In your opinion, what are the best RPGs set in the modern era and why? Examples include World of Darkness, Mutants and Masterminds, They Live!, just to name a few. I'm just looking for opinions.

And yes... if you indulge me in this, you'll be helping me with a homework assignment.

Thanks,

Dawn

Can we count Shadowrun? Its only set 40 - 60 years into the future depending on when you decide you want to start. Its definately one of the greatest settings, imho. You have fantasy & cyberpunk all mixed into a dark, gritty world. Its one of the best RPGs out there.

Paranoia!

Adventure! is great for running modern-era adventure/action-type games and can be well-used to sim everything from Big Trouble in Little China to Die Hard. All you have to do is throw out the setting. Up until recently, I was, with some success, runing a 1980's Adventure! game based off the AEON canon with heavy doses of 80's pop culture and incorporating elements from The Venture Bros.

Call of Cthulhu is also a great modern game. In a lot of modern games, the internet is a convenient deus ex machina device that allows the players to get around a lot of plot clues. In Call of Cthulhu, it won't avail you one bit.

A stripped down version of the old V:tM system, without vampiric rules, has always been my favorite for straight modern games. I like the cross-flexibility of Attribute/Ability, and the easy with which you can get put on the floor by a knife or a gun gives things a nice edge of danger. I'd say Vampire: the Masquerade itself, but the game really isn't so much modern as it is using modern elements to construct an alternate world. The vampire-centric focus, in particular, makes it a less than idea model for "modern" gaming.

Really, the "best" system depends on what mood of story you're trying to tell with it: good systems feed the story, bad systems distract from it. But all my favorites are in the old White Wolf World of Darkness line.

Give me WoD. For supernaturals (other than vampires), OWoD; for vampires, or for plain ol' humans trying to hold it together, NWoD.

*sigh* ...and I'm a geek. OWoD, for the uninitiated, is Old World of Darkness; NWoD is (of course) New World of Darkness.

What?! This is a school project? You're killing me Dawn, killing me.

I was always partial to Gamma World.

Ah Gamma World, the game where you can have a Mutant Troll with a Rock and Jesus in the same party thanks to random character creation.

Can't go wrong with that, right?

Sounds like someon never played D100 Marvel Superheroes.

"Wow...I rolled up a half-man, half-wasp with superhuman strength, water breathing, the ability to change things colors and spaceflight. Okay."

.....I will now live a more fulfilling life thanks to that information Hugin because "Wasp-Man" there.

/me still remembers RoleMaster, where one's character could die during character generation....

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. They were a big help.

I'm suprised no one mentioned GURPS.

I've had a couple of great GURPS experiences from a Psi-Spu game to Supers to a 1930's action cliffhanger game.

Heck, even Champions got overlooked!

You're right...those two should have been among the first

I remembered GURPS on my own, but forgot Champions, oddly. I love Champions, if you have the JAVA program that lets you do the building. In fact, one of my favorite fantasy characters was built in Champions. He was wierd, but I loved him.

Which character was that, Dawn?

Zimrata... damn I forgot the rest of his name. You know - the gender switching assassin.