Which game engine suits this best?

[Rabbitbait]

Hi folks,

I am coming up with a campaign idea. Sort of Men in Black meets the fantasy multiverse. The idea is that an AI has become self aware, and an unforeseen consequence of that is that the walls between the real and the imaginary are weakening. Fiction is seeping into the world, whether it be a zombie attack in small town Texas, vampires in London or anything from imagined worlds. The characters are tasked with closing the rifts between worlds. Sometimes that is easy and just a matter of defeating the foe on earth or convincing them to return to their own world, but sometimes the characters will need to go into the imaginary world to find the McGuffin that will close the rift. Sometimes they will need to go into a rift to work out which character from an imaginary world has made it into our world and then hunt them down.

The idea is that the powers that be know that the world is doomed and that all realities will merge at some point, but they are just trying to hold off the inevitable. The characters will find out over time that they need to convince enough iterations of the AI over multiple worlds to shut itself down in order to save reality. They will team up with the AI on our world to track down the other iterations (who could be anyone - Dumbledore, Darth Vader, Rumplestiltskin etc).

The characters will start off as normal humans with normal earth classes, but as they level up I want them to be able to take skills from the worlds they have visited.

So my question is..... is there a game system that will fit this? I've been looking at Savage Worlds, and I think Cypher System might be a goer as well. I'd like the basic system to be easy for players to learn as they are not used to 'not-D&D'.

Any suggestions will be gratefully explored.

 

[Kannik]

Personally I've been very keen on Cortex Prime lately. We're using it in a campaign that has many influences/genres mashed into one and Cortex handles this variety well. It also works great if the campaign/tone will be character/narrative focused, and the various tools and ways of resolution allows for imaginative situations and solutions as well as wild and creative action. It also provides a few (yet all related mechanics) for different types of situations or challenges that keep the game from getting bogged down while also allowing it to get detailed where you want it to be. And even with all that it remains quite straightforward and easy to learn.

Whatever you choose, enjoy! Your campaign seed sounds quite neat.

 

[Retreater]

Sounds like City of Mist would be perfect for your concept . Cinematic Modern Fantasy Tabletop RPG (TTRPG)

 

[payn]

I think Monster of the week would work well.

 

[Umbran]

So my question is..... is there a game system that will fit this? I've been looking at Savage Worlds, and I think Cypher System might be a goer as well. I'd like the basic system to be easy for players to learn as they are not used to 'not-D&D'.

Okay, so, the question I come to is what, for your group, counts as "easy to learn"?

There is "game has many moving parts, but is traditional in construction" - Savage Worlds and GURPS fit in this space.

There is also, "Game has fewer moving parts, but concepts much different from D&D" - Cortex and Fate fall into this space.

Which would be harder for your group to pick up?

 

[overgeeked]

Most generic systems would work for that. Risus, Fate, Cortex, Warp/Over the Edge, Free-Form Universal, FKR, Cypher, Savage Worlds, etc.

Thematically, it reminds me of TORG and Fate of Cthulhu. It's not an exact match to either, but there's a lot of genre bleed and crossing the streams in TORG and doomed world, the end is nigh in Fate of Cthulhu. Going old school, it sounds like a Lords of Creation game that stops after a few levels.

 

[Thomas Shey]

As Overgeeked said and others have referenced, there's a lot of generic systems that could handle this, so a little more information is needed to say what would be best.

 

[Rabbitbait]

As Overgeeked said and others have referenced, there's a lot of generic systems that could handle this, so a little more information is needed to say what would be best.

That's all I have at the moment. I would adjust the rest to fit the system. Liking the look of Cortex Prime best so far from the suggestions above.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Okay, so, the question I come to is what, for your group, counts as "easy to learn"?

There is "game has many moving parts, but is traditional in construction" - Savage Worlds and GURPS fit in this space.

There is also, "Game has fewer moving parts, but concepts much different from D&D" - Cortex and Fate fall into this space.

Which would be harder for your group to pick up?

I think the latter would be a better fit for my group. We have played D&D almost exclusively for quite a while and it would be nice to try something quite different in approach.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Personally I've been very keen on Cortex Prime lately. We're using it in a campaign that has many influences/genres mashed into one and Cortex handles this variety well. It also works great if the campaign/tone will be character/narrative focused, and the various tools and ways of resolution allows for imaginative situations and solutions as well as wild and creative action. It also provides a few (yet all related mechanics) for different types of situations or challenges that keep the game from getting bogged down while also allowing it to get detailed where you want it to be. And even with all that it remains quite straightforward and easy to learn.

Whatever you choose, enjoy! Your campaign seed sounds quite neat.

I've just had a brief read and I think I like this system. They definitely look like a better match than the two I was thinking of. Will read further.

Thanks