What Are Your Favorite TTRPG Genres

[Corinnguard]

Looking at the results as of this post, I am only really surprised by Urban Fantasy. Other than WoD, it doesn't seem to be a particularly well supported genre in TTRPGs. Dreseden is essentially defunct, isn't it? Laundry Files is more Lovecraftian horror, no?

I voted for this particular genre when this poll first came out because of 3e's Urban Arcana RPG and because for a while I read a couple adult Urban Fantasy books. My favorite Urban Fantasy series is the Allie Beckstrom series by Devon Monk. In this series, magic was 'discovered' about 30 years from the series' present day. In reality, magic had always been around, but it had been kept secret by an order of mages called the Authority. Then the main character's father and his followers did a Prometheus by 'discovering' it for everyone else.

In this setting, magic comes with a cost in form of nonlethal damage. To safely cast a spell, a caster has to perform a ritual called a Disbursement where they (and not magic) get to decide on what kind of nonlethal damage they're going to pay for. Another way to use magic without directly paying it's cost is to have someone else be a Proxy, who volunteers willingly to pay for it. Once the Disbursement ritual is over, a caster draws the magic up from the ground and into a glyph they have traced with one hand. Then they can cast it. There are five magic disciplines that are practiced by members of the Authority- Blood, Faith, Life, Death and Flux. The last one involves the merger of magic and technology.

I wish this series was used for a TTRPG.

 

[Breaking Star Games]

I really love Space Western/Neo Noir of Cowboy Bebop. Not too big and bombastic like Space Opera - I love the more personal story telling. What is the dynamic of being a spacer. Though I would prefer a Harder Sci Fi lens than Cowboy Bebop ever bothers with, so more The Expanse.

RPGs with base building are really cool, but its also really cool to travel and adventure. So a travelling base is perfect. And as cool as flying ships and boats are, space is just really fun. The issue being when you really look at these things from a properly Hard Sci Fi lens - propellant and heat are so often ignored even in The Expanse. Makes it tricky to have that setting.

Looking at the results as of this post, I am only really surprised by Urban Fantasy. Other than WoD, it doesn't seem to be a particularly well supported genre in TTRPGs. Dreseden is essentially defunct, isn't it? Laundry Files is more Lovecraftian horror, no?

There are two big-ish ones I know. Urban Shadows 2e is due to come out... finally. It's actually at the printers, which is nice because the art is pretty awesome.

I really love the writing of Unknown Armies as well. I am not too comfortable with the genre myself, but if I had a friend running a game, I would jump.

 

[ichabod]

I had a campaign and a one-shot that I really liked but I wasn't sure where to put them. The campaign was my GURPS Illuminati campaign, where one player played his dad and another played his mailman. Then there was the GURPS Atomic Horror one-shot I ran at a convention in college (Invasion of the Slimy Things), which had me literally rolling on the floor laughing at one point.

As for Urban Fantasy I have always wanted to run what I call Mana Now. It's earth where magic has always been a thing. One of the major effects of this is that colonization was not as big due to magic being a leveling factor. So America has Europeans on the east coast and Chinese on the west coast, but between the mountain ranges the Indian tribes retain control.

 

[stormwriter]

I also think some people kinda mix urban fantasy with horror genres as well, it's a hard genre to define. You could run a Cthulhu game as an urban fantasy game and you could run a Dresden Files as a more horror game. You could have a Hunter The Vigil game be way more investigative horror than urban fantasy and even Unknown Armies or KULT could be both in a way.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Note that I listed several genres I've had hit or miss luck actually running, but like in principal, e.g. post apocalypse and urban fantasy (the latter not helped by there being a limited number of dedicated systems that suit my tastes there).

 

[Celebrim]

I feel like this is a question where I like what I know but do not know what I like. There are tons of genres I've never had anyone run for me that I'd like to sample just to see what someone does with them.

 

[Blue]

Good question, and a well thought out list.

One of the things it pointed out to me with just my own answers was the discrepancy between what I get to play and where my interest are.

And then, as a poll I can see that others share many of the same interests, so perhaps I should be pushing the groups I play in to branch out more.

Sure, we're a self-selected group just to on ENworld. But I have to think that non-fantasy genres would also be prevalent in the wider audience of hobbyists.

Oh, I have two that I wasn't sure if they fit under categories I chose for them.
The Expanse / Mass Effect - not hard SF, but not quite Space Fantasy. Is it Space Opera?
Specific IP - I just put these under the general categories, but for instance I know people who would play supers in a Marvel universe but not in generic or DC, thanks to the MCU movies. But going for that seems liek it would just clutter up the options too much.

 

[aramis erak]

Buffy is also Urban Fantasy. While the licensed RPG is in "No New Products" mode, it's been less than 3 years since the last errata fix to the PDFs, and they're still available on DTRPG.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Oh, I have two that I wasn't sure if they fit under categories I chose for them.
The Expanse / Mass Effect - not hard SF, but not quite Space Fantasy. Is it Space Opera?

I'd say to split the difference; The Expanse is closer to hard SF than not (depending on where you draw the line on that, and there's no agreement even within SF fandom), Mass Effect is Space Opera.

Specific IP - I just put these under the general categories, but for instance I know people who would play supers in a Marvel universe but not in generic or DC, thanks to the MCU movies. But going for that seems liek it would just clutter up the options too much.

There are always going to be subdivisions.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Looking at the results as of this post, I am only really surprised by Urban Fantasy. Other than WoD, it doesn't seem to be a particularly well supported genre in TTRPGs. Dreseden is essentially defunct, isn't it? Laundry Files is more Lovecraftian horror, no?

Monte Cook Games has been about to release an urban fantasy campaign book for Cypher for about six months now, which seems like a good fit for the system and probably most urban fantasy players. (I have a hard time picturing someone wanting to play a character running a magical used book shop/coffee shop and also detail their characters in GURPS-level detail.)