With most of the talk around here about D&D and the fantasy genre, it got me to thinking just how much I like fantasy compared to some of the other genres. I made a list of my top five.

1. Space Opera (Star Wars)
2. Super Heroes (DCH/MSH)
3. Modern/Spy (d20 Modern)
4. Post-Apocalyptic (Gamma World)
5. Fantasy (D&D)

I was kind of surprised it landed at #5, but it's a fair assessment. I grew up on Star Wars and G.I.JOE. I have been reading comics for 30 years, so supers have always been one of my favorite genres. I like the gonzo of Gamma World. I wasn't into fantasy as a kid, having never read Tolkien, Howard, etc. I love Howard now, but it wasn't engrained in my brain at a young age.

Is there anybody else here that has similar views or maybe I'm just very much in a niche minority of gamers.

1. Superhero (ICONS, MSH)
2. Post-Apocalypse (Bounty Hunters of the Atomic Wastelands, Gamma World)
3. Space Opera (Bullgdogs!, Star Wars D6)

 Not sure I have a clear 4 and 5. I like modern and near-future stuff. I enjoy a good western though those games don't come around that often.

So no, you are not alone, just ridiculously outnumbered.

No, you are not a minority of one, there are at least two of us. Right Now, and it has been for a while, I'm running Traveller, which is a mixed sci-fi of varying hardness. I like some other stuff and really enjoyed Twilight:2000 and Gamma World; last bit of playing fantasy was IC Ardor using AD&D. CoC was fun as well for a while.

I wouldn't be able to establish a clear hiërarchy of genre preference but there's lots of things I prefer to fantasy, especially to most medieval-ish high magic stuff: pulp adventure, sci-fi (retro, space opera, post-apocalyptic), swashbuckling/pirates, horror, western, etc. though most of these can have fantasy elements added if I feel like it.

I'm pretty genre agnostic except supers, can't deal with that. I've been GMing a post global warming cyberpunk game for the last while (which has been a blast, imagine Sons of Anarchy/Firefly in a submarine), and I'm looking forward to phase two in the setting, but I have an intermittent fantasy game as well.

Is it the whole broad fantasy thing you're fed up with, including things like Warhammer/The Dark Crystal/Druss books, or is it just D&D related settings?

I've never ran or played in a western game (although I've read Boot Hill) so that might be below fantasy. Maybe sci-fi too.

The thing is, all of the above really are fantasy in the broad sense that informed the early FRP scene. One thing I dig about D&D is that there is no limit; we can explore any kind of situation.

The same is typically evident in "superhero" games, since the inspirational comicbooks have featured elements from every other comicbook genre combined.

Limits can be fun, too. I'd say my favorite genre is interstellar SF. I like even my space opera a bit 'harder' than the mere costume change from sword and sorcery to light saber and "the Force," riding a spaceship instead of a horse to save the princess from the Dark Lord's castle a la Star Wars.

Fantasy is pretty broad, there's types I like and types I could go the rest of my life without playing again. But Horror iss actually my favourite genre to GM. For me it'd be like:

Genres I love:
Lovecraftian horror, Dystopian futures, Fairy Tales, Bronze Age Supers

Genres I like:
Victoriana/Steampunk, Pulp, Gritty/Dark Fantasy

Genres I like every once in a while:
Cyberpunk, Historical, Bronze Age Fantasy, Comedic Sci-Fi

Genres I don't really care for but will play every once in a while:
Classic Sci-Fi, Space Opera, D&D Fantasy, Golden Age supers

Genres I hate:
Western, Teen Romance, Romantic Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic, Modern Realism, Dark Supers, Superhero/Videogame Fantasy, Furries

Quote from: The Traveller;719936Is it the whole broad fantasy thing you're fed up with, including things like Warhammer/The Dark Crystal/Druss books, or is it just D&D related settings?

I wouldn't say I'm "fed up" with it. I just don't think I love it as much as others do. I can see the unbridled enthusiasm for D&D and fantasy in general in posts across RPG forums and I just don't feel the same way. But if someone mentions the other genres that I like, I perk up quite a bit. It's just that it doesn't happen too often comparatively.

Quote from: TristramEvans;719939Fantasy is pretty broad, there's types I like and types I could go the rest of my life without playing again. But Horror iss actually my favourite genre to GM. For me it'd be like:

Genres I love:
Lovecraftian horror, Dystopian futures, Fairy Tales, Bronze Age Supers

Genres I like:
Victoriana/Steampunk, Pulp, Gritty/Dark Fantasy

Genres I like every once in a while:
Cyberpunk, Historical, Bronze Age Fantasy, Comedic Sci-Fi

Genres I don't really care for but will play every once in a while:
Classic Sci-Fi, Space Opera, D&D Fantasy, Golden Age supers

Genres I hate:
Western, Teen Romance, Romantic Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic, Modern Realism, Dark Supers, Superhero/Videogame Fantasy, Furries

So...the perfect campaign for you would be one about humanoid mutant animals with scary powers they angst about who carry gunblades and have crushes on each other while they fight outlaws and crazy biker raiders on the praerie after The Bomb?

I remember playing a cool TFT in Meso-America with Toltecs and such, anyone else play it? It would fall under historical, but there was magic.

'Genre' is what happens when imitation takes over from imagination. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as a framework of conventions to follow -- or to subvert -- can be a good starting point for creative work. We'll probably be seeing fresh riffs on the Arthurian Cycle and the Bible for centuries to come.

It gets stale, though, when it's reduced to lazy potboilers. "Zombie apocalypse" was probably not yet a proper genre when Romero made Night of the Living Dead (earlier classics such as White Zombie and I Walked With a Zombie instead treating the zombie phenomenon in the Haitian cultural context). Lately, though, it seems to me to have got too mired in repetition.

My regular game group is mostly made up of people who don't care for the comicbook superhero thing. Then again, I might be able to put a different twist on it than what they're acquainted with and come up with something they'd enjoy. It's unlikely that anything I did would be really unprecedented in the field, but what matters is that it would be fresh to them.

Quote from: The Ent;719941So...the perfect campaign for you would be one about humanoid mutant animals with scary powers they angst about who carry gunblades and have crushes on each other while they fight outlaws and crazy biker raiders on the praerie after The Bomb?

Lol, yeah , that sums up why I don't play Rifts

I am so God. Damned. Tired. Of. Fant. A. See.  Look it's ok but Jesus. Almost no one plays anything else. Fantasy needs to eat a dick for about 10 years and give some one else a turn.

Quote from: TristramEvans;719947Lol, yeah , that sums up why I don't play Rifts

...as for the thread theme: I'm generally with fantasy but Think Horror style stuff can be cooler with the right GM, ditto techno thriller/action Movie type stuff.