Which System
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Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
Can you suggest a movie, book or some other cultural analog you are trying to recreate by "removing guns, explosives, and cell phones?" I'm not sure there are many RPGs set in a modern milieu that would facilitate those exclusions out-of-the-box.
HERO.
You can do whatever you want, and anything that you don't want in the game won't exist.
Because of the way the system handles everything, there won't be any rules you'll have to excise merely to get around the absence of guns, cellphones or explosives. At worst, you'll just disallow a couple of powers or power modifiers.
You can do whatever you want, and anything that you don't want in the game won't exist.
Because of the way the system handles everything, there won't be any rules you'll have to excise merely to get around the absence of guns, cellphones or explosives. At worst, you'll just disallow a couple of powers or power modifiers.
Family
First Post
Batman Begins, Catch Me If You Can, Contact, Dark City, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Inside Man, Jumper, Mystery Men, Ocean's 11, Outbreak, Poseidon, Shawshank Redemption, Sherlock Holmes, Sneakers, The Devil's Advocate, The Real McCoy, The Score, Twelve Monkies, Unbreakable, Wag the Dog, War Games, Watchmen...not all of them are strict on these rules but movies have the luxury of deciding how deadly a gunshot is based on the dramatic need.
I'm not trying, or saying, that I'm inventing a whole new setting here but guns and explosives are too deadly and can turn into a total party kill pretty quickly, unless they are too impotent to be of use to the players. High Fantasy take great liberties to create a successful gaming environment, it had to have started somewhere.
What are some good modern settings that I could rip and tweak?
Looking at that list, I think it would be fair to say that guns and explosives, at least, exist, but are not readily available.
You could do that through strict law enforcement: such items would simply not be available to PCs unless they were in a profession that made them available (soldier, policeman, fireworks artist, etc.), had a license to bear them, had black market connections, or could make them themselves.
To that, I'd add that you'd probably be best looking at some kind of Pulp or Noir setting. HERO has its own, Dark Champions, which emphasizes Pulp, Noir, and Iron Age Comics type archetypes. The additional benefit of HERO is that if you want to have some kind of special FX abilities- Wu Shu, Kuning, Pyrokinesis, Levitation, TK, low-power magic- you can add it without difficulty.
In a similar vein, M&M and GURPS should have something that handles this kind of game well.
You could do that through strict law enforcement: such items would simply not be available to PCs unless they were in a profession that made them available (soldier, policeman, fireworks artist, etc.), had a license to bear them, had black market connections, or could make them themselves.
To that, I'd add that you'd probably be best looking at some kind of Pulp or Noir setting. HERO has its own, Dark Champions, which emphasizes Pulp, Noir, and Iron Age Comics type archetypes. The additional benefit of HERO is that if you want to have some kind of special FX abilities- Wu Shu, Kuning, Pyrokinesis, Levitation, TK, low-power magic- you can add it without difficulty.
In a similar vein, M&M and GURPS should have something that handles this kind of game well.
Doug McCrae
Legend
Interesting. When we played a Buffy, the Vampire Slayer rpg, it was suggested that there are no guns. I mean, sure, guns exist, but no one depicted on the show uses them. Fights are hand-to-hand. There are no police, either.
HERO allows you to build complex characters but it's very rules heavy. Very much a risk of getting bogged down in combat. We once had a fight that lasted three sessions. I don't think it's what you're looking for.
Mutants & Masterminds has complex char gen, but fairly simple combat. Probably more your thing. A new edition is just about to be published.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer rpg maybe, but it's out of print. Hunter, the Vigil. Call of Cthulhu, or Trail of Cthulhu (though the latter is more focused on investigation).
HERO allows you to build complex characters but it's very rules heavy. Very much a risk of getting bogged down in combat. We once had a fight that lasted three sessions. I don't think it's what you're looking for.
Mutants & Masterminds has complex char gen, but fairly simple combat. Probably more your thing. A new edition is just about to be published.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer rpg maybe, but it's out of print. Hunter, the Vigil. Call of Cthulhu, or Trail of Cthulhu (though the latter is more focused on investigation).
Huh- I've been playing HERO since its initial release and I've never seen anything like that.
Lots of PCs & NPCs? How about the group's overall system mastery? Lots of oddball powers with whacko effects?
My experience is that the PC creation process may take a LONG time, but once you have the stuff in front of you, you hardly need the book at the table.
(But I agree, its not for everyone.)
Deep character building. Hmm. Well GURPS and Alternity are just as good as Hero for that.
Fates Worse than Death is a specific setting and rules about highly developed characters (but can be tweeked for other settings). But it is a giant book and it may take some time getting through the whole thing.
Primetime Adventures is very different from most rpgs and is just about character development. But it doesn't have any combat rules because the director and actors have almost complete control over what will happen.
I have heard good things about Dogs in the Vineyard and it has everything you mention.
Risus? It is a free rpg, 8 pages long and can allow for character development.
Fudge and Fate but you will have to put a lot of effort into initial design.
Fates Worse than Death is a specific setting and rules about highly developed characters (but can be tweeked for other settings). But it is a giant book and it may take some time getting through the whole thing.
Primetime Adventures is very different from most rpgs and is just about character development. But it doesn't have any combat rules because the director and actors have almost complete control over what will happen.
I have heard good things about Dogs in the Vineyard and it has everything you mention.
Risus? It is a free rpg, 8 pages long and can allow for character development.
Fudge and Fate but you will have to put a lot of effort into initial design.
Ron
Explorer
Call of Cthulhu could work nicely to your needs. Firearms are not an emphasis of the game but they are very deadly, in the case they are needed. You can also try the generic version of the rules, Basic Roleplaying, although you will have to select the specific rules that will work in your campaign.
Although I have no personal experience, you may also give a look in a game using the GUMSHOE system, which was tailored for investigative campaigns. There are several games using it, varying from horror to superpowers.
Although I have no personal experience, you may also give a look in a game using the GUMSHOE system, which was tailored for investigative campaigns. There are several games using it, varying from horror to superpowers.
Cor_Malek
First Post
That's pretty much what GURPS is for. I can't tell if it's better/worse than HERO (never played it), but it certainly would get the job done. Many books that appear to be great specialized systems are in fact GURPS tuned for the job 
Call of Cthulhu would work great as well, and you wouldn't have to strongarm the guns out - they're "in" much in the same way they're in Ocean's 11 or Shawshank redemption - the way to deal with them is to avoid them at all cost, and listen carefully to anyone who managed to point one at you.
Call of Cthulhu would work great as well, and you wouldn't have to strongarm the guns out - they're "in" much in the same way they're in Ocean's 11 or Shawshank redemption - the way to deal with them is to avoid them at all cost, and listen carefully to anyone who managed to point one at you.
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