Non-grimdark, non-punky, non-gritty, non-noir-y modern urban fantasy RPGs?

>modern urban fantasy in RPGs will always be grimdark (World/Chronicles of Darkness) or punky (Shadowrun), and even the ones picking up the Dresden Files RPG still have to deal with a heavy dose of grit and noir

>superhero RPGs are, obviously, too entrenched in superhero clichés to do modern urban fantasy well, and usually assume a setting where everyone knows about these superheroes running around

I just want to play/run some modern urban fantasy themed more like a heroic action movie, or one of those Japanese anime series with magic in the modern day. Why is this so hard to find? What should I be looking for?

>heroic action movie
What do you mean, Die Hard? Have you tried gurps?

GURPS is good for tacticool operators operating tacticoolly in a "realistic" setting, not so much anything outright cinematic or heroic with a good dose of magic, as much as the books try to say you can do exactly that.

Feng shui?

>Japanese anime series with magic in the modern day
>not grimdark

user...

Dresden Files RPG is kinda like that.
It's....KINDA noir-ish I suppose in how the novel series tells it's stories, but it's hero is a sad clown jokester idiot who yuks it up all the time so it's not really very serious about it at all.
It's also pretty big on idealism; it's assumed your characters despite how nasty the world they live in is are doing good specifically BECAUSE it's the right thing to do and act out of a sense of altruism to larger or smaller degrees.

user. What is the goal of your supposed setting?

In games, the setting is there to support the goal, the Game in the RP.

Likewise, a setting in a book is there to give a backdrop in which you tell a story, or to provide a framework to set what's possible and isn't in said story.

Otherwise, the setting really serves no purpose whatsoever.

In most of these grim-dark/punk/edgy settings, the players set out to do a thing, and the theme is really only there to set a framework and excuse to do those things.

What things do you want your players to do?

You should base your game on a Murakami novel, because it sounds like you're going to go in with a lot of hype and interesting ideas but ultimately be left unsatisfied.

>themed more like a heroic action movie, or one of those Japanese anime series with magic in the modern day

...

Different guy, but you have to fucking realise that the first of those *is* always at least slightly dark, and the latter is not something you could even construct an adventure in.

A setting without conflict is a setting that there is no fucking point making a roleplaying system for.

Either your idyllic magical society is immediately shattered, or you roleplay using your magic broom to go work part time at a pie shop and then home without incident.

Literally even having arguments with irate people that might necessitate some kind of social action system is already adding darkness to the setting.

In short, while you can reduce the edge, you'll never eliminate it. Far better to just run shit your way if thats what you want. Happy circumstances require no mechanics, and I've seen plenty of WoD games where its all about the fun and excitement of exploring supernatural happenings more so than the horror.

>implying basically every time I've gone near the WoD or Shadowrun settings they haven't become 80s action movies

It's all in how you run them, user. Also basically every edition of Shadowrun has shit rules, I don't recommend using those

Wait, do you actually think kyoukai no kanata is grimdark?

Seconding this. I have a Feng Shui game tomorrow, and even though it emphasizes on popcorn flicks, pulling action movie -type of games is what it's made to do.

Different guy again, but Kyoukai no Kanata is easily pegged at the same level of darkness as say, World of Darkness.

It's no 40k sure, but its hardly weighing in favour of OPs 5 year old girl informed perspective on modern fantasy settings

So? Use a generic role playing system like GURPS for a shit load of rules, FATE for limited rules, or Savage Worlds for a happy medium.

Use those as the base and just make up your own setting and you are done.

Welcome to the magic academy!

Every week you will be challenged to complete a special task that will be kept secret from you and you will be graded based on your performance!

For the first week, you must capture the magically enhanced bunny that can phase through walls and move at super sonic speeds.

Next week, you have to break into the school computer system protected with all kinds of magical firewalls and change your grade from an F to an A!

Shit like that.

>Easily pegged
I'd like to politely disagree. I'm not sure what your definition of grimdark is, but for me, the big difference is that the WoD is about a cynical 'true reality' that controls regular ignorant people. People can disappear in the WoD and nobody will come looking for them, because their vampire overlords don't care for the police to get too public.

Kyoukai no Kanata is about an unfortunate girl falling in love with an unfortunate guy and they get together in the end. The KnK world is not cynical, it doesn't let the evil youkai win because, 'that's just the way the world works.' Sure there are monsters, but children casually fight them and win. MC-kun's mom is a fucking lolsorandum idiot. The show wasn't even bittersweet, it was literally just sweet.

btw, I fucking love KnK. Watched it like 2 or 3 times. It's not grimdark. attack on titan is grimdark in my book, and KnK is way different tonally.

My definition of grimdark is pegged pretty high, but I have never been ABLE to enforce a tone for Mage dark enough to meet that. I guess what I mean is that the grit level really isn't that high in WoD necessarily, and fuck, ESPECIALLY not in Dresden. To say that both are too dark to be appropriate for what you're envisioning baffles the mind. I cannot even comprehend what you might want to do in such a setting.

