Genre and Setting
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.)
A heist: the heroes must use magic spells (or technological gadgets for Science-Fiction settings) to stealthily infiltrate a high security bank/hold/equivalent thereof, obtain a specific item, exfiltrate the premises without being noticed.
In this genre, there is tension that escalates as the characters get closer and closer to their objective, as they disarm each trap, avoid each guard, unlock each door.
This type of scenario works best with a few changes to the mechanics of the game. For example, if a character rolls poorly on an ability check, they do not necessarily fail. Instead, they might succeed, but take longer than expected which forces them to rush for the rest of their mission. Or they might succeed, but accidentaly leave clues for the guards to notice. Or even just be much noisier than they should be.
As you open the lock, you fail to catch one of the chains that it kept in place. Cling, clang, clong! It falls on the floor and the sound echos in room. For a second, everyone is silent.
What do you do?An investigation: the heroes must use their skills, tricks, and equipment to solve a case. The only objective is to establish the truth.
This is a somewhat more difficult story to adapt to role-playing games because it relies on the players’ ability for deduction. This means that the player – rather than the character – is doing the detective work. It would render the whole thing very boring to ask players to roll for deduction instead of letting them solve the mystery at hand.
This means that the role-playing aspect of such a game shouldn’t involve too much game mechanics. It cannot be played in all rule systems.
A claustrophobic horror story: for some reason, the heroes are trapped within a confined space that is inhabited by monsters and cut off from the rest of the world. Their survival is at stake and they must escape. Think Alien (1979) or even Alien: Isolation (2014).
Unlike usual role-playing game stories, the players are not in a power fantasy. For this scenario to work, the characters must be in actual danger with slim chances of survival. They should be greatly out-numbered or over-powered by the monsters. The environment itself should feel oppresive: short passages with bends and intersections that limit their field of view, no precise map available, occasional hints of the presence of monster(s) (sounds, shadows, left over partially eaten bodies).
In this scenario, it is vital that the dungeon master makes it very clear that head-first confrontation with the monster(s) is deadly and that other courses of actions are available.
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.