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View Full Version : Is there a definitive RPG genre list anywhere?



Zarrgon
2017-09-23, 01:35 PM
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?

Thrudd
2017-09-23, 02:10 PM
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.

2D8HP
2017-09-23, 07:33 PM
The 1991 Guide to RPG's Heroic Worlds (https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/classic/rev_5727.phtml) book did.

Anonymouswizard
2017-09-24, 11:49 AM
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.

paddyfool
2017-09-24, 01:14 PM
Surely you meant to say that those genres *aren't* mutually exclusive - many of them can overlap.

Zarrgon
2017-09-24, 01:44 PM
-Space Opera
--Classic Space Opera (Lensman, Foundation, Star Wars, Star Trek).

I really, really don't want to debate this....but there is no way the above are in the same category. Guess we could make a Media thread thingy about it though....

Cluedrew
2017-09-24, 03:11 PM
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.

Anonymouswizard
2017-09-24, 04:04 PM
I really, really don't want to debate this....but there is no way the above are in the same category. Guess we could make a Media thread thingy about it though....

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.

weckar
2017-09-25, 03:37 AM
Except Star Trek is Sci-Fi while Star Wars is Science Fantasy.

And let us not forget: Supers, Western, Pirate, Samurai...

Frozen_Feet
2017-09-25, 07:52 AM
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.

Tinkerer
2017-09-25, 09:19 AM
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.

Join usssss. There'sssss alwayssssss room for more down here. Jussssst pleasssse turn out the light on your way in. We dissssslike the light.

Anonymouswizard
2017-09-25, 12:53 PM
Except Star Trek is Sci-Fi while Star Wars is Science Fantasy.

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...

Yes, I was tired and wasn't overly concerned with catching everything. I missed Wuxia (seven types of fantasy now) and Horror as well.
As I said, that list is NOWHERE NEAR definitive.