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

[Brendan Byrd]

Contemporary to me is heading into not D&D. Its d20 modern or close enough.

< tangent >
MSRD = tech support for 3.x
< /tangent >

 

[Reynard]

Im not offended if someone would claim that as a 2E fan.

SJ still kept the usual equipment for thr most patents and stretched the ships into 18th century maybe 19th with ships snd 16th century guns.

Still used D&D multiverse.

As I said are you meaning contemporary in 20th century stuff or non traditional phantasy?

Are you familiar with Phantasy Star? One if them started off basically D&D ended up with transforming robots, space shuttles, submarines and worldships. Non traditional fantasy still, d20 modern is a different genre.

I was just suggesting that maybe arguing with the premise is not the best use of the thread.

 

[Remathilis]

Advanced technology looking like magic doesn't have anything to do with actual magic. How does, for example, effective vodoun necessitate sci-fi elements?

No, but the minute you have teleportation circles, you have the same effect Star Trek transporters have. You start to lose the "world outside your door" aspect. It's a world building issue that any sort of speculative fiction wrestles with I guess. After all, the Marvel universe is full of Gods, monsters magic and aliens and yet the world stubbornly persists looking like the modern Earth we know.

 

[Reynard]

No, but the minute you have teleportation circles, you have the same effect Star Trek transporters have. You start to lose the "world outside your door" aspect. It's a world building issue that any sort of speculative fiction wrestles with I guess. After all, the Marvel universe is full of Gods, monsters magic and aliens and yet the world stubbornly persists looking like the modern Earth we know.

Sure, but just like with supers settings, the tropes ad constraints of the genre over rule any "logical conclusions". Otherwise, like you said, you aren't in that genre anymore.

 

[Cergorach]

Adding skills and classes would be against the OPs 'rules' imho, use the investigation skill for computer use and hacking at a very basic level and then add a subclass of Hacker to the Rogue class, in the same way you could add a Soldier subclass to the Fighter or a Technomage to the Wizard class...

You would have to add DCs for hacking to the game. You could even add in skill rolls for social hacking with Deception and/or Persuasion lowering the hacking Investigation roll. By default the DC should be very high, but with specific data, tools, knowledge you could lower the DC to something more manageable...

 

[Zardnaar]

I was just suggesting that maybe arguing with the premise is not the best use of the thread.

More asking for clarification.

You're describing a not D&D setting using D&D rules.

You would have to do so much rewriting its essentially a new genre.

If you want to still use D&D as is thats different. Its why I asked you about Phantasy Star. Very D&D low level high level starts branching into science fi.

Youre talking about going further than Eberron and Spelljammer? Ive been reading both recently and the DMG has antimatter rifles.

Familiar with 40k? Do you know what a necron is? They're basically a living construct with antimatter rifles.

Are you talking complete rewrite or going further than Eberron/Spelljammer and bits of Ravnica?

Complete rewrites essentially pointless as no one here will write it snd neither will WotC. How far do you want to go and is it essentially theory crafting? Thats what I'm asking.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Cleric: tough one

the scripture-spewing preacher hunter comes to mind. yes that's more of a western trope, but it can work fine enough in the modern day.

or you can go full buffy the vampire slayer, i guess. "That Was Then...This Is Now" as a feature that lets you ignore damage resistances and immunities (EDIT: if you use a modern weapon) would be pretty thematic for that lol

Fighter: modern firearm focused subclass, I think

competitive shooter subclass? swat officer (or more generically some kind of cqb room clearing subclass) could also work

Rogue: here is where the "hacker" hoes I think[...]
Wizard: maybe not a technomancer per se, but a wizard subclass that marries magic with modern technology would be interesting.

both of these feel more artificer then rogue or wizard to me. if you make the artificer the hacker, then some kind of sniper could work for rogue. a hitman type, maybe (EDIT: comp shooter is also an option for rogue if you make the fighter something else). if you make the artificer the technomancer, then the wizard can be a "one foot in the secret world" type. where the paladin keeps the magic world hidden, the wizard is a part of the magic world, knows its ins and outs by heart and all that.

though if you're not gonna have any artificer support at all, then...wotc moment...but go wild i guess

Warlock: For some reason, I like a powerful ancestory patron here

banker family warlock, lmao

 

[Reynard]

both of these feel more artificer then rogue or wizard to me. if you make the artificer the hacker, then some kind of sniper could work for rogue. a hitman type, maybe. if you make the artificer the technomancer, then the wizard can be a "one foot in the secret world" type. where the paladin keeps the magic world hidden, the wizard is a part of the magic world, knows its ins and outs by heart and all that.

The artificer is not a 5.5E core class, so I left it out.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

oh yeah, i forgot one:

Monk: maybe this is where the pitt/ufc fighter goes?

for some reason when i think of monk for this i think of a gun fu john wick type. someone who marries martial arts with cqb gunfighting. then the barbarian can be your pit fighter or heavy weapons guy (or if you think a john wick type and room clearer type would be too similar, then fighter can be your heavy weapons guy).

The artificer is not a 5.5E core class, so I left it out.

it was adapted for 5.5 in the new eberron book, so i think taking artificer into account is still fine. i get your reasoning, though.

 

[AlViking]

The elephant (dragon?) in the room with using D&D for modern world is always going to be firearms for me. It's not just an issue with D&D, a fair number of TV shows with super-hero related or "modern ninja" themes that rely heavily on hand-to-hand combat have to figure out why the protagonist isn't just shot dead by the bad guys. So either the bad guys are really, really bad shots or for some reason they decide to use their AR as a club.

There are different ways of doing this in a fantasy setting.

1. A lot of the monsters are impervious or at least less affected by regular ammunition. You need silvered or some other material for the bullets. Problem is that silver is expensive (doubly so if it now needs to be used for bullets) and it doesn't deform like lead so it doesn't work very well. You can also say that unlike arrows you can't assume bullets will not gain the magical enchantment of the gun for ... reasons.
2. Because there's magic, there's the equivalent of magical kevlar that's more effective and lighter than real world kevlar but like the real world it has a limitation. The stuff is good at stopping bullets because bullets rely on small amount of mass traveling really fast, kevlar doesn't do much to prevent being stabbed.
3. Gunpowder doesn't exist or if it does it's easily hexed to misfire so firearms aren't really a thing. You could still have bit artillery pieces or very expensive firearms that are warded against the hexes but those are going to be rare.

The problem with #1 is that not all enemies will be monsters, #2 perhaps in combination with #1 works but assumes that magic kevlar is really common amongst the enemy. I like #3 but it might feel heavy-handed depending on what you're aiming for.

Another option of course is to simply allow guns using the optional rules for firearms. There's wide swaths of history that this could still be an option because most D&D games aren't trying to replicate armies at war, it's small group tactics. Especially if you enforce actual limitations of firearms - it takes time to reload a flintlock and water and gunpowder don't mix. Even if you want to do truly modern game, I'd make guns finesse weapons. A high caliber weapon or shotgun will have quite a kick and will be better controlled by someone with a decent strength. I want strength based characters to still be a valid option. I'd also assume there are modern equivalents of armor that's bullet proof because it can be forged with magic.

That's the easiest option and the one I'd likely go with. There are still plenty of cases where firearms may not be the best choice and combat is going to be hand-to-hand depending on the scenario. The biggest issue is going to be the sheer numbers of rounds you can fire, real world fire-fights often end up using hundreds of rounds, which is why I'd likely limit my game to the 19th century.

You'd have to have some other subsystems of course, but it also opens up possibilities. If magic is real, computers could run at least partially on magic which could give a whole new take on cyberspace.