Modern DND Type Setting.

What rule set would you say is the best for a modern setting but with magic?

d20 Modern with Arcane Unleashed supplement Or Shadowrun. If you don't like the Shadowrun rules you could just use the setting and use 3.5 or Pathfinder or 4e instead with minor work.

I think I'd rather use D20 modern of the two. Is there any others anyone else knows of?

I play in two d20 Modern games. One we do Zombie Rising, and the a Vampire game. You can make d20 Modern however you would like. If you want magic, look up the Urban Arcana supplement.

You could look at the OpenD6 rules (available for free download at DriveThruRPG.com)

First question: Define modern. Early modern steampunk? Today? Twenty-minutes-into-the-future cyberpunk? High cyberpunk dystopia? Post-apoc hellscape? Early space flight and planetary romance? Caped crime fighters? Superheroes? Second question: What do you want it to -feel- like? Please do not take this as a barb; you seem to be coming in from a D&D/PF mindset. Now, I love me some PF (and D&D before 4th, but let's not debate that), but each of those has a power fantasy of being a bad ^$(@(*^& who wrecks house. There are a lot of games that cater to that, especially in high fantasy. But in "modern" games, there are settings where the players are bit players in a cosmic struggle. There are games where money and influence are the real weapons. There are games where street samurai and computer hackers raid low-orbit stations. There are games where drunken mages channel their alcoholism into magic power as it destroys their lives. You need a tone first. Scion, Changeling the Dreaming, Mage the Ascension, Mage the Awakening, and Call of Cthulhu can all be stripped of their attending intellectual property if you want to use them as a sort of "generic" modern magic setting. Shadowrun as written combines cyberpunk with a fantasy kitchen sink, if that's your thing. Strip out the fantasy, and you want Cyberpunk 2020. Modern zombie/horror style? All Flesh Must Be Eaten. If by modern you mean sci-fi, Traveler or Stars Without Number are excellent - both have space opera and psychic powers but that can be cut out to make room for the ground-game, so to speak. I've seen a few people do a "Dark Terra" thing, using Dark Heresy rules but eliminating the 40k IP and turning it into struggles on earth. Deadlands and Deadlands: Hell on Earth go for magical dark fantasy in the early industrial revolution and then in the post-apoc world that follows. One of the best and creepiest games I've ever run was Silent Hill inspired, using pure Old World of Darkness mechanics (Advantage: extremely simple to use, Disadvantage: combat is -lethal- and takes too many rolls to resolve an attack (Normally 4)). The dark powers were lifted willy-nilly from OWoD and CoC sourcebooks. Do not, for the love of God, use D20 Call of Cthulhu. So after all that, a few recommendations: Call of Cthulhu: The granddaddy of occult horror games. The PCs try to stop cosmic horrors from Lovecraftian style fiction while battling their own insanity. Incredibly lethal. Incredibly fun. Shadowrun: It's not for everyone, but a quirky blur of fantasy and cyberpunk. The characters are amoral mercenaries in a world straight out of a bad campus socialist's pamphlets, hacking computers, casting spells, and slicing up guards for a paycheck from some other heartless multinational company. Also, dragons. Unknown Armies: In addition to being one of the simplest and creepiest games out there, UA features really unique takes on "postmodern" magic. For example, the Pornomancer is an individual who indeed gets power from sex. Unfortunately, it's from religious devotion to a porn star who ascended into the heavens on tape. Sounds fun? Wouldn't it actually be horrifying to have your sexuality reduced to blindly mimicking someone else's degrading acts? To never develop yourself an identity, desires, or love because you're too busy re-enacting scenes from a terrible skin vid, all for a charge of magic? Not for immature players, but an amazing game - and a huge advantage is that the rules are super simple and it's designed for players to play more or less whatever they want. World of Darkness (Old or New): These are complete settings and they are massive. There's a lot of hatedom between old and new WoD, which is just silly. In the WoD, the masses of humanity are generally unaware that vast conspiracies of every type of supernatural creature in existence is out there. Beyond that...there is no easy summary of this one. The number of powers and books out there can be overwhelming. Scion: Like WoD in the Modern Era, except you're a walking bomb, a child of a god who's ready to lay the eternal smackdown. Very like Exalted or what Paizo promises Mythic Rules will be like. Deadlands: In the 1860's, America and all Earth recovered magic, and horrors were set loose upon it, turning earth into a terrifying place. The American Civil War still rages on, undead things stalk the night, and spirits empower both the servants of God and seers from native tribes. You step into this with a gun, a longcoat, and maybe a Bible, deck of cards, or a shaman's paraphernalia. Features really cool mechanics involving poker hands and chips for a better Old West feel. The sequel, Deadlands: Hell on Earth, assumes the bad guys in Deadlands won in one timeline and is set in the nightmare created as a result. Traveller: This is a space opera game for people who aced all their sciences. Aside from FTL, it actually aims for a very hard-science approach. Character creation as a mechanic alone is worth mentioning; your character gets there stats, then has a career before the game. Events during that career shape your character into who or what he will become when the game begins. Strip out any future tech, and it works for modern. All Flesh Must Be Eaten: Incredibly simple. Bad zombies. Stay down. Dark Heresy: The ruleset can be adapted to a modern game, though it would take work.

