Exploring New Genres - Share Your Favorite Other Genres

[Christopher R Taylor]

I do have an affection for cops with powers (very low level stuff, maybe 200-250 point characters) as a special squad in Big City.  Tons of cop stories out there, easy to write scenarios for.

 

One genre I would love to see is Napoleonic British Navy.  It has the same drawback as pirate stories: who's the captain?  How do you get players to stay within the military rank system?  But I could definitely see the player characters start out as Midshipmen and go up through the ranks as Lieutenants on a ship.  Its unrealistic and implausible that the "party" would stay on the same ship for very long but you could do a campaign where they were middies, got promoted, then got each moved on to their own ships as Master and Commander, under a commodore.  That could last a fair amount of time, each of them sailing their own sloop or light frigate (as the get promoted to full captain) say, a Mediterranean or Caribbean campaign.

Edited August 17 by Christopher R Taylor

[Duke Bushido]

3 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 It has the same drawback as pirate stories: who's the captain?  How do you get players to stay within the military rank system?  

 

 

Yep.

 

Tried pirates twice over the years (I like the romanticized swashbuckling version of pirates; the whole group was into it each time), but both fell apart for pretty much the reasons you suggest.

 

Interestingly, every attempt we made at FASA's old Star Trek RPG fell apart for the same reasons.

 

Looking at it from this angle, perhaps it wasnt just setting and knowledge issues: our T2000 game might have just been destined to fail under the weight of even a pseudo-military structure.  😕

 

 

[Khymeria]

1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

Interestingly, every attempt we made at FASA's old Star Trek RPG fell apart for the same reasons.

 

 

I ran this back in the day and had each player make a few characters, the Supply Officer and random engineer and such so they could mix things up a bit for personnel and on away missions. They were good roleplayers and in it for story so they chose one player to be Captain and then did a pick rotation a few time’s through. It was fun but also works best on a smaller starship for impact. 

[Lord Liaden]

I had a lot of fun running TSR's old Gamma World game. Technically it's post-apoc, but not the kind of grim scrounging to survive you usually see in the genre. This one featured bizarrely mutated animals and plants, many of them having achieved sapience and tool-making, and organized societies; radically advanced technology, and its products such as robots and androids and cyborgs; wild mutant powers that almost reached comic-book superpowers. Pretty gonzo, and more fun than the genre is normally known for.

 

Speaking of post-apoc, I never tire of recommending Keith Curtis's magnificent The Savage Earth campaign website for HERO 5E. Most of what I said above applies to this world as well, except that the apocalypse was magical, unleashing the potential for life forms organic and inorganic, and literally turning the planet on its side, changing the orientation and climate of familiar land masses to something radically different. If you're familiar with the old Saturday morning Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon, imagine that world greatly expanded, richly detailed, and given historical and cultural coherence. Add in Keith's numerous character sheets for races and monsters, unique magic system, detailed maps, extensive campaign logs, and a lot of beautiful color artwork, and you have a setting for adventure like none other.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I think war settings are an interesting if largely forgotten genre.  So many stories that can be told of a small squad of PCs.  You usually have one higher ranking guy -- usually a non-com, but that can just be an experienced, respected player's character.  All higher ranks should be NPCs.

Edited August 29 by Christopher R Taylor

[Khymeria]

4 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

I think war settings are an interesting if largely forgotten genre.  So many stories that can be told of a small squad of PCs.  You usually have one higher ranking guy -- usually a non-com, but that can just be an experienced, respected player's characters.  All higher ranks should be NPCs.

I played in a Special Ops game where all the PCs were from different branches of the military with elite training, Delta Force, Navy Seal, Force Recon, Parajumper, etc. We were not all the same rank, but we had chain of command and a mission and that was usually enough to keep things in check. I did kill another PC for endangering the mission from my sniper position on the order of my commanding officer once though come to think of it.

[DentArthurDent]

We played Twilight 2000 for several years (well before the year 2000). We ported the rules over to Hero system (probably Danger International). But the background and structure of a military unit made it a new experience. It helped to have one current and one ex-military playing with us.

 

The military structure also worked well with a Star Trek campaign and a pirates campaign. Even cutthroats need someone to coordinate tacking into the wind. 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

The military structure also worked well with a Star Trek campaign and a pirates campaign. Even cutthroats need someone to coordinate tacking into the wind. 

 

It takes a certain kind of gamer group to submit to military authority and hierarchy, but if you can do so, it opens up a lot more opportunities for games.  Typically the captain of a pirate ship wasn't the king of the ship, he was just the guy who knew best how to sail and fight her, and when they weren't sailing or fighting usually was just another one of the crew, and that sort of authority more gamers are willing to work with.

Edited August 31 by Christopher R Taylor