Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="The_Universe" data-source="post: 2618915" data-attributes="member: 8944">In a modern fantasy, magic either has to be so ubiquitous so as to make the world nearly unrecognizable, or so subtle that most people can continue to believe that there's no such thing. In the first option, teleport, fireball, etc. are all viable options. You've just overlayed technology on the assumptions of D&D. I think this is more difficult, as functional, powerful magic should have a drastic effect on how people view the world, its history, development, and other various issues. For example, technology has developed in this world because it makes peoples' lives easier. If magic is achieving the same purpose, why would technology have developed? Is the reason cultural? Economic? In short, you have a great deal more world building to do if you choose this basic idea. Common magic is simply not part of the real, modern world, so you have to remove many of the basic assumptions that make the real world familiar. In the second general option, you've got Indiana Jones, Constantine (as you mentioned) as an example. The core assumptions of the world remain familiar, as there's just enough magic around to let those at the edges of the secret world know that they can't take its absence for granted. Science, in this case, can only explain some things - not everything. Religion, in secret circles, takes on a strange new validity. In this case, you don't need to rebuild the whole world from the foundations, up - you simply layer in your secret world, and make sure that things never get so far out of hand that it ceases to be secret. It usually helps, in this case, to determine why magic (since it apparently exists) has not made its presence more fully known, as this will likely guide what kind of plots and foes you can include. Monsters, if they exist, have got to be mostly human-like, so that they can blend in with their prey. Non-humanoid monsters have got to be both rare and well-hidden, so that the normal disblief can be plausibly maintained.I generally prefer the second option, but I think the first is an interesting exercise in world-building.</blockquote>

Verification