What's a good system for playing with little to none supernatural/magic/sci-fi ?

[Myth27]

So like a realistic modern or historical rpg system, the world itself could be ours or a fantasy version similar to earth, not necessarily "super gritty realistic" something more in an urban setting with a focus on investigation, combat and social interactions not something about wilderness exploration and survival.

[Yora]

So something in the line of spy or police campaigns?

[Pauly]

For swashbuckling.
Honor & Intrigue is a good system, but the combat system is finicky works better if the GM is prepared to spend time building a support system to make it flow properly.
7th Sea is a good system that can be ported directly over to a historical base.

For late 19th/early 20th Century
Space 1889 - just delete the steampunk and go with straight history. The original rules were a bit clunky but apparently the re-release using the ubiquity engine is quite good. My all time favorite setting to play in.
Edit: Also it is completely viable to play an Earth based campaign without the sci-fi elements, just keeping the sci-fi elements as background.
Call of Cthulu minus the Cthulu. I’ve played a very memorable campaign based on being Agatha Christie/GK Chesterton type detectives this way and the system handled it well.

Modern
Top Secret - James Bond inspired spies and counter espionage. It’s been a very long time since I played it, but my recollection was that it was fun and fast.

And as always GURPS, just plug in the module you desire. GURPS does require heavy buy in from the GM to master the system before running a campaign. This is because GURPS is more a toolbox that you choose what elements you want than a ready to run game.

[Telok]

Call of Cthulhu or Delta Green, just drop the mythos stuff and go straight cop show/spy movie. Twilight 2000 has a new edition with some decent reviews, the default setting is post-apoc lite but extremely easy to swap out.

[Alcore]

If you want historical(ish) HarnMaster.


It is technically a fantasy world but without extra books monsters and humans alike must rely on mundane weapons (and if using your own setting can remove monsters entirely). It is bloated, old and complex.


A great amount of research of medieval society went into it but it has been distilled into HarnMaster. While this means that parts of it are now inaccurate of history but the pieces all fit together. I recommend harnReligion as their gods have more than portfolios; they have holidays, descriptions of mass and more! Spells take up a surprising small space.


I also recommend HarnManor if any game of yours will be in a small village.

[Jay R]

I enjoy Flashing Blades, a FGU game of musketeer-era intrigue.

It is not a historical rpg; it is clearly trying to simulate swashbuckler movies and books. It has five dueling styles, which actually affect how you fight. [Spanish style is better for slashing, Italian style has better thrusts, French style has improved parries, etc.]

It is class-based, and the classes are actually social classes -- Noble, Gentleman, Soldier, or Rogue. [A supplement adds sailor, pirate, marine, and some Caribbean classes.]

Each character has one Advantage (Title, Land, Lackey, Favor, Contact, etc.) and one Secret (Secret Identity, Sword Vengeance, Secret Loyalty, etc.).

It has one big disadvantage: having been written in the 1980s, it assumes male players and male NPCs. The last time I ran it, I invented the class Actor, which worked well for either sex.

[2D8HP]

King Arthur Pendragon and the very similar Paladin (based on the same rules as Call of Cthulhu) are exceedingly excellent medieval FRPG’s that usually don’t feature spell casting PC’s that I full heartedly recommend!

[Ottriman]

If you want a versatile system that happens to be pretty good at this I could Recommend GURPS. It is a very detailed system with detailed rules for a huge host of skills, equipment, social aspects, and more. Its base rules and scaling also fall naturally into portraying semi-realistic to moderately cinematic humanoids doing stuff.

I do have some caveats to that recommendation.

Firstly, It is a very large system and might be overwhelming to get into if you're not up for heavy rules.

Secondly, it is a very simulationist system so if you're not a fan of that that's another thing to consider. It models things as they work in real life and doesn't concern itself overmuch with things like genre-appropriateness or combat balance. Not that those things are impossible in GURPS games, the system just doesn't make those the default.

[Pex]

There is Iron Kingdoms from the D20/3E era. Heavy into different types of warriors. I'm not a fan of its token system, but mileage can vary.

Not sure if it's still in print, but there is a 5E Middle Earth game. If you don't want to play Middle Earth ignore the lore and flavor text, but it's otherwise 5E. There are new classes in it that look similar to 5E classes but without magic. There are no spellcasters.

[Grod_The_Giant]

The GUMSHOE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumshoe_System)engine was made specifically for investigation-centric campaigns, and it looks like most of the systems that use it (Trail of Cthulu, Mutant City Blues, The Esoterrorists, etc) are designed as pulpy normal-people-verses-supernatural-evil games.

Fate Core/Fate Accelerated are generic systems, but you don't really lose anything by sticking to mundane characters-- whatever you're doing, it all boils down to exploiting character/environmental Aspects, so there's no mechanical difference between, say, casting a fear spell and making an intimidation check.

[Pauly]

I’ve had a couple of people ask me to run a Kids on Bikes campaign. My comments on looking at the rulebook and seeing some online reviews,

Definitely fits the “not super gritty”, “focus on investigation, combat and social interactions”. You can add as much sci-fi/fantasy as you want although it seems to me to be best suited for early X-files (is it real?) kind of vibe. It definitely is small town based, so semi-urban/semi-rural not a full city scape.