Urban Fantasy/Modern Occult using D&D5E or something

[Dreaming Space]

I keep thinking about a game set in the modern world, where magic is hidden and rare. So, unlike the Dresden Files where there are fairies behind every pizza joint et cetera.

The PCs would be some of the few people who have discovered some secrets of magic, or been born to it.

I don't have the spoons to run anything, but I keep mentally chewing over a concept for a modern-day Warlock trying to keep his powers a secret without simply not using them.

[Soveliss]

I'm guessing I'm not lucky enough that you'd be willing to run some D20 Modern 5E Homebrew with the Urban Arcana setting then.

So close, yet so far...

[Alistair Leonhart]

I could suggest Unknown Armies for this. Magick-with-a-k is pretty much only known to the occult underground who are mostly whackjobs, and even then usually only have minor clues of what's rumor and what's real. Lots of fun kinds of urban magic and whatnot, too (booze magic, porn magic, chaos magic and so on), and a pretty great system to represent growing crazier or jaded through exposure to bad bad stuff. Most of the rolls are d100 (2d10) and chargen is pretty simple.

[Dreaming Space]

I'm guessing I'm not lucky enough that you'd be willing to run some D20 Modern 5E Homebrew with the Urban Arcana setting then.

So close, yet so far...

Alas, no, I'm not really in a place to run anything. I haven't even looked at any of the 5E modern materials. Are they good?

I could suggest Unknown Armies for this. Magick-with-a-k is pretty much only known to the occult underground who are mostly whackjobs, and even then usually only have minor clues of what's rumor and what's real. Lots of fun kinds of urban magic and whatnot, too (booze magic, porn magic, chaos magic and so on), and a pretty great system to represent growing crazier or jaded through exposure to bad bad stuff. Most of the rolls are d100 (2d10) and chargen is pretty simple.

I'm familiar with UA 1E. I know that 3E has a lot of mechanical differences, but I haven't read it. It is a very cool game that has influenced me a lot (the hardened/failed madness meters were a brilliant stroke in a gaming industry dominated by the classic CoC insanity model) but it's not really what I'm in the mood for.

[Soveliss]

I haven't even looked at any of the 5E modern materials. Are they good?

There is no real official modern materials beyond a few scraps things here and there such as Technology Spells (being ports of the official 3.0 material from D20 Modern such as the EMP spell, and other spells from that book related to tech...), and a few Warlock/Druid variants, but there have been a few fans who were busy porting the spirit of D20 Modern into homebrew. Honestly, the Background feature of 5E is pretty much a straight port of the Starting Occupation feature from D20 Modern, I was so glad to see it make it in that line, it's really a massive boon customization wise, it helps a lot in (for example) making a fighter running martial related cons by just sticking a Charlatan Background on them...

Still, I'll send you the fanmade material I found through PM. As someone who's familiar with the original D20 Modern, it keeps to D20 Modern's spirit while fixing the most egregious exploits, and buffing some thematically awesome but underwhelming in actual play options.

[Hikaru86]

I'm guessing I'm not lucky enough that you'd be willing to run some D20 Modern 5E Homebrew with the Urban Arcana setting then.

So close, yet so far...

Maybe you can use Cyberpunk 5e, it's a homwbrew who expands the UA "Urban Magic" and the article "My New d20 Modern Campaign", by Kristiano Tiago on Enworlds. It's new subclasses, races, weapons,hacking, armors and more, without messing around with the system or you need learing (much) more things.

Sadly the update on enworlds' site messed with the download link to Cyberpunk 5e's files, but i have it on my PC. 

[Yandros]

World of Darkness:  Mage (either Ascension or Awakening) could handle this sort of situation pretty well.  Especially if you downplayed the Umbra.

[Captain America]

if you want the fantasy element, may as well go Shadowrun instead of Cyberpunk since it is pretty much DnD in a Cyberpunk world. D20 is also great, as it works pretty much as DnD with rolls and classes that will feel familiar to you. D20 Modern having a write up for what you are describing, which worked well in a game I was in once.

[ShadowFox89]

 I'd like to throw in the suggestion of Carbon 2185, maybe with some tweaks to have fantasy races in there. It runs off the DnD 5e shell.

[wander]

Literally OP should do KULT, especially the new PbtA version which has a simple ass system to it.

Someone else already mentioned World of Darkness, though it sounds like they want things more lowkey than those.

Or just y'know go Call of Cthulhu and get some Power buffs and spells added in for semi-insane occultist PCs. I'd play the shit outta that.

[Dreaming Space]

Literally OP should do KULT, especially the new PbtA version which has a simple ass system to it.

Someone else already mentioned World of Darkness, though it sounds like they want things more lowkey than those.

Or just y'know go Call of Cthulhu and get some Power buffs and spells added in for semi-insane occultist PCs. I'd play the shit outta that.

I have the new KULT.

It does, in fact, rule.

I mean, I loved old KULT too, but the rules were terrible. I think they might have been different in the original French edition, and it was just the American rules that were bad? Anyway, not exactly what I was going for, but I'm not against playing KULT if someone was running it I suppose.