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

[Reynard]

It would depend on how obvious those magical elements were to the average person. You could have a retail store, for instance, that looks ordinary to a non-spellcaster. But to a spellcaster using Sight, they could see the security glyphs and runes that cover the outside and inside of the building that deter shoplifters. They could also use Feel to sense spells such as Linger, that put customers into a state of ease and make them stay a little longer at the store just so they might buy something.

Subliminal Magic.

Right, but that wasn't was was posited in the post I quoted.

For example, Bright makes no sense with orcs and elves and dragons, but history is essentially the same (as far as we know).

 

[Corinnguard]

For example, Brighton makes no sense with orcs and elves and dragons, but history is essentially the same (as far as we know).

True, their presence in a setting that resembles ours in almost every way raises questions about historical differences between our world and a world that looks like ours but isn't. But how often is history brought up in a contemporary fantasy story?

A character in a contemporary fantasy setting is a tour guide, not a history teacher.

 

[Reynard]

True, their presence in a setting that resembles ours in almost every way raises questions about historical differences between our world and a world that looks like ours but isn't. But how often is history brought up in a contemporary fantasy story?

A character in a contemporary fantasy setting is a tour guide, not a history teacher.

I think that is why most contemporary fantasy leans into either a secret world, or one that is isolated from most of society. Full integration of high magic throughout human history demands acknowledgement in historical events.

 

[Remathilis]

I think that is why most contemporary fantasy leans into either a secret world, or one that is isolated from most of society. Full integration of high magic throughout human history demands acknowledgement in historical events.

And you aren't even safe with that. You could absolutely end up with the problem of "Wizarding World doesn't stop Hitler in order to keep magic a secret" problem.

I really only see two options as viable if KISS is a requirement.
1. Marvel Method: the world doesn't react logically to the supernatural elements around it and instead stubbornly reflect our own Earth of the given moment with fantasy layered on top.
2. Final Fantasy Method: a fantasy world somehow manages to mimic the advancement of technology to the 21st century despite the magical equivalent being available.

Both require a heavy suspension of disbelief, and the Rule of Cool overtakes any local conclusions that a world where reliable magic would exist. You just gotta believe Steve Jobs knew about the message cantrip and still decided to invent smartphones.

 

[Corinnguard]

I think that is why most contemporary fantasy leans into either a secret world, or one that is isolated from most of society. Full integration of high magic throughout human history demands acknowledgement in historical events.

Or leans into presenting the setting from a first-person point of view. To you or me, what matters is what is happening in the here and now, and in our immediate vicinity.

 

[AlViking]

I think we should probably get off the gun debate and get on to the Setting debate - so for that purpose I present some core setting assumptions

• Heroic Fantasy Genre: The setting is designed for "heroic fantasy." Player characters are exceptional, and the world is populated by various threats that the characters need to deal with.
• Magic is Common and Integrated: Magic is a fundamental, functional part of the world. The number of magic users may be limited, but magic is integrated into society and minor magics are relatively common.
• Much of the World is Untamed: ("Points of Light,") civilization is surrounded by a vast and dangerous wilderness. That wilderness also happens to be littered with ancient ruins, dungeons, and legendary treasures. In fact some wilderness can be considered urban
• Monsters All kinds of creatures from mundane to incomprehnsible exist and might appear at any location as a threat or challenge.
• Cosmopolitan: All kinds of species exist and are integrated across various locations and cultures.
• Mobility: Individual travel over long distances is common. There is also a history of societal mobility through migration, conquest and exploration not only across the world but across planes of existence
• Technology is anachronistic, and magic allows advanced concepts to be realised

SO are these assumptions fair? What do they imply? Do they work for a contemporary setting? Is anything else needed? Should some assumptions be broken?

I would have different questions

• Setting feel: Is this 18th century real world? 19th? 21st? Set it a back in the 18th or 19th and there are still plenty of "unexplored" territories to be found. How close do you want it to the real world? I could easily see a 19th century real world with steam locomotives, telegraphs and so on; it's still an era where guns exist but are not as advanced.
• Worlds: Consider making Mars and/or Venus habitable. Mars is Barsoom, Venus is a jungle planet. There could be portals to these worlds which gives you an excuse to have "untamed wilderness" even in a 21st century setting.
• Adherence to our world: Do you have the same (or similar) cities and countries? Do you assume history more-or-less unfolded the way it did in the past? Perhaps switch things up a bit, where Germany is dominated by dwarves, the Scandinavian countries by elves because why not Viking elves?
• Technology: If you lean too much into magi-tech I think you can end up with basically duplicating Eberron. So a main decision is what to mix and match. You can go all out everything we have as technology or all of our technology still exists plus magic.
• Was there always magic: One option is simply that the world was humming along as normal and one day "poof" magic. In other cases magic has always existed, it was just ignored for the most part. The Dresden Files handles it this way, the fey have always been there but they've remained hidden for various reasons. In some other series, magic comes in waves and it was catastrophic because it tends to be hard on anything technological - there are times technology works but magic is incredibly weak and others when magic is ascendant.

I think those kind of decisions (along with yours) affect what type of game you want to play.

 

[Corinnguard]

Worlds: Consider making Mars and/or Venus habitable. Mars is Barsoom, Venus is a jungle planet. There could be portals to these worlds which gives you an excuse to have "untamed wilderness" even in a 21st century setting.

Pathfinder 1st edition sort of did this with Golarion's sister planets of Akiton and Castrovel. Akiton was the equivalent of Mars/Barsoom while Castrovel was a jungle world. The Lashunta species in PF1 hailed from Castrovel.

 

[Reynard]

Or leans into presenting the setting from a first-person point of view. To you or me, what matters is what is happening in the here and now, and in our immediate vicinity.

That is harder in a D&D setting, I think.

 

[Corinnguard]

That is harder in a D&D setting, I think.

True. Now you are dealing with what's happening in the here and now with a group of individuals, the player characters. If one of them had a background in History and had a penchant of being a know-it-all, then you might get to see a glimpse into their world's history.

 

[Tonguez]

Ah Barsoom is a good reference - especially as we can pin 'Magic as technology' on harnessing of the Ninth Ray. The Ninth Ray is collected in the Atmosphere Factory of Helium and converted to energy. It helps create Barsooms atmosphere, allows its ships to fly, can be used for teleportation and it can be weaponized.