D20 Modern: The Reincarnated or DnD: The Dreaming

[Angel Tarragon]

Great idea Fate Lawson, I'm definetely going to run with it...

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Have you ever read Matt Wagner's Mage series of comics. It sounds very much like what you are trying to accomplish. Basically King Arthur is reborn in the modern world as a ordinary joe named Kevin Matchstick and Excalibur is now in the form of a baseball bat. Lancelot is a young streetsmart black woman and Merlin is a computer program who jumps around ATMs (if I remember right). Kevin discovers that the fantasy world is just barely hiding beneath the "real" world and that Dragons still exist though they have taken human shape.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

That sounds just a little too slapstick Calico_Jack73. Not exactly what I am looking for.

 

[Psion]

Unless this is a prevalent campaign-wide thing, I wouldn't make it a feat. I'd make it a roleplaying thing and GRANT a number of missing levels from one's past life at the appropriate time.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Iwas pretty planning on letting the characters multiclass into their DnD classes after they had been awakened about them after reading all of the posts here. Glad to hear from you anyway Psion.

 

[MeiRen]

I think the big questions here is, how do you introduce the magic? What do you want the magic to feel like? What is the game about?

Ie, the old White Wolf games tended to be about the failings of the modern world, and the whole "lost secrets of magic" vibe reflected that.

Or you could a game of "personal mystery/horror." (its less pretentious than it sounds.) The idea is the players go "Hey, I can heal with a touch! I wonder why that is?" then "Wait, I'm a reincarnation of what?" and then "Wait, I did what in a past life? Ugh, I was a scary mofo!" The PCs previous incarnations were probably considerablly more violent and less ethical than a modern, after all. (especially if he was a priest of Odin! Those guys were scary! Actually, some of the Odin myths offer a lot of interesting oppurtunities here.)

In terms of powers....yeah, there's really no good way to balance this. If the PCs are the only people in the world with magic, well, they're going to be powerful even if the magic they have is very weak.

Now the D20 modern campaign would not in the least be like Urban Arcana, but more like what goes on today for real.

Wait - You mean I could have magic powers from a previous reincarnation? Kick Ass!

I strongly reccomend checking out "Unknown Armies". Its an amazing game. It really creates the feel of "the real world, where magic works". Its so well done, at times I caught myself thinking this it was real. (which doesn't happen with most games! Honest!)

-Mei

 

[Psion]

Quick thought - do you have midnight or dawnforge? The legacy powers would be a neat way to introduce powers from a previous life.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Psion - I do have Midnight. What would you reccomend that I use from it?

 

[Geoff Watson]

Have you ever read Matt Wagner's Mage series of comics. It sounds very much like what you are trying to accomplish. Basically King Arthur is reborn in the modern world as a ordinary joe named Kevin Matchstick and Excalibur is now in the form of a baseball bat. Lancelot is a young streetsmart black woman and Merlin is a computer program who jumps around ATMs (if I remember right). Kevin discovers that the fantasy world is just barely hiding beneath the "real" world and that Dragons still exist though they have taken human shape.

Legacy, by Fred Perry (Antarctic Press) is another comic that has a similar theme. A group of heroes beats the big bad guy. The BBG says he'll come back after the heroes die of old age, so the heroes work out a way of sending their powers to people in the future so they can fight the BBG when he comes back. It's written from the point of view of the modern people who receive the legacy powers.

Geoff.

 

[arnon]

I do have Midnight. What would you reccomend that I use from it?

maybe give them each Hero a heroic path (or maybe evern two) that suits their previous charachters...

arnon