d20 Modern on a Different World?

[Jeremy757]

Do you need VWAs? Certainly not, but would you have Dungeon Crawls?

You wouldn't want it to be the focus of your campaign but sure you could still have dungeon crawls. Think about what a modern version of Waterdeep would be like in the year 2372 DR. It would be a sprawling metropolis with milions of people living in it and it would propably have several layers of structure supporting it: pedestrian tunnels, subway tunnels, worker and access tunnels, and sewege tunnels. and under all of that the Underdark STILL exists with many of the dangers it had in the past. There could even be a modern era version of Skull Port hidding deep under modern Waterdeep.

 

[Atridis]

I have always wanted to see a non-Medieval magical setting, where the magic has always existed. I was disappointed when Urban Arcana followed the Shadowrun model, where magic is abruptly introduced to a world that was exactly like our own until 5 minutes ago. I would love to see a non-Medieval/non-pre-technological world where magic, non-human races, and "monsters" are an organic component that has affected everything.

A world like Bas Lag.

I've long fantasized about a d20 game set in New Crobuzon (from China Mieville's Perdido Street Station - if you haven't read it, I highly recommend both it and The Scar, also set on Bas Lag). I decided that, if I ever did it, I would use d20 Modern as the baseline system, rather than D&D.

 

[Atridis]

...how does one create a fully developed "modern" world without mapping every square inch of it? By this I mean that classical gaming has relied on vast wild areas (VWAs) to attract monsters and PCs to prey on them. The Modern world is filled with GPS, Spy Satellites, really good maps and on and on...

Do you need VWAs? Certainly not, but would you have Dungeon Crawls?

I agree with Jeremy757. I'll add that "Wild" areas do not need to be "un-mapped" to be useful to an adventure rpg, they just need to be dangerous. The exploration adventure model is less interesting, but there's still plenty to do. In a world where the maps say "here be dragons" - and there REALLY ARE dragons - simply having a map isn't going to help you much, if you need to go there.

From a meta perspective, the players and GM need to be able to work around the fact that they don't own detailed maps of every square meter of the Forgotten Realms, which oughtn't be too hard.

 

[nobodez]

my thoughts at the moment

Well, I think that you can approach this one of two ways (or maybe even a combination of the two).

First, I could see you selecting vast areas of expertise that are mostly occupied by one species. Such as in D&D, where the halflings are the nomadic thieves, but with a modern twist. For example, you could say that halflings, taking their nomadic roots, and their stereotypical thievery, have set themselves up as a series of competing, global, criminal organizations (The Mob, the Yakuza, etc.).

Second, you can just say that, while each species is basically separate, they have evolved much the way that the various human "races" have done. While there is "inter-racial" breeding, they mostly keep within the same species, with some exceptions based and family, and region. For example, in America, instead of the Europeans invading the Native Americans, it was the European Humans invading the American Elves (who are themselves variants of the Asian Elves). This would require templates for each of the various inter-species variations (though this could work with just feats, such as "Dwarven Heritage" on an elf, they'd be slightly shorter, stockier, and have advanced low-light vision, or short-ranged darkvision. A good example of this is the Half-Elf, which would use the "Elven Heritage" feat, which grants +1 to Listen, Search, and Spot, Secret Door Sense, etc.).

Though, you'd have to change these examples for your world.

 

[Jeremy757]

I think the other thing to keep in mind when doing this is to only create what you need for the game.

Dont go over board writing up detailed histories and geographies, or explinations on how magic and technology interact. Only explain just as much as you can get away with and leave the rest vague. Then expand on that information as the campaign goes on.

Also keep the campaign as local as possible at first. Keep it located to one city or small region. No globe trotting until after maybe level 5 through 8. This will make your task of making the world more believable and intimate easier by limiting the number of background story factors interacting with one another. At this point the game will become more about the npcs in your game rather then the setting of your game. And it should be the npcs in your game that make the game cool not the fact that its Forgotten Realms in the future, that should just be a bonus "cool".

 

[Stormborn]

I have always wanted to see a non-Medieval magical setting, where the magic has always existed. I was disappointed when Urban Arcana followed the Shadowrun model, where magic is abruptly introduced to a world that was exactly like our own until 5 minutes ago. I would love to see a non-Medieval/non-pre-technological world where magic, non-human races, and "monsters" are an organic component that has affected everything.

A world like Bas Lag.

I've long fantasized about a d20 game set in New Crobuzon (from China Mieville's Perdido Street Station - if you haven't read it, I highly recommend both it and The Scar, also set on Bas Lag). I decided that, if I ever did it, I would use d20 Modern as the baseline system, rather than D&D.

Amen.
And since Mieville's a once-upon-a-time RPG fan we might one day see such a setting.

 

[DMScott]

What do we think? Is there interest in running a game set on, say, a world with different geology, history and racial make up from our own world?

I dunno, one of the things I like about modern era play is the familiarity. The ability to casually throw in some current event or location that makes things seem more real. All that geology and history is pretty useful in setting the scene, and pretty hard to replace.

If I were to want to toss that out, I think I'd still set a d20 Modern game on Earth, just with a different cultural background and maybe different natural laws. For example, I've got some random notes on a version of Earth where (a) the Romans sufferred early reverses against Carthage and as a result didn't become the rulers of the known world, (b) Pauline Christianity didn't catch on, and (c) magic works, though not at full D&D levels, and is affected by the degree of civilization in an area a la Ars Magica. Advanced to modern times, I think it might be a neat world, with a much different political setup and some kind of tension between magical/rural societies and technological/urban societies, but I'm kind of scared of the amount of work required.