How would you run a game in the vein of Gate?

How would you run a game in the vein of Gate?
Y'know, modern army in magic fantasy land.
What system would you use, what military would you use, how would you make it challenging for the players, what would the fantasy world be like?

it would be a bloodbath no matter what you do...

Make the pcs from the fantasy land first off.
Would be good to use with a group that only pastures murderhobos

Instead of having some American/Russian/Japanese troops shitstomp the fuck out of everything, have the PCs belong to a third-rate european military. Something like Slovakia or Ukraine. They still would have a definite edge, but not enough of one to turn everything into a total HFY wankfest.

Did something similar a few years back.
>DM'in 3e
>party of rogue, magic-user, cleric, fighter
>party is complete murderhobo grognards
>players are transitioning from 2e
>each of them had three or four backup sheets
>decide it's time for heroic fantasy
>each PC is given a spotlight and 15 minutes
>players really liked this change of pace
>evil wizard is opening a hellgate or something
>party wanted to smash and loot
>Choo-choo, motherfuckers
>handheld the players to the Wizard's Tower
>they spent several days camped outside
>"We're gonna siege the tower" said the rogue
"Ominous stormclouds gather overhead as lightning crashes against the spire of the tower."
>the hellgate has opened and the party is shitting themselves
>the players thought they'd get to fight some demons
>the PC's stayed camped outside the tower for another two weeks
>they just sat there, waiting for something to come out
>eventually the evil wizard rolled his interdimensional army out and about
"The cackling of a dark mage is heard as several men walk out the tower's door. Each are dressed in uniform clothing and wielding black wands."
>describe the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning
>death saves, death saves for everyone
>the evil wizard Mass Dominated a few more soldiers
>did a whole cross-world war
>literally worse than Hitler
>eventually lost and was deported to the non-fantasy world for a warcrimes trial
>new party of rogue, magic-user, cleric, fighter were invited since they captured the guy alive
>they're shown new and wonderous things in this alternate world
>"I roll to seduce the steel dragon-turtle" said the rogue
"After uttering a pick-up line that would melt even the coldest heart of any whore, the 'steel dragon-turtle' spurns your advances with silence."
>"I take off my pants and flex the ol' extendo-matic, lets see if it can handle 24 points of charisma unsheathed."
After fucking the exhaust pipe of a WW2 tank, had to end the session due to side removal.

or as the OP image suggests, the norwegian defense force.
Norway even has the folklore of an invisible world.

>After fucking the exhaust pipe of a WW2 tank, had to end the session due to side removal.
Put that on my tombstone.

Years ago I ran basically what is reverse-Gate.

The setting is "modern time", ala generic GTA, but portals from D&D world opened up and monsters and magic came spilling in.

PCs were able to make modern characters, with firearm/explosive/vehicle etc proficiencies, or fantasy characters, with access to magic, monster languages, etc. There were two feat trees as well - you were restricted from taking modern feats if you were a fantasy character and vice-versa. There were also generic feats that either group could take.

I basically let it play out kind of like GTA and have the fantasy and modern counterparts affect each other.

For example, all of the orcs basically rushed the ghetto and replaced/integrated the gangs there and started riding motorcycles and shotguns.

Necromancers' heads nearly exploded when they found morgues with almost entirely intact and preserved bodies, literally a few blocks down from jewelry stores that had the components they needed for raising dead.

Wizards realized that a handgun is way, way more awesome as a back-up weapon when they ran out of spells compared to a dagger.

It was pretty fucking awesome.

It would probably be NATO or UN peacekeepers in a generic fantasy world.

Some pc could be from the fantasy land (local figures) and others could be from our world (mandated by UN or humanitarian NPO) and their mission would be to establish good relations between both worlds and maintain peace.

>"Oh no, the evil texan oil company wants to destroy that forest which is sacred for the druids/local religion".

What year was it in the modern world?

Either have two or more modern armies fight for control over the fantasy land with the native population somewhere in the middle (this would probably lead to the natives taking sides for protection or gaining an advantage versus their neighbors. Which in turn could lead to terror and genocide)
or I would have the modern army/armies sizing control and colonizing the fantasy world, which would lead to the occupants being spread out and makes low-intensity conflicts possible.

