Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Why does fantasy dominate RPGs?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="TBeholder" data-source="post: 7120489" data-attributes="member: 41606"><p>To answer the original question, it depends on <em>flexibility in adventure types</em> on the player side and <a href="http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/749" target="_blank">cloning</a> vs. licensing on the designer side.</p><p></p><p>What other genres there are? Horror, space opera, cyberpunk, superheroes, wacky melodrama, detective, spy, military, post-apocalypse.</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Fantasy: allows variety from H&S to court politics. As demanding or lax (thud and blunder, etc) as you want.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Horror: Seems to allow too little variety in adventures. And usually easily combined with other genres with or without minimal adaptation - you may have a haunted castle or haunted spaceship, inbred cannibal tribe or cannibalistic mutant outcasts, etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Space opera: actually pretty close, but implicitly demands more attention to details. Ever-present, but RPG isn't for the crowd who wants flashy special effects, nor perhaps most trekkies (last seen, they were squabbling over which version of a collectivist utopia is "TRÜ"… again). Surprisingly few popular <em>and playable</em> settings to port - Star Wars is there, but it's © and was made for what, 4 or 5 different cores already?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Cyberpunk: never particularly popular nor unpopular. Has fairly high starting barrier in RP, setting and crunch - compared to "there are 5 orcs, start smashing".</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Tights&Capes: are here, but once pieces of the bubble flew apart and fell to the cold wet earth, it seems to be of medium to low popularity even in Atlantic Lemuria, contrary to the advertisement. And traditionally seen as low-brow by almost everyone - starting with the authors and publishers (see superdickery.com for examples). Seems to allow too little variety in adventures, despite obvious actual possibilities.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Wacky melodrama: practically best represented by anime, and Maid alone seems to cover most of demand. Because it's one of those things more for watching than participation. Also, combined with others easily enough that it doesn't really need any specialization.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Detective: Has relatively high starting barrier in RP and crunch is not very good for it - that's just not what most RPGT aim for or are good at. Seems to allow too little variety in adventures. Thus tend to be folded into other genres - either spy or cyberpunk stuff or a mix of everything (Dark Heresy), depending on how "hardboiled" you like it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Spy action: Mostly just out of fashion. And it's out of fashion - needs a good setting and Cold War died so hard that recent attempts to resuscitate attract mostly contempt. Seems to allow too little variety in adventures. Thus practically folded into others - especially cyberpunk, though as reconnaissance has its place in any genre.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Military: Pro: endless fount of dark humour. Cons: the same as spy and space opera <em>together</em>, few good settings that aren't cheesy, but known - and existence of wargames. Seems to allow too little variety in adventures UNLESS you change them often or go for small-unit special forces action. From recent ones there are... Only War and Planet Mercenary?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Post-apocalypse: Mostly just out of fashion (annoyance of a certain apocalypse cargo cult shoved down the people's throats may or may not have contributed). Much like its settings - never quite alive, never quite dead. Seems to allow little variety in adventures UNLESS you blatantly disregard staying true to the genre, but then you may just have a side-trek into bad area in another.</li> </ul><p>Genres correspond to settings, and except post-apocalypse there are 3-4 available. So in the end it's more a matter of style than genre.</p><p></p><p></p><p> With the benefit of non-true Scotsmen being dumped where convenient.</p><p>Without fallacy, notion of <strong>aramis</strong> would boil down to an observation that genre purity is practically non-existent, and there's a lot of bad imitation - which are valid points.</p><p>I, for one, like Spelljammer for honest approach - as in, not pretending that boats are rocket ships when they obviously behave like boats. What you see is what you get.</p><p>Those who want boats, swashbuckling, vampires and elves in "space" (which can indeed be fun) may jolly well just have them without silly rubber foreheads. