Books are often sorted by genre or setting: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Murder, etc. This is true of other media as well – games included. And in most cases, the genre and setting are barely distinguishable. This is why, even though murders happen in Fantasy settings, there are no Hercule Poirot in Middle-Earth, Robert Langdon aboard the Millennium Falcon, or Indiana Jones on Wisteria Lane.

However, there are cases where genre and setting are at odds. One such case is in the occasional special one-off episode of a TV series. For example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer – supernatural drama with minors in horror and goofiness – has the episode Once More, With Feelings (2001) where the whole town cannot help but sing and dance: it’s a musical! The setting is unchanged – the fit of singing is caused by a demon – but the genre undoubtedly is.

The Laundry Files book series by Charles Stross has a Lovecraftian horror setting. However, different books in the series adopt different genres – including, for example, a James Bond-like spy thriller.


Another place where genre and setting are at odds is in unusual, one-shot role-playing games. For example, if you have an epic-fantasy role-playing game à la D&D, you usually play to save the world, get rid of a tyrant, or cast out the darkness. In an unusual one-shot you would play a different genre of story. As noted below, these scenarii often require some alterations to the rules. (These necessary alterations hint at the fact that the rule systems of role-playing games are linked to both genre and setting.)


Unusual pairings of genre and setting can provide a refreshing break in otherwise somewhat repetitive media (TV series, role-playing games): they pit tropes against one another, they force the creators out of their comfort zone, they extend the realm of possibilities.

But they also require some work from the creators involved. You cannot simply use a rule system or an established story-telling device used for a given genre/setting pair and use it on a different one.