Homebrew A Hardboiled Setting

[Thraic Ogmund]

Have you checked out Amazing Adventures by Troll Lord? It might be in the right ballpark of what you are aiming for.

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

Have you checked out Amazing Adventures by Troll Lord? It might be in the right ballpark of what you are aiming for.

I have not, but I will. Thanks!

 

[Thraic Ogmund]

I have not, but I will. Thanks!

Reviewing it, there are two versions - one that is based on 5e (which is what I was talking about) and another using the Siege Engine (on which Castles & Crusades is based - which is still D20 based and derived from old school D&D).

 

[Autumnal]

These are probably worth a look. Fun stuff.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/147948/strange-trails

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/97722/weird-adventures

 

[Golden Bee]

The Ultimate Guide to having special powers in a modern setting is still Mutants and Masterminds Noir.

It suggests that when players level up they have to have additional tragedies and complications.

I think Hardboiled and D&D are going to pull you in separate directions. The wizard is a power fantasy: The educated person who solves their problems with knowledge and study.
In the pulps, that's a mad scientist or a hopeless egghead. Harry Dresden casts spells but he's in a world with tremendous magical tension all the time. It lets him keep up, barely.
Someone with access to a first level spell book could turn a mafia upside down. Magic Missile is a gun that never misses. A familiar is an alley cat that can track anyone through the urban jungle and snitch out their hideout. Unless the gang leaders have their own mages... In which case, you've created Greyhawk with trench coats.

Clerics are right out. If God answers your prayers, then what's there to drink about? Magical healing also makes the setting way too optimistic.

There's also the issue that you're going to become quickly superhuman. Feed the bums under the railroad tracks with goodberry. Hide from the law with rope trick. Fly, teleport... Suddenly your problems are far away.

Dark pact warlocks? Sure. They fit right in. But D&D characters get strong and fix the world. That ain't hard boiled.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The Ultimate Guide to having special powers in a modern setting is still Mutants and Masterminds Noir.

It suggests that when players level up they have to have additional tragedies and complications.

I think Hardboiled and D&D are going to pull you in separate directions. The wizard is a power fantasy: The educated person who solves their problems with knowledge and study.
In the pulps, that's a mad scientist or a hopeless egghead. Harry Dresden casts spells but he's in a world with tremendous magical tension all the time. It lets him keep up, barely.
Someone with access to a first level spell book could turn a mafia upside down. Magic Missile is a gun that never misses. A familiar is an alley cat that can track anyone through the urban jungle and snitch out their hideout. Unless the gang leaders have their own mages... In which case, you've created Greyhawk with trench coats.

Clerics are right out. If God answers your prayers, then what's there to drink about? Magical healing also makes the setting way too optimistic.

There's also the issue that you're going to become quickly superhuman. Feed the bums under the railroad tracks with goodberry. Hide from the law with rope trick. Fly, teleport... Suddenly your problems are far away.

Dark pact warlocks? Sure. They fit right in. But D&D characters get strong and fix the world. That ain't hard boiled.

Some good points, especially about magical healing.

Perhaps magical healing costs the caster something. Healing could even be handled like the empath in Star Trek: TOS.

Or perhaps it’s via potions & ritual magic only.

 

[Autumnal]

I think clerics can be great in noir. Exhibit A: Fsther Damian Kara’s, in The Exorcist. Exhibit B: Fsther Paul Duré, in Hyperion. Priests doubt, succumb to stress and shock, have conflicting obligations, face unhelpful hierarchies, and so much else.

 

[Golden Bee]

The priest from The Exorcist wasn't a D&D cleric. He only cast one spell and... It didn't go so great. He's a wonderful horror movie protagonist!