If you ask ten different gamers the question “what is your favorite roleplaying game,” you can quite possibly expect ten different answers. However, regardless of what game system you cling to as your favorite, there is another equally important question that a gamer needs to ask before committing a game, especially if the answer isn’t immediately obvious by the game selection.
What genre is the game?
For many people a game’s genre can be make or break for them with regards to whether or not they’re going to play. It could be a simple matter of a character concept that they really want to play not fitting into the general conceits of the game. It’s hard to play a Jedi in Dungeons and Dragons. It’s hard to play a servant of the divine in a game that doesn’t include divine magic in its conceits.
Sometimes it really is simply a matter of what the person enjoys. Some people do not enjoy playing science fiction RPGs. They’re perfectly happy with high fantasy and they’ll continue to play that until their hands grow arthritic and they can no longer grip their dice. Others abhor fantasy and would rather fly high above the city firing heat rays from their eyes with other super heroes. So genre not only informs a lot about the game world, but it informs a lot about the gamer’s world and choices of game. This becomes doubly important when the genre of the game isn’t clearly ascertained from the name. Dungeons and Dragons is going to be Tolkein inspired high fantasy. Star Wars is going to be space opera inspired by westerns and the samurai films that inspired them. World of Darkness has different focuses within the greater genre, but the main thrust of the game is that of supernatural horror. But when you look at games like FATE and GURPs where there is no implied setting or genre, it becomes a very important question for a gamer to ask.
But does it always have to?
My sister knows my tastes. So when she hands me something to listen to or something to read I tend to listen to her as soon as I’m able to. A while ago she handed me the first trade paperback of Saga (Image comics, originally published in 2012) by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. I started to dig in and was instantly hooked. I was blown away by the sheer amount of genre bending and blending that they were able to fit into the book. Fantasy, science fiction, romance, horror, and so many other genres bleed together in the pages so completely and effortlessly that nothing they introduce ever feels out of place. No matter how strange or bizarre, it feels like it belongs in the setting – the characters don’t question it so neither does the reader. It doesn’t matter if that thing is magic existing alongside science, or a race of royal robots with CRT heads and humanoid biology, a sexual relationship between a human and a female spider creature, or cats that can tell when someone is lying; the inhabitants of the setting take it in complete stride and so do you. And it works so well because the story that they weave through the comic is so compelling that the set dressing just doesn’t matter. It’s literally the decorative icing on the cake.
This got me thinking about a recent game that distinguished itself in my mind by ignoring concepts of genre. Numenera was a roleplaying game that was funded through Kickstarter to insane success by Monte Cook. The game takes place in The Ninth World, the far future of earth. There have been eight worlds that came before, each lasting an indefinite period of time. The Ninth World is built on the bones of those previous eight. The game is ostensibly science fiction in how it’s delivered, but the concept is also deeply rooted in the famous Arthur C. Clarke quote “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Weird and unexplainable things are common, but the game doesn’t spend its time wondering about the “how.” Instead focused on the “why” or the “what” to draw the weirdness into the setting and the story and drive that forward. There is a type of internal consistency and logic to the setting, but this method allows the GM to shape it how they want to best fit their game. Chaotic energies that can only be described as arcane in nature exist alongside super science. Hideously mutated beasts exist alongside cyborgs and alien beings. Heroes fight them with hard light swords and iron daggers. With the concept of the game being on explaining the “why” of the weirdness instead of the how, it can appeal to a wide variety of gamers with a wide variety of genre preferences and character concepts can cover a very broad range.
At the end of the day, genre has its place in roleplaying games. There will always be games and players that cleave to a particular genre either by necessity of the game’s conceits or by strong feelings of the players involved. Hard genre games exist for a reason. They can be put in place in order to scratch certain itches when they arise and they fill necessary roles within the hobby. Crazy genre blending does not happen in every game or system, nor should it. These games are special – they shouldn’t be common. But don’t be afraid to stretch your comfort levels as a player and jump into one if it presents itself, especially if it’s one that runs starkly counter to your bread and butter.
Ben Erickson
