I find I'm pretty well grounded in fantasy when it comes to my PG playing, which is why this summer's "drop in / drop out" Stars Without Number campaign is going to be a huge change for me and probably a decent challenge.
It's not that I haven't run scifi in the past. Original Traveller, Star Ace and SpaceMaster were all games I ran back in high school and my college years, but they never held my attention as much as fantasy games like AD&D, Runequest, MERP, Rolemaster, WFRP and the like.
I did dabble in some horror with CoC and Chill, but my players really weren't into it.
We did get some good play out of 1st edition Paranoia, which is more slapstick than scifi.
I did play in a short Twilight 2000 campaign and thought of running a RECON game, but the last never happened. I've always found it interesting that RPGs, which built upon wargaming, don't seem to do "modern war" roleplaying all that well.
I'm looking forward to stretching my GMing chops with a return to scifi.
So, what's you preferred genre to run or play in? Is it different if you are running the game or playing in it?
GURPS House Rule: You're A Natural
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I've been using this rule, or close to it, since my 3rd edition GURPS
games. I remember my friend Fred's brother Dave benefiting from this in his
very firs...
1 hour ago
Favorite? Modern horror. But I end up playing D&D style fantasy more often than not.
ReplyDeleteI like Scifi or modern fantasy/horror myself. I spent most of my developmental RPing years with World of Darkness, Eden Studios and Battle Tech. I tend to run fantasy and retro-scifi however. I'm not sure why really.
ReplyDeletePost Apocalyptic has always been my favorite, Second edition Gamma World was my longest running Campaign ever, although I've ran more Fantasy than anything else.
ReplyDeleteFantasy is my default genre, but espionage runs second place.
ReplyDeleteIn recent years I have become a fan of modern fantasy or modern horror/supernatural. It seems so easy for PCs to get into their characters and as far as settings go, there is no campaign world richer in detail than the real world. System-wise, there are some really great options to facilitate play. I have been on a Basic Roleplaying kick lately, but that is just one option. Have fun with your search!
ReplyDeleteI like the implied setting of Moldvay/Cook D&D mainly because it is so darn playable and it can be managed without a lot of serious prep.
ReplyDeleteWhile I respect it, I just can't imagine doing the Third Imperium justice. That's why I ended up running Prime Directive instead-- you can toss in completely weird stuff with matte paintings and Styrofoam rocks and just roll right along in something reasonably recognizable to regular people.
Low fantasy. Real dice. A nearby pizza and a gallon of cold ice tea is my favorite setting.
ReplyDeleteFor my it is more style than genre. I want my gaming to be pulp-y. When the entire game starts to become to realistic with minutia I find it less exhilarating. I'm not saying I don't love a good mystery or Cthulhu horror game where punching can't solve your problems. But for example Traveller is a game where your character is in debt and you consistently have to take jobs to pay your mortgage. This is not terribly fun. Traveller is a great little game system that I like playing and nearly any game can have heavy detail this was just the first one that came to mind. I never liked spell components in D&D or tracking rations when the situation wasn't dire. I prefer the movie version where you cut to the chase.
ReplyDeletei love sf, history, horror, weird fantasy, post apoc but superheroes can do all of this in stride. Fantasy easy to justify whats happening and fairly optimistic and flexible - good sf feels hard work at times. Im tooling up a fantasy game to include most of this stuff now. A bunch of venn diagrams would express how i feel better.
ReplyDeleteFantasy is probably my first choice but post apocalyptic is really close!
ReplyDeleteSF by a large margin. I also really like modern occult thrillers, followed by postapocalypse, Lovecraftian horror, and espionage. Fantasy is always a kick, but it isn't even in my top 5 - it's even better when combined with Lovecraftian horror, actually, as Cthulhu Dark Ages, Cthulhu Invictus, or Dreamlands do.
ReplyDeleteScience fantasy is another really great way to do fantasy. I can't even imagine what I'd do if it were Lovecraftian science fantasy. ;)
DeleteMy default Genre is usually everything that isn't straight up Fantasy. Seems that others were always running D&D, and I wanted to try other systems. So I became the Traveller ref, the Champions GM, the GAMMA World GM, the Star Trek GM, etc.
ReplyDeleteOnce I found Savage Worlds, I played most of the published settings (and wrote the Darwin's World conversion). Only when I hit Hellfrost did I start GMing fantasy as a campaign.
So about 30 years of GMing other settings, and now I'm settling into Barebones Fantasy, Swords and Wizardry, Hackmaster and, of course, Hellfrost.
I love sci-fi RPGs, particularly Traveller and Stars Without Number. However, most games I play right now are D&D 3.5E, due to the preferences of the local gaming population, and I enjoy these as well.
ReplyDeleteFantasy is my favorite with postapocalypse coming in a close second. I've gamed plenty in modern horror and scitfi but fantasy keepps me enegaged and keeps players at the table.
ReplyDelete"So, what's you preferred genre to run or play in? Is it different if you are running the game or playing in it?"
ReplyDeleteThe Fantasy genre is the preferred, followed by Sci-Fi, Post-Apocalyptic, and Supers.
Glad to see that you have some love for Twilight: 2000. It was the 3rd RPG that I bought and enjoyed that for many years as my favorite setting. When are you going to run an Online T2K game!
Judging by what I play, it's Fantasy of the D&D flavor, both "Forgotten Realms" and "Greyhawk" type campaigns.
ReplyDeleteBut I'd rather be playing SciFi with a hard space opera feel (Traveller, Mass Effect, etc.).
Superheroes is probably my favorite, followed by Sci-Fi (which I rarely get to do) and Lovecraftian investigative horror.
ReplyDelete