D&D General Millennial D&D (+)

[Meech17]

The princess gets captured and the evil lich's undead horde raids villages on a weekly basis, and while tragic... people are mostly apathetic to it because it happens so often it's become mundane.

Besides.. The adventurer's don't have enough PTO to take time away from their day jobs to go and do anything about it anyway.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Being told by my son that his generation would solve drug abuse and homelessness was quite the internal laugh let me tell you.

I'm GenX, and I strongly believe that can still happen. Our world consciousness is ascending to recognize injustices that are too much to bear. Millennials and Gen Z and the younger generations have been taught what the world could be, and they are standing up because older generations haven't been able to fix it (mostly due to their focus on self/tribe-preservation, if not outright selfishness, rather than helping others on larger scales).

How is this on-topic? Millennials (and all Gens, honestly) need to realize/remember that they can change the world for the better. D&D is a training ground for heroism and activism. Millennials and younger generations were raised on stories of Good vs. Evil and Heroism as themes. They just need to realize that those lessons can apply to the real world, and they can be as important as the heroes that they play in D&D. Humanity just needs to join a huge adventuring party and work together.

We just all need to Join the Party of Humanity, so we can go on this quest to force change on a wider scale. Some tactics to consider:

1). Get money and corruption out of politics, stop focusing on partisan issues, and shake up ancient corrupt political traditions, to learn again what it means to serve the People and not special money interests.
2). Get the advanced energy technologies that have been hidden from us released, and distributed open-source and near-free. De-centralizing free energy solves so many problems. Can you imagine not having to pay for gas or electricity because you have personal Zero-Point/Quantum energy generators powering your life? The tech exists but it is suppressed because it is a threat to the petro-dollar. Such cheap and easy energy empowers all humanity to live almost anywhere in the world, no matter how remote, to control our own destiny and not be beholden to energy/power moguls. It will also enable us to desalinate and irrigate water to places that need it, and rejuvenate the natural world. We already have the technology to do this stuff, but the crooked corporations and the petro-dollar, as well as the impact cost on the ancient power grid to run it, makes it unfeasible.
3). Invalidate billion-dollar industries (ancient, hoarding dragons) that keep humanity sick and tired, ill-informed, and poor and desperate.

Millennial D&D Tropes:

• Adventurer Bastions. Living in found-family communal strongholds/shared living spaces where the party gathers and pools resources so they can provide security to each other while exploring their personal interests. And occasionally they embark on an adventure together (whether exploring the natural world, exploring the city, or having a game night)
• Living in such abundance that they can afford their fantasies of being able to share the wealth and be a boon to their society, helping the needy and suffering.
• Autonomy. Standing against epic villains rather than having to play their game to survive.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Every Millennial D&D setting has a "Everything Changed When.." Event.

"Everything changed when Ronald Regan was elected."

Invalidate billion-dollar industries (ancient, hoarding dragons) that keep humanity sick and tired, ill-informed, and poor and desperate.

FWIW, I think the idea of dragons as corporate masters has a lot of traction, and could form the basis of a pretty fun dungeonpunk campaign. Maybe we take a cross-section of big industries. You get a black dragon that runs fantasy ExxonMobil (maybe they are mana-merchants who sell the energy necessary for spellcasting), a white dragon that runs fantasy Apple (maybe fantasy corporate librarians, requiring gold to access knowledge and communication), a blue dragon that runs fantasy Walmart (it's a magic shop full of goods of questionable use, but it's ubiquitous), a green dragon that runs fantasy UnitedHealth Group (maybe it's a for-profit healing service that charges you for "insurance" that ends up plunging everyone in to crippling debt when they get physically disabled), an a red dragon who runs JP Morgan Chase (fantasy bank that puts crippling debt into the hands of every farmer in town!).

In fact, there's some Eberron houses that would be well-suited to map to these....

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

FWIW, I think the idea of dragons as corporate masters has a lot of traction, and could form the basis of a pretty fun dungeonpunk campaign. Maybe we take a cross-section of big industries. You get a black dragon that runs fantasy ExxonMobil (maybe they are mana-merchants who sell the energy necessary for spellcasting), a white dragon that runs fantasy Apple (maybe fantasy corporate librarians, requiring gold to access knowledge and communication), a blue dragon that runs fantasy Walmart (it's a magic shop full of goods of questionable use, but it's ubiquitous), a green dragon that runs fantasy UnitedHealth Group (maybe it's a for-profit healing service that charges you for "insurance" that ends up plunging everyone in to crippling debt when they get physically disabled), an a red dragon who runs JP Morgan Chase (fantasy bank that puts crippling debt into the hands of every farmer in town!).

In fact, there's some Eberron houses that would be well-suited to map to these....

I’ve seen more than one comment online comparing RW 1%ers to dragons sleeping on their hoards. It’s a good enough fit for RPG campaign drafting, IMHO.

 

[GrimCo]

@I'm A Banana

Shadowrun did that way back when. Lofwyr as CEO/owner of Saedr-Krupp ( play on real world Thyssen-Krupp). Nachtmeister was president of banking corporation. They even had dragon Dunkelzahn as a president of USA. Most of great dragons (both western and eastern) are, in fact, heavily involved into corporations, but also politics and high level organized crime. Shadowrun has some damn fine lore and awsome CRPG-s. Too bad ttrpg is mid as best.

As far as millennial dnd goes, 5e nails it pretty good. It hits all the right spots.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I'm a Millennial in the older range (turning 38 this month), so thinking of this from my own experiences...

