What System For...?

[Reynard]

Just for fun: propose a setting and/or campaign concept and let other posters suggest a rules system for it.

Example: I have always liked the idea of (but have never run) a fantasy campaign in.which the world's moon is home to.a technological civilization (no magic). Due to their own excesses, the imperial powers of the moon have rendered it uninhabitable and now the high tech civilization is trying to conquer the fantasy world.

What system would work for this game? I would probably run it with Savage Worlds since that is my go-to, but I am curious what other folks would suggest.

Do you have a cool idea that you aren't sure what system would work best?

 

[jdrakeh]

Ooo. Going with one of two systems I'm currently fixated on, either Empire of the Petal Throne or Skyrealms of Jorune for your game. Both do "science fantasy" out of the box; much more so than many contemporary fantasy systems. And if you have the drive and energy to hammer a generic system like Savage Worlds into shape, it'll only a take a bit more effort to make EPT or Skyrealms work.

As for ideas I have? Yeah. A guy named David Johansen once wrote a really cool game called Among the Beautiful Creatures. I gave feedback on the original bespoke system and, while I loved it at the time, if I were to run it today I'd probably use some kind of generic system (mainly because I think it would be easier to onboard players with GURPS, Hero, or Savage Worlds). I'm not entirely sure what system I'd use, though. Given the themes of the setting, a Mork Borg hack might even be preferable.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

The OP concept seems very much like a manga/anime plot, and may actually be one. If you don't mind the often-wonky game balance, maybe use BESM, or go rules light and use OVA. Or as you said, use Savage Worlds, especially if you're not seeing it as an anime setting. GURPS would also be a solid choice if you can bear the crunch, much like SW there are sourcebooks already written for both high tech and fantasy that can be mashed to taste.

Now, what would people use for the setting of James Schmitz's Hub series of stories? Telzey Amberdon is probably the best known protag, and whatever system used will need robust and versatile psionics rules on top of the usual space opera tropes. That said, psi isn't commonplace either and shouldn't utterly dominate things. Traveller/Cepheus seems like an obvious choice but requires dumping a some major tech assumptions. GURPS is maybe a better base, but a bit crunchier than I like these days. Other suggestions?

Ideas for playing in his Agents of Vega series (which is a bit different) are also welcome, although again GURPS seems a likely approach.

 

[Reynard]

Another idea that I have never gotten around to running that I wonder what system would work best for is a game in which the PCs are special police who operate in virtual realities. the characters need to have skills and abilities that are inherent, but also bolt on abilities for their avatars of whatever virtual reality they enter. the idea is that it is the far future and most people spend most of their time in "the Matrix" but there are still laws. So the PCs hunt down predators and criminals in these virtual spaces. The system would need to have an easy way to add new and different powers/class abilities/whatever. I kind of think Fate Accelerated would be an easy way to go, but am not a huge fan of that game. Fate Core might be too crunchy though.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Another idea that I have never gotten around to running that I wonder what system would work best for is a game in which the PCs are special police who operate in virtual realities.

Again, that one's almost an anime plot, although it was less VR than delving into mindscapes with psi or magic. The previous BESM/OVA rec could work, or you could try something more radical like using two different systems, one for VR and one for real-world. Or more than one for the VR, if they enter radically different "settings" - use a fantasy engine when in a VR fantasy MMO, a scifi one for folks who've decided to build their own Neuromancer-inspired cyberspace, TOON for when you're hunting a creeper perp in the kiddie entertainment sim, etc.

Or hey, use Dream Park. It's almost there already.

You could do a lot with that concept, especially if you pushed the tech assumption and had some post-physical society where most people are permanently online by choice and only a rare few are healthy and mentally stable enough to spend time "in the meat" - but even those few can't stand transitioning back and forth too often, so some kind of mental stress mechanic is called for. KULT engine, maybe? "Meatwalkers" have some obvious advantages over folks who have to stay podded, and some of them will become criminals - which requires cops (and psych workers, hopefully) to deal with them online or off.

 

[Reynard]

Again, that one's almost an anime plot, although it was less VR than delving into mindscapes with psi or magic. The previous BESM/OVA rec could work, or you could try something more radical like using two different systems, one for VR and one for real-world. Or more than one for the VR, if they enter radically different "settings" - use a fantasy engine when in a VR fantasy MMO, a scifi one for folks who've decided to build their own Neuromancer-inspired cyberspace, TOON for when you're hunting a creeper perp in the kiddie entertainment sim, etc.

Constantly switching systems would be counter productive. the reason I was thinking something like Fate is that you could make the reality-specific info into Aspects and just change those out, but that puts a bunch of emphasis on aspect specific mechanics which won't necessarily work either.

 

[dbm]

Trinity Continuum: Anima has a focus on juxtaposing real-reality and a VR reality. The Strange, based on Cypher System, features jumping into alternate realities and your character is changed with each jump. Either might provide some useful ideas for such a campaign?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Assuming no system immediately springs to mind, my usual recommendation for difficult campaign ideas is that you should find a toolbox system* that your group likes/tolerates and at least sketch out your ideas using that.

For something like this:

I have always liked the idea of (but have never run) a fantasy campaign in.which the world's moon is home to.a technological civilization (no magic). Due to their own excesses, the imperial powers of the moon have rendered it uninhabitable and now the high tech civilization is trying to conquer the fantasy world.

I’d look at any of the games that support Flash Gordon/John Carter pulp or sword & planet stuff, and find a magic system to graft onto it. Hell- depending on your design preferences, you could make a magic system out of simply removing the devices from the tech, or creating magical analogs. Ray guns become wands. Small flying vehicles become carpets and magical wings. Etc.

And of course, the tech of the moon men could be magic…or the magic of the invasion target could be extremely high-tech. See Arthur Clark, Larry Niven, and the classic sci-fi movie, The Forbidden Planet.

EDIT: something that already a fusion of magic & tech would also work, requiring aesthetic tweaks and mechanical adjustments to get the feel right. There’s lots of them out there- Shadowrun, Starfinder, RIFTS, Dragonstar, etc.


* like HERO, GURPS and others

 

[MGibster]

Assuming no system immediately springs to mind, my usual recommendation for difficult campaign ideas is that you should find a toolbox system* that your group likes/tolerates and at least sketch out your ideas using that.

Since most of the games I run are more in the vein of an action movie or pulp fiction, that system would be Savage Worlds for me.

I'd like to run a survival horror game in space. The main influences for this setting would be movies like Alien, Outland (1981 Sean Connery movie), Event Horizon and video games like Dead Space, System Shock 2, and Alien: Isolation. What system should I use?

 

[Reynard]

Since most of the games I run are more in the vein of an action movie or pulp fiction, that system would be Savage Worlds for me.

I'd like to run a survival horror game in space. The main influences for this setting would be movies like Alien, Outland (1981 Sean Connery movie), Event Horizon and video games like Dead Space, System Shock 2, and Alien: Isolation. What system should I use?

Mothership is a nice rules light game for that. You could also use Free League's Alien RPG which is pretty robust.

But one of my favorite go-to horror RPGs is All Flesh Must Be Eaten by Eden Studios. It says it is a zombie game but what it really is is a huge toolbox for making any kind of survival horror you can imagine. The zombie creation rules are extremely broad and can create essentially any monster you can think of, and Unisystem is a clean, relatively low crunch system.