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2017-09-23, 01:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2012
Is there a definitive RPG genre list anywhere?
Was just wondering about it...
I mean we all bandy about Sword & Sorcery, Medieval Fantasy, Cyber Punk, Space Opera, Modern, Horror, etc....but is there a list of classification for these?
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2017-09-23, 02:10 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2013
- Gender
Re: Is there a definitive RPG genre list anywhere?
Well, if you go to Drive Thru RPG you can browse titles by genre - maybe not "definitive" since it only includes those games offered on the site - and they are fairly broad categories. But there are a lot of games, there.
The problem with making such a definitive list is that some games can fit into multiple categories (even those that are not generic), and people will probably argue about what categories are appropriate for some of them.
People don't all agree on what actually is included in some genres, or whether or not a category ought to be its own genre. Like swords & sorcery vs heroic fantasy vs medieval fantasy - we aren't all going to agree on terms, they have no hard and fast definition.
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2017-09-23, 07:33 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
- Location
- San Francisco Bay area
- Gender
Re: Is there a definitive RPG genre list anywhere?
The 1991 Guide to RPG's Heroic Worlds book did.
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2017-09-24, 11:49 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- In my library
Re: Is there a definitive RPG genre list anywhere?
Short answer no, and it's hard to make. People have seriously tried to make them, it's approximately the same as the definitive list of literature genres minus some developments (and even then there's people trying to change that).
To begin, and genres aren't mutually exclusive:
-Heroic Fantasy
-High Fantasy
-Low Fantasy
-Dark Fantasy
-Urban Fantasy
-Science Fantasy
-Space Opera
--Classic Space Opera (Lensman, Foundation, Star Wars, Star Trek)
--Modern Space Opera (Banks, Hamilton, Reynolds)
-Cyberpunk
-Transhumanist
-Spy
-Historical
-Prehistoric
-Military
Add more as you need to, this list is nowhere near definitive.
Specifically excluded:
-Magical realism, while I don't like it being listed separate to fantasy anyway, any tabletop RPG in this genre becomes urban fantasy as soon as PCs get the ability to use magic and start abusing it foe all it's worth, even if it's limited.
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2017-09-24, 01:14 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2006
- Location
- London, UK
Re: Is there a definitive RPG genre list anywhere?
Surely you meant to say that those genres *aren't* mutually exclusive - many of them can overlap.
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2017-09-24, 01:44 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2012
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2017-09-24, 03:11 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2015
Re: Is there a definitive RPG genre list anywhere?
Well they are all fiction, so they share that category.
If by genre we just mean the style of its setting and roughly how it plays out, then yes it would be the same as any other genre list for other mediums. Which leaves us with "no", because the idea of a genre is kind of flexible and exists in all these layers and subgroups. For instance, Anonymouswizards list includes 6 types of fantasy, but I also know people who have trouble telling the difference between science fiction and fantasy.
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2017-09-24, 04:04 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- In my library
Re: Is there a definitive RPG genre list anywhere?
Well sure, we should probably split them, just like we should separate Banks, Hamilton, and Reynolds. At that point I was more trying to acknowledge that there is variation in the space opera genre that is often overlooked, as I've seen so many people reduce it to just Star Wars and Star Trek.
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2017-09-25, 03:37 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2010
Re: Is there a definitive RPG genre list anywhere?
Except Star Trek is Sci-Fi while Star Wars is Science Fantasy.
And let us not forget: Supers, Western, Pirate, Samurai...
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2017-09-25, 07:52 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2009
- Gender
Re: Is there a definitive RPG genre list anywhere?
The answer is a solid NO. In fact, there isn't really a definitive genre listing of anything anywhere, because genres are largely arbitrary brackets that get invented, forgotten, reinvented etc. all the damn time.
The closest you can get is take a deep dive into TV Tropes or Wikipedia, where people with obsessive compulsion to list everything amass."It's the fate of all things under the sky,
to grow old and wither and die."
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2017-09-25, 09:19 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2016
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2017-09-25, 12:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- In my library
Re: Is there a definitive RPG genre list anywhere?
While I agree there, Star Wars is still Space Opera, which was what I was listing the genre as.
And let us not forget: Supers, Western, Pirate, Samurai...
As I said, that list is NOWHERE NEAR definitive.