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View Full Version : Run a game: Solo Leveling/Sorcerer King/Auto-Hunting/setting universe - which system?



Rerednaw
2020-12-03, 01:37 AM
That's pretty much it. I've been reading several manhwa (Korean manga) as well as manga and was toying with the idea of a RPG in such a setting.

If you are not familiar a quick recap. Near future or current earth setting, with two major changes:
1) There are frequent 'tears' that appear in reality. These are gateways from which monsters appear.
2) Humans have developed powers and abilities to counter these monsters. Combat when it occurs can be anything from a Wow-style raid to a single over the top superpowered Mary Sue-fest vs. a horde and a boss. As an homage by the comic creators to video games, most of the comics I have read have the characters being able to 'see' their stats appear in a RPG HUD-like interface when called for. Sometimes the abilities are hidden and require a talent to be discerned by others.

The monsters may be from classic fantasy (eg goblin) or some alien sci-fi style race (sentient hive mind bugs, crystalline golems, nanoclouds, whatever). Sometimes simply slaying the monsters that enter is enough. Other times the gate stays until heroes from earth's side enter and than deal with the actual realm inside (could be a dungeon ala DND style, or a city or an empty grassy plain, deep space, etc.)

Initially I was thinking about DX (double cross). However generic (GURPS), d6, WOIN, Cortex, ICON, or superhero (HERO, Superworld, HU2) all have their pros and cons. Or even an Apocalypse World hack or some such. There are a lot of systems to choose from quite frankly. If I want a more tragic hero feel there's Aberrant for example. As much as I like RIFTS, it is a rather...cumbersome system as well as Savage Worlds. This isn't quite Zero to Hero either. Though I suppose it certainly borrow from some. Not really considering d20 or 2d20...but if it worked for you please tell :)

So if anyone has run such a game which system did you chose and how well did it work?

Cheers!

Grod_The_Giant
2020-12-04, 08:07 AM
Mutants and Masterminds 3e. I've never seen a better system for action-heavy games where characters have wildly varying abilities.

Alteiner
2020-12-04, 01:28 PM
Kamigakari would be my go-to for something like this. It's a Japanese tabletop RPG and its base setting is a modern setting with a hidden supernatural world. Humankind is at risk of destruction by demons and monsters combated by a number of secret organizations ranging from a secret order of demon-hunting assassins, to a mage association, to a hidden group within the Catholic church, to an office of special provisions within the government and a megacorp using magical technology to create cyborg supersoldiers. PCs take the role of elites within the supernatural world called Godhunters, who are the only ones capable of killing the aramitama, false gods who, if left to their own devices, could someday ascend in power to the Avatar of Destruction capable of destroying the world. Godhunters range from once-ordinary humans who've been drawn into the hidden world, the heirs to mage families and descendants of legendary heroes and the gods of old, to divine spirits, the spirits of legendary heroes called to the protect the present world and even people from other worlds who've transcended the boundaries of space and time to come to modern-day Earth.

Just like Double Cross, changing the setting to suit your needs is simple. You could easily adjust things so the supernatural is a publicly-known secret and the PC Godhunters highly-specialized elites or extremely talented relative newcomers.

It's a fairly episodic game generally intended for a given "arc" to deal with a single aramitama, and even includes rules for rotating GMs. Generally, the PCs start out separate and doing whatever it is they do between hunts, and independently become aware of the ongoing threat before finding each other. It has an active community on Discord and in a few other places around the internet, so you won't have trouble finding people to bounce ideas off of for whatever kind of game you're thinking of doing.