Director of Narrative
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I'm sure it's been done. Bear with me on this one, because I just woke up with the idea and I'm sure I haven't thought it out fully.
Has anyone ever taken say Toril or Oerth and modernized it? After reading the posts in the d20 modern thread down there, it got me thinking about what Niole Dra or Greyhawk City would look like in 800-1000 years. Imagine that Boccob was right and that magic was dwindling from Oerth with each casting of a spell and use of a magic item. Eventually it would just be a trickle of magical power harnessed only by a tiny fraction of the population, with the majority of people thinking that all that talk was "hocus-pocus".
Technology flourished, and guns replaced swords and crossbows, trains and other vehicles began seeing increased use. Forests were clear-cut for construction as medicine had improved and people were living longer.
Anyway, like I said, not fully thought out, but I'm still curious if anyone had done something like this or if anyone would be interested in playing in something like this?
Two caveats - anything well executed is fun to play in.
I don't play in the Oerth campaign setting mentioned.
With that out of the way - the integration of magic and technology could make for some really cool stuff - or just be a mess.
I think its could be a lot of fun but I also think working out the fine points to prevents metagame thinking and munchinism (yes I believe in munchkins) would require a lot more work than a conventional campaign setting.
Could guns be enchanted?
A gun where bullets exploded like grenades - burned with divine fire - never required reloading - had a range of miles - bullets that passed through stone, etc could be really unbalancing.
Assuming magic has always been around - rather than discovered/rediscovered or released into the world by some cataclysmic event - the development of technology, counties, races, economies would most surely be different - I think it would be a great exercise in world building and the results could be interesting to game in. BUT take a lot of time.
If you want a modern setting with magic - I prefer a "reawakening" "rebirth" of magic its cleaner and leaves a lot of room for interpretation - without requiring every little thing to be thought out.
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Director of Narrative
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I was kinda thinking that magic had dwindled from the world, but apparently d20 modern has magic, so I had the feeling to make it uber-rare and unpredictable to boot.
I used the Greyhawk example only because it is the setting for my "history and intrigue" centered campaign, and that seems all my head is capable of thinking these days.
Kinda Shadowrun-ish? I thought that was a good use of the crunch/fluff ratio.
Yeah kind of - but they have cyber stuff as well.
Kind of depends on how much magic you want, how much you want to integrate it with technology, etc.A few questions:
What could a magic satellite do? - or an enchanted computer?
How do dragons influence air traffic control?
Do insurance companies cover Manticore attacks?
Are there ghetto's for orcs?
Are police allowed to do racial profiling?
Do you need a licence to carry a wand?
How do police handle spell casters/magical creatures?
How do merfolk fee about oil tankers - do they fight?
Can paladins summon there cars?
Are undead allowed in night clubs?
If US is the model - is demon/dar god worship allowed?
Does freedom of speech include spell casting?
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Director of Narrative
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Thank you Kyr for entertaining my thought and your questions had me laughing. Nice!
I was thinking of using mainly the geographic and geopolitical aspects of an established fantasy campaign setting and advancing those through a course of history where magic had no play on the world for something like 800-1000 years. With a few minor exceptions that most of the population (aside from UFO hunters/ghost hunters/cryptozoologists) don't even know/think about. Keoland's crown would still be bouncing from House Nehli and Rhola, although it would be ServCorp and Dynasoft. That kinda stuff.
I did a modern version of my Rokugan campaign, with the characters descendants of my players' campaign. It was hella fun - the Hida clan had become a major arms merchant. The premise was that the Shadowlands had sunk into the sea and peace reigned over the land. Unfortunately, a lot of the old traditions had been dismissed or forgotten. Magic had become rare, with mental disciplines (monk, psionic abilities) more common (somewhat of a switch-up from the standard "more magic, less psionics" setup that we see).
It was a lot of fun to update everything to modern times. I'm very interested in the upcoming Dark Matter sourcebook for d20 Modern.
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I was gonna advance Toril 500 years to the golden age of piracy and do a Caribbean campaign with Freeport.
I was just gonna replace the Toril New World with our earth's western hemisphere slightly changed around, but pretty much the same. New Amsterdam would be Newaterdeep, and I was gonna have some Gangs of New York-type stuff available.
And Amn would've discovered the new world, so it would be called Amnerica or something.
And the Panamnia Canal would've been dug by guys with earth elementals.
