Genre Bending

[Penchant]

So I like mixing genres together and doing new things with old material. I'm currently running two Post Apocalyptic Wild West Dieselpunk games and having a good time doing it. I loved Eberron's blend of Fantasy and noir. And Dark Sun's apocalypse punk was pretty awesome back in the hinter years.

 

What are your favorite genres to mash together?

[cailano]

It can be a lot of fun! Many of DCC's modern modules blend sword and sorcery with science fiction in a very 1970s way. They seem to be trying to emulate the style of authors like Jack Vance and Fred Saberhagen. Many OSR games take a similar route, trying for "gonzo" settings that stretch the fantasy genre. Anomalous Subsurface Environment is a well-regarded megadungeon that does just that.

Modern fantasy games like World of Darkness blend genres. Deadlands and some of the other Savage Worlds settings do the same with Westerns, WWII, etc.

You can also add fantasy as the "secondary" genre. Games like Starfinder and properties like Star Wars and Warhammer 40K do that well.

As a player or GM, I'm down for some genre-bending. The key is being upfront so the players know what to expect.

[dbcowboy]

My top 2 are Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 which is pulp World War 2 action against Nazi secret organizations and the Cthulhu mythos and the Western/horror mix of Deadlands.

Ones I have but haven't had the chance to play an actual game of yet are Cohorts of Cthulhu (similar to Achtung! above but set in the Roman Empire) and City of Mist which is noir detective mixing magic/powers/legendary characters.

[cybersavant]

anyone familiar with TORG? It's a multigenre game with invading realms, called cosms. One is Nile - ancient egyptian pulp supers, another is Orrorsh - victorian horror, another Cyberpapacy - religious dictatorship cyberpunk; they're also a lot of homebrewed mashes.

 

Then there's Deadlands - supernatural western horror

 

[leons1701]

7th Sea. On the surface, swashbuckling/pirate adventure with a touch of magic, basically Pirates of the Carribean with the supernatural toned down a bit or Three Musketeers with it added. And you can play the game at that level and enjoy the heck out of it. But start digging into the setting, and hey, what's up with all these secret societies and ancient conspiracies and suddenly it's Rennaissance/early modern intrigue, which to be clear, is still pretty much in the swashbucking genre. Dig under that to the reasons behind all those conspiracies and stuff, and oh look, it's Cthulhu (not literally, but definitely eldritch horror). For obvious reasons, the metaplot is loved, tolerated and loathed in about equal proportions.

 

 

[Malkavian Grin]

Love a good genre-bend! I'm actually watching Oxventure play a Deadlands campaign and it seems to work really well with Savage Worlds.

I like to mix the dirtiest parts of modern society (noisy engines, way too much oil, basic electricity) with the best parts of fantasy (war and utility magic, fiefdoms, sprawling cities, factions at war or teetering on it, ancient artifacts of immense power that few understand).

I have a setting in development hell that mixes the apocalypse of an ultra modern world with the semi-tribal remnants of the populace, with a few truly astonishing people (the pcs). Sort of a dark version of John Carpenter on Mars. But also aliens.

[Bobcloclimar]

6 hours ago, Malkavian Grin said:

Sort of a dark version of John Carpenter on Mars. But also aliens.

I'm assuming you meant John Carter, but John Carter by John Carpenter would be a sight to behold 😛

[cailano]

10 minutes ago, Bobcloclimar said:

I'm assuming you meant John Carter, but John Carter by John Carpenter would be a sight to behold 😛

I'd buy a ticket for that!

[MrAndrewJ]

John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars is a real movie.

Wikipedia describes it as "a 2001 American space Western action horror film."

[cybersavant]

at one point i was working on a shared/mashed universe with blade runner, escape from new york, alien, predator, altered csrbon, etc - tried to find s list of all the corps in those, but only came up with W-Y

 

 

[shawnhcorey]

The original:

[Roughtrade]

There isn't anything Genre Bending in games any longer.

Shadowrun, in 1989, was Genre Bending. Magic, Dragons, Computers and Assault Rifles. These days, its considered vanilla.

Rifts came out a year later, upping the ante.

Arduin Grimore came out in 1977 with Hellspirals, time travelling vampires, laser cannons, amazons (following the Richard Corben rule that no woman's breast would be smaller than her entire head) and giant grasshopper Player Characters.

Pre-1990, these things were weird and odd and genre bending.

After 1990, things have been mashed up and put in a blender so often, there isn't anything to bend.

[Malkavian Grin]

17 hours ago, Bobcloclimar said:

I'm assuming you meant John Carter, but John Carter by John Carpenter would be a sight to behold 😛

16 hours ago, MrAndrewJ said:

John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars is a real movie.

Wikipedia describes it as "a 2001 American space Western action horror film."

Oops. I always do this. Yes, I meant John Carter. But Ghosts of Mars was pretty decent if I recall (rare for me to like a horror flick). Also I meant aliens in the setting as playable options, not as in Aliens the movie lol.

[cailano]

@Roughtrade is the only person besides me that remembers Arduin.

[cybersavant]

still have the boxed set - haven't looked at it in a while