Rules-light dystotopian campaing - advice sought

[Aux-Ash]

Hello

I'm currently devising a campaign for my roleplaying group that's about the players being members of a secret outside-the-law organisation that is dedicated to the eradication of aliens and the knowledge of them in modern society. A fairly grim and dark campaign that's ultimately about moral and introspectism than actually fighting aliens.

Since I want the roleplaying to take the primary (and secondary) focus, I want a fairly rules-light system. Something quick and easy to learn so it doesn't detract from the important bits so to speak. Unfortunantely I'm not sure I got a good system available for this. So I thought I'd construct something for the campaign, nothing extensive but just a few things that will help me handle the few cases where I need it.

So, since there seem to be a fair bit more experience on these boards than I have myself I thought I'd ask for some advice on what I should keep in mind, what a proper way to handle different challanges and other good ideas for such a system.

I don't really have the time or the money to go digging through many systems and copy their systems so if you think a certain game handles it very good, please give me an example how it works and why you think it works well. Games I do have access to are nWoD, Dark Heresy and a bunch of swedish roleplaying games.

What I'm looking for:
Quick and easy. No need to go digging through books or look things up preferably.
Lethal. For both npc and pc.
Something that rewards good planning and preparation.
And if someone has encountered a good way to handle personality, introspection and quirks that'd be interesting to hear as well.

Thank you

[Ichneumon]

I think nWoD actually is a very good system for dystopian campaigns. Sure, it isn't the most rules-light system, but you can always play it rules-light by just fudging things and letting the story come first, which is actually encouraged by the rules. I've played a few dystopian superhero games with nWoD and it works great. Combat is really lethal and such. I'd say, go with nWoD, especially since you already have access to it.

[Kiero]

What do you mean by rules light? Merely lighter than D&D, ultralight, somewhere in between those two?

[absolmorph]

A friend recently introduced me to Cortex Plus, which is very RP heavy and rules-light.
However, the character generation has to be done in a group, and I've yet to actually use it for a game because the other players are, honestly, not exactly keeping up with the character generation.

[Raum]

Here's a mini-analysis based on your criteria.

What I'm looking for:

• Quick and easy. No need to go digging through books or look things up preferably.
  • FATE
  • Savage Worlds
  • Unisystem
  • Risus
  • Over the Edge
• Lethal. For both npc and pc.
  • FATE with some mods on damage rule
  • Savage Worlds with some mods on damage rules
  • Unisystem
• Something that rewards good planning and preparation.
  • FATE
  • Savage Worlds (good tactics count more than planning, may not be what you want)
  • Unisystem
• And if someone has encountered a good way to handle personality, introspection and quirks that'd be interesting to hear as well.
  • FATE

FATE seems to be closest to what you're looking for. It's light (as long as you're not adding lots of magic/powers), deadly in some of the rules versions, has rules for social and mental conflict as well as physical, and rewards planning / set up for combat.

That said, I'd also recommend looking at Unisystem's Conspiracy X. It's built as a conspiracy / monster hunting game. Savage Worlds may also be worth a look, particularly the Realms of Cthulu setting, but it rewards tactics more than planning so comes in behind the other two.