Someone on another thread made a comment and got me thinking. Where did we get the idea that the Four Essential Genres of Tabletop Roleplaying are fantasy, science fiction, superheroes and horror? Why these of all?

pic as an example of a generic game which uses those four genres to show "it can cover anything". It's not the only one that does that!

>>96046211 (OP)
They're the foundation of pulp literature that the creators of RPGs as we know them in the first place would have been familiar with, and an easy well of stories to plumb for ideas to this day. They're full of well known tropes understood by the public at large that translate into the mechanics of the games. In short, cultural inertia. These are the genres because they have been the genres.

>>96046257
Is there a system which suitably covers other pulp genres like western/noir/espionage/erotica? Gurps need not apply

>>96046350
Savage Worlds, though your mileage may vary how suitably it covers them.

>>96046350
>>96046355
Doesn't Savage World actually use the exact same 4 genres as its core (with the various "companion" books)? That's the point of the thread.

>>96046699
Question was "is there a non-GURPS system that covers western/noir/espionage/erotica" not "and -doesn't- cover fantasy, sci-fi, supes, and horror".

Fact is, the Master Genre in gaming is supers. Not because it's the most fun or anything, but a good supers game allows you to make cowboys, do outer space ship battles, fight wizards and orcs, confront eldritch horrors, go places the government will deny it sent you to, brood atop a building in the rain thinking about the friends you betrayed and who betrayed you, and then sex it up because everyone is in tight spandex and absurdly hot. After that you're just removing the stuff from the supers game you don't want and putting in more of the stuff you do.

>>96046350
To the trad mindset if you can do horror you can do noir and espionage as well, because it's all just modern day stuff with lethal combat. The only difference between horror and noir in games is the balance of power between player and enemy.

But to answer your question: most generic systems. OpenD6, JAGS, Fusion, Hero, even Risus.

>>96046211 (OP)
>Where did we get the idea that the Four Essential Genres of Tabletop Roleplaying are fantasy, science fiction, superheroes and horror?
Where did YOU get that idea? Genuine question, cause this is the first time I've ever heard this.

>>96046350
Everywhen