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Mr. Mask
2015-07-08, 07:18 PM
Here's a challenging one. Can someone think of an RPG that can authentically run a Metal Gear Solid setting/game?

So, a modern military setting with an emphasis on stealth and CQC, with lower powered super powers and robots (except for Raiden... dang).

I've considered something crazy like adding super powers and robots to Twilight 2013, and tweaking stealth and hand to hand with houserules to take guards hostage.

dream
2015-07-08, 08:42 PM
GURPS does it easily, as does HERO system. Savage Worlds can do it. FATE.

Karl Aegis
2015-07-09, 12:43 AM
Pretty much any time you want to play a stealth scenario in Tenra Bansho Zero you end up with this. Even the 2 meter tall robots can be stealthy if you want them to be. It just gets harder when you're facing high-end cyborgs or purpose-made killing machines.

Comet
2015-07-09, 03:32 AM
I've been thinking about this too. Probably more about replicating the setting than the game. I'd like to either run a game where the players are mercenaries in 2014 with all the cyberpunk intrigue and existential questions that come with that or a game where the players form a group like Shadow Moses FOXHOUND or the Cobra Unit and take on an impossible operation, possibly against other equally powerful characters.

Generic systems like GURPS seem to be the standard answer here, but I'm not convinced yet. I'd ideally like a few things which I feel aren't there in a generic system:

-An extensive equipment list that isn't too math heavy. MGS has always had a fetishistic relationship with weapons and gear but I don't want the process of picking out that gear to take hours of game time.

-Combat that doesn't habitually end in death. MGS is so much about characters and drama that leaving their fate to the dice at any frequency seems like a disservice. Ideally I'd only have characters die when they're fighting one on one against an equal opponent with some grand goal or ideal on the line.

-Some help on encouraging players to create characters that are strongly aligned in philosophical or moral terms. Spicing up your fistfights with a civilized argument about the meaning of life and the price of war is cool and I'd like to give the players some tools to do that in the game.

gom jabbarwocky
2015-07-09, 04:39 PM
I've often considered using Cyberpunk 2020 to run a game like that. CP 2020 has basically all the ingredients (extensive equipment lists full of cool/ridiculous stuff, PCs with kooky backstories and motivations, and combat that heavily favors sneakiness), except the ESP stuff, and even then I'm sure it would be easy to strap that on there. However, while I personally think that CP 2020 is a heck of a lot of fun, I can also say that the system is very much style over substance, so it is pretty wonky in some places, and is most certainly not everyone's cup of tea. It also hasn't been supported for like fifteen years. I still think it would be a perfect fit for an MSG simulation, though.

I've also run Delta Green, which at times can be very MSG-esque, if you let it get really out of hand. It has the spycraft, the psychic powers, and "kewl" technology. When my game started out, it was very much in the style of X Files, but by the end it got pretty far away from that - black ops commando units, insane psychics spies, military mech suits, and retired SDI superweapons retrofitted with MJ-12 technology... yeah. May have gotten carried away on that one. DG isn't a great fit because it's Call of Cthulhu, and PCs will die a lot, or get maimed and become crippled for life, or go totally bonkers and kill themselves (and everyone else in the blast radius). But boy howdy, the stories I could tell from that campaign...

I've heard that the old Spycraft RPG was basically perfect for this, but I've never had the firsthand experience to say so myself.