Quote from: David Johansen;1006276So that would be prime time soap opera with massive guns, shoulder pads, and monsters.  It's like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Or season five of Dynasty. The 'Moldavian Massacre' plot arc basically was 'prime time soap opera with massive guns, shoulder pads, and monsters,' or maybe ' prime time soap opera with guns, massive shoulder pads, and monsters.'

Quote from: Skarg;1005981Prison & concentration camp. Could range from Hogan's Heroes to horrible deathcamps, Turkish prisons, modern US for-profit prisons, etc. I would skip Hogan and go for high grit, realism, and difficulty, to give a real picture of what it's like. But it also sounds terribly grim, so I probably wouldn't do it.

I just saw Brawl in Cell Block 99 and an RPG in that vein would be fucking hardcore awesome.

I'd be most interested in unusual genres that people have actually played - or that there are games about. I'll toss in a few of mine...

Quote from: cavegirl;1006053I'd love to play a jeeves-and-wooster style farce game some time.
Or a slasher horror game (you know, friday the 13th style) where you kind of have a chance to take the slasher down but it's a slim one unless you're lucky or very smart.
Or a game where you play as spiders. Not, like, fantasy spiders or anything. Just real spiders in, like, a garden somewhere coping with the weather and the weird shit humans make happen.

I've played and run a few one-shot larps based on P.G. Wodehouse. (sample) It was a lot of fun in a one-shot fashion, with the common larp convention of having a bunch of crossing goals between PCs and various secrets - such as trying to collect winning flowers for an upcoming county competition, or trying to mess with the prize pig. In principle, there was a very funny love mechanic - which was if a compatible character used a pre-defined word in conversation with you, then you fell in love with them. It didn't work that great in practice, though. With all of this, I'm not sure how I'd translate it into an ongoing tabletop campaign, but it seems vaguely possible to attempt.

For slasher horror, I've played and run a few one-shots of Dead of Night. (ref)  I can't completely recommend it, but it was worth trying. I think that really doesn't translate well into a campaign, for obvious reasons. I've also heard some good things about The Final Girl, but I haven't tried it personally.

For the spiders thing, it sounds similar to Michael Desing's Army Ants RPG - where you play ants in a back yard. The map in play is supposed to be based on someone's actual back yard. I haven't tried it myself, though. cf. http://www.rpgnow.com/product/117688/Michael-T-Desings-Army-Ants-RPG-Legacy-Edition

Quote from: TrippyHippy;1005776Soap Operas. Ordinary world soap operas like Coronation Street, Neighbours, Eastenders or Shortland Street.

Aside from having fantasy/sci-fi themes and combat, a surprising number of my campaigns were basically like soap operas.

Shit, my Legion of Superheroes campaign was so much like a Teen Drama, it could have aired on the CW.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1006736Aside from having fantasy/sci-fi themes and combat, a surprising number of my campaigns were basically like soap operas.

Shit, my Legion of Superheroes campaign was so much like a Teen Drama, it could have aired on the CW.

Exactly. The model of play is there, so it's remarkable that nobody seems to want to do a straight/no magic soap opera rpg.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;1006739Exactly. The model of play is there, so it's remarkable that nobody seems to want to do a straight/no magic soap opera rpg.

Dallas casts a looong shadow...

Quote from: cavegirl;1006053I'd love to play a jeeves-and-wooster style farce game some time.

Space 1889 explores this with the Adventuress template:  The PC is a woman of uncertain morals but terrifying determination, paired with a hopeless twit NPC that she must cajole or work around to get anything done.  It wouldn't be too hard to do something similar as a servant or having both characters being PCs.

Quote from: cavegirl;1006053Or a slasher horror game (you know, friday the 13th style) where you kind of have a chance to take the slasher down but it's a slim one unless you're lucky or very smart.

The problem is the tropes.  You'd need either something like the SAN mechanism (Save vs INT or do something idiotic), or a "take a bennie for doing something stupid" set up.
OTOH, genre savvy players could use the tropes:  "Here's how we catch the slasher!  Harmony, go take a leisurely shower.  The rest of us will hide nearby and be there instantly when the slasher shows up!"

Quote from: Crawford Tillinghast;1006785OTOH, genre savvy players could use the tropes:  "Here's how we catch the slasher!  Harmony, go take a leisurely shower.  The rest of us will hide nearby and be there instantly when the slasher shows up!"

Well if the players metagame, so too shall the GM. The original slasher is still out there, but a new slasher instantly materializes to fill this role. Since there's no xp per defeated monster, this is just a resource draining distraction.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;1006739Exactly. The model of play is there, so it's remarkable that nobody seems to want to do a straight/no magic soap opera rpg.

Hillfolk/Dramasystem does exactly this, no?

Quote from: TrippyHippy;1006739Exactly. The model of play is there, so it's remarkable that nobody seems to want to do a straight/no magic soap opera rpg.

I don't think it's that surprising. Gamers aren't the typical demographic of soap opera viewers.

Quote from: Itachi;1006901Hillfolk/Dramasystem does exactly this, no?

Not particularly well, flatly.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1007144I don't think it's that surprising. Gamers aren't the typical demographic of soap opera viewers.

True, but think of the untapped broader market of casual/non-gamers.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;1007226True, but think of the untapped broader market of casual/non-gamers.

That trick never works.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1007462That trick never works.

"And now here's something we hope you REALLY like!"

Quote from: RPGPundit;1007144I don't think it's that surprising. Gamers aren't the typical demographic of soap opera viewers.

Gamers love soap operas, they just want them dressed up in outer space, with zombies or high schoolers fighting vampires.

Quote from: flyingmice;1007556"And now here's something we hope you REALLY like!"

Narrator: And so we come to the end of another fun filled episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle!

Bullwinkle J. Moose: You know Rock He sure got some funny ideas about fun.