Quote from: CRKrueger;1054188More annoying is stuff like "Ales and Whores" rules, that govern automatically how characters make use of resources.  Not a big fan of structured and mechanically enforced Downtime minigames as they tend to be bland or just storytelling exercises.  Downtime rules with robust random events can be pretty entertaining.

The PC game Darkest Dungeon has an interesting take on downtime. During the game, the characters pick up mental quirks due to the horrors they encounter in the dungeon. The characters can heal "sanity damage" by drinking and carousing. Which can create it's own problems. It's something I'd likely rip off if I ran a horror themed game.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;1054195The PC game Darkest Dungeon has an interesting take on downtime. During the game, the characters pick up mental quirks due to the horrors they encounter in the dungeon. The characters can heal "sanity damage" by drinking and carousing. Which can create it's own problems. It's something I'd likely rip off if I ran a horror themed game.

Blades in the Dark does this. You fill Stress during operations, that you vent out by engaging your character's Vices during downtime (which can lead to complications depending on your roll, like getting high on booze and spilling the beans in the bar, thus increasing the crew Heat score).

Darkest Dungeon is awesome, by the way.

It is hard to describe... and I'm not sure I have a logically coherent means of justifying what I dig and do not dig here. Let's see.

1.) Outside of the rules, I want the text & art of a game to support the genre. To get players who read the text in the mindset of the genre, excited to make characters or build campaigns for it, etc.
2.) The rules themselves should support the genre, but I am a bit picky here about what I want, because I don't want rules that are too explicitly "Take this power to do genre-cliche". So... to take some examples:

Two games I like for genre emulation are "Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game" and "DC Heroes".

Street Fighter has a tactical combat system that does a reasonable job of evoking the feeling you get of playing the video game. Additionally, it has a couple smaller rules that contribute to its martial arts pulp action vibe, such as: Guns are slow, it takes a whole round to pull one out, then on the next turn it can be fired, but guns tend to go at low speed and not allow movement. 15 minutes after you've been knocked out and lost all of your Health, it all comes back (except "Aggravated Damage"). There are technically no rules for dying, though you might reasonably assume having all Aggravated Damage might mean that (it is never explicitly said, though). These latter two rules support a light vibe where martial artist can leap in and save the day, and people get beat up all the time, but it's not the end of the world to get your ass kicked.

In DC Heroes, the XP rules have a "Standard Award" based on the danger of the core situation the PCs are going up against and are then awarded multiples of that Standard Award based on how well they hit the following categories: Participation, RP, Thwarting the Villain, Protect Innocent Bystanders, Sub-Plot, Misc. Really only Participation & Thwarting the Villain can be obtained without getting into some genre-supporting RPing. How they address sub-plots I think maybe supports that the best. Also, PCs lose a sessions reward if they initiate Killing Combat, or lose half if they initiate Killing Combat in response to a foe who does likewise. The rules for pushing with Hero Points lend a feeling of heroic struggle to proceedings. If your character is knocked out, their ability to spend a chunk of Hero Points to attempt a "Desperation Recovery" which has a decent chance of getting them out of the rubble for another go, also seems to emulate the ebb and flow of some super hero tusslin'. Even the social interaction rules have ways for PCs and NPCs to attempt to influence others and PCs can theoretically be made to spill the beans (or let something slip) or persuaded to do things the Player might not be down with. Fortunately, the rules let them defend against this with Hero Points as well, so it all comes down to spending on what you really care about, balanced against any hopes you may have for character advancement.

A game I'm less happy with that tries for genre-emulation...

Feng Shui: I'm mostly OK with Feng Shui, but it leans a little too hard into meta, or genre trope activating rules. Like... "The Killer" has a disadvantage that if he takes more than 4 Wound Points from an attack in a climactic battle, he takes an additional 3. Or, "The Driver" has an ability called "Cool Car Jacket" worded like this: "You have the skills Seduction 11 and Intimidate 11, but only when wearing the jacket, and only when it is in good shape. The jacket is like new again at the start of each new adventure."

I'm very happy to have genre appropriate, or even genre cliche things occur in my game, but... it has to feel like it came about naturally through play and not because someone activated "My Cool Jacket Gets All the Chicks" power. It kinda feels like a cheap shortcut that takes all of the fun out of it.

Now... I'm not sure I can articulate why "My Cool Jacket Gets All the Chicks" is bad and "It takes a whole turn to pull out your Gun in Street Fighter and Gun Maneuvers have a Move of 0" is OK, except maybe in how one is explicitly evoking a trope and the other kind of more implicitly leads to a genre trope being true.

