Recommend us a new system!

[AstroCat]

Hi... Our group plays plenty of D&D but we are looking for a totally alt system to run opposite our D&D games.
We are looking for:

1. About 65/35 average, Combat to RP. We like RP and can get in to it but need our combat and action.
2. We like rolling dice.
3. We like character advancement and getting loot.
4. We want something not D&D/Fantasy and non-d20 is preferred.
5. We want a "modern" up to date rule set
6. We want rules that are relatively easy to learn, but can be hard to master. There are some in the group who will not want to get a Phd in the new system. They want to sit down, make a guy and have a good time.
7. Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Gothic/Horror all sound good to us.
8. Good amount of supporting material. Character generators, modules, online support, etc... This all makes the game easier and more fun to run and play.

Any ideas? Thanks!!!

 

[kitsune9]

Hi... Our group plays plenty of D&D but we are looking for a totally alt system to run opposite our D&D games.
We are looking for:

1. About 65/35 average, Combat to RP. We like RP and can get in to it but need our combat and action.
2. We like rolling dice.
3. We like character advancement and getting loot.
4. We want something not D&D/Fantasy and non-d20 is preferred.
5. We want a "modern" up to date rule set
6. We want rules that are relatively easy to learn, but can be hard to master. There are some in the group who will not want to get a Phd in the new system. They want to sit down, make a guy and have a good time.
7. Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Gothic/Horror all sound good to us.
8. Good amount of supporting material. Character generators, modules, online support, etc... This all makes the game easier and more fun to run and play.

Any ideas? Thanks!!!

How about Herosystem or GURPS?

1. Either game system could accommodate your mix though GURPS is a little more deadly, but they have option rules out the ying-yang to make it less deadly.
2. You'll roll dice in these games, definitely with Herosystem if you play Champions.
3. Character advancement is a definite though getting loot sounds more like a campaign taste.
4. They are generic games systems so you can play any setting.
5. Not sure what you mean by modern, but my guess is that you prefer a more fresh ruleset than something that uses "Ye Olde Skool" style mechanics. Well, if that's the case, Herosystem and GURPS have been around for quite some time so am not sure if this meets or fails your expectation.
6. Surprisingly, Herosystem and GURPS do have some fairly simple rules and core mechanics, but it's all the adding on the additional stuff that takes some time to learn.
7. They do these settings.
8. There are a lot of supplement books, but I don't think there's much other than fan-stuff for character generators or such. I could be wrong though on this count.

Another game system which I don't own, but also maybe in your alley is Savage Worlds. I can't speak for it since I don't own the system.

 

[maddman75]

Hi... Our group plays plenty of D&D but we are looking for a totally alt system to run opposite our D&D games.
We are looking for:

1. About 65/35 average, Combat to RP. We like RP and can get in to it but need our combat and action.
2. We like rolling dice.
3. We like character advancement and getting loot.
4. We want something not D&D/Fantasy and non-d20 is preferred.
5. We want a "modern" up to date rule set
6. We want rules that are relatively easy to learn, but can be hard to master. There are some in the group who will not want to get a Phd in the new system. They want to sit down, make a guy and have a good time.
7. Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Gothic/Horror all sound good to us.
8. Good amount of supporting material. Character generators, modules, online support, etc... This all makes the game easier and more fun to run and play.

Any ideas? Thanks!!!

I'll recommend All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Its a game of zombie survival horror, where the PCs are normal folks doing their thing when the dead rise and start feasting on the living. Why? That's up to the Zombie Master of course.

Here's how it lines up to your requirements.

1) There's certainly plenty of action in All Flesh, as the zombies are relentless.
2) The Unisystem has a lot of dials that can be turned to taste. I use a very much simplified version myself, but you can have more die rolling if you like.
3) Advancement - well you gain new skills as you go up. Your video store clerk probably gets a lot better with guns and scrounging after the apocalypse. And while there doesn't tend to be 'loot' in the form of magic items, looting is very much a part of the game. Guns, ammunition, medicine, and supplies are the difference between life and death.
4) This is modern, classless, nonfantasy.
5) Very much a unified resolution mechanic. No old school wonkiness here.
6) Its very much a make a guy and go system. Much simpler than d20/D&D in many ways, but as I said in point #2, there's a lot of places where more detail can be added if you need.
7) Its both post-apocalyptic and horror
8) All Flesh is one of Eden Studios' flagship games. There are a ton of suppliments available for it.

