D&D 5E (2024) Building A Contemporary Fantasy Setting For 5.5E

[Azzy]

While Barsoom is portal fantasy (and set in 1866), Barsoom is part of a shared universe that includes the Carson Napier of Venus stories (he builds a rocket and attempts to fly to Barsoom in 1931 but crashlands on Venus instead).

Sounds like someone didn't study orbital mechanics.

 

[SkidAce]

Sounds like someone didn't study orbital mechanics.

I'm not a rocket scientist, but could they both have been at the other ends of their orbits from earth...putting them in the same direction relatively?

 

[Reynard]

I'm not a rocket scientist, but could they both have been at the other ends of their orbits from earth...putting them in the same direction relatively?

 

[SkidAce]

Yeah!

 

[Tonguez]

Sounds like someone didn't study orbital mechanics.

The story does say Carson Napier made a miscalculation by forgetting to adjust for the moons influence and gets caught in the gravitational pull of Venus. So yeah he wasnt too good at orbital mechanics

 

[Tonguez]

Another idea I have considered is adapted from the ReBoot cartoon and The Matrix Movies

The Loom of Reality is the underlying operating system for all existence. While the common folk experience it as a physical world of stone, air, and magic, it is actually a complex, multi-layered execution environment where code is compiled into matter and energy.

The Gods of this Multiverse are Existential Intelligences (EI) who run on the code of the Multiverse and spells are control scripts.
The Architect is the EI of structure and process, who governs the physics, logic, and the "intended" state of reality.
The ROM Archive EI is passive observer maintaining the history of every executed string.
The Glitch is the Exception Handler, a phenomenon that arises when the code fails to execute properly and becomes a source of miracles, monsters, mutation and entropy
The MegaVirus is Malware and an active threat seeking to corrupt root directories and delete existence.

The Material Plane is an instance being executed in real time as it is observed by complex sentient programmes

• Clerics chant the maintenance scripts that patch errors and maintain system integrity
• Wizards have studied the True Name scripts and can use their attuned syntax-tablets and somatic gestures to execute specific application (standardized function and parameters).
• Paladins are hardcoded with oath.exe which grants administrative rights to "quarantine" or "delete" anomalies
• Scorcerers have inborn routines that execute their own anomalise code
• Warlocks have direct socket connection to a EI or powerful daemon/agent who executes code on their behalf
• Druids are able to interface with the local Firware and update the environment drivers or overwriting their own physical object-class
• Artificers embed code in peripheral devices creating a plug and play interface
• Martials on the other hand focus on overclocking the hardware of their own bodies or their personal peripherals (Weapons),
• Barbarians overide safety protocols and can induce system overload at the cost of stability
• Rogues are hacking the hardware looking for clipping errors or critical exploits,
• Rangers are scanning and filtering system data to locate specific noise
• Monks utilise their own internal processing power (Ki) to overcome the Architects physics engine.

Of course the sentient programmes People living in this world dont know they are part of a super-complex simulation, the know the EI's as Gods, and perceive the Loom of Reality as the Great Pattern of the Architects Divine Plan. Data and Magic flows through the Aether, Prayers deliver miracle healing not repair scripts,
souls go to the Archive for eternal rest, and Wizards tablets utilise the True Names of the elements.

Nonetheless there might still be Madmen and Prophets and high level adventurers who have seen through the veil of the Matrix, who hear the underying hum of the Universe processors and know that everything we see is really just light and numbers - at least until the Inquisition comes to restore the glitch and patch them out of existence...