Dark Heresy (Con't): Dark Heresy is set in Warhammer 40k's eternal bleakness of bleak bleak grimdark darkness. Adapting it to use as a modern setting would give you very, very detailed combat system, but the magic system is built on "psykers" losing their souls. Also, character classes would be poor matches for the real world, and you'd need to cut out any of the tech that would not exist. Still, if you want a way to make bullets fly like mad, DH would be workable. Ars Magica + World of Darkness: Ars Magicka is actually a medieval RPG which inspired a lot of other games, probably including the aforementioned Mage: the Ascension. It would be an easy sell to chop it up and tack on WoD rules. Star Wars D20: Ok, look, this game is terrible. But chopping its ruleset up for modern with its wound/vitality points could make it very workable, and as it is a D20 game, it could blend straight into adding in D&D 3.5 or PF spells. Any of WEG's d6 games: West End Games featured incredibly simple d6 based mechanics for many quick-and-easy games, including a Men in Black one (no kidding) and an excellent Star Wars one. Any of those games could be hacked into a workable system in less than three hours. The Force powers in SW could easily be recast as magic. GURPS: Ok, so, I have to admit I like my modern games to be less stringent on rules than PF/D&D. You want tight rules, mash GURPS products together. Put the basic rules plus two or more splat books that interest you and bam - you have a game. Just add water. Heroes/Champions: Ditto. I'd recommend it to someone who wants a rules-heavy system. These are pretty open. Not my choice. Final Recommendation: Call of Cthulhu if you've never played it, Unknown Armies if your group can handle it.

Ahaha, last post, I promise. Paranoia. The players are clones in an Orwellian nightmare. They are charged with tracking down commie mutant traitors in a heavily dysfunctional society run by a giant, insane computer. In fact, they are commie mutant traitors and are expected to betray each other. Bribing the GM is encouraged. It's all played for laughs as a huge deconstruction of the assumptions most players make about RPGs and as an exercise in Schadenfreude killing of party members for the sheer hell of it. Fortunately, you have back-up clones...because you will need them. It's a send-up and mockery of all the seriousness of these dramatic, deep, thoughtful games above and of the high fantasy power fantasy RPGs such as D&D, Pathfinder, MERPS, RoleMaster, Earthdawn, etc.

Good summaries of the systems Carlos. Couple things I would add in. Call of Cthulhu: There are a lot of rule sets for this setting as a lot of different people have made games for this license and a lot of people have converted stuff to this setting. It seems like one of the more preferred rules set is Chaosium's version. Another interesting one is the one by Cubicle 7 Cthulhu Britannica, I don't know if it is good or not but I like their other stuff so I would imagine it is decent at least. This is a rather hit or miss setting though, for instance I don't like it at all personally and usually people tend to be one way or the other when it comes to Cthulhu. World of Darkness: This one does indeed have a ton of material on it BUT be warned, this rules system (new or old) is very different from other systems. It doesn't play like other games so you need to figure out if you like it first. Don't buy the books thinking it will be Vampire D&D or anything like that because you might not like it. It is a fun game for a change of pace but very different. Traveller: There are also Judge Dredd supplements for this system too that are rather good, if your into that. Dark Heresy: One of my personal favorite systems but yes if would take a good bit of work to make it strictly modern, not using the Warhammer 40k setting. It might actually be better to Convert Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay up to modern and then use the Dark Heresy rules for guns to combine the two, but again a good bit of work to strip out the setting. Star Wars D20: The Saga edition really isn't that bad... I'm thinking Carlos has a biased against d20 systems ;). Ones I would add to this: Savage Worlds: Easy to get the hang of and you can make it whatever you want. Plus they have a ton of setting books to get to run almost anything from Suppers (Ok Necessary Evil isn't very good but you can still run it) to Traditional Fantasy. That includes Modern settings as well, just google Savage Worlds Settings and you will find lists of them. It is worth noting that a new setting Deadlands Noir is coming out which is set in a "weird" 1920's. D20 Modern (Which Carlos conveniently left off lol): Has some supplements you can add to it, like Urban Arcana to give you extra rules. This will run a little more like D&D or Pathfinder. It is very convertible and you can really throw in whatever you want to it. Want a little post apocalypse action, there is a book for that, want some kung fu action there is a add on for that... you get the idea.

@ Ellmo: Well, D20 modern has been mentioned several times. :D I love PF, but have problems with high level accountants simple because my childhood of D&D inoculated my suspension of disbelief in high fantasy, but not in all worlds. @ Lycae: I'd check out Ellmo's advice as well. And we're leaving out a ton of games; Over the Edge, KULT, Tribe 8, Fireborn, Continuum, Feng Shui...I'm sure Ellmo can add to that list. Maybe with a clearer idea of what's your style, your player's ambitions, and your budget, we can make better suggestions. How "crunchy" a system do you want? D&D/PF is high on crunch, but not extreme. How much of a setting do you want with your game? Heck, do you want a particular established setting or no setting? What tone do you like? D&D with guns? Space Opera? Nail-biting espionage and corporate intrigue? Bad #*&$^(&'s who kick ass and chew bubblegum? Cosmic horror? Anyway, hope we helped.

