Looking for a game system that does modern day + magic well.

[chainer1216]

To be more specific...

Last year i ran a game with D20 modern, it was set in a near future earth that had been invaded by fantasy monsters en masse and with magic coming with them. The world took inspiration from sources like bladerunner, Mad Max, Helsing(the anime), Ghost In The Shell, and Fallout, and just generally 80s action movies and westerns.

It was SUPPOSED to be a pulpy, cheesy fun time. Hell one of my PC was a cyborg ninja and another was a chinese ganster with magic tattoos! In reality the game fell apart because of a combination of bad luck and D20 modern just not letting players be...good at things.

Every combat saw them nearly dying, no matter what they fought or good tactics they used. This caused interest in the game to completely die off.

Ive talked to a couple players and they agreed with me that trying a different system is the way to go, but we are a pretty dnd-centric group, very rarely venturing outside of D20 and dont know much about other systems.

TL;DR
Know of any systems that handles guns, cars, computers and magic well and where a single bad roll doesnt mean certain death?

[JeenLeen]

EDIT: after re-reading the opening post, I recommend Mutants & Masterminds most of all I say below. One boon it has over the others is that combat is not as lethal.


There's a new World of Darkness d20 system by Monte Cook. I haven't played it, but I read it, and it seems a cool setting and, as obvious by the name, uses the d20 system. You could look up reviews of it. It is not at all related to the settings of oWoD or nWoD, except that there are werewolves, mages, and such.

Mutants & Masterminds is also d20. The rule mentality is different in a lot of ways, but once you get your head around it, it is fun. The default is superheroes and supervillians, but you could refluff it to wizards and adventurers. (The system is EXTREMELY easy to refluff.) If you go with this, I recommend searching the forum for advice on starting M&M, as there are some easily abused powers.
Also, a lot of their content is freely and legally published online, so you can run a game without buying a rulebook. I like this website.

Branching out more from D&D, World of Darkness could be fun. The old World of Darkness Demon Hunter X book, which is special agents and traditional monster hunters in China/Japan, seems like it would be fun. There's also some other non-WoD books out there that have modern settings, but I admit I've never played them, so I can't give much of a review.
I really like oWoD Mage: The Ascension, but the rulebook is unclear about what can do what (and contradicts itself at times), and it's very different from D&D. If your players like the epic feel and being awesome at what they do, Mage probably isn't for you since you get negative side effects (called Paradox) from using obvious magic.

Every combat saw them nearly dying, no matter what they fought or good tactics they used. This caused interest in the game to completely die off.

If not for this paragraph, I'd recommend Shadowrun. I hear it's fun, but I also hear combat can be very lethal.

World of Darkness can be lethal easily, but generally one bad roll won't kill you. (Three or four might, though.)

[Cealocanth]

Savage Worlds does weird combo-settings really well. In fact, we've done the magic and modern thing in the system with fantastic results. For The Paradox Initiative (basic premise: every conspiracy theory has a grain of truth to it), we not only had magic in a modern espionage game, we also had aliens, weird science, eastern mysticism, and time travel. Good run, before life got in the way.

[CrazyCrab]

Personally, I'd strongly recommend Shadowrun. It has quite an awesome and detailed setting, it's quite a change from d20 / D&D and I feel like it's actually one of the few systems where having both magic and guns makes sense.

There's a free quick-start guide online with premade characters and while it may look a bit intimidating at first ( there's a ton of skills) the rules themselves are quite approachable.
EDIT: Oh, and JP has an entire series on Youtube with 50+ episodes, 'Mirrorshades' I believe. I found it really fun to listen to and it does portray the game quite well if you feel like checking it out before investing in it.

[Arbane]

It sounds like your setting was made for Feng Shui, which handles guns, kung-fu, magic, and mutants equally simply, and getting into a shootout with 50 stormtroopers isn't a death sentence for the PCs.

Savage Worlds: Fairly simple generic tactical system. Getting hit in a gunfight can REALLY suck, though.

GURPS might be a bit too slow in combat and/or too deadly for what you want, but it's got TONS of sourcebooks on every conceivable genre and character customization only superhero games like Mutants and Masterminds can match.

[Anonymouswizard]

I'm going to echo Mutants and Masterminds or Savage Worlds. They both work great for 'everything and the kitchen sink', and in Savage Worlds your cyborg ninja can just use Arcane Background: Cyborg Parts (it works like Arcane Background: Superpowers, but with a different set of powers). In Mutants and Masterminds your power's fluff is completely separate from your effects, so you can fluff anything as anything.

[Knaight]

There's always Dresden Files. I could also see Nemesis working, although the magic system is geared towards the Lovecraftian. You could just steal the system from REIGN though, as they're entirely compatible games.

[Prefect Blart]

Shadowrun is nice for this with some work.

Feng Shui is a fun rules lite game that can work if you want to hand wave everything.

[ClintACK]

There's always Dresden Files.

I'd second that. Dresden Files RPG is based around FATE -- so very different from d20 -- but it could easily accommodate cyborg ninjas and magic-tattoo gangsters.

[RyumaruMG]

Since everyone else has chimed in with systems I'd thought of, I'll recommend Valor. It can do any setting, even a mishmash, and is a very survivable system. Admittedly it is VERY combat-focused, but the engine runs smoother than a lot of other combat systems I've dealt with. It's also easy to build NPCs and PCs alike - after reading over the book a couple times, I managed a starting character in about half an hour.

It encourages high action and drama, so it's not great for politics or subtle sneakery, but it's quite good for a variety of settings - yours included.

[thedanster7000]

GURPS with the optional Cinematic rules should allow you to mix genres, create unique characters, and have magic with guns while still being survivable with a 'hero' feel to the PC's combat abilities.

[chainer1216]

I looked at all the suggestion you fellows made, talked to my group about them then headed to our local gaming store and ended up getting Shadowrun 5th ed.

For those of you who have experience with the system and keeping in mind that we're using a homebrew setting, is there any advice you can give us or anything you wish had been more clear when you started?