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#RPGaday2017 What is an RPG genre-mashup you would most like to see?

I don’t like genre mashups.

No-fun Mark is no fun. While there is no doubt that there are some combos I enjoy — Firefly is probably the best example, though I dunno if it really counts — I generally find high-concept genre-mashing to be off-putting. My likely gonna-offend-somebody opinion is that it’s usually something done when one is out of ideas or fundamentally doesn’t understand how stories work. You know, like when gamers inevitably add Cthulhu to just about everything and assume it gets cooler. Or zombies.

So, honestly, no more genre mashups, please. How about we focus on getting one genre right first?

50 thoughts on “#RPGaday2017 What is an RPG genre-mashup you would most like to see?”

  33. You are entitled to your opinion, even though it is factually incorrect.

    The reason you think genre mashups are bad is because most genre mashups people have done are bad. This is not because genre mashups specifically are bad, but because genre mashups, like everything, fall under Sturgeon’s Law: 90% of Everything is Crap; therefore in any niche subgenre, where the sample size is vanishingly small, it’s often possible to never encounter the 10%. And even if you do, someone will disagree with you about which things are in the 10%.

    I mean honestly most of the stuff you like is crap, just like most of the stuff I like, and most of the stuff everybody likes.

    The trick is finding crap in common with people and hanging out with them. Fortunately, there are 7.2 billion people on Earth, and at least half of them have internet access, so if only .01% of that 50% significantly overlaps on your 10%, that’s still potentially 360,000 people to connect with. That’s fandom in a nutshell.

    Sorry, somehow this post turned from basic snark to obnoxious pedantry. My bad.

  34. < ![CDATA[You are entitled to your opinion, even though it is factually incorrect. The reason you think genre mashups are bad is because most genre mashups people have done are bad. This is not because genre mashups specifically are bad, but because genre mashups, like everything, fall under Sturgeon's Law: 90% of Everything is Crap; therefore in any niche subgenre, where the sample size is vanishingly small, it's often possible to never encounter the 10%. And even if you do, someone will disagree with you about which things are in the 10%. I mean honestly most of the stuff you like is crap, just like most of the stuff I like, and most of the stuff everybody likes.
    The trick is finding crap in common with people and hanging out with them. Fortunately, there are 7.2 billion people on Earth, and at least half of them have internet access, so if only .01% of that 50% significantly overlaps on your 10%, that’s still potentially 360,000 people to connect with. That’s fandom in a nutshell.
    Sorry, somehow this post turned from basic snark to obnoxious pedantry. My bad.]]>

  37. Blade Runner is an sf/noir mashup. As is the entire cyberpunk genre. Star Wars is an sf/western/samurai/war mashup. Masks is a supers/teen drama mashup.

    The mashups you like, you just don’t think of as mashups because you can’t see the seams. It’s much harder to take Pirates vs Ninjas or Cowboys & Aliens seriously because it’s such an obvious kludge.

  38. < ![CDATA[Blade Runner is an sf/noir mashup. As is the entire cyberpunk genre. Star Wars is an sf/western/samurai/war mashup. Masks is a supers/teen drama mashup. The mashups you like, you just don't think of as mashups because you can't see the seams. It's much harder to take Pirates vs Ninjas or Cowboys & Aliens seriously because it's such an obvious kludge.]]>

  45. Blade Runner is cyberpunk.
    Star Wars is space opera.
    Masks is superheroes.

    Marvel and DC have arguably been doing “teen drama” since the creation of Spider-Man and Superboy. “Teen drama” is also not a genre. “Superheroes” is also arguably a meta-genre at this point.

    A mash-up is where seeing the seams is intentional. This is why Firefly maybe doesn’t even count because it’s not “Cowboys & rocket ships” — it’s “Hey, the American West is a great metaphor to overlay on top of the colonization of space.”

  46. < ![CDATA[Blade Runner is cyberpunk.
    Star Wars is space opera.
    Masks is superheroes.
    Marvel and DC have arguably been doing “teen drama” since the creation of Spider-Man and Superboy. “Teen drama” is also not a genre. “Superheroes” is also arguably a meta-genre at this point.
    A mash-up is where seeing the seams is intentional. This is why Firefly maybe doesn’t even count because it’s not “Cowboys & rocket ships” — it’s “Hey, the American West is a great metaphor to overlay on top of the colonization of space.”]]>