Help with picking a system

[Digitalfruitz]

Hey all. I plan on trying to run a game for a small YouTube series with some buds, I have a lot of the story planning ready, but I can’t really settle on a system. So far I’ve been debating between:

Shadowrun—> has great combat from what I’ve heard BUT I’m unsure on how well it handles RP and moderate levels of investigation.

GUMSHOE—> Great roleplaying system that enables very interesting skill interaction in investigation and RP BUT causes me to have to buy the system as a pdf and I don’t think it’s combat system is as flexible as I’d like.

Pathfinder—> I have a lot of system mastery, I am semi decent at home brewing in this system, and I enjoy how it handles role playing and combat BUT I have no clue how well it handles investigation.

[kyoryu]

Tell us more about the game, what it's about, what you want things to focus on, etc.

It sounds, so far, like your criteria are:

a) free
b) handles investigations relatively well
c) handles non-combat stuff well

[Ratter]

If you want rules light because you don't want to learn a massive new system I would suggest Fantasy AGE, It just has good stuff, but if you want less luck and more in depth stuff you might want pathfinder, only problem, it's hyper unbalanced. Like terribly unbalanced

[Digitalfruitz]

Tell us more about the game, what it's about, what you want things to focus on, etc.

It sounds, so far, like your criteria are:

a) free
b) handles investigations relatively well
c) handles non-combat stuff well

Basically I want the game to be equal parts role play and combat, I also want it to be in a modern setting, I plan on magic being somewhat rare and the pc’s most likely won’t have access to it. The PC’s will all be average joes investigating and fighting magic and eldritch horrors.

[Koo Rehtorb]

d20 modern

[kyoryu]

BRP
GURPS
Fate
Savage Worlds

[Kadzar]

Basically I want the game to be equal parts role play and combat, I also want it to be in a modern setting, I plan on magic being somewhat rare and the pc’s most likely won’t have access to it. The PC’s will all be average joes investigating and fighting magic and eldritch horrors.

So you want Call of Cthulhu?

[DeTess]

Fate would work.

*actually checks OP*

Yep, I was right.

Shadowrun will handle investigations pretty well, but it's an incredibly crunchy system that does not handle munchkins well. If your players don't try to break the system, it'll work fine, but it does require some modifications if you use it outside of its setting (though what you described works within the shadowrun world).

[Knaight]

Basically I want the game to be equal parts role play and combat, I also want it to be in a modern setting, I plan on magic being somewhat rare and the pc’s most likely won’t have access to it. The PC’s will all be average joes investigating and fighting magic and eldritch horrors.

This basically screams Nemesis to me. It's a free modern action-horror game using the ORE engine (I think it's where ORE got started, even), with a side of the supernatural that generally isn't going to show up much on the PC side. It's got some solid combat mechanics and is built to handle a fair bit of combat, but it's also has plenty of room for everything else, including specialized mechanics around the PCs developing in the face of trauma that invites for role playing.

It's also free, and while it's fairly crunchy it's also only 62 pages long, and can be learned quickly.