When they laid the first arcane web under the city, everyone’s eyes were so full of hope that you could see the magic reflected off them. When we traded in our endless wars for a chance at cooperation, we were happy to be silhouettes in the promise of a brighter tomorrow.
Now, the reflection is absorbed in the emptiness of our eyes. Now, we crave the comfortable solidarity of once being silhouettes. The light of promise struck the world blind…
…and all we can see are the shadows of our success staring back at us.
Hello again, denizens of the interwebs! I’m here to fire a shot of inspiration across the bows of your imagination and bring you an experience that’s approximately three weeks in the making, give or take a few nanoseconds.
How would you like it if fantasy went nano, if magic were the driving force behind technology, and if you found yourself in a Dungeon Punk realm with ethical dilemmas and morally-questionable choices at every turn? Luckily, you won’t actually end up there yourself… but your characters will.
Dungeon Punk 1350 is a near-future AU thought experiment based on a campaign setting I’ve built over several years. It’s like Pathfinder, but with more trenchcoats and magitek airships, and that’s just the beginning.
The thing is, almost everyone in this world is sensitive to magic in some form or another. Magic was always part of everything, but it’s become everything, pushing civilization to new heights (and depths) thanks to the possibilities of the arcane. This led to a world that doesn’t quite feel like ours: body modification and industrialized farming is a snap thanks to transmutation spells, firearms never became more than a hobby since you can just carry pocket-sized wands of lightning bolts and tailor-made curses to shoot at anyone who screws with you, and if the morning commute is too much, you can just open a portal directly to work.
Of course, what you know on the street is that everything has a price, and magic itself always demands a pound of flesh for its services. This isn’t an economy that runs on the gold-silver-copper standard anymore. This is a dangerous place where you can just as easily find yourself on the chopping block of the cutting edge, your soul ripped from your body for violating a contract… or breaking the law… or pretty much any other reason imaginable. If you’re lucky, you’ll get stuck powering a servitor construct for a few years before you get your body back. If you’re not… well, there are special kinds of hell for people like you, and they’re probably some fat-cat wizard’s Pocket Prison Dimension for Annoying People.
Tread lightly. Don’t look directly into the shiny steel towers or self-lighting lamps of the fantasy future. Keep your wits, your soul, and all your other resources close at hand, ‘cause you’ll need every one of them to make it out here.
If this post generates enough buzz for my liking, I’ll put together a recruitment thread soon. If you have more questions about the setting or just want to pick my brain to see how the interior insanity stays so pristine, I’m happy to welcome your comments down below, via Private Message, or on the Discord server I’ve set up for PbP stuff.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope to see you… in the future!
Edgy dark setting where life is cheap but magic ain't? Sounds great!
Very interested to see how the mechanics look.
Alright. I'm just getting back into the PbP world, but you've definitely caught my attention. I like urban/modern fantasy, I like cyberpunk, I like a mix... Color me intrigued.
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A promising start so far!
Oh, and praise Helix.
I'd like to hear more.
I'd like to hear more.
Buckle up, buckaroo.
Then, a few weeks ago, I fell down the same rabbit hole after asking a simple question: "If necromancy was regulated by contracts and included willing subjects, would it still be evil?"
Cogitation ensues.
I started bouncing some ideas off the players in my current campaign, about half of whom occupy the Discord I linked in the initial post, and everyone seemed to like the idea of taking a fantasy setting and ramping it hundreds of years into the futuuuuuuuuuure to avoid the trope-tastrophe that is Medieval stasis.
Loosely put, this is a fantasy setting that's going through a magic-fueled Renaissance, where all the birds and cats on the street could be someone's familiar and with a skyline comprised of wizards' towers, the citadels of private knight-companies, and the floating IlluShines (patent pending) that broadcast advertisements for Goodberry Energy Shots, rendered lovingly through the power of sorcerous illusion... and the souls of criminals, of course.
I typically go for "slow burn" campaigns that go as deep as they are long, but in this case, you're looking at what is definitely my fastest-paced take on throwing caution into a magitek reactor, bottling whatever it turns into, and selling it for a slice of an arcane megacorp.
TL;DR there's a ton of material I can't fit in these posts, but I'm having fun just thinking about it, and I believe you will too.
Sounds like the kind of thing I enjoy. What kind of tech is around? You mentioned airships, so do we have trains or steam-powered carts? And how dystopian is it?
