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Rhaegar14
2014-02-02, 05:49 PM
I had an idea for a campaign I wanted to run for a couple friends, in what is essentially the real world with vampires, werewolves, monsters, etc. Now, I don't know much about any modern systems. From what little I do know, it seems like I want World of Darkness for this, but I figured I would ask the Playground, especially since I can't (legally) get World of Darkness for free.

So, what would you guys use to run a modern, gothic fantasy setting?


Alright, since people keep trying to get a better idea of what kind of game I'm trying to run, I'm just gonna lay out my idea for the plot:

There exists an alternate universe to our own, a universe where the things that go bump in the night are very real, most notably vampires and werewolves, though there could be others as I see fit (since I imagined this initially for my limited understanding of World of Darkness, mages are probably around somewhere). In this alternate universe, they started to run into a problem: the vampires and werewolves had hunted the humans, their source of food and reproduction, to near extinction. Desperate and hungry, the monsters band together and find a way to magically open a portal to another world, a world with no monsters, plenty of humans, and an utter lack of preparation to deal with them. Our world.

The monsters won several crushing victories early on, but as their desperation faded, they fell back to the old ways. First they split apart by species, then by pack/coven, and the infighting started again. Still, they had gained a lot of ground against us, and at least on the surface they're still cooperating.

The campaign would open three to five years after our world was invaded. The monsters have not won, but they're definitely winning. We're on the ropes, and while they aren't quite ruling the world yet, the remaining pockets of organized, military resistance are being snuffed out one by one. The players would be the members of a newly formed, international initiative created as a last ditch effort at a comeback victory (think XCOM in some respects).

So most of the PCs would be mundane humans, but they would be special forces mundane with access to all the latest technology. However, I could also see some monsters in the party; for example, a soldier who was bitten by a werewolf in a battle and survived, becoming a werewolf himself. Still, I plan to require that at least half the party be completely mundane (how they work that out is up to them).

It's a work in progress and some questions still need answering, but that's the basic idea.

Tengu_temp
2014-02-02, 05:51 PM
World of Darkness.

Or, if you want a slighly more pulpy feel, grab Spirit of the Century. The SRD is legally available online, and it's a pretty great system.

AMFV
2014-02-02, 05:52 PM
I had an idea for a campaign I wanted to run for a couple friends, in what is essentially the real world with vampires, werewolves, monsters, etc. Now, I don't know much about any modern systems. From what little I do know, it seems like I want World of Darkness for this, but I figured I would ask the Playground, especially since I can't (legally) get World of Darkness for free.

So, what would you guys use to run a modern, gothic fantasy setting?

Well we'd need to know more details, do you want something more gritty with a higher lethality, do you want something more narrative, do you want something more rules-heavy. The setting can be replicated with many many systems, so I'm mostly interested in figuring out the specifics of what you want.

Rhaegar14
2014-02-02, 06:06 PM
Well we'd need to know more details, do you want something more gritty with a higher lethality, do you want something more narrative, do you want something more rules-heavy. The setting can be replicated with many many systems, so I'm mostly interested in figuring out the specifics of what you want.

Hmm. Alright. In order:

I'm not fond of lethal game systems because I feel they discourage character development. It sucks to put a lot of effort into coming up with a character only for him/her to die because of one bad die roll. So narrative would be good.

As far as rules, I'm not super fond of rules-light systems, but we'll have to teach it to most (if not all) of the group so something that's not too complicated would probably be for the best.

EDIT: Oh, it's also important to me that players can choose to be monsters. Again, I'm pretty sure that I want World of Darkness here haha.

Rhynn
2014-02-02, 07:03 PM
Unisystem, of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Buffy, Army of Darkness, Witchcraft (which is free), etc. You'll have to do some figuring out of rules for various kinds of supernaturals, but IIRC even Witchcraft has some, and the other systems definitely do.

D-naras
2014-02-02, 07:06 PM
World of Darkness won't work smoothly for different kinds of monsters.
Try mutants and masterminds (http://www.d20herosrd.com/). It's not perfect but it will work fine for any setting. Limit powers to monsters, and then limit the powers available to each kind of monster and you're good to go.
As fas as complexity goes, it's a d20 system so that will help with familiarity. If it seems too much at first, don't panic, it's actually pretty intuitive once you get the hang of it. Just make sure to print out what the conditions do and how damage is dealt and soon enough you will get the hang of it. I managed to GM a whole campaign without looking at the book after the 3rd session. And that's while spewing forth NPC after NPC with different powers. :smallbiggrin:

Airk
2014-02-02, 07:49 PM
World of Darkness won't work smoothly for different kinds of monsters.

This is a good point. While it's called "World of Darkness" the various games in it don't actually work together very well, and trying to play a game with both Vampires AND Werewolves is a pretty bad idea. And even if you did run them together, you'd be looking at a LOT of books worth of material and a nontrivial financial investment.

