Psion said:
I immediately thought to myself "that sounds like a neat d20 modern plot idea." But yet, it doesn't sound like d20 modern for one reason: I typically picture d20 modern being on a world that is, on the surface, Earth. Of course, that is terribly limiting. I know if you constrain yourself to never changing overt structures of a world, many plot and background possiblities are extinguished.
I think people mostly stick to something similar to modern day Earth because it makes the background and history a whole lot easier to handle. When there are significant differences, they are usually either secret (the typical Illuminati or Buffy style games, for example) or recent (the Shadowrun knockoffs). Those have the advantage of requiring less work than coming up with a full modern world.
Psion said:
Does anyone run their d20 modern game in a world that is decidedly different from Earth, but has enough commonalities that familiar chargen bits still apply?
I do have some notes on an alternate Modern campaign I may someday run. I made two basic changes to the world as we know it - some forms of magic are real, and Paul's version of Christianity never caught on with the Roman Empire - and tried to see where that took me. I was aiming for a world in which some societies would be technologically based, and others would rely more on magic (d20 Modern style, which isn't as earth-shaking as full D&D magic). It looks like a ton of work to get it to the point that it'll be playable, and I'm not sure yet if I gain more than I lose by doing so, but maybe someday it'll be done.
A few other divergent Earths that struck me as interesting for a d20 Modern setting, all from books I've read in the last couple of years. The advantage of any of these is that the author has done a lot of the grunt work for us:
Harry Turtledove's series from
How Few Remain onwards. This describes a world in which the south won the American Civil War, so there's both a USA and a CSA. So far, he's explored how things might develop in a second war between the States in the late 19th century, in WWI with the countries on opposite sides, through the roaring 20s and Great Depression, and now he's started WWII.
S.M. Stirling's
Peshawar Lancers world. In this world, a comet impacts on Earth in the 1870s (IIRC), which sets off a climate change that makes much of North America, Europe, and northern Asia unsuitable for agriculture, which results in mass starvation among the world's most advanced nations. The British Government relocates as many people as possible (which isn't that many) to India. Let things stir for a century and see what you've got.
Also by Stirling,
Conquistador, in which just after WWII a soldier in our world accidentally discovers an alternate world in which technology never really advanced beyond roughly the medieval level. He keeps it a secret, known only to a few close friends who help him set up a small society in the relatively pristine alternate North America undiscovered by Europeans. Advance to the present and see how that has developed.
Turtledove's
Worldwar series, in which aliens invade during WWII, might also be interesting, but it didn't really grab me when I gave it a try five or six years ago. Stirling has a new series - starting with
Dies the Fire - in which some unexplained force operates on Earth in 1998, preventing most technology from operating. It might have promise for kind of a d20 Modern/Medieval world.
