Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. I hope I can do this here, it's not stepping on toes because this isn't a post about specific ideas. I do have specific ideas but they're in other threads, and I'd rather not muddy the waters of those other threads. Furthermore, I do intend to run one or more Modern AGE games out of this thread or PMs that result from it.

Thing is I REALLY like Modern AGE (enough to have bought Companions) and in addition to the ideas I've already bugged you guys about I'm willing to do other games that you guys take interest in:

• I don't buy or otherwise obtain d20 materials, so asking me to run a d20 splat book of some sort is out
• Yes I have tried GURPS, it was the best system I ever ran, but I haven't wanted to play it over the last 4 years due to a lack of support.
• I would like to be as generic as possible, e.g. I'd rather you pitch me a game about "a mafia family" than I would "San Andreas County after the events of GTA V".
• I would actually prefer to avoid settings that have established canon entirely, except possibly parody games, which make a point of changing the name so it's an obvious parody. This is to avoid offense that might be given by fanboys/girls who cleave to the established canon and think breaking it is sacrilege. Even that may not be enough, so if I can dodge established canons altogether, that's great!
• I would like for 3-5 people to be on board with the idea I decide to run with, so if someone posts an idea you guys like be sure to let me know you like their idea too.

Also, side question: Is there enough interest in AGE System in general, or Modern specifically to create a Discussion Group? Because I think if I can get enough people interested in that, I might have better luck running games with the system.

Teenagers investigating supernatural events, only it isn't the corrupt landlord in a rubber mask? (Not a Scooby-Doo parody. Original characters.)

Anyway, I spent money on the Modern AGE book for a stillborn game, and I'd like to get some value out of it, so I'll be watching this thread.

Turn of the 20th Century / Gaslight urban fantasy?
This message was last edited by the user at 23:19, Sun 12 May 2019.

I'd prefer not to do teenagers since I like to minimize content restrictions. It just feels easier to also let the game be mature/adult, and then if the game doesn't have certain content (violence, graphic or otherwise/sexual, but not necessarily actually sex, and so on) that's fine, we just weren't arbitrarily restricted from it by playing teenagers, or me by running them. That said, I won't outright say no to the idea of teens, I just would prefer otherwise.

Would they also be freelancers, or government agents, or would there be a transition from one to the other?


Possibly? Maybe even steampunk, or some mode of power besides steam... "gaslight" has a fair bit of enumerable possibilities. I also have Fantasy AGE and its Companion, so while that wouldn't be used to make Warriors, Rogues, and Mages, I could see the Arcanas and spells being usable. There's also the discussion of whether Arcanas would be a regular talent or specialization. This one will involve a fair bit of houseruling to grind out what we use either way, but not "I wrote a whole 20-40 page document full of houserules"

I don't have Modern AGE yet, but I noticed they managed to put a spellcaster in the sample characters in the Quickstart.

An 18-year-old is a teenager, and still young enough not to be entirely trusted by adults, which is the reason I said "teenagers"—so that the PCs would be on their own, unable to call on official help. The story could start after high school graduation.

I'm not sure what you're getting at with government agents or freelancers.

The character creation of Modern AGE is significantly different from Fantasy AGE. At the very least I'd want players to have its Core Rulebook. I'd prefer they also have Modern AGE Companion, as that offers a lot of options, several of which are indispensable to me and it saves on me having to write extra threads to cue them in... I'll have to do some of that regardless.


RPoL says they're old enough to be trusted as adults, so I'll be operating on the assumption that they're old enough to be trusted as adults as long as RPoL has an opinion on it. Those are the characters I'd prefer in my game either way.


That can occur without me having to call them teenagers for reasons I get into below.


It occurs to me that a college fraternity/sorority¹ centered on paranormal research the college is secretly doing could be cool.


The people from Scooby Doo aren't paid by government agencies to do the work they do. They're freelancers. The people of say... Men in Black are explicitly paid by government agencies. Many paranormal investigation crews run somewhere in the middle. That idea I thought of where the local college has a frat/sorority could easily be somewhere in the middle. They get paid by the government because the government explicitly provides universities some club funding. But they're definitely not an actual government agency. They'd also likely be freelancers on paper... that is if they did any paperwork. More likely they wouldn't necessarily even be considered freelancers. They'd just be some random club.

And if they get in a little over their heads, maybe, some government agency actually catches wind of it, throws some hush money at them, and suddenly the university Physics department has an underground bunker..

Or maybe not. But you did pitch an idea where they're real monsters, so it's reasonable that some theoretical physicists might be helpful for closing portals, inventing stories and so forth. It's really up to the userbase which way we go on that.

I would want to set it in some BFN town. The one most familiar to me is a university town in Arkansas, but even then I would probably change some details.

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^{1. Oddly when I was in college, the groups that accepted both male and female were required to be called sororities. I have no idea if this is even a thing any more, or if I just had it badly explained to me then.}

Amusingly enough a college group that investigates supernatural mysteries is pretty much the exact sort of thing that I would want to play!

Maybe instead of a sorority or fraternity it's a sort of shadowy School Club though? That way we can have plenty of character diversity and people with different reasons to be there.

To go with the Scooby Doo angle, most of them might start off thinking they'll be more debunking things (or simply not finding anything paranormal at all) and then they get into real magical shenanigans?

Sure. The difference between the two is negligible enough that it doesn't make much difference for a game. I mean there probably are differences between frat funding and club funding and the legalese involved, but I wouldn't know enough about it to know what they are.


There's something to be said for both methods, the other being In Media Res. Although it does amuse me that the hobo down the street that's drunkenly wandering around naked and talking about Tir Na Nog or whatever could definitely be a goblin and that could still fly under the mundane radar.

The biggest difference between a frat and a club is that a frat has a house where everyone sleeps and throws parties.

Interesting... It does bring up an important detail to consider: having a house means the players can just gain access to secret rooms (and by extension, supernatural and techy things) within the house as the game goes on. I also super like the idea of a frat/sorority where the initial scenario involves exploring the house.

Also a frat would make it where an adult game somewhat makes sense. As it is, the game could be either Adult or Mature because I don't run general audience games.