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

[Reynard]

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.

i am struggling to understand how Barsoom is "contemporary fantasy." It would work for portal fantasy, of course, but...

 

[Tonguez]

i am struggling to understand how Barsoom is "contemporary fantasy." It would work for portal fantasy, of course, but...

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). David Innes goes to Pellucidar in 1914 then Tarzan goes to Pellucidar as part of a rescue attempt in 1930. ERB has the Eigth Ray technology spread to Earth in the Moon Maid which starts in a dystopian 2026.

So its late 19th century to 21sr century (Moon Maid extends to 25th century).

Its Scientific Romance/Space Opera rather than 'Fantasy' but its probably good inspiration for a World that isnt just another version of Ebberon.

Here we go (quote thanks to Project Gutenberg):

June 10th, 1967, that Earth received her first message from Mars, since which the two planets have remained in constant friendly communication, carrying on a commerce of reciprocal enlightenment. In some branches of the arts and sciences the Martians, or Barsoomians, as they call themselves, were far in advance of us, while in others we had progressed more rapidly than they. Knowledge was thus freely exchanged to the advantage of both worlds. We learned of their history and customs and they of ours, though they had for ages already known much more of us than we of them. Martian news held always a prominent place in our daily papers from the first.

They helped us most, perhaps, in the fields of medicine and aeronautics, giving us in one, the marvelous healing lotions of Barsoom and in the other, knowledge of the Eighth Ray, which is more generally known on Earth as the Barsoomian Ray, which is now stored in the buoyancy tanks of every air craft and has made obsolete those ancient types of plane that depended upon momentum to keep them afloat.

That we ever were able to communicate intelligibly with them is due to the presence upon Mars of that deathless Virginian, John Carter, whose miraculous transportation to Mars occurred March 4th, 1866, as every school child of the twenty-first century knows.

 

[Reynard]

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). David Innes goes to Pellucidar in 1914 then Tarzan goes to Pellucidar as part of a rescue attempt in 1930. ERB has the Eigth Ray technology spread to Earth in the Moon Maid which starts in a dystopian 2026.

So its late 19th century to 21sr century (Moon Maid extends to 25th century)

Here we go (quote thanks to Project Gutenberg):

And the contemporary fantasy connection?

 

[Tonguez]

And the contemporary fantasy connection?

the Moon Maid has a cannibalistic centaur race? Carson Napier becomes a Psychic. Sky Pirate? Flying Stegosaurs?- Swords, Psychic powers, Monsters and Flying vehicles are all aspects of fantasy and its all set in a modern world

 

[Faolyn]

The difference is familiarity. Everyone knows how deadly a modern firearm is, or an automobile. But archaic weapons are just unfamiliar enough that the ridiculous D&D rules can just about pass. And of course magic can do whatever the rules say it does without challenge.

It’s the main reason the fantasy genre dominates tabletop gaming.

Think of the damage weapons do as being scaled to a basic commoner/0th-level person. A D&D gun may do "not enough" damage, but it'll likely kill a typical person. And, of course, in real life, people have been shot multiple times and survived.

The real problem with D&D damage is how instantaneous the healing is--you get back all your hp overnight, whereas in real life, it could take weeks, months, or years to fully recover.

 

[Faolyn]

@Reynard, have you ever read GURPS Technomancer?

 

[AlViking]

Think of the damage weapons do as being scaled to a basic commoner/0th-level person. A D&D gun may do "not enough" damage, but it'll likely kill a typical person. And, of course, in real life, people have been shot multiple times and survived.

The real problem with D&D damage is how instantaneous the healing is--you get back all your hp overnight, whereas in real life, it could take weeks, months, or years to fully recover.

Action movie healing. If you have a combat heavy RPG there almost has to be magically quick healing. At least in D&D land magical healing is possible, even without the super-fast healing you get from spells or potions.

 

[Corinnguard]

The real problem with D&D damage is how instantaneous the healing is--you get back all your hp overnight, whereas in real life, it could take weeks, months, or years to fully recover.

Instantaneous healing keeps the character turnover rate low.

 

[Reynard]

@Reynard, have you ever read GURPS Technomancer?

I didn't think so, but after a quick google I think I must have at least skimmed through it at some point.

 

[Faolyn]

I didn't think so, but after a quick google I think I must have at least skimmed through it at some point.

The recap: When Oppenheimer said "I am become Death, destroyer of worlds" and they tested the atom bomb, he accidentally completed a necromantic rite that tore open a hole in reality and let magic through. Then the Soviets did the same thing in Antarctica, only it tore a bigger hole (and created hive-minded commie penguins in the process), so now nobody wants to try a third bomb, let it break reality altogether. This also caused pregnant women in the region of the first bomb to give birth to anthro animals (Southwestern US/Northern Mexico native carnivorous species only) or to miscarry and accidentally produce undead fetal vampires. Other animals produced various monstrous beings. It was possible to summon demons.

Fast forward to today (meaning, the 90s), and magic is fully integrated in society. Some people buy flying carpets instead of cars (but it's GURPS, so the prices are exorbitant). Power plants run on summoned elementals. People learn minor magics in grade school (like, cantrip-level in terms of power) but could take higher-level magic classes in university. Religions changed to embrace or reject magic. Magic could be used to cure all sorts of ills but magic-resistant diseases evolved. There's spells that were created to deal with metal, radiation, magnetism, and other modern knowledge, not just the four classic elements. There was a presidential sex scandal involving a succubus. And, since it was published in the 90s, there was a whole section on hacking.

I've always wished it would be updated. It was such a cool setting that it's a shame that it's stuck in the 90s.