Occult modern world setting [closed]

Question

Recently I have noticed I am a fan of RPGs set in dark occult versions of our own world, like World of Darkness or Dresden Files. While I have played other games, these simply suit me best. So maybe you could suggest me some other games along those lines that I could play?

I know of World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Unknown Armies, and Dresden Files. What else can I find there? Maybe some games about modern (or even historical, like Ars Magica) mages? I have heard about some stuff like Seven Seal or In Nomine. I would love to hear about other games, that I could try, together with a few words about the setting and game systems.

Answer 1

Let's see, games I have that fit the bill:

Unknown Armies is probably the best example. It's a game of "transcendental horror and furious action" where players "take the roles of movers and shakers in the occult underground." It is excellent, by Greg Stolze and John Tynes, and had a number of supplements published.

Fear Itself, Esoterrorists, and Trail of Cthulhu are all GUMSHOE-based games from Pelgrane Press and are modern day occult horror set in our own world. The game system is by Robin Laws and Ken Hite wrote ToC. The games are actively supported.

Perhaps the most "occult" is Kult, a contemporary horror game using a lot from gnosticism and the Kabbalah. It's way out of print though.

Rafael Chandler's Pandemonium series (Spite, Dread) is angels and demons with a lot of gore and attitude, think John Constantine.

I don't own Tribe 8, a Silhouette-based game set in a postapocalyptic Canada, but it has a lot of spiritualism and Wicca-y stuff. It's way out of print.

Answer 2

Full Unisystem

CJC's Witchcraft

Welcome to the world of CJ Carella's WitchCraft Roleplaying Game. It is a world very like our own but with a much darker side. The monsters and horrors that fill our legends and "fairy tales" walk the earth, hunting and using us for their own purposes. The spirits and vampyres, demons and angels, shapeshifters and things unimagined, all move through our world just as they have since time immemorial. And we have helped them remain hidden for we no longer believe in the unseen.

Conspiracy X

Conspiracy X takes place in a world of dark secrets and hidden agendas where the only certainty is nothing is what it seems. The president might not be human... and the sign carrying paranoid on the street corner ranting about CIA mind control satellites may very well be right.

In other words, a world just like yours, if you could see beyond the lies...

They are compatible with All Flesh Must Be Eaten and Terra Primate... Zombies and Planet of the Apes, respectively... allowing a very wide range of nastiness.

Note that Full Unisystem is fairly compatible with Cinematic, but uses full polyhedral sets, has the GM rolling dice for NPC's, slower combat, and a much different tone... Hence why I put the two in separate entries.

Answer 3

Sorcerer is one that I've always wanted to play. Its in the game queue as the next one on our group's list to try out. Our current campaign will keep us busy for many months to come, though.

Answer 4

In Nomine

In Nomine is not exactly an occult setting, it's Angels vs Demons hiding their war from the (mostly) helpless mortals. It's close enough in tone, however, to be satisfying... if you are not offended by playing angels and or demons.

Playing demons does tend to be controversial; angels less so, except that the IN angels don't differ much, if at all, from their demonic counterparts except in motivations.

Answer 5

Cinematic Unisystem Games from Eden Studios

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel: both available only in PDF anymore.
PDF purchase: BTVS core, BTVS Revised Core, Angel Core
Can't get much more "modern occult" than these two. And, since they are compatible mechanically, you can add in Army of Darkness and Ghosts of Albion almost seamlessly. Besides, where else can you have Gun-Fu?

Ghosts of Albion is essentially "Buffy reimagined with less sexism and in the Victorian era".
PDF Purchase: Ghosts of Albion Core
As mentioned before, same system as Buffy and Angel, slightly different setting, victorian era.

Army of Darkness
PDF Purchase: Angel Core
Again, not modern, per se, but can be used as a modern. Listed mostly because it's the same system with some new options as the above 3.

And, just for fun, there's a BTVS "unofficial" conversion for Six-guns and Starships in one of the Eden Studios Presents volumes, so you can adapt it to Firefly/Serenity, too...

