. Early on it was definitely more strongly inspired by popular sword and sorcery than other adjacent genres -- until those damn Tolkien fans got involved, anyway!
But I guess space opera as a whole is the most similar in scope to high fantasy?
Sure. I was mostly curious if you were thinking more like Dune than Star Trek, or swords and planet versus literary sci-fi.
 

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