When we suffix -punk to a word and create a genre, often it’s about a scientific development and it’s effect on the individual or the status quo. ‘Cyber’, ‘Steam’ or ‘Diesel’ punk have easily identifiable technologies and timeframes that divide them. But when we a cultural ideal instead we have a difficult job in working […]
Articles by Ben Jackson-Ellery
Recently, Ben Jackson-Ellery has been covering topics like Tabletop & RPGs for Geek Native.
Genre Police: Getting Steamy
Now, calm down. It’s not as bad as you think. Last time, we took a look at the Cyberpunk genre. Since its inception, it has spawned a massive selection of often odd sub genres (stonepunk, anyone?). While I don’t intend to dissect every ‘-punk genre’ a few of them are worth taking a detour into […]
Genre Police: The Mother Of All Punks!
Hi guys, welcome back to genre police. Now we’re done looking at fantasy, we’re going to deal with a different section genre you can smash into you games. That’s right, it’s time to look at the ‘Punk’ genres. In particular, we are gonna start with the originator and how it set a standard for all […]
Genre Police: More Than Just Semi-Nudes – Sword & Sorcery
Welcome to back Genre Police, a series of articles where I take a look at a genre or sub-genre, how it has been handled in gaming and how we can implement that in our games. Today, we are going to round up our fantasy sub-genres for now with the most venerable tradition of all – […]
Genre Police: Alienating half my readership by choosing High Fantasy!
Welcome to back Genre police, a new series of articles where I take a look at a genre or sub-genre, how it has been handled in gaming and how we can implement that in our games. This column we are going to take a look at the one of the two Big Dogs of Fantasy […]
Genre Police: Down And Dirty With Grimdark
Welcome to back Genre police, a new series of articles where I take a look at a genre or sub-genre, how it has been handled in gaming and how we can implement that in our games. This column we are going to take a look at Grimdark, the new weird kid that moved into town. […]
Genre Police: Go Mythic, Or Go Home!
Welcome to Genre Police, a new series of articles where taking a look at a genre or sub-genre, how it has been handled in gaming and how we can implement that in our games. Each column, I plan to give a small toolset so that if you feel like adding a genre style or feel […]
