POLL Gothic Fantasy System
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Apocalypse World (Dungeon World)
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Cortex Plus, with some hacked Stress Tracks.
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D20 OGL which borrows from Green Ronin material, particularly the Black Company system hack for its magic system and the Bushwhacking rules. Mask of the Red Death/Red Moon/Whatsitcalled would mash well. That one is a D20 system explicitly made for gothic horror. Maybe with 13th Age caps on things.
Open Legend. It is quick, low on rolls and mechanics and story focused.
Apocalypse World I second. That can work nicely.
Runequest/Mythras brought us Elric/Stormbringer and the original Cthulhu RPG. It is very handy for gothic horror fantasy. Moreover, who would not wish to be Van Quacken, vampire hunter?
Warhammer 2e is pretty solid as a system.
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@BobGoblin said in POLL Gothic Fantasy System:
Apocalypse World (Dungeon World)
How would you deal with History (Hx) in a Mu* environment?
Mind you, Dungeon World is an amazing D&D Love Letter(*). I think it goes beyond this to the core of the genre to try and re-create it.
It's also one of very few games that are designed for player-to-player conflict. Sure, your character can be made to act in a way that you don't want, but this would happen even when succeeding on a check. "The bartender sneers at your threats but tells you the name of his Thieves' Guild contact. You two were little too loud, it seems, a little to obvious. There is movement in the room and three people stand, drawing ugly knives and one an even longer blade. You've been made." The game thrives on partial successes.
I'm okay with this.
It's also very GM-heavy. In a Mu* situation, who decides the above is the consequence of the action? In PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse) games, there is nothing that's not a scene.
I'd love to see this work, but want to see how.
(*) Footnote: Most Old-School Revolution (OSR) games are mainly love letters to D&D, pining for the days of yore.
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I personally think Hx in the Mu setting is already dealt with largely in the way that a lot of games have people who try to connect their characters to each other prior. This would simply be a more direct and codified way to do it. As for implementation, I'm sure someone with more spare mental time than me could come up with a way. Off the top of my head I'd lean towards histories perhaps being a bit reworked from RAW and to allow them ebb and flow a bit more as incidents on game occurred (as they're supposed to in AW).
As for your scenario above, I would presume the Story Teller would be the person implementing such things.
In the DW game I have been a part of in the past, the story teller rotates every week or two depending on the mood and flavor; much like a MU. So I don't really see how that's an issue in the least? That's sort of how most games I have seen already do it. Someone sets up event, runs said event, they get to decide such things in said event?
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@BobGoblin said in POLL Gothic Fantasy System:
I personally think Hx in the Mu setting is already dealt with largely in the way that a lot of games have people who try to connect their characters to each other prior.
But it raises and lowers at the end of each session. Not only that, but people vote for your experience-earning skill, again once per session. These are concerns that are solved at each table, and a Mu* is an entirely different kind of table.
In the DW game I have been a part of in the past, the story teller rotates every week or two depending on the mood and flavor; much like a MU.
Except that in PbtA games, even a bar scene is a scene run by the MC. That is, there is no downtime in this kind of game. This is a huge issue, and you either have to decide who's MCing at that moment, or find a way to run Dungeon World without an MC.
