Looking for a tabletop RPG to capture a certain 'grim Slavic' vibe

[Razjah]

Burning Wheel, especially if you use the Codex for corruption or other magic. Magic takes time, taxes you, research is hard and long, combat is deadly.

Using the Dresden Files RPG with some core tweaks can work great. Changing the setting impacts very little mechanically. Lower the thresholds and play up the danger of sponsored magic. You can have several people working on a ritual which needs to be defended (and doing that well takes time and research).

 

[Ovinomancer]

Fundamentally, the problem you have is that you're trying to recreate a video game's feel, when the core of that play is learning through failure. In a video game, this is more easily done because the media accepts save points and restarts, so you, the player, can now apply your harded earned knowledge to solve the puzzle. This doesn't translate well into RPGs, where failure is hard to model. You can insert hitpoints, but that mechanic really reduces the intended feel you want by abstracting out too much and removing the visceral impact of failure. So, what you're looking for is a way to make failure meaningful and painful in game but still allow the PCs to learn from failure so they can eventually overcome the challenge. That's hard when your threats are powerful creatures that want to kill or maim or otherwise render a PC into an unplayable status. I don't think you'll find a suitable system because that's an intractable problem for RPGs, especially if you don't want to create ablative 'failure points' or similar mechanics.

Honestly, the best RPG for this kind of play might be Dread. The only problem with that is that it's intended to eventually result in failure, and failure in your context is pretty much character retirement through undesirable means. However, the mechanic of the tower really does sell the increasingly dangerous nature of the creatures and learning the necessary steps to defeat them. "Pull six" sounds absolutely terrifying towards the end of a game!

 

[Horacio]

Mythic Russia is just that. It uses the HeroQuest game system (the one used for Glorantha), and it's written by Marc Galeotti, a real scholar on Russian matter and deeply passionate on Russian history and myths.

Mythic Russia is one of my favorite RPG, and simple reading it is a true pleasure and a great learning experience. And it seems a perfect match for the kind of story you want to tell

 

[TheSword]

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay sounds right up that alley. Grim and Perilous adventure in the old world.

 

[Fenris-77]

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay sounds right up that alley. Grim and Perilous adventure in the old world.

That's certainly grim (and a personal fav of mine) but I don't think the magic system is really what the OP is looking for. Perhaps newer editions have changed this, but magic WHFRP tends not to be very flexible or open. You could certainly hack that I suppose, and the setting is pretty spot on, but I think it would be a lot of work.

 

[dragoner]

Mythic Russia is just that.

It is grim?

 

[Horacio]

You can dial up or down the grimness, but the base level is way more grim Slavic that happy fantasy...

 

[dragoner]

Usually I find people don't get it, find us "grim", which is also a meme in Slavic forums and such.