Genre Matters

"There is no winning or losing, but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you're involved in, whether it's a fantasy game, the Wild West, secret agents or whatever else. You get to sort of vicariously experience those things" - Gary Gygax

Genre gets a bad rep, and not just because it was caught smoking behind the 7/11 with its friends when it was 14. In my experience, genre is often cast as the disapproving square principal in an 80’s coming-of-age movie starring Judd Nelson; it is the authority to be defied, gleefully subverted, and viciously mocked. Part of the anti-genre impulse, I suspect, is the natural anti-authoritarian impulse in most escapist diversion. We follow rules in real life-- it is therefore often cathartic to thumb our noses at them in fantasy spaces. Ultimately, one’s relationship to genre is a matter of preference and so one cannot really be wrong about genre.

But you're wrong about genre.

And here’s why: genre is not a straitjacket anymore than the rules for arbitrating attack rolls in D&D are a straitjacket. Our perception of genre will often run those lines, but that misunderstands the kind of tool genre represents.

Who Is Ferdinand de Saussure?

I didn't mention him but now that you have he is pretty important to my (eventual) point.

Ferdinand de Saussure (or The Ferd Bird to his friends) was a Swiss writer who was hugely influential in the study of linguistics. He was also crucial to something called “semiotics” which is, broadly, looking at how meaning is made within a given system (generally language). The field of literary criticism latched onto this pretty quickly-- previous manners of looking for meaning were Formalist (‘how does the form of the poem enhance the content’) or Historical/Biographical (‘how does the poem reflect, or not, the author’s intentions or life’). But de Saussure showcased a particular attention to language and structure; the Structuralists looked at works in terms of how their language related to the broader genre.

It seems kind of self-evident, in retrospect, doesn’t it? There is meaning in how a work coheres--or not--to the particulars of its genre. Works build off those that came before it, and meaning is in many ways a negotiation between what we intuitively grasp (the genre) and what we examine in detail (the work). I'm probably not blowing your mind right now.

What's This Got To Do With Games, Colin?

I'll get there, I promise.

The big take away from de Saussure and the Structuralists is that something like genre is not merely a matter of aesthetics or form, but can carry its own meaningful thematic implications.

That right there is useful when discussing games, isn’t it? Because genre is rarely something you have to teach someone-- if you place a player in a game set in the 1920’s, in which they control a character named Jack “Bourbongun” Scotchfist, they’ll divine pretty immediately that the game is of the noir genre.

By the same token, telling a player that the game will be in the noir genre gives them a recognizable structure--with its own narrative conventions and rules--on which to draw.

This isn’t something terribly new. I’m not telling you what you should do, I’m telling you what almost everyone already does. They just might not realize it. But once you do realize you’re working with genre, it can be a tool you consciously utilize.

But How?

If genre is a set of conventions and narrative beats, then being overt regarding a game's genre will forecast to players what they can expect thematically or stylistically. Saying that a game will be noir allows players to safely assume that, for example, a certain cynicism will pervade the game. That it will involve elements of crime and justice. That the gorgeous blonde in a tight red dress aggressively smoking down at the end of the bar might not have your best interests at heart. That a guy with a lantern jaw goombah named Tommy “The Hatchet” Gambini might not respond to rhetorical argument and emotional appeals.

Here it is, the crux of the article. This is the thing I’m hoping you take with you to your game. I’m going to give this a paragraph break and italics because I think it is so important.

In the same way that the rules of the system empower a character in the game-world, the rules of the genre empower a player at the table.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with breaking from genre conventions-- it is in fact inevitable. Roland Barthes, one of the first Structuralists, would eventually begin to move away from such a tight focus on things like genre because any creative act is as much a modification of its inspiration as a product of it. Genre is by definition a sum of many things, and so, any new addition to the body of work is also a change to the structure that body entails.

But the important thing which some GMs forget is that you really should establish the genre before you subvert the genre-- give your players a way to recognize which genre expectations you are changing or discarding before you do so.

GM Patrick Walburton introduces the players to a new NPC, the vizier of the king. This vizier is a powerful spellcaster with a bald head and a goatee and is next in line to the throne should anything happen to the current king. The players immediately suspect the vizier of being an evil antagonistic NPC-- to GM Patrick Walburton’s surprise! Despite having no intention of making the vizier a bad guy, GM Patrick Walburton nonetheless chose a bevy of genre conventions which implied that he was.

Did you forget the mnemonic "HARTIARTATIOTRBRTITRA" from my previous article? Know what you’re changing, know why it exists in the first place, and be prepared to live with the change. In the above example, GM Patrick Walburton can simply roll with the punches and retroactively make the vizier a villain. In the future, however, he might be better served by being cognizant of how he deploys certain genre conventions.

If we’re being honest, a lot can go wrong at a table when there is disconnect between expectations. The classic scenario in which a Paladin PC and a Thief PC are at odds because the former cannot countenance the latter’s skullduggery? That’s a disconnect of expectation, and solving it might be as simple as outlining which genre the game intends to operate within.

A cynical, amoral thief is out of place in a game whose genre is swashbuckling, high fantasy with few moral grey areas.

A hardline, law-abiding servant of the gods is out of place in a game whose genre is gritty, grim sword-and-sorcery low-fantasy.

Establishing beforehand which kind of game you're running could mean that the player in question creates a character less at odds with the tone, theme, or genre of the campaign.

In many ways the GM's responsibility is to be the straight-man. characters are more often than not exceptions and exceptional. They break the mold because--for most games--they are agents of change within the game world. By playing to genre, the GM not only gives players the space and freedom to be The Heroic Exception to a convention, but also contextualizes their Heroic Exception by contrast.

More succinctly, the GM can draw a line so the players can choose to cross it (or not).

That Probably Isn't As Revolutionary As You Thought, Colin

And you’re just an expression of my insecurities, disembodied anthropomorphized rhetorical device, so shut it. Not everything has to be revolutionary, fundamentals are good. And recognizing when and whether genre can play a part in a game is a fundamental tool for a GM’s toolbox. In summation;

• Genre doesn’t have to just be a matter style, it carries with it elements of meaning and narrative expectation
• Game rules help characters do stuff, genre rules help players do stuff
• Subverting genre expectations is an awesome thing to do but it is a good idea to establish the genre expectations before you do so

So there you go. Take a look at your campaign, your game, and think about what kind of genre expectations you’re assuming. Do the players know there is a genre at work? Are they assuming a genre which isn’t in play? Is there some expectation, narrative or thematic, that you could make clear so the PCs can play with it? Try a couple of those questions out, let me know if they’re helpful. Or don't, I'm not your supervisor.

I'm out.