Sounds a little like the shadowrun RPG setting [Bright TV Film], but with a more Aftermath/Dying Earth Feel and added Cyber-Punk bits for giggles.
As and Alt Earth setting, it could be great fun to play in. I think backstory will be key.
Just as in Warhammer 40k RPG, how do add 'Magic' into our world of logic/Tech/Science reality.
For them, there is this Alt Alt Dimension of the warp [See magic land]
Others have done it with other Dimensions as well, See ->Doc Strange, Hell Raiser, Hell Boy etc.
As some Key moment in the past, Magic became a thing, something that everyone knows about and most can use. There was a paradigm shift, where tech became magic based. If you looks at Philip Pullmans Books like the golden compass there is a spyfly that is powered by a spirt.
Bringing 'Magic' or another supernormal force/power into a Earth Clone reality is always fun.
If you work out just HOW magic became a thing, the would open up logical roots magic use would take.
Like all useful things it would be taxed and controlled by governance. A wild west of magic sounds fun, but would lead to weaponisation and miss use. So Authority would seek demotion over it. That means some form of World wide policing. Oversight of use and taxation recording.
The Department of magic and wizardry like in Harry potter,
The magic laws and enforcement. 'The Mage cops'
Then Criminals [Organised]
Think of Brothels filled with summoned Succubus she devils, near salve workers.
Raise the dead on the black market. [Dresden files]
Then Big Business, ~~The Kodak Picture wand 3.0, just $49.99 for a basic 24 use wand.
You get the idea.
Thing is our world with magic would be VERY close to how it is today, when tech is replaced by magic. Just the cops will have winged boots and Pre-Crime for real
Sounds like the kind of thing I enjoy. What kind of tech is around? You mentioned airships, so do we have trains or steam-powered carts? And how dystopian is it?
Steam is a lower-class tech since it doesn’t require very expensive components, but it’s not widespread. Most technology is magic is technology (you get the idea), and sooner or later, everything runs on the arcane, from frictionless trains to transcontinental teleportation circles. The quality of the magic involved just depends on cost-benefit analysis.
As for the dystopian elements, they’re definitely there, but not in a “Pink Mohawks Versus The Man” kind of way. There are several corporations and governments that want to make the world better, but the entrenched old kingdoms aren’t as amicable with the new world order. It’s more of a false utopia than anything - it looks shiny and perfect on the outside, but its inner workings run on some really messed-up stuff.
Thing is our world with magic would be VERY close to how it is today, when tech is replaced by magic.
Ah, there’s the rub. As I said in an earlier post, this is a unique campaign setting with centuries of player-influenced history. By no means is it an alt-Earth retelling; it’s an extended thought experiment on how the standard Pathfinder fantasy setting would look when it’s cranked up to eleven. You’ve listed some well-known explorations of those ideas, but I’m hoping to subvert several that just haven’t been touched on as much.
Interesting. I'll make sure to make my Mohawk green.
Does this game already have players from among the guys in the original game, and how many slots will you be recruiting for if so?
Just popping back in to say that everything is still sounding super interesting to me. I also love delving deep into ideas, but flying by the seat of the arcane enchanted pants can be a great way to make a memorable game. And this sounds ripe for great times.
Interesting. I'll make sure to make my Mohawk green.
Does this game already have players from among the guys in the original game, and how many slots will you be recruiting for if so?
I'm not in the business of reserving slots, even for current players (if any of you are reading this: sorry, and I still love you, I promise); if a given character seems like a fantastic fit for the campaign, then that's my primary reason for acceptance. Of course, I also have to take what I can get if the recruitment thread is a bust... which, hopefully, it won't be.
Just popping back in to say that everything is still sounding super interesting to me. I also love delving deep into ideas, but flying by the seat of the arcane enchanted pants can be a great way to make a memorable game. And this sounds ripe for great times.
I'm glad you think so too!
As a longtime player of PF, Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu, and Final Fantasy 3/6, I am super interested in this.
I’ll be working on a series of story blurbs that should serve to fill in some details about the setting, themes, and possible conflicts. I’d like the story to be in medias res, with the PCs already being familiar with each other on some level.
Backstories and the like can wait until the recruitment thread is up, so for the time being, I’d encourage interested players to have a general idea of what sort of character they’d like to play so I can help you fit it in the setting with minimum fuss and MAXIMUM EFFORT.
As promised, here they are. The recruitment thread will be up within a day or two, so keep your eyes open for that.