Urban Fantasy

Yo Veeky Forums, I'm looking for any tabletop systems that are good for running Urban Fantasy, preferably low on the magic/monsters and shit. Mostly dealing with a 21st century city setting. You got anything good for me?

Using a generic system is your best bet.
But I'm guessing you want a specific one, in which case I've got nothing. Specifics always have "themes" much of their rules and gameplay rely on heavily.

Was hoping it wouldn't come to that. In that case, then, what do you say are the best generic systems out there? I've never really looked too much into generics.

FATE is very flexible and very narrative-based and customizable for your particular flavor of narrative. The Dresden Files RPG used a version of FATE.
GURPS actually CAN do anything, and though it's crunchy as hell the math isn't actually that hard unless you use that one awful supplement nobody uses.
Savage Worlds is one I hear lots about, but I can't speak to it as I've not played it.
The system used by Green Ronin's Mutants and Masterminds could easily be adapted since it actually works less like "you get these superpowers" and more like "you get these affects and then fluff they as superpowers or gadgets or skills or however you want".

Unknown Armies isn't exactly what you're looking for, it's more punk occult but it's an extremely fascinating system, check it out.

Hm...I know how FATE works, loosely. It seems like FATE doesn't have a lot of progression for characters; is this true?

I'll check out M&M's system as well, thanks.

I'll check it out and see if I can't homebrew it into more of what I'm thinking of.

I've only played one session of it, but can't nWoD do this when playing just mortals?

You could do Monsters and Other Childish Things (take out the monsters).

nWoD?

(new) World of Darkness. Is that still the current World of Darkness? I thought I saw a topic on Veeky Forums a little bit ago that insinuated that there was another new edition, don't go into those threads much because I don't have people around me now to play WoD.

Ah. I'll definitely put it on the list.

I'm thinking of making something I would say is almost Durarara-inspired. Things happening in a big city, modern setting, but a light peppering of supernatural things.

Here. This is free legally and has a pretty cool sanity mechanic. Might want to work on the skill list a bit (I've never played but I've heard people complain about how there are too many skills).

It's a bit complicated.
The old line got fucked up in the early 00's, crashing market and all that.
This is oWoD - Old World of Darkness

A new line was created, new setting, new themes, new stuff, new marketing methods, but still the same kind of game.
This is nWoD - New World of Darkness.

Cue the financial crisis.

CCP bought up White Wolf wholesale, to get at the licenses they had, to create an MMO.

They badly mishandled the titles, and failed to get an MMO out.

A new company was formed, by old White Wolf employees who licensed a lot of the old White Wolf stuff from CCP, so that stuff actually gets produced. This company is called Onyx Path Publishing.

They started to do a 2nd edition of nWoD, and doing 20th anniversiary versions of oWoD things, since fans still like those games.

Another company called By Night Studios licenses the LARP rules of oWoD.

Then Paradox Entertainment bought White Wolf and all it's shit from CCP. They immediately start doing stuff with it.
oWoD gets completely revived, a new edition gets promised. Promises of video games and shit. This gets a slight re-branding into just World of Darkness.

nWoD, meanwhile gets re-branded into Chronicles of Darkness, as not to cause confusion between the lines. They still produce the nWoD stuff - now CofD - and the 20th Anniversary lines of oWoD - now WoD. We are currently in the shift from 1st to 2nd edition of nWoD.

There. Any questions?

Unknown Armies
Wild Talents (ORE) also MaOCT, Nemesis, Better Angels, A Dirty World
Dresden Files (Fate)

>low magic modern fantasy
pfff-

Does Chronicles of Darkness still have a core book for mortals and then branches for Mage/Warewolf/Vampire/Changling/etc?

It does.
The stuff in it is reprinted for the main supers, but there is extended stuff in the mortal-only book.
Like psychic powers, and other "lesser" supernatural powers, and a "build-your-own-monster" system which I really like a lot.
There is also an advanced investigation system which looks cool, but I haven't actually used yet.

The CofD/nWoD 2e stuff got rather a lot of baggage at the start though, since CCP didn't want to allow OPP to make a 2nd edition (for some reason), so instead OPP decided to make a rolling rules update.
This turned out to be a massive success, and CCP greenlit a 2nd edition while the people were working on a rules update. It's a bit of a clusterfuck, but we are getting out of it now.
Still, it means the core book was rather rushed, and that Demon, as well as Vampire and Werewolf 2e, (and to some extent, Mage and Promethean, most likely) don't have all the stuff in the mortal book.

Oh GOOD GOD! That picture is so Early 90's that it hurts!

Dresden Files RPG uses FATE and can be any power scale you want. World of Darkness and new World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness work very well if you stick to the mortals or Hunter. Unknown Armies is postmodern urban fantasy, but very neat if you like sanity mechanics.

I don't know. Could just be Turkey.

Nope. Old Swedish police cars. Old design on the ICA sign.

I'd have said 80's, but it's a 90's era SAAB in the rubble. So I suppose it's just a small town then, who is behind the times.

You can also look into Don't Rest Your Head on Evilhat. It has an interesting concept revolving around madness.

Great game!

But it's more Carcosa than urban fantasy.

If you're going for a drrr feel, you might want to look into the *World hack Urban Shadows.

Or Monster of the Week if you want more fights and less politics