I've been trying to think up some scenarios that might interest a new group of players and was thinking of trying a game sort of like The Secret World. My issue is that I'm fairly new to the hobby and haven't used a system that really suit what I'm going for.
What are some systems that would be recommended for games which involve: >Secret societies or Dystopian elements >Modern\near-future >Supernatural\Lovecraftian\folklore connections >Low-Magic
My first thoughts based on some Googling are nWOD or Unknown Armies but I haven't had any experience with them. Are there any other recommendations or suggestions?
GURPS. You could do it all with just the core book. If you want some pre-made to make it all easier, the GURPS Monster Hunter line of books would be a good fit. IIRC it has heroes, enemies, sidekicks, a bunch of plot hooks ready to develop into adventures, stuff about building up a mystery/hunt and there's one of the Monster Hunter book that has stuff about streamlining and making combat more cinematic.
Chase Wilson
Hunter: The Vigil is probably the closest to what you want.
Mason Thomas
If you want supernatural insanity try Don't Rest Your Head.
Angel Gomez
World of Darkness works well. Just make sure to give Bees enhanced stats and the ability to come back to life.
Oh, and make sure to prepare some lore being said by the buzzing. That shit is hilarious.
And remember: Illuminati is best secret society.
Nolan Morgan
I figured this would be the first post. I'll check out Da Archive for that particular book. Thanks. I was actually looking up this on my phone while I was waiting for a reply and it sounds amazing. I have an nWOD book that I haven't opened since I bought it a decade ago so I'll probably try and find a hardcopy of this one just to add to the collection. Never heard of it, I'll check it out.
Hudson Carter
delta green
Colton Martin
My nigga. Illuminati is without a doubt the best. I was actually thinking of ditching the bees and respawning and have them be a cog is the machinations of the secret societies duking it out, but maybe making them feel super speshul isn't such a bad idea after all.
Got a friend playing this now, will ask him about it some of the mechanics - cheers user.
Isaac Robinson
>World of Darkness works well. Just make sure to give Bees enhanced stats and the ability to come back to life.
It seems a bit high-adventure/people throwing fireballs for World of Darkness.
Matthew Gonzalez
I suppose it really depends on what level the players will be. If they are bees/mages and other powered people, use World of Darkness. If they're normal people, then Delta Green or Call of Cthulhu.
Incidentally, the maps from the game are great. I once ran a Call of Cthulhu game using the Kingsport map and it made things a lot easier/more fun.
Elijah Gonzalez
>Low-Magic
Secret World seemed the opposite of low magic. I mean, my chaos guy is slashing about with phantasmal green claws and my mate over there is throwing fireballs and shooting people with blood magic bullets.
Daniel Perez
>Low-Magic My original thought was to have them as low level initiates into the secret societies, so starting off with having limited magical abilities early on. If the game takes off, then I'd be happy to let them scale higher as long as they don't have the ability to demolish city blocks with a simple hand wave or anything too crazy.
Jose Gonzalez
Even early on, your entirely magical attacks do as much damage as magically-enhanced guns or swords, though.
Austin Hill
>Kingsport Yeah I'm down with that. As far as first areas in MMOs go, that was definitely one of my least hated ones over the years. I meant in terms of how the system handles magic. I want to try and keep guns and magic damaging at an even scale like you say here. I guess the only exception would be maybe having magic have the capacity to go all the way up to 11, but the PCs will be looking at permanently injuring/affecting their character. Probably not something I need to think about for now. I'm not a great GM so minimal homebrewing and tweaking is ideal in the short term at least.
Nathan Roberts
Yeah TSW always reminded me of Hunter: The Vigil. Hunter has a buch of large conspiracies that hunt monsters for their own reasons.
They also get access to different enhancements for said monster hunting. Like one group implants parts of monsters onto their operatives. One group has some kind of magic rituals. Another group uses potions that enhance the body but are toxic, Witcher style.
Samuel Parker
>least hated Man Kingsport was fantastic. The best area in an MMO I've ever played.
>Top Tier atmosphere >Great story >Actually scary >Fun and memorable cast of characters >Wide range of enemy variety
It's just a shame it's followed by Egypt, the worst area in the game.
Aiden Taylor
If Hunter isn't your cup of tea you can also look at the Dresden Files, they are supposed to be in the direction of what you are looking for.
Dylan Adams
Fucking Egypt. Don't remind me...
