Looking for a Modern Setting TTRPG ruleset

[Grogg of the North]

I've been playing through Black Mesa and I learned that, except for me, no one has played any of the Half Life games. So I got to thinking, could I set a table top campaign in the Black Mesa incident? The problem is, I don't have a modern day setting ruleset at my disposal. I'm looking for something that can handle sci-fi, firearms, and some future-tech. Players would be characters at Black Mesa during the incident. I have seen d20 modern recommended a few times. Does the rule system hold up? Does it collapse under the pressure of over optimized builds like 3.5? Did first edition pathfinder ever come out with a modern rule set? Do I now have an excuse to buy Renegade Studio's GI Joe system?

 

[Voadam]

D20 Modern was a much lower magic/power level than D&D. Magic stuff (if available) does not really get started until you are a couple levels in and taking an advanced class.

I played a d20 Modern X-Files/Delta Green/Warehouse 23/Illuminati type game through two campaigns and had a lot of fun as a player.

My first character was a kickass paladin type but for the first four levels he was an Anglican priest monster hunter with a 10 strength and a meat cleaver from his kitchen knife set. He did not even get a handgun until around 4th level.

Guns are generally the big deal for combat, which everyone can get, but a powerful handgun does something like 2d6 damage in a D&D game and do not really go up.

It was nice to have D&D hp in a modern system instead of the PC death spirals typical of Shadowrun and World of Darkness.

I also have played Mutants and Masterminds and had a bunch of fun. It could handle modern with low sci-fi and future tech, but it is really based on a higher powered supers baseline. I never quite got the feel for the damage saves so combat was a bit less my thing than D&D hp in general.

There are a ton of modern setting tabletop RPGs tuned pretty much to your setup, Call of Cthulhu/Delta Green, Conspiracy X, Chronicles of Darkness as Mortals. There are even modern and sci-fi adaptations of 5e D&D.

 

[Jd Smith1]

CoC 7th ed. Magic and Occult aspects are easily ignorable, and if you use Roll20 their PC sheets are easy to tailor to your setting. The combat system is surprisingly robust.

 

[johndesmarais]

Modern AGE is mid-crunch, easy to learn, classless variant of Fantasy AGE.