KnK is, for example, darker than Mushishi. Things may go horribly wrong in both because of the supernatural going out of balance or interacting poorly with the human world, and some things can't be fixed, and also PEOPLE ROUTINELY FUCKING DIE TO THE SUPERNATURAL. But in Mushishi mushi simply act according to their simple natures, in KnK you have things that actually have directives to be evil or make humans suffer.

Just because there are well trained, supernaturally empowered people keeping the peace in both, doesn't mean there aren't concerns that peaceful life could be shattered at some point.

Hmm, not really understanding what you think grimdark is, but basically, for me it boils down to tone and KnK has a lighthearted sweet tone, whereas (my)WoD has a sad/bittersweet and tragic tone. Also, I'm not the OP if you were thinking I was.

Also, I don't think 'grit' makes something grimdark. I think grit is a different scale. Like, Watchmen is a grimdark and gritty story, but for me, WoD is grimdark, but not gritty. Afro Samurai is an example of something I consider gritty, but not grimdark.

Well for starters, nearly all superhero RPGs are generic enough that you can run a highchool for magical catgirls with zero extra effort.

>usually assume a setting where everyone knows about these superheroes running around
If existence of obake is secret, you are running into the grim aspects of keeping that secret up anyway so I don't get your objection to this part.

Second, there's always Golden Sky Stories and Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine which specifically focus on comfy weidness.

Gurps

I went into KnK expecting to love the shit out of it because main girl a cute
I'm still on like, episode 12 or so I think. Haven't watched another episode for months now. I don't really know what's turning me off, it just seems really boring. Maybe it's the pacing? Should I try the OVA? (Is there an OVA?)

I don't know. Why did you like it?

Different guy, but there were a few things I liked about it.

First of all was the characters and their interplay. None of them are entirely original, but the way their development and is handled is extremely adept (this is something you can say about the whole show really - it's nothing really new or special, it just does the usual Japanese spirit based urban fantasy thing with a lot of charm and flair). The series really takes its time with them, and I can appreciate that.

Second, the atmosphere. There's just something about the art, the pacing, the designs, and definitely the soundtrack, that gives this almost Halloween-ish, kinda-surreal-but-not-too-surreal vibe.

Third was how it not only seemed like a small peek into a larger world, but a peek into a larger story, the specifics of which don't really matter all that much. There's lots of little bits of worldbuilding that make the lore feel fleshed out, and what I mean, the second bit, is that the show kinda feels like it's set on the tail end of some shonen battle anime, or a few years after it's ended. The main characters aren't there for the big action story, they're just sort of reacting to some stuff left over from it. Like most young people, they spend a lot of their time thinking themselves the protagonist of the stories, coming in at the beginning, when in fact they're just seeing the end of something. That's nice.

Like uncharted?

Maybe try adapting Golden Sky Stories? It's this cutesy system about being a magical helper for a small floating village. Not much in the way of combat.

One of the first RPGs I (very poorly) ran: Top Secret.

Also the pre-horribly-weeaboo Teenagers From Outer Space by R. Talsorian. I cannot vouch for the super-weeaboo version I saw floating around a couple years ago.

Also Ninjas & Superspies. Uses the same shitty system at Rifts, but with ninjas. And superspies.

Night Wizard

Yeah, what this user said. The game you want is Chuubos.

Mage might work as a system, but eeeh.

WoD always makes the assumption that the world is permanently screwed and there are forces working to make it work which will always be 9000 times stronger than the PCs. Exalted it ain't.

I have also not found a system that allows me to run modern fantastic stuff in a heroic manner like JoJo's bizarre adventure or Strike the Blood.

>Golden Sky Stories
>action movie

Kek.

>non-noir-y
C'mon man I love Noir. Cant you just give me a LITTLE Noir?

Ok, but be gentle.

> non grimdark
> lumps all WoD lines together
> A line prided upon being sandbox
Not even counting the fact WoD can have grimdark taken out, Mage The Awakening isn't grimdark unless you make it so. You do Avatar, Hogwarts, RWBY .etc in it.
Hell with some small fluff changes combine Beast and Mage and you have Percy Jackson series.

MtA is supposed to be some grimdark horror shit.

Check out Cold Hands, Dark Hearts.

I've never had a Mage game that was very dark. Action horror meets mystery, at the worst. I generally just exclude mages from my World of Darkness because of the problems they create for the tone (though they work fine in their own game).

This can probably do what you want, OP. Though unfortunately you'll need to borrow from OpenD6 Space if you want to add cyberware.

>the ones picking up the Dresden Files RPG still have to deal with a heavy dose of grit and noir
Dresden Files stopped trying to be noir by the end of book 2, user. I haven't played the game, but I can only assume it's fully entrenched into the beer-and-fistbumps style of the novels.

Still, if you're adamantly against it I'm sure there are fan-made versions of a Harry Potter RPG or somesuch

>same shitty system at Rifts
The original and much better system than Rifts. Erick Wujcik wasn't quite as retarded as KEvin Siembieda.