What RPGs genres are lacking?

[Jd Smith1]

Non-weird WW2. There's only three I know of, one OOP, the other not very well supported, and the third is GURPs (Behind Enemy Lines, War Stories, GURPS WW2).

Pirate campaigns. There's several pirate systems & settings, most awful, but there's very little effort invested in material to run. Pirate Borg shows promise of supporting their setting with adventures.

Rise of the machines. There's a couple products out there, but they are OOP or unsupported.

 

[sevenbastard]

Male Models as in Zoolander?

 

[Glyptodont]

Ive always been fascinated by the history of the British East India Company and its colonisation and rule in India - especially from the perspective of the Mughals. An expert treatment of that would be amazing

I've kinda struggled to find games that represent India well. I mean, I'm working on a fantasy game where the martial artists and sword saints of the Far East are in conflict with the plainly superhuman exploits we read/watch in the Mahabharata. Yes, playing fast and loose with history, but that's why it's a fantasy game rather than alt-history.

Yeah, India--either historical India or Indian fantasy--is probably the greatest neglected setting in rpgs. I would love to see one done well.

 

[MGibster]

Male Models as in Zoolander?

That's just any game I'm participating in.

Pirate campaigns. There's several pirate systems & settings, most awful, but there's very little effort invested in material to run. Pirate Borg shows promise of supporting their setting with adventures.

The last pirate game I ran was Pirates of the Spanish Main for Savage Worlds. It was based off of a constructable strategy game published by WizKids from 2004-2008. I can best describe it as a collectible miniatures card game. The cards were thick like credit cards and you'd punch out the pieces to make little pirate ships and fight it out with others.

One thing I really enjoyed about the RPG was the rules for morale. The longer your crew was at sea the worse their morale would get until they'd get fed up and try to mutiny. To keep moral up, you needed to not only plunder but make it back to a port so the crew could celebrate in proper pirate fashion. "Carousing" which I always took to mean a lot of drinking and visits with women of negotiable affection.

But you're right, there's a dearth of piratical games out there.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One thing I really enjoyed about the RPG was the rules for morale. The longer your crew was at sea the worse their morale would get until they'd get fed up and try to mutiny. To keep moral up, you needed to not only plunder but make it back to a port so the crew could celebrate in proper pirate fashion. "Carousing" which I always took to mean a lot of drinking and visits with women of negotiable affection.

That's a play loop straight out of Sid Meier's Pirates!, which is about the highest praise I can imagine.

But you're right, there's a dearth of piratical games out there.

Pirate Borg is right there -- and its Dark Caribbean setting book is likely coming in 2026 -- and there's a hack of Mothership for pirates being developed now. I think there's also an overlay for Outgunned in one of their supplement books as well, not to mention the older pirate-friendly games out there, like 7th Sea.

 

[aramis erak]

That's because the Western is a nigh-on dead genre. I'd say if anything Westerns are overrepresented compared to their place in e.g. modern TV and cinema.

1883 and Lawman: Bass Reaves argue otherwise. There were a few black Lawmen, so L:BR is merely Historical Fictiion in the Western tradition.

Moribund? Maybe, but every time it's been declared, some new variation of Westerns arises like a zombie.

Note: I don't consider myself a fan of westerns – tho' I've seen a plenty (~15-20 movies, plus most of each of Gunsmoke, Wild Wild West, Kung Fu, and Bonanza).

Kung Fu is an interestign genre crossover, and the core settings include that time frame as one of the standards.

But you're right, there's a dearth of piratical games out there.

Pirates are covered in 7th Sea 1e, in Crimson Cutlass, and, of course, Pirates of the Spanish Main. Note that PotSM is available in PDF, and is a standalone game with a large subset of the then current Savage Worlds edition. Crimson Cutlass is still available in ePub on kindle, last I checked. They're also mentioned in the Islands sourcebook for Arrowflight 1st edition.

Classic Traveller is just got Book 9: Pirates in PDF and POD... but that is space pirates.

Most naval focused RPGs have some version of piracy in either the encounter tables and/or characters. Most games in the space opera genre do, too.

It's just that few focus on playing pirates, tho' Classic Traveller has supported them as a background since Supplement 4, and player pirates and recovery teams are suggested in a JTAS Article.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Pirates are covered in 7th Sea 1e, in Crimson Cutlass, and, of course, Pirates of the Spanish Main. Note that PotSM is available in PDF, and is a standalone game with a large subset of the then current Savage Worlds edition. Crimson Cutlass is still available in ePub on kindle, last I checked. They're also mentioned in the Islands sourcebook for Arrowflight 1st edition.

Classic Traveller is just got Book 9: Pirates in PDF and POD... but that is space pirates.

Most naval focused RPGs have some version of piracy in either the encounter tables and/or characters. Most games in the space opera genre do, too.

It's just that few focus on playing pirates, tho' Classic Traveller has supported them as a background since Supplement 4, and player pirates and recovery teams are suggested in a JTAS Article.

To be fair, he was commenting on my post, where I noted a shortage of pirate adventures, not setting material.

 

[sevenbastard]

To be fair, he was commenting on my post, where I noted a shortage of pirate adventures, not setting material.

I feel like that's is also a common issue with western gene. Lots of games but not a lot of campaigns. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place but outside of Boothill Modules I have stumbled across any western modules.

 

[JConstantine]

Male Models as in Zoolander?

But why male models?

 

[JConstantine]

I feel like that's is also a common issue with western gene. Lots of games but not a lot of campaigns.

I suspect that's related to Frank Gruber's assertion that there's only 7 plots for westerns.