What System For...?

[Reynard]

All flesh must be eaten is awesome game, but i feel it's largely forgotten and IMHO really underappreciated. I ran it quite a lot few years ago, with campaign based on Garth Ennis comic Crossed.

it really is.

Back to topic. Let's exclude GURPS from the get go ( since to all the post in the thread, GURPS would be one of the answers by default).
I was thinking about running military themed campaign, centered around group of WW1 stormtroopers. Setting is WW1 but conflict didn't really ended, so much as it stalled, with trenches, acres of no mans land with landmines, occasional offensives and counterofensives. Let's just say that someone figured out that status quo forever war is good for global elites to retain their power. So the war kind of goes on ad infinitum. It would be mostly be mission based - as in- one session, one mission. Trench raids, railroad sabotages, outpost raids, outpost defense, that sort of things. So, system that has solid firearms combat mechanics, maybe some decent rules for mass combat, but easy enough to make starting character in 30 min.

If you are not looking to diesel punk it up or anything, maybe Twilight 2000? it is more modern in setting, of course, but it nails that mud and blood in the trenches feel anyway. Or possibly the old Recon game?

 

[GrimCo]

Thanks. Never heard of those games, but quick google search tells me it might be just the thing i need. Yeah, they are more modern in setting, but if they have rules for submachine guns and bolt actions, i can work with that. Gonna look up more about that games.

 

[Wolfpack48]

• If you are looking for fantasy set in a more bronze age sand and sandals fantasy, RuneQuest Glorantha or Mythras.
• Looking for a well thought out rebuild-the-world post apocalypse setting? The Morrow Project.
• Dark, gritty and weird fantasy? Stormbringer
• Wondrous, discover the world fantasy? Earthdawn
• Realistic, harsh, textured low fantasy? Harn

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

If you are looking for fantasy set in a more bronze age sand and sandals fantasy, RuneQuest Glorantha or Mythras.

Sigh. Nobody ever mentions Osprey's Jackals, which is quite good - and related to BRP/RQ/Mythras mechanically. Solid original setting, and I believe it's the only Osprey RPG that's actually gotten supplements beyond a core book.

There's also a more narrative one called Bloody-Handed Name of Bronze, but I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that one. It's a little odd even for my eclectic tastes.

Dark, gritty and weird fantasy? Stormbringer

Corum: What am I, chopped liver? I'll show you dark and gritty. How many body parts is your precious albino missing, hmmm?
Hawkmoon: I'm actually post-apoc fantasy, but I have giant riding flamingos!

Thanks. Never heard of those games, but quick google search tells me it might be just the thing i need. Yeah, they are more modern in setting, but if they have rules for submachine guns and bolt actions, i can work with that. Gonna look up more about that games.

Both editions of Twilight:2000 are probably decent choices for you, although they're very different mechanically. If you want something less crunchy, Savage Worlds had a Weird War setting book for WW1 as well as WW2 and Viet Nam.

 

[Autumnal]

Example: I have always liked the idea of (but have never run) a fantasy campaign in.which the world's moon is home to.a technological civilization (no magic). Due to their own excesses, the imperial powers of the moon have rendered it uninhabitable and now the high tech civilization is trying to conquer the fantasy world.

I’d do it in Fste Accelerated (or whatever flavor suits you), drawing a lot on Masters of Umdaar.

As for ideas I have? Yeah. A guy named David Johansen once wrote a really cool game called Among the Beautiful Creatures.

So, um, it’s not impossible to offer system advice based only on a title. But it would be easier to, y’know, hear anything at all about the setting.

Now, what would people use for the setting of James Schmitz's Hub series of stories?

Trinity Continuum. It is almost literally made for this; I forget if Schmitz is actually in the bibliography for either edition, but he was certainly an influence on some of us.

If you haven't read it, Adam Oyebanji's 2022 novel Braking Day evoked a similar feeling for me.

oddly enough, I’d do this in Pendragon. Long ago, I played in a cyberpunk game run by David Dunham (who went on to write the computer game King of Dragon Pass). Cultures like corporate person, hacker, modern primitive had sets of defining personality traits as in stock Pendragon, and each got a “what my [suitable authority] told me” writeup like in various versions of Glorantha. Skills drew on BRP and Ringworld. It was amazingly fun, smooth, and elegant.

I'd like to run a survival horror game in space. The main influences for this setting would be movies like Alien, Outland (1981 Sean Connery movie), Event Horizon and video games like Dead Space, System Shock 2, and Alien: Isolation. What system should I use?

Fate using the Horror Toolkit and its amazingly good survival horror rules and Fate of Cthulhu for corruption, or Starforged.

 

[jdrakeh]

So, um, it’s not impossible to offer system advice based only on a title. But it would be easier to, y’know, hear anything at all about the setting.

It's a fantasy apocalypse (not post apocalypse) setting. And it is weird with a capital W (possibly the weirdest RPG setting I've ever read). The world is coming to an end and PCs are the shape-shifting, feral, peoples of the world. From the game's introduction:

"You are a grotesque thing. A patchwork of fur, scales, and scabrous skin cover your twisted frame from which ungainly limbs sprout at unlikely angles. Blood drenched claws burst from your many hands and feet and your mouth is full of razor sharp teeth. Yesterday you had a shell and bulging muscles. But tomorrow, tomorrow you will be beautiful. The Innocent has promised you that tomorrow you will be beautiful.

All things that dwell upon the expanse are constantly in a state of change, moving, like you, from one state to the next. The base, un-speaking animals change their form to match their changing needs and environment. Legs growing long to flee the predator. Teeth growing sharp when green food grows scarce. Those who still can speak change to meet their needs and also to reflect their moods and desires. Those who think and see more deeply change at will.

All things change, in the face of the irresistible will of the Innocents.

All things, even you."

I really don't think I can describe it adequately. You can download it here, though.

 

[Autumnal]

I really don't think I can describe it adequately. You can download it here, though.

I only find one page worth of text and no way to get anything further. But I do precisely the effort.

 

[jdrakeh]

I only find one page worth of text and no way to get anything further. But I do precisely the effort.

Weird. It shows the whole PDF for me if I access it online (I'm using Chrome in Windows 11). If I right-click and "save as" it also shows up fine for me in Adobe Reader (also in Windows 11).

 

[Autumnal]

Safari on iPad here, since it’s currently bedbound time. If I can get up later, I’ll try again.

Kids, autonomic nervous disorders may sound cool, but they’re not. If you voluntarily started one, stop. And if you haven’t started, don’t. This has been a public service announcement from Oh Come On Already.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Gamma World.

Love the premise. But can't find a version of it that I like.

What I do want: An apocalypse set among futuristic ruins with the PCs starting at Dark Ages technology. No sense of what lies beyond the horizon except for strange rumors. Travel and exploration is dangerous but not punishing. Mutants--humans, animals, and plants. Science fictional technology. A sense of growing more powerful over time, both through mutations and also through discovering high technology.

What I don't want: A silly tone or a bleak tone. I don't want to play a version of GW based on AD&D rules, or with the complexity of 3E, or the grid of 4E. Mutant Year Zero has an awesome vibe but PCs are a bit underpowered--it's closer in tone to survival horror, even with mutations. Numenera nails it with the cyphers and relics but the Steadfast is too civilized and safe.