I agree that going for a more generic system like M&M, Fate, or maybe even GURPS (though there goes any financial savings on that last one) would be a better call for what it sounds like you're trying to do (Caveat: I still don't feel like I have a very good idea what kind of game you want to run.)

Grod_The_Giant
2014-02-02, 08:06 PM
Or, if you want a slighly more pulpy feel, grab Spirit of the Century. The SRD is legally available online, and it's a pretty great system.
If you're looking at FATE, I'd say the Dresden Files RPG, which is already set up for modern urban fantasy with an option towards playing monsters. It's not the cheapest game, though, and FATE is not for everyone or every game, despite the fact that it always gets suggested-- the game's quite narrativist, and is an irritating mix of simplicity and complexity. ("Rules-confusing"?)

M&M is wonderful if everyone has some sort of power, and plays beautifully, but character creation is complex, and I'm not sure that it'd work especially well for a game where most characters are mundane. (Decent, sure, especially for a more powerful "pulpy" mundane, or something where gadgets are a big deal, but probably not if you're talking "normal" dudes.) If you're familiar with d20 systems, you can pick up and play a finished character pretty easily, but it's pretty much impossible to build your own character just from being talked through things. (Having introduced a lot of people to the system, my advice would be to take input and then build people's characters for them)

If you do go WoD, go nWoD, especially if you're not using their campaign settings. The mechanics are vastly superior, by most accounts.

Does Savage Worlds do monster PCs? It's a pretty nice and pretty cheap book, and rules-medium in play (probably about as gritty as D&D in terms of rules, but way simpler in terms of character creation choices).

Rhaegar14
2014-02-02, 08:38 PM
Alright, since people keep trying to get a better idea of what kind of game I'm trying to run, I'm just gonna lay out my idea for the plot:

There exists an alternate universe to our own, a universe where the things that go bump in the night are very real, most notably vampires and werewolves, though there could be others as I see fit (since I imagined this initially for my limited understanding of World of Darkness, mages are probably around somewhere). In this alternate universe, they started to run into a problem: the vampires and werewolves had hunted the humans, their source of food and reproduction, to near extinction. Desperate and hungry, the monsters band together and find a way to magically open a portal to another world, a world with no monsters, plenty of humans, and an utter lack of preparation to deal with them. Our world.

The monsters won several crushing victories early on, but as their desperation faded, they fell back to the old ways. First they split apart by species, then by pack/coven, and the infighting started again. Still, they had gained a lot of ground against us, and at least on the surface they're still cooperating.

The campaign would open three to five years after our world was invaded. The monsters have not won, but they're definitely winning. We're on the ropes, and while they aren't quite ruling the world yet, the remaining pockets of organized, military resistance are being snuffed out one by one. The players would be the members of a newly formed, international initiative created as a last ditch effort at a comeback victory (think XCOM in some respects).

So most of the PCs would be mundane humans, but they would be special forces mundane with access to all the latest technology. However, I could also see some monsters in the party; for example, a soldier who was bitten by a werewolf in a battle and survived, becoming a werewolf himself. Still, I plan to require that at least half the party be completely mundane (how they work that out is up to them).

It's a work in progress and some questions still need answering, but that's the basic idea.

Airk
2014-02-02, 08:51 PM
Well, then forget using World of Darkness; That's all about what's special about BEING a monster.

Honestly, at this point, you can practically run that game in any system with support for vaguely modern era play. (i.e. no 'fantasy games'.)

Madcrafter
2014-02-03, 12:58 AM
Well, then forget using World of Darkness; That's all about what's special about BEING a monster.

Honestly, at this point, you can practically run that game in any system with support for vaguely modern era play. (i.e. no 'fantasy games'.)

Well, special in a bad way for most of them. That said, a Hunter: The Vigil Conspiracy might work, though I'd ask someone who's actually familiar with that game first (I've never read it).

If you want narrative flexibility but more crunchy rules system, maybe the already suggested GURPS or M&M. I'm not familiar with M&M, but in GURPS you can skip as much complexity as you like (though that ups the front-end on your part determining which rules to include).

Savage World could do monsters I think, but you'd have to homebrew and balance them yourself as far as I'm aware, which might be difficult. For what you describe, I'd probably stay away from FATE, it's though if you think your group might have a penchant for that collaborative style it could still work.

Airk
2014-02-03, 10:19 AM
Well, special in a bad way for most of them.

Not NECESSARILY. I mean, the rules are full of things that are 'cool' about being a monster. I mean, Disciplines, or boons or whatever the hell the 'special ability' of your monster type is. All pretty much useless if you're playing a human.


Savage World could do monsters I think, but you'd have to homebrew and balance them yourself as far as I'm aware, which might be difficult. For what you describe, I'd probably stay away from FATE, it's though if you think your group might have a penchant for that collaborative style it could still work.

At this point, this has become a question that is pretty much completely NOT about the setting (which makes sense, because 90% of the time, setting should NOT determine your game system, in spite of what White Wolf wants to tell you) and instead about "What kind of game do you want to run?" which is ALWAYS the question that should decide your game system.