Suggest to me a rules lite(ish) modern fantasy/horror RPG

[ko6ux]

I am the GM of a long running Ravenloft/Curse of Strahd campaign currently playing 5E D&D.

The players in my group have expressed a desire to run a few short side adventures using "modern day, alternate universe" versions of their existing characters, and I am totally open to fulfilling this wish. However, I have mostly played D&D (all editions) in my gaming life, with a few side treks into other systems in the fairly distant past. So, I am not exactly sure what the best game system to use for this would be.

I'd like something fairly rules-light (no crunchier than 5E, and even slightly less crunchy would be great) that has the ability to handle reasonably broad character concepts (D&D is a kitchen sink and the group has made some pretty diverse character choices).

What suggestions do you folks have for system to accommodate this?

 

[Arilyn]

Esoterrorists or Trail of Cthulhu from Pelgrane Press

Liminal is a light urban fantasy. You can get it from the Modipheus' website and there's a free quickstart.

 

[overgeeked]

Call of Cthulhu 7E is the newest and best edition of CoC. It's lighter than 5E. Various time periods, including modern. Generally for human investigators poking their noses into the Cthulhu Mythos.

Delta Green 2E is lighter than D&D 5E. Modern day. Human government agents poking their noses into the Cthulhu Mythos.

Acthung! Cthulhu is mostly a WW2 game of soldiers and spies poking their noses into the Cthulhu Mythos. Various editions including 2d20, Savage Worlds, and Fate.

Cthulhu Dark 2E is a proper rules light game in the vein of Call of Cthulhu.

Fate of Cthulhu is a near-future apocalypse-preventing game. Runs on the Fate engine. The characters are mostly human but are agents of the Great Old One that will soon destroy the world. They've switched sides and decided to try to prevent this...using the weird powers and mutations the Great Old One gave them to hasten the end of the world.

Honorable mentions. Monster of the Week, Unknown Armies, Kult: Divinity Lost, Hellboy, and Dread.

 

[TreChriron]

Why not just use Everyday Heroes (https://www.evilgeniusgames.com/everyday-heroes)? 5e modern game based on the classic d20 Modern. Lots of great stuff in here. Should make porting characters over pretty easy.

 

[Faolyn]

Cthulhu hack, perhaps? I listed to a live play of it by Rusty Quill and it seemed pretty good.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I would suggest Esoteric Enterprises by Emmy Allen. It’s a complete game and you can grab the pdf for $12 at the link below. And if your players are familiar with D&D, they’ll get most of the basics right away as this is an OSR game based on the D&D system.

Esoteric Enterprises at DTRPG

 

[TheHand]

There’s a new edition of Hunter the Reckoning that might also be worth a look

 

[Jd Smith1]

Why not just use Everyday Heroes (https://www.evilgeniusgames.com/everyday-heroes)? 5e modern game based on the classic d20 Modern. Lots of great stuff in here. Should make porting characters over pretty easy.

Great stuff?

 

[TreChriron]

Great stuff?

That's what I said.

 

[Committed Hero]

Esoterrorists or Trail of Cthulhu from Pelgrane Press

Even Night's Black Agents if they want to hunt vampires.