Courtney Crumrin-esque RPG?

[Stormborn]

For those of you unfamiliar with Courtney Crumrin it is the story of a spooky little girl who lives in a creepy old house with her clueless parents and he powerful warlock uncle and centers around her adjusment (or lack there of) to the world of the witch community. Check out this link for more info:www.thenightthings.com

Having said all that, the biggest draw for me (and my wife who loves the book) is the FEEL. The feel of the magic and the night things expecially.

So, I was thinking about running a small campaign, or perhaps working on a minigame, with a similar feel but not neccesarilly set in the "Courtney Crumrin"-verse.

I am thinking about thigns like:
1. A game where personality and social interaction is a primary component.
2. Where magic is real and abundant but tied to ancient tomes and ritual castings, a world where knowing ABOUT magic is as, or more, important than spellcasting.
3. The diversity of the night things, especially as potential PCs, is explored.
4. But, is ultimately the world around us, just with hidden shadowy aspects.

D20 Modern seems to be the best base, but the magic system is too "DnD" for The Night Things, although Incantations might work. I have Grimm, that has some of the feel, but not really where I want to go.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Rotten Fruit? Money?

 

[eris404]

For those of you unfamiliar with Courtney Crumrin it is the story of a spooky little girl who lives in a creepy old house with her clueless parents and he powerful warlock uncle and centers around her adjusment (or lack there of) to the world of the witch community. Check out this link for more info:www.thenightthings.com

I love this comic!!! I'm so glad someone posted about it.

D20 Modern seems to be the best base, but the magic system is too "DnD" for The Night Things, although Incantations might work. I have Grimm, that has some of the feel, but not really where I want to go.

I don't know much about Grimm, so what is it about the flavor that doesn't work for you? Also, are you open to non-d20 games or would you rather stick to d20?

 

[Stormborn]

Grimm is a very neat minigame from the Horizon line of fantasy flight games. It is, as the cover says, "adventures in a world of twisted fairy tales." The classes are schoolyard archetypes and the villans are fairy tale icons with a definite adult twist. The game itself is cool for what it does.

I was anticipating possible comments basically. Superfically, based on descriptions alone, it might seem like CC and Grimm are a good match. But, the goals of the PCs, the setting (a fairy tale world ruled by an evil Humpty Dumpty), and some of the mechanics are just not appropriate for Courtney.

Sure, I'd be willing to entertain suggestions from other systems,but I and my players are most familar with d20 and GURPS. But, if anyone knows of a game that you feel like would give a similar experiance I'd love to hear about it.

 

[eris404]

Grimm is a very neat minigame from the Horizon line of fantasy flight games. It is, as the cover says, "adventures in a world of twisted fairy tales." The classes are schoolyard archetypes and the villans are fairy tale icons with a definite adult twist. The game itself is cool for what it does.

I was anticipating possible comments basically. Superfically, based on descriptions alone, it might seem like CC and Grimm are a good match. But, the goals of the PCs, the setting (a fairy tale world ruled by an evil Humpty Dumpty), and some of the mechanics are just not appropriate for Courtney.

Ah, I see. That's too bad, because it really seems close on the surface. d20 Modern still seems pretty good, though the magic system is still not quite right. Have you looked into Elements of Magic? I haven't looked into it in depth, so I can't say if it's more like what you looking for or not, but it might be worth a shot. I can say that the free preview has a lot in it, so you can judge whether or not it suits your purpose.

Another avenue might be the Call of Cthuhlu magic system, which is much more ritualistic, at least in the Chaosium version (I haven't played it in d20). It is dark and I'm not sure if you want to use the whole "sanity" system (and if not, how difficult it is to remove it) and some of the rituals are pretty specific to CoC critters, so those are probably the biggest drawbacks.

Sure, I'd be willing to entertain suggestions from other systems,but I and my players are most familar with d20 and GURPS. But, if anyone knows of a game that you feel like would give a similar experiance I'd love to hear about it.

The only other system I familiar with are the White Wolf World of Darkness books. If you ignore the setting elements, by combining the Changeling and Mage books you might get something close. The magic system might be a little clunky for your purposes though, as the fey characters (from Changeling) have a completely different magic system from Mage characters. The thing that makes the Mage system neat is the ability to combine different kinds of magic for a certain effect, rather than having pre-defined "spells." For players used to D&D/d20 (like me), though, this can be a little too open-ended and it takes a while to get used to it. Again, not a great fit, but an idea.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

D20 Modern seems to be the best base, but the magic system is too "DnD" for The Night Things, although Incantations might work. I have Grimm, that has some of the feel, but not really where I want to go.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Rotten Fruit? Money?

Have you considered Grim Tales, by ENWorld's very own Wulf Ratbane? It's got just about everything you're asking for, and is a merging of D20 and D20 Modern along with a new magic system. It just came out in hardback, and there's a thread about it here.

 

[Stormborn]

Have you considered Grim Tales, by ENWorld's very own Wulf Ratbane? It's got just about everything you're asking for, and is a merging of D20 and D20 Modern along with a new magic system. It just came out in hardback, and there's a thread about it here.

Sigh, my wife has put a moritorium on game books until my birthday next month. I have been looking forward to Grim Tales for a loooooong time. Only 3 weeks to go.

Eris, I am so completly unfamilar with changling or any of the White Wolf stuff. Thanks for the suggestion though, i might browse through them if i get a chance.

Back to Courtney:

One of the things I invision is the vast array of goblin types, they all seem to be subtley different although there are family traits. In Poly the GammaWorld minigame had a system for rolling up mutants. I have been thinking about dragging that back out and converting it. Has anyone used that, or similar tables, for character creation? How did it go? Did the players like it? was it balanced?