Do not, for the love of God, use D20 Call of Cthulhu. Whoa whoa whoa! I agree that d20 CoC is a horrible conversion of CoC, mostly because leveling up just does not working with a CoC type game where humans should be squishy creatures and need to fear death. But I have used the d20 CoC Sanity rules for a variety of d20 Modern, Pathfinder and 3.5 games with great success that add that bit of scared tactics to players. I would recommend Carlos, if you haven't tried it ... you should. When players meet their first dragon in D&D or in d20 Modern when one of the characters nearly die, having the players rule for sanity adds quite a bit of spice. Things should be scary, and this adds that.

But I could take the same rules while adding any of the other, much better editions of CoC and add them to PF, or use the Fear/Horror/Madness saves from Ravenloft, for the same effect without burdening myself with that game. :) And actually, I second that recommendation; I've used it and it's fun in the right game.

But I could take the same rules while adding any of the other, much better editions of CoC and add them to PF, or use the Fear/Horror/Madness saves from Ravenloft, for the same effect without burdening myself with that game. :) And actually, I second that recommendation; I've used it and it's fun in the right game. Glad to hear! I just want to let people know about the book because the Insanity Rule system is something else when used correctly with other d20 Systems!

Wow I really need to check on here more often. I'll look through here to see all the suggestions. I was looking for a modern in present sense. So pretty much standard present time except with magic. I suppose I want something where the pcs are fairly weak at the beginning but quickly gain more power to become badasses.

Then, I would recommend the d20 Modern with the Urban Arcana Supplement.

Lycae: Yeah, tons of options for Urban Fantasy. I'd recommend Mage: the Ascension/Awakening, as they have a great deal of depth and intrigue which frankly blow anything d20 out of the water. However, those are specific settings and games. However, the rules can be easily chopped. Mage also allows you to have a game without spell-lists or classes, which is a huge bonus and really moves toward characters learning what skills they want and magicians using magic so long as they can dream up the effects and have the power to pull it off. I like the older game (Ascension) more, if only because I like it's tone of reason vs. romanticism, techno-magic and scientific rationalism vs. religion and tradition. Those are deep, meaningful conflicts. You can then expand into the rest of the Old or New WoD as you see fit. Ahem, I'll stop gushing. d20 Modern has its advantages, not least of which is that you already know most of how to run it if you played D&D 3.X or PF. The learning curve if you've played either will be very flat. Additionally, it'll translate a lot more easily towards a roll20 based combat system. Many modern games try to abstract out combat from being a minis wargame, since they tend to focus more on narrative and scheming than outright violence. Not always, though! GURPS is another good option if you want to go with the rules-heavy side of the equation and aren't a big d20 guy. You'd only likely need core rules and the Magic supplement. The nice thing about GURPS is you can then expand it to whatever else you later decide to do. I'd avoid UA for what you want; as much as I personally love it, it is a lethal game where bullets are almost as quick to kill you as they may in real life regardless of power level. (The combat chapter specifically tells players they're foolish for not finding a better solution than murder to their problems.) I'd also avoid Call of Cthulhu; it sounds like you want the "become a badass" power fantasy which is at the heart of D&D-like games, which Call of Cthulhu does not do. Horror is impossible if you can simply mulch the bad guys willy-nilly. Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020 are out as both are cyberpunk, though Shadowrun adds in Urban Fantasy as well. Lastly, I've heard the Dresden Files game is pretty good, but can't comment personally.

I've actually heard the exact opposite for Dresden files, which makes me really sad. I had high hopes for it when I first heard of it. I've never heard of Mage The ascension/Awakening but it sounds pretty awesome I'll look into it.

Mage (Ascension and Awakening) are World of Darkness products. They are interesting games with a bit different mechanics. You don't use grids or miniatures and combat is more narrative. It can be fun if your group wants that. What really makes or breaks any WoD game is the players, everyone needs to be involved with the roleplaying of the story and their characters or the game will quickly degrade. The narrative nature of the game also requires a little bit different approach to how you run the game as the Story Teller. There are several good videos and articles you can find online with a bit of searching about how to go about running a game for WoD settings. The Dresden Files RPG is made by Evil Hat. Evil Hat games are (mostly) all based on a modified version of the FATE system. You can find the FATE system rules online for free. The FATE system is now licensed to Cubicle 7 and they makes games for it but the original FATE system rules are still up for free to look at. The FATE system is rather different, it is very narrative based but also lets the rules be a little more freeform. Because of this I would just look them over yourself as any two people are going to have vastly different opinions on the system due to its more abstract nature. Dresden Files RPG changes some things from the original FATE system but looking at it will still give you a taste.