A friend of mine is interested in running a game that feels a lot like the X-Files (specifically the alien conspiracy portion, rather than the monster-of-the-week portion). Can anyone recommend a system/setting for that?
Requirements:
- Nothing about what's going on behind the scenes in the player book.
- Ideally, even the Gm guide doesn't actually specify what's going on behind the scenes, but rather provides a toolbox to help the GM build their own conspiracy.
- Limited availability of special powers (psionics, magic, alien tech, cybernetics, etc.); it's OK for them to be in there, but the assumption should be that most PCs don't have them.
- Relatively high levels of player empowerment (something FATE-based would be ideal).
- Relatively low lethality combat (Mully & Sculder survive every episode & don't normally spend months in the hospital).
- Combat should be relatively fast/streamlined, and not the major focus of the system; this is X-Files, not Starship Troopers.
We would prefer something not based on GURPS or World of Darkness. GURPS combat is neither streamlined nor low-lethality. World of Darkness is moderately lethal (for normal humans), and is geared primarily towards horror rather than intrigue/mystery, plus the vast majority of its support is for the explicitly supernatural rather than something more like aliens.
EDIT: To clarify, it's OK for a system/setting to contain lots of non-human PC races, magic, cybertech, etc. as long as the GM can use challenges/threats and skill DCs (or system equivalent) as they are presented in sourcebooks on a fully "normal" human party without needing to rebalance things.
EDIT 2: We would like both a system and a setting. Certainly it's possible to take a generic system (like FATE Core) and build a setting for it, but all of us lack either the time or the experience needed to do so properly.