In a modern society with effective law enforcement, traditional adventuring doesn't work. It makes the police nervous. A high degree of functional magic in the world would not change this. So far, I have the following ideas for things the players could do in a modern magical society:
Work for the government. This could be as monster/rogue mage hunters, detectives, spies/covert agents, military special forces, or regular military.
Go to the third world. Perhaps one could be a mercenary or treasure hunter, or someone fighting for a better homeland.
Join a resistance movement. There are a few such battles going on.
Aside from these things, I'm unsure of what else players could get up to that provides action and bloodshed but makes sense in a world with very, very effective cops. Any ideas?
The government/police aren't everywhere at all times. There is a lot that one COULD do, but they're unlikely to get away with for long. It's a matter of scale and lifestyle really.
Of course in a magic world you could teleport far from where you live to comit crimes.
Or you could just be really stealthy about it.
Aren't you basically just describing a Superheroes-style universe? If the PCs are the only ones with magical powers et.al., then they're the first "supers." They might use masks/costumes to keep their actual identities secret, or they might not bother, but use teleportation to travel to and from their secret base.
I'd suggest checking out Shadowrun for a modern (well near future) fantasy setting.
Get a job as a surveyor for a pipeline or power line company. Or rail system.
Aren't you basically just describing a Superheroes-style universe?
Not really. Magic is quite prevalent (and is, in fact, what allows the society to exist in the first place), meaning that a group of magical PCs is not uniquely powerful.
Get a job as a surveyor for a pipeline or power line company. Or rail system.
In the first world, that'd be too peaceful. In a third world country, however, I could have some fun with it.
I'd suggest checking out Shadowrun for a modern (well near future) fantasy setting.
I could do some basic idea mining off of the wiki, but Shadowrun is a cyberpunk setting, while I am creating a magitech version of the 1950s through 70s, with some inspiration from other decades.
Do a magic-infused version of the Drake's series of video games, or something akin to the new Avatar series... If magic is still common, then you could easily have a "points of light" setting with a modern flare... Cities become more like magic archologies, and transportation between them is safest done via Teleportation gates or airships, leaving teh intervening wilderness to the Monsters.
Kind of a cool idea, actually...
While I haven't seen past the first two episodes, I'd look at Avatar: The Legend of Korra. She lives in an almost 1920's-30's inspired world. Also there's always tresure hunting in ancient ruins or being bounty hunters or mercenaries. I'd like to imagine a fantasy version of Blackwater now...
Check out XCrawl, available from Paizo's store.
Basically, adventuring has become a reality TV show based on a romanticized view of the past. My gaming group played a homebrew version of it that we called DungeonCrawl X-Treme and it was a lot of fun- playing to the crowd, getting sponsors, and having to tell my dog that it was time to turn off the soap operas and go on a dungeon crawl.
We imagined a world to go with our setting that basically had city-states connected by fortified and patrolled roadways with a large standoff zone holding off the wilderness. Sort of like what Nephelim mentioned. Even with tanks and assault rifles, the critters in a modern D&D world could make life rough for a civilization and you have to imagine that taming the land would have been a lot tougher for the American colonists as they made their way west. Dire Bison fight back.
There was basically no 'real' role for adventures in the setting- the liches and dragons and other heavyweights were the power behind most of the governments, they kept people happy with bread and circuses and ruled with an iron fist.
I would also suggest that if the Liches and Dragons and Eye-Tyrants controlled the governments and corporations, they would do their damnedest to keep people just barely armed and afraid enough to be able to survive in a hostile landscape, but would make certain that nobody would be well-armed enough to be a threat to them, so you're not likely to see Chain Guns and Mecha... primitive\early firearms and trundling war-wagons yes, but I wouldn't go much past that.
Actually, you might also want to check out the original Mutant Chronicles setting.
Cops are part of the challenge just as much as the bad guys. Get in, do the job, get out without getting caught, don't let your identities get noticed. Be ready to run or have a good cover story/alibi when/if someone comes knocking to "investigate" your activities.