Friday, November 18, 2011

Discussion: Favorite Genre and Why?

It's Friday, which means it is time for another discussion. Today I'm curious as to what is your favorite genre for RPGs and why it is your favorite.

For me, oddly enough, it is mecha RPG. I say oddly enough because in the 15+ years I've been gaming I have never once been in a mecha RPG that ended or even faded out. In every case the game has just stopped and never picked up again, leaving plot threads hanging and a general feeling of "this isn't settled yet."

Aside from that though, my love of mechs is as common as a lot of folks. I like mecha anime, I like the stories told in mecha stories, and I like what they bring to the genre they normally fill - namely, war stories. Mecha have a way of escalating the scope of conflict, making everything more serious, and yet keeping a shielding presence from the true dark and gritty horrors of war. Maybe it is because you aren't killing people, but rather blowing up armored tanks. Maybe it is just the scale and size of everything. Maybe it is the absurdity of a 15 year old boy being a better warrior than a 10 year ace vet pilot with dozens of kills under his belt. Either way, it lets you explore the horrors of war while shielding from the ones you don't want to deal with, and I like that.

I've ran one successful mech RPG. Only I'm not sure how successful I can say the game was. We finished, sure. But we also found a lot of issues with the system and in general some things just felt a bit...awkward..at times. Hopefully some day I'll get to run a great mech game with the flavors I love. I'm kinda hoping that "The Aegis Project' wil be the game ofr that, but that is because it's my newest shiny.

1 comment:

  1. For me it's a toss-up between sci-fi settings and pulp-style historical (I'm including "steampunk" in that category.) Modern espionage comes in a close third.

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