Got an Idea for a Campaign, now I need a ruleset

[Hand of Evil]

Warhammer v2 - it works well for city based games.
Savage Worlds - a simple but good system that you can build your campaign area around. You can create your own to fit the needs of the campaign.

 

[lobsterGun]

I'm looking to start a game in a post-something city where the players are going to become a major force in a city wracked by gangs and factions fighting over turf. I'd like the actual play to still resemble d&d, not necessarily in ruleset, but rather in style: players have a goal, control one PC and seek to accomplish that goal in a play session. However, I would like to have a "meta-game" on top of this game where the players are rewarded for control of certain areas. I see an important part of this game being a map of the city, showing what areas are under their control and what areas are under rival factions control....

Hrmm.. Post apocalyptic... Multiple factions...

Paranoia.

 

[FunkBGR]

Greg Stolze's REIGN is a fantasy system with "Company" rules on top of it. The Company rules can indicate any sort of factions or guilds or nations, and there's a bunch of free pdf's on his website for representing other things.

Anyway, a nice thing is that the PC actions are supposed to affect Company actions, so if the Player's take over a rival gang - you can absorb members into yours. Or if they take over a Pirate Fleet, you can give their company the Asset - "Shipshape Navy" to represent this.

REIGN has a sci-fi setting to it too, and it translates well into other genres, so you wouldn't have to stick with fantasy.

And the core rulebook can be had for $10!

REIGN

Even if you didn't want to use REIGN's character system, the Company rules can translate pretty well to other systems, and are a great way to represent political organizations.

 

[lucek]

I'm going to agree on savage worlds. There are simple rules for mass combat and other aspects that involve multiple people. One that could be a bit of a stretch would be Mech Warrior could work. A different twist would be a game like Houses of the Blooded.

Now I'm in a game of D&D ATM were in the party is adventuring with basically a town's worth of people after they got driven out of their homes and wandered into undiscovered country. I'l ask the DM if I can re-post the house rules for this. However one I do get from that, learn about a game like Catan.

 

[Pbartender]

For this...

However, I would like to have a "meta-game" on top of this game where the players are rewarded for control of certain areas. I see an important part of this game being a map of the city, showing what areas are under their control and what areas are under rival factions control.

...look here. It's designed for 4E, but is easily adapted to any game system. Don't miss that there's 6 pages to article.

As for the game system itself... I've been on a FATE kick lately. It might be worth looking at Starblazer Adventures. It'd work pretty well, in this sort of setting.

 

[zepherusbane]

D20 Modern is made for this kind of campaign.

The "Urban Arcana campaign setting" for D20 Modern has a lot of ideas related to different sections of the city that might be adaptable to your meta game. The setting isn't post apocalyptic by default, but could easily be adapted to work that way.

You mentioned wanting to play essentially D&D, the beauty of D20 Modern is it works exactly like D&D (3/3.5) since it's just another D20 system. Very compatible. Using a combination of modern and D&D characters could still work very easily together with some slight modifications.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I think Ptolus would be excellent for inspiration even if you didn't want to use the 3.x D&D rules. It's a city setting, comes with a detailed map, and since the city is built around the tower of a long dead lich, it has a built in catalyst for a cataclysm. It's chock full of important NPCs and organizations within the city, which would be very useful for emulating the how various factions took over during No Man's Land. It would take work on your part to advance the setting to after the cataclysm but it would be worth the effort. I'd certainly play in a post-apocalyptic, No Man's Ptolus campaign!

 

[Lwaxy]

Oh yeah Ptolus would work great.