Zachary Collins
Ohhh, right, also! The Power-Ups: Inbuements GURPS book deals with adding magical effects to common weapons, not as a permanent enchantment, but as using your own magic to say put a flame on your sword when you strike.
As for general balance, I think TSW powers are more "powers" (in GURPS) than spells (you'll see what I mean exactly if you give it a read), it's undeniably more expensive in character points to reach a gun's damage, but cheaper in money. Monster Hunter has examples on how to balance the two, IIRC.
Asher Scott
I think I got that in a Humble Bundle a couple of months back. I'll check it out tomorrow because I'm heading to bed shortly. Thanks user. Sweet I'll grab that one too, cheers.
Luke Ortiz
Fucking lumies get off my board reeeeeeeeeeee Templars a best
Dominic Murphy
>Not having a woman talk down to and belittle you in her office just for kicks. Templars don't know what they're missing.
Connor Edwards
There is a Hellboy RPG based on GURPS which works great for stuff like that. As a related question, anyone knows how is this re-released version of TSW? Did they really fix the combat system? And when does it come out?
Anthony Nelson
Also the Illuminati get the best uniforms. Who doesn't love gas masks over top stylish business suits?
Sebastian Adams
Another week until release. I'm not holding out on the overhaul being anything too life changing.
Camden Adams
Phew, that's fast. I'm kind of pissed about this thing because I only got the game last Halloween and just reached Egypt. I love it, but I don't feel like replaying through whole Kingsmouth already and probably won't feel like it for at least a year. Still, I at least hope they'll fix the combat system, it really kind of sucked.
Benjamin Ward
Was anything released about the size of the patch? I might just install the game again to check on that.
Jordan Rivera
Do you keep the same content and shit? I've dropped some money on this game and I don't want to have to re-purchase all those issues.
Dylan Robinson
I think so. A legacy server with old mechanics and your old characters will be available, but the "main" game will move to new servers where everyone has to start from scratch. I think you keep your bought content though
Nolan Powell
>Kingsport map Care to post it then? Thanks.
Charles Fisher
>restart from 0 Fuuuuuuuuuuuck that. I grinded for a shitload of time, I don't want to lose all that.
Thomas Nguyen
I don't have any details other than what's on the Steam page. The early reviews don't sound too promising though.
Nathan Wright
It's not like it's hard. Gather up a group of like four people and just farm the Nightmare Airport in Kingsmouth. I'm kinda disappointed that I won't have my wings anymore but it'll be fun to progress again with the friends who started playing after I was already in Tokyo.
Jordan Watson
Not him, but it's literally the first result when you Google it.
Jason Diaz
But they're changing everything, right. No guarantee that'll still work.
Brayden Thompson
I really like how all 3 island regions maps align and connect nicely, even if these mountains look unrealistic as fuck.
Carter Johnson
From what I read it seems like they're more changing progression and baseline systems, not so much going over everything with a comb. But you've got a point. Worst case you just run those Egypt DLC missions when they come out again, considering apparently you won't even have to pay for them this time around.
Mason Perry
So is the combat system still going to be playing piano with numerical keys or is it actually going to be more fun and interesting this time? They could at least make basic attacks with weapons not abilities but just mouse clicks and make them feel more like weapons, while at the same time make abilities feel more special. This alone would make fighting so much better and more varied.
Chase Barnes
Dunno, I haven't played it. We'll just have to wait and see.
Anthony Hall
You now have to actually aim your attacks, for one thing. No more click and auto target.
Xavier Johnson
Well, this already sounds better. For me a perfect system, without changing the original one too much, would be to make weapons actually feel like weapons(add some basic attack types and fencing mechanics to melee, aiming, continuous fire and reloading to guns and something for magic) and make the abilities feel more special and powerful. Perhaps make the weapon resources not so easy to obtain and regenerate to avoid spamming them.
Nathan Johnson
Thanks
Ethan James
Esoterrorists is pretty rules-light, and is built from the ground up to be more investigation focused, which was one of the best parts of The Secret World
Brody Baker
Bump.
Samuel Roberts
Apparently the broad strokes is that resources function more like mana in other games (starting full, being consumed by major abilities, and slowly recovering on their own) and each weapon now has its own subsystem (hammer builds rage, which improves abilities in different ways; chaos randomly builds toward a random big effect; elementalism overheats if you use 'hot' abilities without interspersing 'cold' abilities; shotgun abilities configure your next reload; pistols have a slot machine).
