Portal fantasy taking up space in my brain, rent-free

[Eyes of Nine]

A thing that takes up rent-free space in my brain: portal fantasy RPG. More at the campaign level than at the design level.

Today’s tenant - the players start off as Young Offenders (the term of art for the PCs) in a Misspent Youth game, fighting against the Authority in a near future dystopia.

At some point, they are sent to a seemingly bucolic fantasy land (Bucolia). After a time (1-2 sessions?) in Bucolia, they realize it’s just as broken as where they came from. Suggestions for a rules set that supports this sense of “Hey, everything’s great (except the ugly stuff you can’t see yet)” fantasy setting?

The game then shifts back into Misspent Youth, but they need to try to take down the Authority in this fantasy land.

They then are transported back to their OG setting; and informed by what they learned in Bucolia, they have an advantage against their Authority in this new land

 

[Reynard]

How different are they in Bucolia? Have they inhabited heroic fantasy bodies, gained powe4ful items or just sword of are the same?

 

[Eyes of Nine]

How different are they in Bucolia? Have they inhabited heroic fantasy bodies, gained powe4ful items or just sword of are the same?

Good question, I hadn't thought that through - but I bet they will have gained fantasy bodies, but maybe not powerful bodies or items

 

[Reynard]

Good question, I hadn't thought that through - but I bet they will have gained fantasy bodies, but maybe not powerful bodies or items

My question was based on a few portal fantasies I figure are recognizable to us:

Option 1 is like The Guardians of the Flame, where the gamers enter their character's bodies and become them. Option 2 is like the old D&D cartoon. Option 3 is Narnia.

The reason it matters, of course, is that how you build the PCs in the two different realms is important. If they are essentially themselves in both places, you need something with a decent skill system that doesn't require you define them as The Fighter or whatever. But if it is Option 1, you want those strong archetypes somehow, as well as the ability to do a "mundane" version.

I am currently building a high portal fantasy distilled system from the bones of PF2ER based on y experience running something similar over the weekend (proof of concept; I am trading in 5E for PF2ER because of the ORC license mostly). In that, the PCs inhabit their fantasy avatars and therefore need "classes." If I was doing it the Narnia way, i would probably use something point based and multi-genre (take your pick depending on your preferences).