Pen & Paper RPGs - Modern Settling Do Not Seem to Work as Well

I was musing about why there is an enduring popularity to D&D above most other p&p games. And, what I came up with is the quasi dark ages setting of D&D is just more workable for role playing than games set in the modern era, in giant robots, etc. What I mean by workable is you can suspend you disbelief that people would just walk around for their lives having adventures as they soul source of income in the dark ages.

If you are a 1990s super-spy most of the places you would visit in the modern world are what....shopping malls, suburban tack homes, office buildings, or a freeway underpass? Modern people's lives, if they are not the spy, are mundane. Thus, every NPC in such a world in uninteresting to meet, they sit in office building in a cubicle or go to their child's soccer game. Being the spy is cool...everyone else you interact with in such a world is either just a spy or is boring 'office drone'.

In BattleTech what is there do so when not fighting other 50ft tall war machines...do a lube job on your much? Fall in love with another pilot? Walk around a secure underground base? Nah, the only good part of BattleTech is the BATTLE part, really? I played Battle tech...It’s cool, but it does not lend itself to year and year of playing with friends where you reminisce about you adventures. The only futuristic universe for good "role playing" might be a space exploration game - star treky. I think Firefly works, Star Trek, BS Galactica, The Orville and/or some sort of space pirate’s game work. The other future that works is post apocalypse of course because the whole idea is modern "dark ages".

I just think the archetypes from an older way of life like farmer, smith, noble person, hero, magician are easier to ' play in' than they modern world? "Uh, roll me a d20 to see if you die in this crosswalk" does not seem like fun gaming. Or, "You in a staff meeting about selling paper clips, roll a d6 to see if your peroneal assistant gets you a good café latte?" - Yawn. What works in my mind is ancient pre-civilizations, classical civilization from anywhere is the world, Asian or European feudalism, pirates, and space adventure.

JMO - what do you think?

This is sort of a two-part subject in my view, so I'll break down my thoughts into those two sections:

1. Modern (or non-Fantasy) Settings in TTRPGS

There are a bunch of RPGs set in more mundane environments, though I suppose it depends on how you define the word "mundane". Since D&D has a bunch of flying magic lizards who breathe elemental attacks in it, I'm going to stretch my interpretation to include the world's second-most popular TTRPG: Call of Cthulhu. The roles in that game can be as mundane as a mob tough or a scholar, but the rules establish a framework around which the Game Master can make those people sound dramatic and exciting. This is really the key to any RPG, regardless of setting: empowering player characters to be the major drivers of a story. On the old annual Beastcast episodes, Austin ran games about smuggling cocaine through an airport and a haphazard New Year's Eve heist. Those aren't exactly "destroy the ring of power" stories, but they had major stakes thanks to the world and characters.

For even more modern settings, the McElroys ran a campaign in Monster of the Week, which is a Powered by the Apocalypse game system paying homage to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While it wasn't my thing, it was interesting to see how a lot of non-D20 systems have developed to allow this sort of niche interest to become a pen-and-paper game. I personally love the Forged in the Dark system, which includes a steampunk gang setting (Blades in the Dark) and a Star Wars / Firefly / Cowboy Bebop setting (Scum & Villainy). After years of cajoling, I actually started running a campaign with my family in the latter game. Unlike the D20 system, it tends to focus on major story beats (with major consequences for failure). If it were broken down into D20 rolls with massive hit point pools and spell slots, it wouldn't be different enough from D&D for me to care, in all likelihood. But the point here is that there's potential in any given setting, it just depends on the players and the GM. A poorly-run game of D&D is going to pale in comparison to a well-run and interesting game of Office Meeting Simulator; it's mostly about spending time with good company.