As for the players, they could be either modern soldiers and doing a combat-focused campaign or a fantasy race and doing a more traditional adventuring campaign (the neighboring kingdoms soldiers came with strange weapons and massacred your village! You must find the mcguffin and find out why, something like that)

in either case I would use twilight 2000 because it has stats for a ridiculous amount of weapons and other military equipment. You would have to modify it to fit magic though

Play wissencraft ravens senpai.

Once magic people get a hold on guns, they will fuck everyone up with their magic guns.

"Mages can't into technology" is arbitrary and unsubstantiated restriction.

Well, what is your point?

Modern militaries run on way more than just rooty-tooty-point-n'-shooties anyway. A medieval wizard could point and shoot a gun, but he can't fly a fighter plane, drive a tank or operate a radar.

Magic-assisted taliban would be pretty impressive, don't you think.

Maybe wreck is exaggeration though, I admit. But generally, wizards can do what muggles can and some more.

As I'd posted in another thread yesterday, I'd really like it if the modern military faction were not portrayed as invaders and conquerors, but as a cautiously armed expeditionary force that focuses on exploration and diplomacy. Their modern technology and tactics aren't inherently better than the magics and martial prowess already existing in the Fantasy World, but instead compliments it as both have their strengths and weaknesses.

would the fantasy world even have oil?

Wouldn't it? As long as plants die and get fossilized, why not?

I guarantee you this thread is going to devolve into arguing about the Japanese military

It's not guaranteed they would have it. their planet have not necessarily gone through the same as ours.

so far you're the only one who has mentioned it, so.....

>What system would you use

Some system that has rules for both settings that work well together. Savage Worlds, maybe? I've never used a universal system before.

>what military would you use

Any military would do. The main advantages are armoured vehicles, personal firearms, training. Any modern Western military is virtually identical in a Fantasy-esque setting, unless you get shit like dragons that need to be taken down with anti-armour weapons.

>how would you make it challenging for the players

I would note down the members and material of their taskforce. These are finite, and there is no contact with our world. They are dumped into the Fantasy world, and that's it. Their objective is to get back, and they will have to find a way to do that, to begin with. Maybe while they explore the world, they find remnants of other armies that were sent here, or ended up here by accident. So they might be very glad to find a cache of 9mm ammo, given that it's been around for so long and still a standard.

Obviously, they will run out of ammo, gear, and fuel. They will also gradually run out of men. They will have to deal with the nitty gritty nature of being out of the modern world, like disease. Probably one of the first obstacles would be trying to find a cure for their commander, who got sick on the first day.

There will also come the day when they will have to abandon their vehicles, their weapons, etc. Their challenge will be to adapt so they can survive. Will they carve their out their own kingdom? How will they be perceived? What will the locals do when they realise all their technology is just that, technology, and not magic?

>what would the fantasy world be like?

A lot like Medieval times. Maybe some limited magic, here and there. I'd want the focus to be on what I described above, and I wouldn't want to muddle that with too much magic.

If the GM says so.

>slav
>serbian lambas removers
>STALKERS out to steal magic rocks in fantasy realm

>>STALKERS out to steal magic rocks in fantasy realm

This would be a really good twist to the typical dungeoncrawl.
Instead of playing your typical generic adventurers you play as Nikolai, Ivan, Sasha and Pjotr. Sent through a portal to fantasyland armed to the teeth with slavshit to find magical artifacts, and hopefully get back in one piece to get paid.

... Is this a weekly thread now or something?

I'd play it.

>dat pic
That would be horrible, yet another place fucked up by globalistic pop-culture.

1972

I'd probably run it using BRP, or GURPS, because it's going to get mentioned eventually... since it is designed specifically to handle stuff like this based on the books you have access to.

Basically, it was in the end of the vietnam "conflict" and the wizard dominated some Viet Cong war prisoners and was using some old WW1/2 rifles to take over the worlds.
The US didn't want to invade another country because of peace rallies and hippy idealists. So they hired out to the local adventurers to capture him or kill him for half the reward. The players had to deal with "death wands" and some "mobile cannons" ..I didn't throw any automatic weapons at them until near the end when they had to disable a machinegun nest on a captured castle.

All in all, I actually enjoyed the older grogs who could handle cross-genre D&D. I seriously think most of the 3.75 crowd killed a lot of the love for Spelljammer, Darksun, and every other non-Dragonlance/Forgotten Realms/Greyhawk settings. There are still niche groups for it, but that's what they are.