They don't really do 'adventures', but rather 'dead worlds'. This is a combination of how the dead have risen, what the zombies look like, and what kinds of adventures the PCs might have. Examples in the core book: A government bioweapon has leaked, and the PCs are caught between zombies and military forces. Its WW2, and as the PCs storm the beach at Normandy, it seems the SS have found a new 'treatment' to keep its soldiers fighting after death. An Alien creature has crashed on earth, and is taking people over with duplicates who don't quite act right...

The sourcebooks take zombies to other genres - Fistful o' zombies, Enter the Zombie, Arrrgh! Thar be Zombies, Zombie Smackdown, All Tomorrow's Zombies, and so on.

And AFMBE is pretty much the easiest game to improv I've found. You can basically go 'Hey guys - zombies!' and they all cheer and reach for thier shotguns.

 

[ExploderWizard]

8. There are a lot of supplement books, but I don't think there's much other than fan-stuff for character generators or such. I could be wrong though on this count.

I can't speak for Herosystem but I have the character building software for GURPS, both 3E and 4E and its pretty good.

One problem with GURPS is that while it does have broad genre and setting support, it doesn't get much worse in the area of published adventures. I don't know how much of that would be included with a digital Pyramid subscription but the amount of official print or pdf adventures is nearly zero.

 

[Asmor]

Hi... Our group plays plenty of D&D but we are looking for a totally alt system to run opposite our D&D games.
We are looking for:

1. About 65/35 average, Combat to RP. We like RP and can get in to it but need our combat and action.
2. We like rolling dice.
3. We like character advancement and getting loot.
4. We want something not D&D/Fantasy and non-d20 is preferred.
5. We want a "modern" up to date rule set
6. We want rules that are relatively easy to learn, but can be hard to master. There are some in the group who will not want to get a Phd in the new system. They want to sit down, make a guy and have a good time.
7. Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Gothic/Horror all sound good to us.
8. Good amount of supporting material. Character generators, modules, online support, etc... This all makes the game easier and more fun to run and play.

Any ideas? Thanks!!!

I'll recommend Savage Worlds. The rulebook is $10, and on Amazon you can get four of them for $30. Has a lot of support, and in my opinion it's the greatest generic system for an action-oriented game. During the period where I'd sworn off 3e and was awaiting 4e, I ran a swords-and-sorcery fantasy game in it. I've also run one of their official campaign settings, Necropolis, which is a military game in which the characters are knights of the church and lead their own troops against an army of undead (a literal army, I mean, i.e. zombies with guns, minefields, vampire commanders...) in a sci-fi setting.

SW is a very simple system but still has satisfying combat, similar in pace and feel to low-level 3rd edition D&D combat. Works well with or without a map and minis.

The character creation and advancement is kind of similar to World of Darkness... Stats are basically ranked from 1 to 5, but rather than a dice pool you a differently-sized die (i.e. at 1 point you roll a d4, 2 points you roll a d6, up to 5 points where you roll a d12).

 

[Krensky]

Well, I' recommend giving Spycraft 2.0 a look. It is d20, but it's not really like D&D or d20 Modern. Point by point:

1. About 65/35 average, Combat to RP. We like RP and can get in to it but need our combat and action.

Combat's a big part, and it's set up to give non-combat type characters things ot do in combat. The Dramatic Conflict system also covers a lot of things like hacking and interrogations in a nice combination of RP and crunch.

2. We like rolling dice.

It's got that.

3. We like character advancement and getting loot.

Advancment, check. Loot, the default gear system may not appeal (it's mission based). One of the PDF suppliments allows you to replace it with either a cash system or a stockpile system (somewhere between the two). It also includes Loot.

4. We want something not D&D/Fantasy and non-d20 is preferred.

Not fantasy, although there are suppliments for fantasy (Tolkien and Greek) and magic.

5. We want a "modern" up to date rule set

Check.

6. We want rules that are relatively easy to learn, but can be hard to master. There are some in the group who will not want to get a Phd in the new system. They want to sit down, make a guy and have a good time.

Check. In terms of learning curve it's similar to 3.5 or M&M2 or True20.

7. Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Gothic/Horror all sound good to us.

Can do all three, and has a suppliment for CoC level horror.

8. Good amount of supporting material. Character generators, modules, online support, etc... This all makes the game easier and more fun to run and play.

