Today, I thought I would talk a little bit about different genres in tabletop roleplaying games. If you are new to the world of tabletop roleplaying, then perhaps you think that it is all about wizards and warriors fighting against demons or dragons. That however, is not the case. The fantasy genre is but one of a multitude of genres that exist within the realm of tabletop roleplaying games.
I'll cover a few, but covering all of them is pretty much impossible as any type of setting or genre can be adapted for a tabletop roleplaying game. This is a subject I might return to later though in another post.
Fantasy
Let's start off with Fantasy. The classical setting, if you will. It's been a thing since Tolkien's days, and is probably the most popular roleplaying genre out there. There are a lot of different types of Fantasy though, for example:
.. and many, many others. I included links in there to Wikipedia pages about the individual types of fantasy. Personally, I really like fantasy. It's a broad genre, that pretty much can cover almost anything. I mean, who doesn't want to be able to cast cool spells, or defeat a dragon with a sword? ;)
Some examples of Fantasy games include: Dungeons & Dragons (various editions, 5th being the latest) and Symbaroum (Swedish tabletop rpg which has gotten an english release. More leaning towards Dark Fantasy),
Steampunk
Steampunk is a genre that I find very interesting. It is a good way to take a break from the 'standard' fantasy settings and look at something often a little bit different. I suppose it is 'technically' counted as a sub-setting of Fantasy, but I still want to give it its own section here. Steampunk games deal with the idea of steampowered technology, but taken to the next level. They also often include magic in the setting.
Some examples of Steampunk games include: Iron Kingdoms (GREAT steampunk game, in my humble opinion) and Victoriana (Victorian age steampunk game with magic. Looks good but I haven't had a chance to try it yet.).
Horror
Horror is a genre that has been around a while. There are plenty of horror tabletop games out there, of varying kinds. Call of Cthulhu might be the most well-known, but there are others as well. It's a genre that I don't think requires much extra explanation beyond that.
Some examples of horror themed tabletop roleplaying games include: Call of Cthulhu and Dread (a slightly different take on normal roleplaying games in that it doesn't use dice and instead uses a tower of jenga-like bricks. Interested? You should be.).
Science Fiction
A very popular genre. People are probably familiar with things like Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, and many many other TV-shows, movies, books, etc that takes place in a sci-fi setting.
Some examples from this genre include: several Star Wars games (too many to pick one to link to here, but if you search I am sure you will find one), Stars Without Number and Traveller.
Beyond these four, there are many other genres as well. Too many for me to cover here, in this post, but I might return to this subject in another post further down the line and there cover some other genres. Hopefully you will have found this somewhat helpful at least.
Until next time!
Until next time!
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