Anyone have any interesting recommendations for systems that aren't DnD/Pathfinder/GURPS? Preferably for modern day settings (that aren't WoD). I've been thinking of doing a one-shot or a short campaign to test out new systems since I shelled out for a new VTT and have all these cool tools at my disposal now. I've run Kamigakari before, which I recommend to any tabletop weebs and the ruleset is free since the tranny that set up the kickstarter to publish the official English book ran off with the money. Other systems I've glanced over were Defiant and Witchcraft but the latter has some really hideous typesetting which turns me off even if the system seems neat. Took a look at Yellow King as well but combat system is so different that it might take everyone (including me) time to adjust to it.
Shill time because I like smaller indie games and I love spreading the love. I'm gonna recommend something a bit unorthodox, but I've played a lot of it and I stand by it in terms of ease of use, modularity for a variety of needs and good good fun.
http://opsandtactics.blogspot.com/ Ops & Tactics is one man's love-letter to operator/swat/general gunfagging and he made it on 4chan's /tg/ board back when it was less shitty, with a lot of help from /k/. It's on it's sixth "edition" or revision or w/e. It started out as a sort of home-brewed fanmade retread of D20 modern with all the known flaws and bad parts ironed out or improved upon and it just got better and bigger in scope since then. The big draw is the gunnuttery that permeates every facet of the rules, there's a shit ton of firearms statted and damage is based on caliber with different guns providing things like critical boosts or range or different amounts of kit you can slap on. The combat is punchy and robust and defenses are designed to have trouble out-scaling accuracy unless you hardcore optimize and play smart. Melee weapons are also given a fair cop, and melee works well again if you're a stealthy character or rely on improvised weapons in no gun zones. There's a light martial arts system. Called shots, good amount of perks and skilll options. You can be tacticool operator sniper man, or John Wick pistol-fu shitter as easily if you know what you're doing. It uses an action point system, like the older fallout games do, so you have a good amount of options and things you can do in a turn besides just shoot once and move once. It had a class system and used d20 ala D20 modern but has since become a 3d6 classless system. There is a urban fantasy sourcebook with magic bullets and fantasy races/monsters and a decent magic system that lets you make your own spells with effects, or gives you some pre-statted ones. There's also a cyberpunk/near future sourcebook for shit like androids/replicants, aliens, trans-humanist cyborg shit. Naturally you can combine the two and run Shadowrun pretty handily. The dude releases mini splats with new guns people ask for, there's a rules light version that shorthands a lot, and all in all it's free. A friend used the fantasy book to run Men in Black but with fantasy races instead of aliens, and I had a decent Hong Kong set John Woo crime game that relied on the melee and pistol rules for a lot of it, and a post apocalyptic sad robot game that came out of me playing too much Nier Automata and GFL. It runs any kind of modern game well, but the concession is that almost every PC and badguy is going to be decently, if not ludicrously strapped. WoD Vampire style game? Nosferatu has an lmg. Cryptid hunting game set in west virginia? You're gonna plug mothman full of holes. Ranges from ultrarealistic to John Wick based on how you wanna flavor things and what optional rules you use.
Kamigakari is nice, I'm still butthurt about the kickstarter. He couldn't just keep shitting up Shadowrun. defiant is neat, I obtained the book and gave it a look but somethings about how it's setting works confounds me a bit. Double Cross was another good modern weeb rpg, but the translator left a cryptic post about his health and then vanished of the face of the planet and now the game is pretty DOA in English. More than enough content to play it for a long time though.
Corporation is a fun RPG but it's strictly post-cyberpunk. It's pretty cheap usually and my go to for cyberpunk when I don't necessarily need the punk. Every one of the PCs sold out to the man and you're a troubleshooter team for one of the settings five megacorps or a smaller AA corp. The big megacorps are the Chinese industrial giant with Triad connections falling out of the wazoo, the American christian-fundy PMC and Arms dealing corporation that made America great again with martial law, The Japanese high tech honour based zaibatsu running around with secret genelocked katana lightsabers, the indo african psionic spiritualist company of peace who joined hands and remote brainblasted a bunch of higher ups in other companies when they established themselves, they also specialise in education and openly admit to trying to brainwash the youth. Europe got swalled by a massive luxury goods/pharmaceutical company who engages in all kinds of shady shit to secure their spot as a necesity. They have a monopoly on private healthcare or just about. The system is 2D10, pretty cheesy ultra-violent fun with some corporate espionage here and there. For my money, it's pretty apolitical and evenhanded considering the concept. It never makes you feel explicitly bad for being a sellout killing machine cyborg, and it's more like a setting based around the commercials from robocop instead of a thought provoking game attempting to tell you of the evils of late stage capitalism or anything like that. There are even in universe ads in the pages of the book that are pretty funny here and there. You can tell a small indie setup made it, but it has a lot of love.
I’ve been looking into Savage Worlds myself for a system I want to run. Its ludicrously short an easy, with most of the stuff in the core rulebook being optional rules. The only thing is that its made for more cinematic gameplay, so if you’re more into realism, look elsewhere.
Savage Worlds is great if your friends and or players are lazy fucks and you have to spoonfeed info to them because they're reading averse. It's also a fun springboard into Deadlands or one of the fun prebuilt settings like ETU.