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /> </p><p></p><p></p><p> As opposed to? Bad writing is bad. Anywhere. Hand-waving is bad writing if it's not internally consistent (and if consistent, it's not as much hand-waving as laws of a setting).</p><p>And usually (with obvious exceptions like Wonderland) when it's not consistent with "like real world unless noted" (as in, we expect stones to not turn into cheese without some very good reason).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TBeholder, post: 7120489, member: 41606"] To answer the original question, it depends on [I]flexibility in adventure types[/I] on the player side and [URL="http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/749"]cloning[/URL] vs. licensing on the designer side. What other genres there are? Horror, space opera, cyberpunk, superheroes, wacky melodrama, detective, spy, military, post-apocalypse. [LIST] [*] Fantasy: allows variety from H&S to court politics. As demanding or lax (thud and blunder, etc) as you want. [*] Horror: Seems to allow too little variety in adventures. And usually easily combined with other genres with or without minimal adaptation - you may have a haunted castle or haunted spaceship, inbred cannibal tribe or cannibalistic mutant outcasts, etc. [*] Space opera: actually pretty close, but implicitly demands more attention to details. Ever-present, but RPG isn't for the crowd who wants flashy special effects, nor perhaps most trekkies (last seen, they were squabbling over which version of a collectivist utopia is "TRÜ"… again). Surprisingly few popular [I]and playable[/I] settings to port - Star Wars is there, but it's © and was made for what, 4 or 5 different cores already? [*] Cyberpunk: never particularly popular nor unpopular. Has fairly high starting barrier in RP, setting and crunch - compared to "there are 5 orcs, start smashing". [*] Tights&Capes: are here, but once pieces of the bubble flew apart and fell to the cold wet earth, it seems to be of medium to low popularity even in Atlantic Lemuria, contrary to the advertisement. And traditionally seen as low-brow by almost everyone - starting with the authors and publishers (see superdickery.com for examples). Seems to allow too little variety in adventures, despite obvious actual possibilities. [*] Wacky melodrama: practically best represented by anime, and Maid alone seems to cover most of demand. Because it's one of those things more for watching than participation. Also, combined with others easily enough that it doesn't really need any specialization. [*] Detective: Has relatively high starting barrier in RP and crunch is not very good for it - that's just not what most RPGT aim for or are good at. Seems to allow too little variety in adventures. Thus tend to be folded into other genres - either spy or cyberpunk stuff or a mix of everything (Dark Heresy), depending on how "hardboiled" you like it. [*] Spy action: Mostly just out of fashion. And it's out of fashion - needs a good setting and Cold War died so hard that recent attempts to resuscitate attract mostly contempt. Seems to allow too little variety in adventures. Thus practically folded into others - especially cyberpunk, though as reconnaissance has its place in any genre. [*] Military: Pro: endless fount of dark humour. Cons: the same as spy and space opera [I]together[/I], few good settings that aren't cheesy, but known - and existence of wargames. Seems to allow too little variety in adventures UNLESS you change them often or go for small-unit special forces action. From recent ones there are... Only War and Planet Mercenary? [*] Post-apocalypse: Mostly just out of fashion (annoyance of a certain apocalypse cargo cult shoved down the people's throats may or may not have contributed). Much like its settings - never quite alive, never quite dead. Seems to allow little variety in adventures UNLESS you blatantly disregard staying true to the genre, but then you may just have a side-trek into bad area in another. [/LIST] Genres correspond to settings, and except post-apocalypse there are 3-4 available. So in the end it's more a matter of style than genre. With the benefit of non-true Scotsmen being dumped where convenient. Without fallacy, notion of [B]aramis[/B] would boil down to an observation that genre purity is practically non-existent, and there's a lot of bad imitation - which are valid points. I, for one, like Spelljammer for honest approach - as in, not pretending that boats are rocket ships when they obviously behave like boats. What you see is what you get. Those who want boats, swashbuckling, vampires and elves in "space" (which can indeed be fun) may jolly well just have them without silly rubber foreheads. :D As opposed to? Bad writing is bad. Anywhere. Hand-waving is bad writing if it's not internally consistent (and if consistent, it's not as much hand-waving as laws of a setting). And usually (with obvious exceptions like Wonderland) when it's not consistent with "like real world unless noted" (as in, we expect stones to not turn into cheese without some very good reason). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Why does fantasy dominate RPGs?
Top