#RPGaDay2024 - Day 13 - RPG with Evocative Environments

The prompts for the second week of #RPGaDay2024 are causing my primitive Grognard brain to melt down.  Day 13's "RPG with Evocative Environment" has me screaming Martin Luther, "What does this mean?"

Is it the artwork?  1st and 2nd Edition AD&D was pretty similar, but Otus versus Elmore creates a different adventuring vibe, neither better than the other..  

Is it the experience?  Castle Falkenstein with its steampunk, and journals, and playing cards produces a completely different feel than those games that came after it. 

Is it the evocative prepositional phrase?  "With Zeppelins" , "in Underground Carins", "but in Tibet" or even the old "No elves" from Talislanta convey a different feel and flavor for the game.  

Is the text?  The vibe I got from reading Vampire: The Masquerade 2nd Edition was something I had not encountered in RPGs.  The initial terror. The loss of humanity. The onset of Ennui  and disconnect from their previous life.  I swear there was some of intro module, possibly solo, that covered the initial transformation, which conveyed sense of an eternal burn notice from society, and adapting to their place in the new shadows, with new powers, but almost powerless in the new hierarchy they found themselves. in.  The artwork completed it.    The local and con community that focused on goth superhero play and more immediate backstabbing than a Chaotic Evil D&D party with their players half-drunk and freebasing pixie sticks definitely discouraged me from gameplay, but the entire 2nd Edition evoked a feel I respected.

If I have to go in one direction, I'd honestly say Vampire 2nd Edition.  Unfortunately, the game provided some avenues for  powergaming and wish fulfillment at the table left a bad taste in my mouth.  

I will say, despite being long removed from the World of Darkness and all its newer iterations,  I caught the tail end of the Mote of Sin from the Happy Jacks RPG Podcast Actual Plays, and that seemed to reflect what type of environment I expected, with a thin layer of Al Amarja from Over the Edge, another game I loved in theory, but not in application.

(EDIT: Looking for pics already on the blog to re-use, I, In fact, may have discovered a better conveyance of my thoughts better in my take on Vampire in this #RPGaDay2018 post.