So I saw Inception this past weekend and loved the movie and I absolutely love the idea of psychological espionage. I was thinking of perhaps attempting to run an Inception based campaign (possibly just a one shot for starters, and if things go well then making it a full blown campaign), but my question is this (for those who have seen the movie or at least know what its about): would I be better off attempting to mesh together various elements of different RPG's or would you think there is already an established system that would work?

I would think that Modern d20 would be just fine (with some homebrew skills thrown in, perhaps) but then again, I'm not too familiar with that many systems (Mainly DnD 3.5 and a little of 4th ed, Star Wars Revised and Saga, WoD and Mutants and Masterminds).

Suggestions? Comments?

There is, to a certain extent, a system that I think would work wonders: Exalted.

Specifically, the Fair Folk rules where they create stories for others to participate in.
Sound familiar?

I'm not incredibly familiar with modern d20. I think an important element is that you can't let the dreamer know they are dreaming, as that could turn out bad.

I think a cinematic system open to description and interpretation is almost necessary. I'm not incredibly familiar with too many systems either, but I imagine Fate or one of the story telling oriented systems would lend itself to that. d20 might just make it a mess of rules that are difficult to keep track of.

This. The core of the movie was all about reality and manipulating it and such. This is totally what the movie was about. I would say FATE...

Or even Wushu Open, if you didn't handle it as an action system but a description system.

Throw in rules for the subconscious, of course. BTW, this was totally my initial thought, in the scene where Ariadne was manipulating the dream, early in the movie.

I'm actually thinking of making this into a quick, rules-lite game, if I can put some time into it...

Wushu open seems like it might work quite well. Especially in those nutzo gravity shifts.

My goodness...MOUSE GUARD. It would make a terrific hack to do Mouse Guard.

I didn't see Inception but if it's anything like what I think it is, Agents of PSI for D20 Modern, and a low PL M&M could work, like PL 5-6.

Edit: Now that I think about it, using the Cyberscape Computer System rules might make an interesting change to the common psionic path.

You could run it with any system with almost no modification. It would almost all be done with GM modifications (e.g. suddenly there is no gravity, the floor crumbles beneath your feet, etc.) The only person who could manipulate the dream was the dreamer and really they could do whatever they want, the entire point was to make everything as real as possible to convince your target that they are not dreaming, which would be a social check to deceive with some different modifiers.

The only thing an individual could do is pose as another person which would be acting with the bonus that their subconscious projects a perfect copy onto you.

The entire point of the movie was noting being able to tell what was real or not.

Check out here and here

I did much the same thing after I saw Inception. Game that's up is more for brainstorming and trying things out. We decided Wushu would be a good fit. Especially for an extraction, you want a system that allows player input and more or less gets out of the way.

Also, gravity shifts aren't likely to happen in your average extraction.

Usually, inner ear function is suspended. They left it active in the movie so that they could Kick out of the 3-level dream. It was because their inner ears still worked that they were experiencing gravity shifts.