Hello everyone! My current games have slowed down a bit, and I think it's time thought about starting another. I've been having a lot of free time at work recently where I just have to stare at screens conducting tests, and having some good old fashioned RPing really helps take way the monotony. That being said, I'm kind of wrestling between a few concepts, and I'd love some help sorting out the mess real quick. I'll write about each game concept below. I'll also list some systems that I'd probably use, although I do tend to love pseudo-freeform for this site.  If any of you know of systems that you think would fit well for a particular game, feel free to mention it. Without further ado, I'll show the concepts.

Changing of the Guard: A somewhat low fantasy game with the players tasked as the new knights and defenders of a poor and dangerous province. Rather than being the normal adventurers and mercenaries common in gaming, they'll be moreso part of the establishment as knights and soldiers, along with support staff like clerks. The new guardsmen and liege knights would have to deal with mostly more mundane threats like peasant uprisings and bandits, as well as more diplomatic and bureaucratic duties such as entreating visiting nobles and dealing with their games of intrigue. Magic and supernatural threats would likely be treated as a 'game changer' of sorts. Could switch it to a sort of Knight Academy for a twist on the concept.
System:Guided-Freeform, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Probably something Simplistic

Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World (Name Pending): As a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Urban Fantasy works, and games such as Persona 4, the idea of a bunch of High Schoolers or University Students having to team up to fight the things that go bump in the night is very exciting to me. The kids would have to team up, survive dangers, and discover the powers of martial skills, mad science, magic and more to protect their town, friends and family while navigating the underground world of magic.
System: Guided-Freeform, World of Darkness (Either Chronicles of Darkness or Hunter: the Vigil)  Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG (Probably own Setting though), Monster of the Week (A bit wary of that one)

Hireling RPG: The players take the role of hirelings that have to work for adventurer parties, try to get  cut of the loot, and survive their dangerous occupations. It's a game I've been wanting to run for a while, but I do worry about how players will feel about playing purposely ineffectual characters. Coming up with adventures and plots is no problem for me however, I've got tons of ideas of heroic things for the characters to do.
System: Homebrew, Dungeon World Hack, Guided-Freeform

The Town of Wonders: Based off of games like Necromunda and Frostgrave, this would task the players as mercenaries hired to explore a dangerous city filled with monsters and artifacts of an ancient age. Players will have to survive the city, deal with rival teams of mercenaries, decide who they will accept as their patrons,and eventually help decide the fate of the city itself.
System: Guided-Freeform, Shadow of the Demon Lord, D&D 5E (Low Magic), Warhammer Fantasy 2E

EDIT; Added an extra option
This message was last edited by the user at 21:11, Tue 31 May 2016.

All these concepts looks good, but I must say that I am a bit wary about the Hireling RPG. The Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World game would be nice and I will be tempted to join but there are things that I want to ask about it (also includes other games). Do you want to run it as a modern dark realistic horror kind of way or more cinematic and 'super' kind of way. If you are looking for the previous flavor then WoD system is good (Don't know about Buffy RPG). On the otherhand if you are looking for like a cinematic or animesque style, there is Fate rpg system and Savage Worlds. Am also interested in the Town of Wonders game.

Of the four, Hirelings RPG seems like it would be by far the most fun to me. It has the vibe of Redshirts (the recent sci-fi novel) or an episode of Venture Brothers.

Changing of the Guard seems like a story inspired by or similar to the experiences of the Black Guard in Song of Ice and Fire. This has possibilities, but it would likely be a very long game before the story really gets where you want it to go.

Wake Up... might be fun or a tedious drag depending on the system. I don't know the Buffy RPG nor MotW, so I will reserve further judgement.

The Town of Wonders seems rather bland to me. From the description, it looks like a fairly standard low-level dungeon crawl with the difference being that the dungeon is mostly above ground. I am unfamiliar with Necromunda and Frostgrave, so it's possible that I simply have the wrong impression.

If you take my reactions and add them together with Stalker05 -- we are no help at all, are we?

I'd probably merge Town of Wonders and Changing of the Guard as they don't seem to have that oomph I prefer.

