New Campaign Idea - Forgotten Realms: Modern

[lord_banus]

Forgotten Realms: Modern
The Pall of Ao
Date: 2004 DR

* A few hundred years ago, all magic failed and all magical creatures either disappeared or lost their magical natures.
* All contact with the Gods was also lost leaving many religions powerless and shaken.
* The only warning was a single message “The Pall of Ao has fallen”
* Many theories are put forth but the most popular one is that Ao removed magic from the world for some unknown reason.
* A dark age begins as the numerous religions begin fighting each other, blaming them for the Pall. These wars escalate to nations and races. In the aftermath, nations rise and fall but isolationism prevails. Knowledge is horded and trust forgotten.
* During the Dark ages, worship of the main religions drops off and many start to worship Ao in the hope that petitions to him will lift the Pall. Many start to feel that it was their sins that caused the catastrophe.
* An age of reason ends the Dark ages when the tinkering of the gnomes becomes wide spread. Development of new technologies spreads rapidly amongst the various races and a new era of hope without magic begins.
* The new hope brings thoughts of expansion and in time this brings about new global wars and with the new technologies, vast amounts of death and destruction occur. These wars finally end when the United States of the Sword Coast, USSC unleash the power of the atom.
* Magic, being all but forgotten and relegated to Myth starts to creep back along with creatures that are the stuff of nightmares.
* GM: Ao removes magic from the land because he feels that Toril is stagnating and must face hardship to grow.
* GM: A barrier is put up between the Ethereal and the Material and those begins and items of magical nature sucked into the Ethereal.
* GM: After a few hundred years, Ao feels that the experiment failed and that a return of magic is called for but slowly. So he sets the Pall to weakening and over time it will be fully removed.
* GM: Gaming in FR:Modern can be set at many levels, before the return of magic, being instrumental in the returning of the Magic and a few years after the return of magic when everything is back to normal.

What do people think? Is this somethink you would like to run? Any other twists that would be interresting?

 

[Kelleris]

The problem is that, superficially, it's almost exactly the same as the standard Urban Arcana set-up, with shadow et al. What would you do to make sure it was distinctly FR-y? The president of the United Stated is a high-level Thief, er, Rogue? (Couldn't resist, sorry )

Also, I think your Dale Reckoning is off...

Interesting idea, though. Cataclysms are fun!

 

[lord_banus]

Its true that it is much like Urban Arcana but being in FR is what makes it different. I guess I am just a little sick of Modern games being set on earth and I thought that by extrapolating the timeline of FR to give a modern earth like setting it would be interresting.

I may have the dates a little wrong as I am working from memory. I remember the date of the FRCS being 1372 but maybe that wasn't DR.

I think the good settings that work are the ones that are fantastical but have a strong thread of familiarity. This is why DnD works, familiar in the medieval but fantastical in the magic.

Just to be clear, I make no claims of orginality here, just a mish-mash of Shadowrun, Urban Arcana and Forgotten Realms.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

I like it. sounds like fun. Sure, it's a lot like Urban Arcana, but I like Urban Arcana.

Would be an interesting idea to flesh out and run.

 

[Kelleris]

Hmm... Why don't you play up the fact that (unlike in Shadow games) everyone knows that there used to be magic. Make the countries ultra-nationalistic upon the return of magic and each pursue a different "one true way" to avoid displeasing Ao once more.

You could use some variant of the 7 traditions I use (blatant plug):

Cutting-Edge Spells (and Magical Traditions)

 

[lord_banus]

Interresting idea. How about a Magic Cold war as each nation tries to rebuild their magical traditions. You could have it such that magic returned in the 70's and magic has been horded and kept secret since then with each nation on the brink of conflict. Gives plenty of room for traditional dungeon delving to retrieve magic from ruins plus you could have more modern espionage type games.

As a side to this, I have been reading Elements of Magic and thought that its lack of defined spells would be good for this kind of setting as new spells would have to be created from scratch.

The traditions you have mentioned also fit well with EoM. It would be a good starting place. The sequel to EoM which should be out soon with a few sample traditions that will be useful as well.

 

[Acid_crash]

I like it, but using United States of the Sword Coast just seems wrong to me. Another thought is that, instead of making it so like our modern day, have the technology that initially started with the gnomes be super advanced steam tech (I'm a sucker for steam tech games) instead of combustion engine, and keep the rest the same.

Oh, and have guns and gunslingers.

 

[lord_banus]

Actually I really dislike steamtech so thats not a direction I would take it. Plus there is already plenty of that about as it is.

 

[KaintheSeeker]

Sounds interesting.. you got any specific races you're allowing/disallowing

:daydreams of gnomish technologist, or maybe a drow 'hacker' or .. yeah.. orge/half orge semi-pro football player.. lol:

 

[lord_banus]

I would not remove any specific races except the genasi, aasimar and tieflings due to their outsider natures. Perhaps there was some sort of conflict on the ethereal that with the raising of the Pall has spilled over to the material realm.

A drow hacker sounds excellent. Makes me wonder how the various races would fill niches in a modern society.

Elven Environmental Activists.
Dwarf/Gnome mechanics
Orc bouncers
halfling couriers
Drow security guards