Ok. No (there is a NPC generator). None published by Crafty, but a number of the old LSpy adventures are available for free download, there's at least one book of them from a thrid party, and The Agency Star has a ton of modules with props, audio briefings and other nifty things. These all tend to be espionage based, however. There's tons of support on Crafty's web site.

http://www.crafty-games.com/product_catalog/spycraft20 lists the main book and the supplements.

 

[jdrakeh]

One problem with GURPS is that while it does have broad genre and setting support, it doesn't get much worse in the area of published adventures.

This is a problem with HERO, as well.

I don't know how much of that would be included with a digital Pyramid subscription but the amount of official print or pdf adventures is nearly zero.

Back in the day when Pyramid was known as "Roleplayer" in print, it contained quite a few adventures, adventure seeds, and campaign sketches. I would assume that this carried over into Pyramid, but couldn't say for certain.

For the OP, I'd like to recommend a game called The Shadow Project that I stumbled upon last Summer. As to the original list of requirements:

1. The setting is focused highly on combat, but provides plenty of potential for role-play. Really, though, as in all games this is less a function of the rules than it is of the GM.

2. There are plenty of dice to roll.

3. Characters in this game 'advance' by gaining new supernatural abilities. They acquire these abilities by killing monsters (creatures created by the DEVIL Virus), harvesting the mutated DNA of these monsters, and assimilating it into their own being.

4. This game is Resident Evil meets .hack — it's about as far from D&D/Fantasy as you can get.

5. The rule set is up to date and was published within the last few years.

6. The rules are easy to learn, both conceptually and mechanically.

7. Genre-wise, The Shadow Project is Post-Apoc and Horror. A malign, sentient, virus frees itself from confinement and turns the city above the secret research facility into a warzone, feeding on the collective fears of humanity to create dark creatures of nightmare that serve as its foot soldiers. As Shadow Project soldiers, you are the last line of defense between this Hell and humanity.

8. Like most games that aren't D&D, the amount of official online support is pretty much non-existent pas a few PDF downloads, which you can get here.

 

[Iron Sky]

I'd recommend Exalted, 1st Edition.

It's probably in my top 3 RPG systems and meets pretty much all of your criterion.

 

[ExploderWizard]

This is a problem with HERO, as well.

Cross HERO off games to get list. Got it.

Back in the day when Pyramid was known as "Roleplayer" in print, it contained quite a few adventures, adventure seeds, and campaign sketches. I would assume that this carried over into Pyramid, but couldn't say for certain.

I miss Roleplayer . Pyramid still had cool stuff like that during the brief period when it was in print.

 

[Shalimar]

I would recommend Scion by white wolf:

1. About 65/35 average, Combat to RP. We like RP and can get in to it but need our combat and action.

Very nice cinematic action that handles fights well

2. We like rolling dice.

Uses D10s for resolution like the majority of White Wolf games

3. We like character advancement and getting loot.

Characters can advance from the mortal children of gods all the way up to godhood over the course of a campaign, and just like myths and legends heroes can claim trophies from their fallen foes like the hide of a nemean beast (hercules), the fangs of a fallen fenris, and forge them into relics

4. We want something not D&D/Fantasy and non-d20 is preferred.

The system is a streamlined version of the Exalted ruleset though it bares similarities to the rest of the story teller system as well.

5. We want a "modern" up to date rule set

Set in the modern day, on of the example scions in the book uses a gun forged from a piece of Thor's hammer.

6. We want rules that are relatively easy to learn, but can be hard to master. There are some in the group who will not want to get a Phd in the new system. They want to sit down, make a guy and have a good time.

Fairly easy to learn, though it can take a while to master and figure out which boons and epic attributes are best.

7. Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Gothic/Horror all sound good to us.

As the children of gods you can fight just about anything thats been in a myth or legend, and you are routinely fighting to stop apocolypses. There is a published book dealing with Ragnarok (the Norse end of the world)

8. Good amount of supporting material. Character generators, modules, online support, etc... This all makes the game easier and more fun to run and play.

I have seen online generators for it, there are 5 books for the system: Hero, Demigod, and God make up the core and give all of the rules on how to play at any given tier of power, and they also include an adventure called "The Long Road to Heaven" that takes a band of scions from heroes just starting out all the way to full on gods. The fourth book, the Scion Companion adds 4 or so new pantheons, and rules for building relics, new powers, etc. The last Book Ragnarok is a campaign book that also fleshes out the Norse Pantheon including lesser known gods, talks about the Norse Legends that play into ragnarok, etc..