What RPG system do you use for a complete unique campaign?

[yxanthymir]

Lately I am having some ideas for some unique campaigns, and some RPG systems, despite the popularity are really bad or need a lot of hacking to work. Normally in this situation I would rely on Fate, as my preferred system, but Fate sometimes is too open ended for a very specific campaign. Recently I acquired a new RPG system (currently reading the rulebook) and I think it may be be perfect for that situations. But I am here to know, what is the RPG system you use for a complete unique campaign?

 

Some examples of these campaigns:

 

- Investigative campaign in a medieval setting, with low magic, only humans, no divine powers.

 

- Exploraton and action campaign in a weird setting (Tech and Magic coexist, but both are unreliable and wild), with a great emphasis on religion.

Edited January 3, 2023 by yxanthymir (see edit history)

[GreysonWulffe]

I dunno but Fate can be as loose or as specific as you want. It can only be "too open-ended" if you, as the GM, allow it to be.

 

Your example campaigns are already pretty good sets of campaign and story aspects. If you establish them before character creation (or during game creation), the players will have to build their character aspects within those boundaries. And everything else that you might come up as a group later in the game will also be bounded by those campaign/story aspects. Nothing there can be open-ended unless you give them an exemption.

 

I can still remember my real-life group's Fate Accelerated high-fantasy campaign that got a touch of space mecha when the party jumped into an unknown portal. The GM added story aspects that stayed until the party got back to their own world. That was a pretty unexpected twist - considering that it was a twist for the GM, too, 'coz we determined the exit point of that portal thru a random roll - that made for a unique campaign, and Fate handled it fairly well. :)

[yxanthymir]

Fate is simple enough that it can adapt to anything, but not necessarily it runs smooth or with the necessary flair. I just found a system that it is very similar to fate, more or less a mix of Fate and Hero, but it is completely hackable to the needs of your setting. Currently I am reading the rulebook of Cortex Prime, but it seems a lot better than Fate (hard to tell only reading), and easy enough that a Fate player can play it very easily.

 

GURPS was suggested to me once, but it is a very complex system.

Edited January 3, 2023 by yxanthymir (see edit history)

[Basil_Bottletop]

I think the common consensus is that it's dependent on your unique idea. If you want a whodunit campaign, then something that handles clues/murder/failing forward might be best. If you want broad sweeping battlefields, then something with group combat and battlefield operations is your ideal wheelhouse.

 

But regularly, we as gamers tend to use the systems we know because we know the warts already on it. You can work with the warts you know. You can't be prepared to clean up a system you aren't fully informed on from the get go. 

[Harding]

White Wolf - World of darkness would be my system for both situations.  Doesn't need a lot of tweeking to turn the game into another time period than modern days.

Edited January 11, 2023 by Harding (see edit history)

[farothel]

for the second one I think either Shadowrun (where magic and tech are already blended) or Alternity (an older system) would work quite well.  Alternity DarkMatter has some magic and it works exactly like any other skill.

A Star Wars system might also work, if you consider Jedi skills as magic.

[jokomaisu]

On 1/3/2023 at 6:31 AM, yxanthymir said:

- Exploraton and action campaign in a weird setting (Tech and Magic coexist, but both are unreliable and wild), with a great emphasis on religion.

@yxanthymir If you haven't already, take a look at Starforged. It might work with a little hacking/reflavoring.

[GaryD20]

Index Card RPG. You can get a free quick start guide off of DriveThru RPG if you want to give it a look to see if its what you are looking for. Very rules light as far as the core mechanics go, but also very easily adaptable to any type of campaign and setting. 

[Amy]

DungeonWorld or any Powered by the Apocalypse variants are fairly simple to learn.

 

What Basil said above is the best advice, however.  What style of campaign are you looking at? What play style are you trying to encourage?  Go from there.