I'm not exactly sure if it'd qualify as a genre, but I have a hankering to be able to play the kind of classic thriller where relatively ordinary people get caught up in evildoings beyond their wildest imaginations. You know, films like North by Northwest, or Three Days of the Condor to name but 2 sterling examples. I like to think that adventures like this could make good one-off games, although I must admit that I can see that they might be difficult to carry off satisfactorily.

Quote from: Elliot WilenNot prominent but covered, I think. Actual mysteries are harder for the reasons you've discussed in your blog but the hardboiled Noir stuff is out there. Gangbusters for crime. War I think is pretty well covered for a minor genre--Recon, Godlike, and a number of GURPS books for example.

Well, I don't think one game means that a genre is "covered".  If it did, then we've also covered soap operas (Dallas, Soap), animal drama (Bunnies & Burrows), romance (Breaking the Ice), and a lot more.  

Also, I don't count superheroes as war genre -- even if they're superheroes during WWII.  Still, Recon and GURPS WWII count, and GURPS WWII was a fairly extensive line.  Twilight 2000 is marginal since it's post-apocalyptic survival, which is quite different from real war stories.  

Quote from: Elliot WilenI agree, and here the common thread is lack of violence. Sports are a funny category since they do have action, but if you look at sports movies they're rarely about how problems are solved through action. It's more like problems are solved and then the solution is portrayed metaphorically through the action.

Well, you mean the hero wins over the opposing team in the end -- but the real story is a dramatic storyline running parallel to the action, like how the hero learns how to trust his friends or restores his marriage or something like that?  I agree that this is true of sports stories -- but the same is true of most action-oriented fantasy and sci-fi.

WWI aviation a la Flyboys, Blue Max, Dawn Patrol. I'm working on something, but nothing there yet!

-clash

Covered is relative, of course.

I haven't played Godlike but my impression from reading the buzz on it is that it takes very little to make it into a historical war genre game. Basically in responding to this thread I'm assuming that if all you have to do is take out the kewl powerz in order to get an historical or whatever game, then it's covered in that sense.

Surely there are mafia games other than Gangbusters. But modern cops & robbers might not be very well covered. (From Wm. Shatner in a police uniform to Hawaii 5-0 to Homicide, etc.) Wait, nope: GURPS Cops, and something also turned up on RPGNow called Vice Squad.

I disagree about the similarity between how sports stories and action stories work, but I've gotta run. All I can say is, if they really worked the same, I think there'd be more RPGs on sports. Or else there might be something deeper there in that traditional RPG design is based on a paradigm different from cinematic narrative.

Quote from: flyingmiceWWI aviation a la Flyboys, Blue Max, Dawn Patrol. I'm working on something, but nothing there yet!

That sounds very interesting, although in general I'm not sure of the appeal of purely military RPGs...once you go there, I start to wonder why not play a wargame?

On the other hand if you dispense with the God's eye view of maps and counters, and run the game with the GM just describing things, then I think you may have something.

Quote from: Elliot WilenThat sounds very interesting, although in general I'm not sure of the appeal of purely military RPGs...once you go there, I start to wonder why not play a wargame?

On the other hand if you dispense with the God's eye view of maps and counters, and run the game with the GM just describing things, then I think you may have something.

I leave hex maps and counters to the wargames. I'm not interested in which army wins - er already know that - I'm interested in the warriors themselves.

-clash

Cops & Robbers. I'm serious, how about tv inspired cop shows. NYPD Blue, The Sheild, The Wire , Prime Suspect - a little bit of gunplay, investigations, interogations, etc. No supernatural stuff, just good old fashioned cops and robbers. I'm sure, there are games out there somewhat like this, but I doubt there is any pure police procedurals (Hollywood version of course)

Regards,
David R

HI David:

There's PiG's Vice Squad.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceHI David:

There's PiG's Vice Squad.

-clash

I knew there was something out there - there always is So, this Vice Squad, real(tv/movie) cops & robbers stuff?

Regards,
David R

Quote from: RPGPunditYes, a genuine "mystery" RPG has yet to be designed. I don't mean an investigative RPG in the style of CoC, but an RPG dealing with the genre of murder mysteries in the style of Sherlock Holmes, Mrs. Marple, Hercule Poirot, etc.

RPGPundit

GURPS Mysteries has you covered there, and to a lesser extent, GURPS Cops.

What about Italian Renaissance and the German Hansa? There have to be a few games out there...

Quote from: David RI knew there was something out there - there always is So, this Vice Squad, real(tv/movie) cops & robbers stuff?

Regards,
David R

Well - it's more Miami Vice than CSI or Shield.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceWell - it's more Miami Vice than CSI or Shield.

-clash

Old school vice or New....

Regards,
David R

I don't know if anyone would want to play in it, but a setting book for germany dealing with the times between world wars might be interesting and original.

Players might try to survive in germany as the nazis rise to power, trying to resist or even simply escape them.

As I said, I doubt this has been done, but maybe there's a good reason for that.

Then again, having a game where players get a good look at how a fascist state rises and replaces a democracy could be educational, especially with what's happening in america now...

Quote from: JMcL63I'm not exactly sure if it'd qualify as a genre, but I have a hankering to be able to play the kind of classic thriller where relatively ordinary people get caught up in evildoings beyond their wildest imaginations. You know, films like North by Northwest, or Three Days of the Condor to name but 2 sterling examples. I like to think that adventures like this could make good one-off games, although I must admit that I can see that they might be difficult to carry off satisfactorily.

I just did something like this, and it was surprisingly easy. Start with one of the characters being mistaken for someone else (X) during the first scene, have some people try to kill him because of it.The Pcs will want very badly to know who X is. Every step they take towards finding out only serves to convince the npcs that the pc in question is X. X is, of course, involved in some heavy shit, and has several factions (I used Lemurains, Nazis and KGB agents) after him- or whatever item or information or what have you he is supposed to have. After you get the ball roling it tuns itself, really.