2. The Enduring Popularity of D&D

I'm pretty torn on this one. On the one hand, I've been playing D&D since 2nd edition / AD&D, and seeing it finally get its time in the sun decades later has been thrilling. It's never been easier to find an interested group of people, and more diversity in the player base leads to a lot more fun in the game itself. Also, WotC did a really good job with 5th edition, which is now my favorite in the long history of the game. But I think more than the quality of the game itself has been its place in pop culture in the last decade-ish, and then plain-old brand recognition. On the former point, the podcast era has been an enormous boon for the game. From Penny Arcade's Acquisitions Incorporated to Critical Role to The Adventure Zone, there are some immensely popular pieces of media out there in a much more digestible format than previously existed. Being featured on Stranger Things helped a ton too; I know people that didn't care at all about D&D until it was shown there.

On the latter point (brand recognition), D&D carried a ton of infamy for decades as the subject of moral panic. Generations later, all those people failed to usher in the coming of the Dark Lord. But it's been a name known in pop culture for a long, long time now, and no other RPG system can make that claim to fame. You could probably ask a random person on the street if they know more about Dungeons & Dragons or Final Fantasy, and I would bet D&D is the answer the vast majority of the time. Couple that with the Lord of the Rings fascination of the 00's (thanks to craving epic quests with moral certainty) and the Game of Thrones cultural phenomenon, there's an absolute glut of beloved media characters that can be imitated in a certain kind of RPG. D&D happens to be the most recognizable out of the tons and tons of options.

I said I was torn above, and the reason is mostly because I like D&D, but I'm ready for other things. It's the same evolution that happened with video games for me. I used to be content with 2-3 new games per year and then just replay classics, but now I just want to keep trying new stuff. I'm just not always in the mood to spend an hour in combat with a band of sahuagin, or to make a bunch of dice rolls to sneak through a camp. There's other stories to be told, and now that people have gotten a taste of the TTRPG world, it's a bit of a bummer when they want to stay pigeonholed in D&D. It feels like wanting more sci-fi epics but not being into Star Wars anymore. The time and attention seems to go into making new Star Wars properties, and I just don't really care about any of them.

Anyway

Hope this rambling response to your post is at least somewhat interesting. I have thought about this subject before, and I'm glad to see anything TTRPG-related come up in these forums.

Me and my friends played a lot, A LOT, of World of Darkness RPGs using the basic rules just to play humans. You can look at stuff for like Trail of Chtullu and the Gumshoe detective system, or even something like Fiasco. Again, those are very much inspired by "genres" fiction, ie. cops shows, murder mysteries or horror. But they serve for a great introduction for more "mundane" TTRPGs setting. My old group did end up playing very mundane themed TTRPGs, it's very much possible and can be interesting.

I feel a lot of the issues is how we see conflicts, most video games and movies are often about people fighting, but look recently at stuff like Disco Elysium or Citizen Sleeper, those are very much TTRPGs inspired and while they are not in a mundane settings, a lot of their stories could be transposed to one. There's plenty of good stories to be told in mundane settings, but it is a little harder to set up because you can't just invent conflicts and treasure out of nowhere by making a bunch of goblins appear or something.

For me, it comes down to what I like in other media. For the most part, I like to learn about worlds that are fantastical in some way. You won't catch me watching the next movie or playing the next game about a modern-day soldier in a vaguely defined global conflict, especially if I'm supposed to relate to or like that character by the end. Been there, done that. There are definitely modern RPG settings. WoD is the one that comes to mind. Modern, but there's a fantastical world just below the surface.

If you're looking for something truly modern, there is a series called The End of the World. The most interesting feature is that you play yourself as the world comes crumbling down around you. One of the ideas is that the shit hits the fan just as you and your friends are sitting down to play a TTRPG together. So say your phone is only 10% charged IRL as you start the game. In one of the game scenarios, the electrical grid is down. Tough luck, that's what your character (you!) start the game with. A cell phone with 10% battery. Oh, and you should've done more cardio IRL, because in-game you isn't gonna be an expert runner unless real-world you is one! My brother has all of these books but we haven't played. It's a neat concept, although it isn't fantastical enough for me.

My last live session of Honey Heist would beg to differ. Modern settings can be great if you are willing to give up systems for narrative.