I am planning to run a campaign. It will probably be set in a homebrew setting, but the idea is - PCs are operatives of an intelligence agency trying to undermine a political movement. Sicario films, The Wire, to some extent memes about Wagner PMCs are big inspirations.
I'm trying to pick a system for this. Here are the important aspects for me:
- Light on math and mechanics. I am not trying to totally freeform this, but I am not comfortable with something as complex as e.g. DH. nWoD is probably the most complex I'm OK with.
- Emphasis on planning. We playtested some Forged in the Dark hack for this, and I hated the "go into action, then discuss how we arrived here" narrative flow - for me most of the gameplay should me PCs collecting information and deciding on how they do something. I want that to be the source of thrill - not flashy shootouts.
- Universal enough that I should not need to hack at the system for months to make it work with my setting.
Any ideas?
GURPS.
Wait, how is it that we can rules-light GURPS? I played it long ago with experienced players, so it may have been on the robust end of the spectrum, but I clearly remember a PC creator program that I needed to run, and a ton of very granular attributes ("No, your character doesn't have a skill for firearms, it's Light Automatic Weapons, TL7, unscoped" or something like that) - and the GM being very salty about having to put in the work at scaling the challenges to the PCs. I don't want to do that.
All systems are modular. All of them. You can take anything out you want. If you want examples of it being run very light, and don't want to search those groups out locally, the Film Reroll podcast has been using rules-lite GURPS for years (but their sense of humor is hit or miss and lot of their games are easily skippable.) At the end of the day the core is a roll-under system with some modifier tables and you don't even have to use the tables. The only way you can get lighter is one of those extreme one-pager games like Risus.
There is literally a light version you mongoloid
GURPS Lite is absolute dogshit tho
>Freeform Universal
>Fudge
>Tiny Spies.
Wasn't Ultra-lite the garbage version? I thought Lite was supposed to be fine.
Lite is just GURPS basic set with a whole lot of pages cut out, Ultra-Lite is like a different game.
If OP wants to use GURPS I'd recommend he look at GURPS Action vol 2 because it has rules for the type of campaign he's running.
Defend this post in some way or develop haemorrhoids.
GURPS is already a system for people who like heavy simulation. Removing that removes the soul of the game leaving it a shallow thin ruined orgasm of a game.
Absolutely incorrect and fatuous. Enjoy your pustulent turd cutter.
Nights Black Agents, just change the vampires for your enemy of choice
Regardless, the Conspyramid and the Vampyramid are probably great planning tools for this kind of thing
I second this
Or some other gumshoe hack. Might be easier to use Fall of Delta Green as the base.
Yeah, the answer is GURPS. It can be as light or as robust as you need it to be and most other "modern" systems suck shit.
Delta Green
Mini Six if you want lots of combat.
Classic Unisystem if you want combat to stand a damn good chance of killing a PC (this system is used in ConspiracyX 2nd edition, and All Flesh Must Be Eaten, but just leave out the aliens or zombies and you're golden)
Milleniums End 2e
Twilight 2K.
>Universal enough that I should not need to hack at the system for months to make it work with my setting.
but if that's your thing BRP would also work. But universal systems don't have a focus, so I'd say Twilight 2k, and if you're autist, the answer is Phoenix Command.
Genesys is more pulp, but I find it to hit that sweet spot of not too crunchy but not freeform either. The funni dice might be a problem if you aren't using online dice simulators though.
If I had to do it I'd use delta green and ignore all the horror shit. Or Open D6 from West End Games.
If I were you I'd use Delta Green's new edition. It's simple, modern, combat is simple and lethal, and you've got rules to use government agencies and their resources. As you said you don't want flashy combat, I'm not going to recommend Cyberpunk 2020, which I find pretty damn good for modern settings once you remove cyber-stuff.
>light on math and mechanics
>emphasis on planning
>dark heresy is too complex (lol)
anon I think what you want doesn't exist
look into savage worlds, doesn't have narrative bullshit but is relatively light and is generic. You'll have to make the planning matter yourself.