You could merge Hirelings and Wake Up, but I think Wake up is the better idea. Like chupabob I know neither of those systems, but I'm a Buffy fan.

Maybe looking into the d20 Conan RpG by Mongoose for Town of Wonders and turning it into a more word and sorcery setting would help.

Hm...Interesting ideas, but I probably would not merge Town of Wonders and Changing of the Guard. They just have too different focuses for that. One has a much more mundane setting, scenarios, and more slice of life style elements, while the other is about 'mercenary politics' and dangerous exploration of a more mystical place.

Again, not sure if I can mix Hireling RPG and the Buffy one. It would just be a bit too hard. I do agree that Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World is a sound concept though.

I will consider looking into the Conan RPG, although I wouldn't use the Hypboria setting admittedly. I was already considering having the player characters not having much in the way of magic and the like, so a slightly more Sword and Sorcery setting is most definitely an option. Part of what would make it a bit different than a standard Dungeon Crawl would be the presence of the other mercenary groups, patrons, and warbands, making things far more complicated in terms of mercenary politics, base setups, and more.

I'm still trying to figure which system I'd run with in the Urban Fantasy game. I'm also tempted to just stick with a sort of Guided Freeform setup similar to Fate or something.

Any of these sound appealing! Whichever one you end up doing, I would definitely be interested in. The Hireling one could either be wildly entertaining, or difficult to keep moving at a steady pace, but even that one, I'd be willing to give a shot.

Hireling sounds like a combo of Nodwick and Redshirts, and could be fun.

Wake up..., is also a good one, of just use BtVS for that even if you changed the setting since it is purpose built for that genre.

If be interested in either of those.

Hm...it's sounding like Wake up Go to School Save The World is the most popular of the concepts listed. I'm trying to figure out which system I should use. I tend to like lower power levels for player characters. With that in mind, should I use Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which I admittedly have little experience with) World of Darkness (Might use Hunter the Vigil although I'd prefer not to have to use NWoD 1.0), or should I just go ahead and make it more system-lite/guided freeform?

Buffy is a pretty lite system. 1d10+ bonuses. But it's your game.

I should probably look into it a bit more. What can you tell me about it, and why do you think it would fit? Does it lean towards more powerful characters? Or weaker ones? What types of characters does it support? I'd like to know so I can make an informed decision.

Buffy has three tiers of starting characters, to portray the different levels of characters on the show. The game supports anything from teenage nerds, to superheroes,  to vampires, to werewolves, to mundane adults... and there are some fan done mods for Highlanders and other things.

I think it fits because the scenario you are describing is essentially generic BtVS, so a game built for that type of show would lend itself inheritly to what you described,  no need to fudge things around. Simply take what is there and rename things. Also, game balance is already there.

Okay. The Buffy game can support both powerful and weaker characters in the same system. The problem I think, is that it is a system written around an assumption that there will be a Slayer, or at least one hero-type. I'm not sure that's what you're looking for.

I like the system myself; but I'm not sure how well it supports a game not set in that universe.

I'm actually reading into the system right now. It might be good for it, although I'd probably do all White Hat characters.

I'd be up for town of wonder or changing the guard if you were to use shadow of the demon lord :)

I'd be happy to use Shadow of the Demon Lord for the Town of Wonders game, but I'd be a little more wary of it for Changing of the Guard. It's a bit too combat focused and such for it.

Might be a sight delay in game creation. Still a tiny bit indecisive and busy with work. I would love to hear any more discussion on any of the concepts though!

Does anybody know any good slightly lower fantasy systems for the Mercenary one? Having characters have little to no magic at the beginning would be something I'm interested in.

Perhaps dragon warriors might suit just remove the wizard type characters and you have a good low fantasy game

Dragon Warriors? I've never heard of that game. Mind explaining a bit more about it?

I might be putting these concepts on hold. I think I have a few better ideas to work with instead. I'll be posting about it on this forum soon enough.

Thank you to everyone who spoke with me on this thread though! It's been some very useful discussion!