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Old 07-05-2010, 09:09 PM   #4
macphersonrants
 
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Olympia, WA
Default Re: Modern (Action!, Cliffhangers, ___ Ops) Weirdness?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk View Post
Honestly, I love it all. I'm less a fan of Conspiracy X and more a fan of Cabal, though, if that gives you any idea. Although, that may be mainly the fault of the horrible fan-fic intro to GURPS Conspiracy-X than the actual game itself.

I like my modern occult stuff in layers. There's independents out there a la supernatural fighting lone occult threats. There's federal agencies aware of and dedicated to fighting larger occult threats. Then there's the lower levels of the illuminated, ancient secret societies dedicated to long, slow, subtle wars against supernatural threats. And at the top, even the most powerful supernatural threats are trying to keep even worse things out of our reality. Oh, and all of these powers utilize the lower ranks as pawns, and very few of the various players on similar power levels trust one another. The FBI might have a unit dedicated to dealing with the supernatural, but there's no way they're sharing their intel with the KGB, and they barely even trust the CIA.

But really, for me, a modern occult game needs a couple things to sell me:

Secret conflict
Weird powers
Balkanized world

I don't want it to be a world where everyone knows about the weirdness, or a world where all humans can muster against the supernatural is guns (though harnessing otherworldly powers should certainly have it's costs), or a world where one vast omnipresent power can smoosh you like a bug whenever it wants.
My preferences are very similar. What are your thoughts on power levels for PCs? I'm also curious what you like in the way of cosmology and metaphysics?

Regarding Conspiracy X, I had a similar reaction to the Powered by GURPS product. The non-crunchy elements of the stuff they did for their own system was better in my opinion. It's one of the few RPGs where I would consider running published adventures without heavy modification.

My one real regret with GURPS and Conspiracy X is that some of the stuff incorporated in 'Pulling Strings' was never incorporated into the 4e canon. I could see the concept being applicable to almost any genre.
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