Crossing The Genres

[alex_greene]

I've often wondered what it would be like for the player characters to find themselves in a world where things were ... a little different. I dunno, such as players from the 3I blundering through a shimmering portal and emerging in Greentown or Lady Jorana's Garden of Obsidian Statues. Even one where they leave the 3I for another science fiction setting where the stars are waiting for them.

I often wonder whether it would be fun and interesting to mix it up with the characters' expectations and present them with some real strangeness; even a little Twilight Zone weirdness once in a while, to remind them that the universe is a wilder place than just trading and war.

Of course, there is always the genre next door ...

 

[Wil Mireu]

If the players were up for it, sure. As a one off I think most people probably wouldn't mind.

If not, or if it goes on for longer than a session or two then no - it'd be a 'bait and switch'. If players wanted to play a fantasy game then they would have signed up for one from the start.

 

[alex_greene]

For what it's worth, Piers Anthony did well enough with his Proton/Phaze crossover series Apprentice Adept. But it would probably be necessary to give the players advance fair warning of such a crossover before committing to the campaign.

 

[Lemnoc]

Don't cross the streams!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyaLZHiJJnE

Seriously, though, mashups often work great. Not necessarily Swords & Sorcery -> Hard SF, but I've found the Cthulhu Mythos almost always works better introduced when players are not expecting that. Horror would be a similar genre-busting experiment. And I think Science introduced into Fantasy generally works better than its reverse.

 

[F33D]

Don't cross the streams!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyaLZHiJJnE

Seriously, though, mashups often work great. Not necessarily Swords & Sorcery -> Hard SF, but I've found the Cthulhu Mythos almost always works better introduced when players are not expecting that. Horror would be a similar genre-busting experiment. And I think Science introduced into Fantasy generally works better than its reverse.

The original Star Trek series had some horror type cross over that worked well. The doppelganger, salt sucking monster, etc.

As to Anthony's phaze books, they worked well as stories to read but not sure if most SF RPGers would like to play in that universe.

 

[GypsyComet]

Horror is harder to run properly, too. Different set of tricks than most SF&F referees are used to.

 

[Lemnoc]

Horror is harder to run properly, too. Different set of tricks than most SF&F referees are used to.

Yes; I think if you used modern slasher / gore / monster movies as your primary inspiration, things might devolve pretty quickly into yet another standard dungeon crawl. I mean, that’s what those are all about, being confined in a closed space with a monster, kill or be killed.

If you think about what worked in those Star Trek episodes, they were psychological thrillers. The tension arrived through subterfuge, one thing seeming to be another, and growing awareness the menace <i>should</i> not / <i>could</i> not be killed.

 

[JBRocky]

Back in the day friends and I were playing a TNE game and used some of the Dark Conspiracey books to have a great Halloween adventure. Should be no problem doing something different with the different Mongoose stuff available.