Running D&D in current day

[Henry]

I'm not sure that's true, but it comes up all the time. You can stick a spear pretty deep into someone.

Two things: 1) Not without some training, or dumb luck, and 2) a firearm can react far more quickly, and at better range, than any spear or sword, with better armor penetration. Therefore, there needs to be in my mind something to differentiate it. Now, you could instead allow firearm wielders more attacks per round regardless of level, give them greater range, and give them the brilliant energy quality, and leave the damage around 1d8 or so, but the easiest fix is just to implement the MDT, and use the weapons as-is in the Modern book. The PCs don't need a lowered MDT on their weapons - they're going to be killing NPCs left and right as it is! But the NPCs need a slight edge to get the PCs both (1) fearing guns, and possibly (2) USING guns. To me, it's far cooler to have them doing the "When in Rome" thing than just tanking around in their armor and swords because the armor and swords are doing more damage.

The firearms can be expanded upon when they return home, OR they can be limited by a difference between universes that make the firearms less useful, or even not work at all.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

Minor corrections: D&D characters have to find a magic gate on a remote Island, which transports them to London, and the Mace of St. Cuthbert is in a display case in the Museum. (I read that adventure a LOT.) The conversions were pretty straightforward, and used a lot of the stats from an Ed Greenwood Article in a previous Dragon Mag (#57, I think?)

The only think I didn't like was the "borrible" analog children, though I like the idea they represented -- having a modern day "guide" who empathizes with the characters, takes them in, and helps acclimate them a bit instead of throwing them to the wolves immediately.

Gah! Yeah, it started with D&D characters. I don't know why I typed "Modern", the addition of which made the post pretty much pointless to this thread.

Now that I think about it, someone really should have pimped the Second World Sourcebook by now. It's basis is that of modern characters going into a fantasy world, but there's enough ideas that it'd be helpful for the reverse process, as well.

 

[haakon1]

If you were to transport your characters to current day how would you handle this mechanically?

In no particular order:
-Assume they would retain some or all magic ability.
-Would you alter feats?
-Would you convert to D20 modern rules for a few sessions?
-Force them to leave obviously archaic items (shields for example) in hiding.

Has anyone moved D&D characters forward in time and if yes, how did you handle this?
Thanks

I've always always always wanted to do this. "The City Beyond the Gate" is my favorite adventure that I haven't actually run. It's worth reading, but I would edit it. For example, it's supposed to be early 1980s London, but it was some anachronistic features, like horse drawn beer wagons . . .

What I have done is bring a character into D&D from other worlds. Specifically, an real world (no magic) ancient Greek warrior, and a Stargate-world Marine Corps SG-team member. Gate and portal accidents, what fun! For the Stargate character, I had the player create the character using modified Stargate d20 rules + plus the D&D 3.5 Ranger class, stripped off the enemy and magic using features, but with additional class skills, available cross-class skills, and free Feats from Stargate d20/d20 Modern, like Driving, Computer Use, First Aid, Firearms-Basic, Firearms-Automatic, Ancient Weapons-Simple, etc. I would then let him advance in the made up class or take a level in regular D&D Ranger or Fighter to get the Martial Weapons (all) class feature.

Anyhow, back to your questions . . .

-Assume they would retain some or all magic ability.
Yes, if this a different world of the Prime Material Plane, which is how I'd play it. You're free to make it a different plane, where gunpowder works but magic does not, vice versa of D&D's PMP.

-Would you alter feats?
No. Though the "real world" has some different skills and feats available because of our technology -- Firearms-Basic feat and Computer Use skill, for instance.

-Would you convert to D20 modern rules for a few sessions?
No. D&D can live with some extra stuff. Most modern real world humans would fit well into slightly altered versions of the Expert, Commoner, and Aristocrat classes. I'd say Experts are much more common than in D&D worlds, due to education. Additional classes that should exist for adventurers in "D&D Modern" (more compatible with D&D than D20 Modern) would be:
- Rogue (slightly modified feats and skills)
- Soldier (modified Ranger as explained above), used for soldiers, cops, etc.
- Scientist (Expert)

-Force them to leave obviously archaic items (shields for example) in hiding.
As other say, no force. Let them figure it out for themselves.

One of the biggest issues I have is language. You need to decide if Common is English or Latin or completely unknown. In my vision of this, Common is completely different, but Elvish in Tolkien is real D&D elvish. Unfortunately, only Peter Jackson, Chris Tolkien, and a few actors, scholars, and geeks can understand it at all. Yes, if I ran this, I'd love to have the PC's trying to track down Gary Gygax or Chris Tolkien to try and figure out how to get home. And in my version, none of these guys actually know anything about magic, and would basically think you're nutty fanboys.

Think of this as a D&D Cartoon or Wizard of Oz in reverse . . . how to get home from the normal world to the bizarre place where you belong is a great adventure!

I did once run something like this. I had Oriental Adventures (1st Ed.) characters ported to Gamma World, and when they tried to make it back on a stolen rocket ship, they ended up on a different "Type M" planet -- Earth in 1967 -- crash landing in the New Mexico desert. After some interesting trashing around trying to figure out where they were, they ended up being captured by the authorities and shipped off to the 'Nam as very Special Forces. They got home by finding a Ring of Three Wishes hidden in a ruined temple in the jungle.

 

[Silver Moon]

Our group has successfully pulled this off before. The key to making it work is for the players to react honestly as how their characters would without using the player's own out-of-game knowledge of modern worlds. For example, our players did not get overly excited about the prospect of modern firearms, they already had weapons they were proficient in so didn't feel the need. The things that excited them were disposible razors, sneakers, Pop Tarts and beer in cans.

 

[Thurbane]

Dragon Magazine 100 - City Beyond the Gate. Players must retrieve the Mace of St Cuthbert from a modern day museum in Britain.

Great fun.

 

[TerraDave]

This doesn't answer your question, but...

I would transport them into the future and use Dragonstar

 

[WayneLigon]

If you were to transport your characters to current day how would you handle this mechanically?

Has anyone moved D&D characters forward in time and if yes, how did you handle this?

I've done it a couple times. The mechanics did not change one bit. When I did it in 2E, guns were pretty horrific weapons - 1d8+8 or +10 damage (high base damage, little variation), I think, and AC was just your Dex to represent armor being basically useless (think of it as being a ranged touch attack these days). If I did it now, I'd just use one of the many gun rules you can find and go from there.

Whatever gets them to the modern era needs to bestow the language on them, or give them a kind of 'Gift of Tounges' (speaking all languages). Maybe some extra-planar magic item, so if they lose it they can't communicate very well.

 

[Ilium]

One thing you might consider is keeping the normal D&D rules, but using the 3d6 option from Unearthed Arcana. Having a bell curve for your rolls really gives the game a different feel.

I did this in reverse once when I had my GURPS Space group (actually a Star Trek campagin) transported to a D&D-type world. We rolled a d20 instead of 3d6 for everything and it was great. The PCs pulled off tasks they almost never would using 3d6, and failed spectacularly on skills they normally take for granted. Had a much looser, wilder, "less real" feel. Going the other way I think it would feel a bit more mundane than regular D&D, giving you a different world feeling.