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[SaberToothTiger]

After discovering Warren Zevon, getting wrecked by Jagged Alliance 2 (1.13) and watching a documentary about mercenary involvement during the Congo Civil War, I got the idea to GM such an RPG. Would any of you know a system which would be good for that sort of thing? The focus would preferably be on combat and warfare in general.

[Robsoie]

I remember on another board reading about people asking for RPG system that dealt with mercenary work , firearms on a pre-2000 setting and often the Twilight 2000 / Merc 2000 system (that cover eighties-level of firearms tech and so easy to transpose to a sixties setup) or one of the GURPS version (as it's supposed to be a generic system that is made to adapt to any setting).

Having never practiced those 2 systems i can't really recommend any, but they should be worth exploring to see if they fit your needs.

[SaberToothTiger]

Yeah, I've got my hands on a rulebook of Twilight 2000 and it looks to be enough for my needs. Now, only to study the rulebook enough to understand the bloody rules...

[Funk]

There Recon it has less addons unlike twilights endless lists of guns, tanks and missiles.
Really its the only Palladium Books that is not compatible with any of the other games but there are conversion rules to do so.
Rules wise its based of a fast moveing skirmish game.
It has some stand in country's set up and some non combat rules for running villages hearts and minds programs.

[Il Palazzo]

Just so you know, there's an oldie Twilight 2000 video game for DOS. I've found it to be completely unplayable myself, but it includes an excellent interactive character creator, that can be used to automate this bit for your players.
The creator is very similar to that from Mega Traveller 2. I think I've spent far more time creating characters in those two than actually playing the damn games.

[EuchreJack]

Just so you know, there's an oldie Twilight 2000 video game for DOS. I've found it to be completely unplayable myself, but it includes an excellent interactive character creator, that can be used to automate this bit for your players.
The creator is very similar to that from Mega Traveller 2. I think I've spent far more time creating characters in those two than actually playing the damn games.

+1

Twilight 2000 was at least playable up until the vehicle driving portion.  Character combat was long and tedious, but at least workable.  The vehicle driving portion?  Bleck.

I distinctly recalling having a lot of fun creating my characters in Mega Traveller 2, expecting an RPG, then starting the game and going WTF?!

Both games (both the video games and the underlying RPGs) were distinct for their detailed character background system, where a character's former jobs would naturally guide them to where they were at the game start.

Just going to throw this out there, but working for the CIA during the 60's might lend itself towards something similar to the RPGs of Paranoia or Shadowrun.  You know, the whole "not being told even remotely what is actually going on" bit.

[thegoatgod_pan]

I would throw Feng Shui into the mix, depending on the tone you want, 90s action movie might be just right.

[Farce]

I'm kinda interested in this too.  For awhile I've been pondering a sorta MGS5 game, that starts as a straight operator operator kinda game and then drops in some weird supernatural thing like The Skulls or whatever.

All I can really think of is Cyberpunk 2020.  It's uh, not exactly tonally approrpriate for a modern merc game with the chainsaw arms and cyberpunk and all, but I was told that it's a very lethal system (unless you cheese it with cyborg armor implants), which is maybe fitting for such a game.

A Google search also returns this thing:  https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/49j8qb/system_for_modern_mercenaries/
Which suggests Covert Ops, Cortex Plus, which I guess is Cortex Prime now, the aforementioned Twilight 2000, and Savage Worlds, among other stuff.

There's also Delta Green, which is is basically Call of Cthulhu except you're a government agency and it's the 90s.  Apparently The Fall of Delta Green is 60s-set, also according to Google.  I've never played or even looked at it, though, so I don't really know anything about the system or anything.  Presumably it's runnable without Cthulhus.

[Rince Wind]

Depending on how you want to play I'll second Savage Worlds.
The characters can cut down mooks pretty easily, but all it takes is one lucky grunt and they are down with 4 wounds as well.
It is classless, the rules are easy to remember and don't get in the way much. I play in a Fallout campaign with Savage Worlds rules and it works very well. (There is a Fallout conversion somewhere on the internet which might help getting started)
Best of all, the rulebook is cheap and you don't need extra books if you just play your own game.