All of these games use only d10's, and only 1 per player is needed most of the time. The GM doesn't even use dice when played by the rules as written. This is very different in feel and tone from Full Unisystem.

Answer 6

There is also the game Nephilim from Chaosium. The PCs are Nephilim - spirits made of pure elemental energy that can possess a mortal as a vehicle that allow them to seek enlightenment. The game is full of hermetic tones: orders of Nephilim are modeled after Tarot Arcana, the magic covers alchemy, sorcery and summoning- it's not just 'throwing fireballs'.

As the PCs are ancient beings that have possessed similacra through the ages, there are a wide variety of settings to play- both historical (Ancient Egypt, etc) and modern. The enemies are other Nephilim, evil Selenim and various human mystical cults, cabals and secret societies.

There are a couple of detailed reviews at RPG.net, along with an extensive Wikipedia entry for more information.

Answer 7

There is also Chill, Call of Cthulthu (at a stretch), perhaps Whispering Vault ...

Answer 8

Dreaming Cities by the now-defunct Guardians of Order was essentially a construction kit for Urban Fantasy. Don't know if it's available anywhere anymore.

Answer 9

GURPS Technomancer

I have a great fondness for this somewhat obscure sourcebook for GURPS 3rd Edition, which is set in a 20th Century Earth where the atomic tests at Trinity unleashed the power of magic in a world much like our own. The result is a 20th Century with fantastic elements woven in.

Answer 10

Dark Conspiracy is an older one that dealt in the same vein. Shadowrun is more cyber than occult, but it has some elements that could make occult a stronger presence.

Answer 11

As far as I can see Beyond the Supernatural, a relatively little known, old rpg from Palladium hasn't been mentioned yet. Back in the old days we played several shorter stories with it, but in the long run WoD, Kult (already linked in the comments) and Call of Cthulhu won (the latter being our absolute winner, we still play a CoC adventure now and then.) :) It may still be worth a try, though.

Answer 12

Supernatural

Not being familiar with the show, nor the game except by system mechanics, I can't say much to it, but it's billed by some as in the desired genre.

from DTRPG:

Sorry to be the one to break this to you, but the truth hurts and there’s no use sugarcoating it. Ghosts are real. Demons too, along with those bumps in the night and maybe even the monster under your bed. The world’s a scary place. If you’re lucky the nasties that creep around in the dark won’t get hold of you.

‘Cept maybe you aren’t lucky. Maybe you’ve already lost something – or somebody – to the darkness. All the booze and therapy in the world can’t put your life back the way it was. And evil has a way of finding you again once it’s had a taste of blood.

So you decide to fight back. It’s not gonna be easy — as this kind of on-the-job training can get you dead. But you can stop being the hunted and become the hunter. There’s no fame or glory in it, and there sure as hell isn’t any money. But if you get the job done, you’ll save lives and send the bad guys screaming back to hell where they belong. If that sounds good, then you’ve got some work to do.

Purchase: | MWP | DTRPG-PDF |

Answer 13

A nice complement to In Nomine and WitchCraft is Armageddon, which posits a version of the modern world where the forces of the divine and the infernal (and assorted other pagan entities) do battle.

Answer 14

Castle Falkenstein

While not "modern" in the sense of set in our modern world with differences, it's set in our current time on a parallel earth with some limited contact between the two, and that alternate earth is still in the Victorian era, but with Steampunk and magic. That there is a linkage between them is occult knowledge...

PDF Purchase at DTRPG

Warning: system is cards, not dice. Uses standard poker/bridge decks, including jokers.

Answer 15

Monsterhearts

Monsterhearts takes the Apocalypse World engine to the modern era - specifically, supernatural teen romance. This game does a great job of providing the dramatic twists and turns of Buffy with low-prep and the story-generating virtues of Apocalypse World. It focuses on the lives and relationships of the characters, so you'll have to provide your own latex-clad bad guy every week.