There are many good novels that deal with integrating magic and technology-- Shadowrun is one good example (with its elven hackers and dragon shamans). Another good example is Lackey's last Valedemar books, where the society was witnessing the return of magic along side steam engines.
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There are many good novels that deal with integrating magic and technology-- Shadowrun is one good example (with its elven hackers and dragon shamans). Another good example is Lackey's last Valedemar books, where the society was witnessing the return of magic along side steam engines.
Yet another example: Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series. The basic premise being that what Isaac Newton did for science, he also did for magic. Thus you get an alternate earth with magic and technology.
If you use d20 Modern you can demagic any setting down to the level you want.
Urban Arcana would have magic have retreated from everyday life but it would still be around as "out of the way." People could find the semi-hidden magic world if they looked for it or chanced across it.
If you want magic to be even more underground you can handle it via a Dark Matter type setting, but you will have to muck with some of the underlying premises. Dark Matter is all about the reality of modern conspiracy theories. You would have to change that to the reality of the historic magic-rich D&D setting.
You have some really big issues to deal with concerning races. Are elves, dwarves, hobgoblins, lizardfolk, sahaugin, giants, etc. still around? If they aren't what happened to them. Personally, I think if you get rid of them, or have them fade into the background because they require magic to "activate" the proper genes to make them non-human (a la Shadowrun) you are doing the history of the world a major disservice. Figuring out what kind of place kobolds have in a modernized world is a ton of fun... Are their kobold nations or kobold reservations or are they completely integrated into society or are they an under-class? You also have to deal with the possible consequences of the reality of alignment. Some nations/peoples would be EVIL. Some would be GOOD. How would this affect the development of societies?
I loved the whole magic/tech stuff they started with Greyhawk 2000. Fighter jock paladins with F-16 "mounts" dog-fogthing with red dragons. You can't get better than that. You'd probably have to use normal D&D rules and import the tech from d20 Modern, put them into a blender, set on "high" and see what you get.
I loved the one Greyhawk 2000 adventure they wrote. I have never used it as written, but I have demodernized it to use for (somewhat) standard D&D and in the quasi-post WWI society of Eberron with great results.
I have also toyed with the idea of a post-modern D&D game. If you take a magical society, advance it through magic version of the Industrial Revolution (which is where I see Eberron) up through the Modern/Information Age and on into a magic version of a future setting, what weirdness do you get?
The mind boggles...
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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One of my favorite settings to date is Iron Kingdoms. It's a lesser-known d20 campaign setting put out by the people who made Warhammer and its basically a 19th century technological world with magic floating around. Not NEARLY as magically potent as Oerth or Toril, but its there... you just have to look for it. I love how they made magical items cost more XP to make but you can use technology to replace some of the magical aspects and reduce the xp costs, thus making 'techno-magic' much more common than 'pure' magic. Longswords with massive hilts to hold 'mana batteries' to power the +2 enchantment on the blade, massive suits of battle armor with built-in steam engines to provide energy for the scorching ray device incorporated into the gauntlets, and stuff like that. Very awesome. I love it.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I have also toyed with the idea of a post-modern D&D game. If you take a magical society, advance it through magic version of the Industrial Revolution (which is where I see Eberron) up through the Modern/Information Age and on into a magic version of a future setting, what weirdness do you get?
Check out Dragonstar by Fantasy Flight Games. I played a year-long campaign in that setting with sessions every single week. It was very cool. I played one of the classes that is unique to the setting, the Mechanist. I eventually multi-classed to wizard and became a Technomancer (new prestige class).
Yes, Daigle, it's been done. Check out the "Greyhawk 2000" article in Dragon 277. There was also an adventure for it, in Dungeon 83, I think.
I can't remember if there were rules for guns in the Dragon article, but the DMG has simple rules for guns, and D20 Modern has more detailed rules (including feats).
I got the Dragon issue of this, but not the Dungeon one, if it is Issue 83 can anyone tell me the name of the adventure? I'd love to hunt it down and see what it was about.
I got the Dragon issue of this, but not the Dungeon one, if it is Issue 83 can anyone tell me the name of the adventure? I'd love to hunt it down and see what it was about.Yes, Daigle, it's been done. Check out the "Greyhawk 2000" article in Dragon 277. There was also an adventure for it, in Dungeon 83, I think.
I can't remember if there were rules for guns in the Dragon article, but the DMG has simple rules for guns, and D20 Modern has more detailed rules (including feats).
Basically think zombies in an abandoned dress shop. Oh yeah, there is a secret lab in the basement....