A genre not covered enough by RPGs?

[Dyson Logos]

Not to nit-pick, but I'll append these to GreyArea's list based on the books in my collection (and avoiding games that didn't hit mass market in some manner):

High Fantasy -- pretty well covered (smothered?) -- LL, D&D, etc
Sword and Sorcery -- well covered -- LL, DDC, D&D, etc
Post Apocalyptic SF -- well covered -- Mutant Future, Gamma World, The End, WasteWorld, Apocalypse World, Barbarians of the Aftermath, Aftermath!, Twilight:2000, deadEarth, the Morrow Project, Living Steel, After the Bomb / TMNT, GURPS Autoduel, The Price of Freedom, Alpha Omega
Horror -- well covered -- Call of Cthluhu, Cryptworld, Chill, World of Darkness games, Trail of Cthulhu
Time Travel -- well covered -- Time Master, Continuum, Doctor Who (3 different RPGs), Feng Shui, GURPS Time Travel, Time Drifters, Time and Time Again, SpaceMaster: Time Riders, TimeLords, TimeShip, TimeStream, Transdimensional TMNT
Space Opera -- over-covered -- S&S, Star Frontiers, Traveller (and another 100 or so RPGs)
Super Heroes -- Well Covered -- Heroes/Champions, Mutants and Masterminds, etc
Cyberpunk -- covered -- Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun, CyberSpace, Cyber Hero, Ex Machina, GURPS Cyberpunk, Cybernet, Digital Burn, Corporation
Godlike -- sparsely covered -- Sandman, In Nomine, Nobilis, Scion, Immortal, Nephilim, Mortal Coil, The Primal Order, New Gods of Mankind, D&D4e, BECMI D&D, Lords of Creation
Humor -- covered -- Toon, Hackmaster, Paranoia, Red Dwarf, Teenagers from Outer Space, Tales from the Floating Vagabond, GURPS Discworld
General -- covered -- GURPS, GORE, Heroes, etc
Wild West -- sparsely covered -- Boot Hill, Deadlands, Aces & Eights, Werewolf: the Wild West, d20 Past, Western Hero, GURPS: Old West, Dust Devils, Gunslinger
30's Adventure -- well covered -- Indiana Jones RPG, GURPS Cliffhangers, Gangbusters + a million "pulp" RPGs
Steampunk -- sparsely covered -- Space 1899, Etherscope, Airship Pirates, Victoriana, Iron Kingdoms, Castle Falkenstein, GURPS Steampunk and Steam Tech
Spy -- covered -- Top Secret, Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes, Ninja's & Superspies, Spycraft, Corporation, Conspiracy X, James Bond, Espionage

[Dyson Logos]

Concerning the genre of historical RPGs, the problem with them is the same no matter what era you play in - odds are someone in the group knows way more about historical period X than anyone else in the group. If this person is not the GM, then things get weird fast. It's also hard to play a game set in an "accurate" historical period and notice inaccuracies popping up in the game proper.

Just look at how two different D&D games set in the same fantasy world evolve over a period of a campaign or two. Odds are the two fantasy worlds are very little alike by the end (every DM's version of Greyhawk or the Realms feels different because different major characters have died or created niches for themselves). Now try the same thing with a real-world setting and it gets weirder.

IMO, this is also one of the reasons that Time Travel RPGs are often published, but rarely played.

[greyarea]

Not to nit-pick, but I'll append these to GreyArea's list based on the books in my collection (and avoiding games that didn't hit mass market in some manner)

So I'm going to amend my thoughts based on these additions to say: it's all pretty well covered. Some are overdone (Space Opera, High Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and Post Apocalyptic) but not to the breaking point, it would seem, as we all still play these games.

Concerning the genre of historical RPGs...

Agree wholeheartedly. At least with Time Travel you can claim that since it's SF you can fudge the historical stuff, but that can get no fun pretty soon. I tried one once where the players went back to ancient Greece, which I thought I knew fairly well, and needed to fix a temporal anomaly. Two others know that era much better than I did and started pointing out anomalies in nearly every description I gave. Not to be jerks: they actually thought these were clues they needed to find to "fix" the past. Boy, did that ever go wrong...

[Dyson Logos]

Two others know that era much better than I did and started pointing out anomalies in nearly every description I gave. Not to be jerks: they actually thought these were clues they needed to find to "fix" the past. Boy, did that ever go wrong...

Yowch!

[Keps]

WWII.

[Dyson Logos]

Good Call, I don't have that many WWII RPGs in my collection.

I have...

Black Cadillacs (which is actually a general war RPG, but the name dates back to Canadian soldiers' names for their boots in WWI & II)
Behind Enemy Lines (brutal)
Baptism of Fire (d20)
V is for Victory (d20)
Weird Wars (Deadlands WWII)
GURPS WWII
Godlike (WWII superheroes)
BattleForce Bravo (A 1PG game, and I love 1PG games)
Gear Krieg

Holy crap, nevermind, I appear to have a lot more WWII RPGs than I thought.

[seneschal]

Comstar Games also put out Combat! for Action! System a couple years ago. It was a general modern military sourcebook.

[3llense'g]

BattleForce Bravo (A 1PG game, and I love 1PG games)

Oooh, one page, you say? Gotta get that one!

A rare genre I can think of is egypt.

[artikid]

Talking about modern war themed games: we played the original Recon as a one/two-shot game once.

[seneschal]

A rare genre I can think of is Egypt.

There have been a few. Iron Crown put out Mythic Egypt for Rolemaster and Fantasy Hero. There was, of course, GURPS: Egypt. (Isn't there a GURPS supplement for almost anything?) Green Ronin did Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra as part of its Mythic Vistas line.

Here are a few more:

http://rpggeek.com/geeklist/46063/ancie ... hemed-rpgs

Most of them are supplements or adventures rather than stand-alone products.