In the Realm of the Millennials, the characters set out to find fortune or do good in a world on the brink of disaster. Generations of powerful wizards have drained the world of its magic, upsetting the natural order of things while empowering themselves and their allies. Though all the bard songs tell of a world of black-and-white morality and dungeons full of treasures, the Millennial Realm is anything but predictable. The once neutral forces of nature have turned chaotic. Powerful creatures once thought good reveal themselves to be corrupt and predatory. The DM is encouraged to roll on the World-Shaking Disaster table at random times, so that characters may emerge from a dungeon to find the realm plunged into war, economic crisis, or a terrible curse.

The characters of the Realm are encouraged to Multiclass. It's true that the older generations of adventurers could commit to being a Fighter or Cleric for 20 levels, but that stability doesn't exist anymore. Dungeons require such a variety of skills that multiclassing is almost required.

Still, there is hope. With luck, the characters may find a way to secure their fortune, dethrone the tyrants, and end the curses... Though after every adventure the DM must roll a percentage die with a chance of the adventure's impacts being quickly reversed, secretly evil, or taken over by a faceless cabal of powerful wizards.

However, they say the next generation of adventurers are the ones that are really going to change the Realm...

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I'm a Millennial in the older range (turning 38 this month), so thinking of this from my own experiences...

In the Realm of the Millennials, the characters set out to find fortune or do good in a world on the brink of disaster. Generations of powerful wizards have drained the world of its magic, upsetting the natural order of things while empowering themselves and their allies. Though all the bard songs tell of a world of black-and-white morality and dungeons full of treasures, the Millennial Realm is anything but predictable. The once neutral forces of nature have turned chaotic. Powerful creatures once thought good reveal themselves to be corrupt and predatory. The DM is encouraged to roll on the World-Shaking Disaster table at random times, so that characters may emerge from a dungeon to find the realm plunged into war, economic crisis, or a terrible curse.

The characters of the Realm are encouraged to Multiclass. It's true that the older generations of adventurers could commit to being a Fighter or Cleric for 20 levels, but that stability doesn't exist anymore. Dungeons require such a variety of skills that multiclassing is almost required.

Still, there is hope. With luck, the characters may find a way to secure their fortune, dethrone the tyrants, and end the curses... Though after every adventure the DM must roll a percentage die with a chance of the adventure's impacts being quickly reversed, secretly evil, or taken over by a faceless cabal of powerful wizards.

However, they say the next generation of adventurers are the ones that are really going to change the Realm...

Sounds a bit excessive to me. Particularly the percentile "f@#k you, no success" thing. That's a grimdark setting through and through--something a lot of Millennials are sick and tired of seeing.

Tone it down a little, though, and I think you have exactly the right idea. As I've called it before: chiaroscuro fantasy. The darkness is dark, and real, and even oppressive; it emphatically does not go away on its own and is putting a huge effort into holding everything it already has and encroaching into everything it doesn't. But genuinely good people can make a difference. Sincere effort at improving things can produce results. They will often be partial, incomplete, or preparatory, but tangible results DO happen.

The world does not simply bend over backwards for heroes. But heroes can help. What it needs most is genuine exemplars, folks who have actually lived up to the lofty standards of yesteryear. Seeing one person make a difference can make a dozen more people make their own, smaller differences, and that ripples outward. It's not a unilateral salvation; it's a pulling-ourselves-up-by-our-bootstraps by way of one pebble starting the avalanche.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm a Millennial in the older range (turning 38 this month), so thinking of this from my own experiences...

In the Realm of the Millennials, the characters set out to find fortune or do good in a world on the brink of disaster. Generations of powerful wizards have drained the world of its magic, upsetting the natural order of things while empowering themselves and their allies. Though all the bard songs tell of a world of black-and-white morality and dungeons full of treasures, the Millennial Realm is anything but predictable. The once neutral forces of nature have turned chaotic. Powerful creatures once thought good reveal themselves to be corrupt and predatory. The DM is encouraged to roll on the World-Shaking Disaster table at random times, so that characters may emerge from a dungeon to find the realm plunged into war, economic crisis, or a terrible curse.

The characters of the Realm are encouraged to Multiclass. It's true that the older generations of adventurers could commit to being a Fighter or Cleric for 20 levels, but that stability doesn't exist anymore. Dungeons require such a variety of skills that multiclassing is almost required.

Still, there is hope. With luck, the characters may find a way to secure their fortune, dethrone the tyrants, and end the curses... Though after every adventure the DM must roll a percentage die with a chance of the adventure's impacts being quickly reversed, secretly evil, or taken over by a faceless cabal of powerful wizards.

However, they say the next generation of adventurers are the ones that are really going to change the Realm...

Other than the multiclassing part, this sounds like Dark Sun.

 

[Blue Orange]

Sounds a bit excessive to me. Particularly the percentile "f@#k you, no success" thing. That's a grimdark setting through and through--something a lot of Millennials are sick and tired of seeing.

You raise a very good point--a fantasy appealing to Millennials would probably be somewhat the opposite of the actual conditions. The 'grimdark' 90s were actually a fairly prosperous time (at least in the USA) and relatively peaceful when people had stopped worrying about the Cold War and hadn't started worrying about terrorism yet, though of course not everyone was doing well.

 

[Scribe]

You raise a very good point--a fantasy appealing to Millennials would probably be somewhat the opposite of the actual conditions. The 'grimdark' 90s were actually a fairly prosperous time (at least in the USA) and relatively peaceful when people had stopped worrying about the Cold War and hadn't started worrying about terrorism yet, though of course not everyone was doing well.

Because it was a prediction, and here we are.