Anyways, also
3.) Seek players that both get and enjoy the genre in a way that jives with what you're looking for! Probably the most important thing. A player that mocks or intentionally undermines the genre vibe for their own self-amusement, or they have to analyze the tropes explicitly or whatever is a killer to the game. Also, a player that is not down with RP and engages in a lot of OOC planning, or engages in the game as a player trying to win, leading to unrealistic character behavior, etc. is another killer to genre emulation.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1054119What is your preferred approach to genre emulation?

With games that bring on the genre, through rules that actively push for it.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;1054195The PC game Darkest Dungeon has an interesting take on downtime. During the game, the characters pick up mental quirks due to the horrors they encounter in the dungeon. The characters can heal "sanity damage" by drinking and carousing. Which can create it's own problems. It's something I'd likely rip off if I ran a horror themed game.

Zak Smith's blog had examples of this sort of rules for Demon City.

It needs to be subtle and recognise that RPGs are not movies and play to the strengths of that.

After all the best movies in any genre will advance the genre they're in by breaking or changing it's rules.

If the PCs feel too constrained to even do that then they're not even playing in a good movie - they're in a boring second rate straight to video release.

I remember a GM in a game getting really huffy with me once because I interrupted his evil villain monologue by shooting it with a shotgun, which he felt was "out of genre".

For myself, I think it's more about the atmosphere than using canon characters. For a Star Wars game, for example, I don't think I'd ever have the PCs run into any of the movie characters, but I would work to have the same cinematic feeling, if that is along the lines of what you are asking. It's a really generic answer, but anything more specific would have to be tied to a specific genre.

Quote from: TJS;1054222I remember a GM in a game getting really huffy with me once because I interrupted his evil villain monologue by shooting it with a shotgun, which he felt was "out of genre".

[video=youtube_share;rk9WHasIZk0]https://youtu.be/rk9WHasIZk0[/youtube]

Agree with others that I prefer rules that encourage genre emulation without requiring it.  Subtle enough to not browbeat the PCs into talking about how they are following genre, but overt enough that everyone understands the carrots and sticks.

I'm not so wild about reams of setting used in an attempt to accomplish the same thing.  The more "canon" the material, the less likely I am to pay any attention to it.

The rules should support the genre. AKA, if the game is about martial arts, then martial arts should be better than guns. If the game is about mounted knights, then being on horseback kicks ass vs. being on foot, and being a knight is the central focus and rules / concepts about the horse, its strengths and its care should be important.

I mainly play D&D, and I regard D&D has having its own genre. I don't try to make D&D play like a high fantasy novel.

For other games, all genre means to me is inspiration. I don't expect or care if the players read up on the genre, and I frankly prefer if they don't expect the game to play out like books or movies.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1054285The rules should support the genre. AKA, if the game is about martial arts, then martial arts should be better than guns. If the game is about mounted knights, then being on horseback kicks ass vs. being on foot, and being a knight is the central focus and rules / concepts about the horse, its strengths and its care should be important.

To me the sounds like genre physics; where the world tends to emulate the laws of a genre but in a consistent way that isn't necessarily trying to emulate the stories of the genre.

The gun one is interesting because that depends on the franchise. I can think of a lot of martial arts movies where guns are less effective than martial arts, but there are also some where the point is martial arts are effective against just about anything, except guns.

Quote from: The Black Ferret;1054226For myself, I think it's more about the atmosphere than using canon characters. For a Star Wars game, for example, I don't think I'd ever have the PCs run into any of the movie characters, but I would work to have the same cinematic feeling, if that is along the lines of what you are asking. It's a really generic answer, but anything more specific would have to be tied to a specific genre.

Specific is fine. If you were in a starwars campaign, is there anything that you think contributes best (or takes away from) the cinematic feeling?

Quote from: Itachi;1054216With games that bring on the genre, through rules that actively push for it.

Examples? What mechanics "push" genre?

Quote from: CRKrueger;1054188I think it's extremely important to delve in with the players so they understand that for my campaigns, "genre" does not mean "roleplaying within some form of media construct" but "roleplaying in a world and setting of a certain media construct"...

Once again, I agree with CRKrueger here. I'm not sure there's really a good way to emulate genre with meta-game mechanics. I keep trying games with MGM and they fall flat for me. However, /rpg/ on reddit got me thinking about social mechanics...  I like how Zweihander does it (there's a procedure, but it hinges on roleplaying things out through the phases... also has a simple or complex procedure). I find (for example) having disease, corruption and magic that corrupts you to feel very dark. Elements in the game supporting genre.  So, if you're a high fantasy game, and I can create refrigerators, elevators and trains with magic like it was a resource, that will probably just FEEL higher magic to me without any overt mechanics.