20th century fantasy (brainstorming)

[TheIdeaOfGood]

The RPGaDAY post has made me realize how much I'd love to give a setting with the fantasy races, magic plus the technological development of our times a try. Not Shadowrun, not Postapocalypse but a version of Earth in which the fantasy races we know have developed alongside humanity, maybe as divergent branches of our homo family tree. Now, I'd love to brainstorm with you in regards as to how this might have affected historical developments, what wars might have been waged etc.
One general assumption I have is that magic will not halt technology's progress, as tech and science are ways to manipulate the world that are more easily accessible than magic. Yeah, a fireball is dangerous...but a crossbow or a gun is usable by anyone.
So...any ideas?
Maybe different races originated on different continents. I'd still go with Africa as the origin of humanity...

Also, to reflect the moral ambiguity of basically everything in our world, there are no alignments (although I am leaning towards using Savage Worlds instead of D&D anyway) and no "evil races", though some, like orcs, goblins and gnolls, have tendencies people might view as "evil". True evil would be metaphysical, the domain of demons and their ilk.

 

[Jhaelen]

I'm not sure if I understand your idea correctly, but isn't the Changeling: The Dreaming RPG (part of the World of Darkness setting) very much like that?
It's set in the modern day, and you have members of Fae races living in hiding among humanity. There isn't really any synergy between their glamour magic and technology, though.

If you're looking for that kind of thing, there's the Mage: The Ascension RPG (also part of the World of Darkness), though, especially the 'bad guy' side of it, the Technocracy.
In Mage, technology is pretty much just a kind of magic that, thanks to the Technocracy, is supported by 'scientific' explanations, so it doesn't strike anyone as magical.
Mage also posits that modern Earth is just one expression of reality. There's an infinitude of parallel dimensions, mythical realms, etc.

 

[TheIdeaOfGood]

No, that is not what I was looking for. Thanks for the suggestions, though.
I am looking for ideas for a setting in which the fantasy elements are not hiding but exist side by side with modern technology etc. Basically our Earth in the 21st century but magic exists in the open, albeit only usable by those with the talent and the nonhuman races (orcs, halflings, etc.) have evolved alongside humanity.

 

[snafuy]

Yeah, this particular sub-genre of Urban Fantasy is less common. Usually they do the "magic world is hidden alongside us" thing like Harry Potter.

Check out the Urban Fantasy wiki, for example: http://urbanfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/SERRAted_Edge_series

If you're interested in historical implications, take a look at Temeraire by Naomi Novik. It's set a little ways back in the Napoleonic Era, and imagines how the world would be different if dragons existed. Every nation tries to breed them for transportation and military use.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There was Urban Arcana for D20 modern.

Are you familiar with any of the "toolkit" systems, like GURPS, or HERO? Use your favored one and design your world to fit.

Or you could use one of the WoD games and merely change the assumptions.

 

[Rob Mitchell]

There was Urban Arcana for D20 modern.

I'll second Urban Arcana. It's almost exactly what you're looking for, assuming you like the D20 system. Savage Worlds is also good.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The RPGaDAY post has made me realize how much I'd love to give a setting with the fantasy races, magic plus the technological development of our times a try. Not Shadowrun, not Postapocalypse but a version of Earth in which the fantasy races we know have developed alongside humanity, maybe as divergent branches of our homo family tree. Now, I'd love to brainstorm with you in regards as to how this might have affected historical developments, what wars might have been waged etc.

That question occurred to me eons ago, back in the 80s. What if D&D eleves (at the time, they could live like 1000 years), had been part of history? You'd have elven veterans of the American Revolution still alive - not even all that old. Magic and science would cross-pollinate - really, like they already tended to do in D&D, with scientific reference peppering spell descriptions - scientists would discover a new element, wizards would figure out how to conjure it. Things like that. 'Modern' weapons would get enchanted, which would extend their useful life. Watch out for that Colt Peacemaker of Speed.

Maybe different races originated on different continents. I'd still go with Africa as the origin of humanity...

Another idea I had was to drop different races into different hisorical civilizations. What if the Romans had been Dwarves, what if the western hemisphere was inhabited by elves (those white ships had been going somewhere!). That kinda thing. Ultimately it's a little creepy, though.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Urban Arcana has the mechanics you would want, but the magic stuff is still hidden (in a Harry Potter fashion) from the mundane world.

For a setting which is literally our own Earth, but fantasy stuff has been here all along and everyone knows about it, you might want to check out X Crawl.