Which system to use?

[TheIdeaOfGood]

I recently got the idea of a specific kind of dark fantasy/survival horror style campaign stuck in my head and it will not leave me alone until i have done SOMETHING with it...

The basic premise is that the characters all start out as normal inhabitants of some little backwater in some kingdom, having never really seen much of the outside world. It's a standard fantasy realm...until one day, the sun flares up, then goes dim...and a scream rumbles across the landscape as the gods, for some reason or other, go mad.

Now, misshapen things stalk the night and the twilight days and it is upon the characters to survive, help defend their settlement...and maybe lead their people to safety, if there is still such a thing...

Now, D&D5 is one of my favourite systems but I am not sure it would fit such a setting. Do you have any suggestions as to which system I should use or how to tweak D&D to make it usable?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

D&D could do it with the right selection of critters.

I'd probably run it in HERO, just because it's my favorite. GURPS or M&M would work too.

But your best bet is probably a system already built to model horror, so I'd have to recommend Call of Cthulhu or something similar.

 

[TheIdeaOfGood]

Sadly, CoC is not really working for a fantasy game...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Why not?

 

[TheIdeaOfGood]

I just can't see it working...thing is, the characters should have a chance to actually succeed - sometimes, at least. I would like to stay with a designated fantasy or universal system.

To clarify, setting-wise, I am going for a mixture of Berserk, Darkest Dungeon, Symbaroum, Dark Souls and, in case someone here knows it, Kingdom Death Monster.

 

[chaochou]

Sounds like a job for first or second edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, if you can pick one up second hand at a decent price. First edition was a good game - dark and dangerous, with steady, but plausible, character progression. Second didn't change too much, iirc.

I can't speak for FFGs third edition as it was quite a change mechanically and I haven't played it. You could also take a chance and hold on for 4th edition, which was announced earlier this year by Cubicle 7, but I've no idea whether it's going to hark back to an earlier edition or break new ground again. Or when it might be released.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

This sounds like a job for Dungeon Crawl Classics, no?

 

[TheIdeaOfGood]

Have never played it...care to give me the rundown?

 

[innerdude]

Savage Worlds FTW.

Seriously. The scenario you described is almost like a marketing promo for "Game scenarios for which Savage Worlds is a perfect fit."

Pick up the Horror Companion and/or the Accursed campaign setting, and you're good to go.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Sadly, CoC is not really working for a fantasy game...

Munge together RuneQuest with CoC, they're both BRP at bottom. The beefier PCs from RQ, with some battlemagic on tap, can probably take on the lesser mythos beasties - and you needn't go all-mythos-all-the-time, some more generic fantasy foes could be in there. And cultists, of course, always cultists.