Submachine Gun & Sorcery-Modern Technology in DnD

joeandsteve

First Post
Has anyone ever played dnd 3.x with modern or futuristic technology, weapons, and vehicles incorporated as well as magic and monsters? If so, I am interested in how it went, what kind of flavor it provoked, and how you went about putting together the combination in a setting without forcing it. Any feedback would be great!
 

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The Grumpy Celt

Banned
Banned
In the first Mechamancy book I wrote, I included a series of spell similar to monster summoning spells that allowed a mage to summon technological weapons (pistols, machines guns, and so forth) and vehicles (motorcycles, cars). However, that was not the full theme of the book, just an aside.

I am not aware of any other books that really bring much modern technology into a medieval setting.
 

Somewhat in my Strikeforce: Morituri storyhour.

Most was involved in description. Laser hand gun was treated like a wand of magic missiles complete with charges (clips).

It was okay.

The story idea was champions from different worlds were brought together to save the multi-verse. I had a semi superoic james bond, a Captain America rip off (creating the shield was hard). a Storm character from X-men (easy) then a Darksun and a Ravenloft standard type characters.

They fought the Maestro (future super-hulk), an undead jaws that was massive and other various very over the top villians.
 

paradox42

First Post
The main homebrew setting I've been running games in since I started running games, which I've been building on and off for roughly 20 years now, is built with this sort of interaction in mind. It was originally conceived as a "post-Gamma-World" setting, meaning that the idea was that the Gamma World had several thousand years of history unfold, radiation zones cooling off, and various mutant species being eradicated or rising to become as populous and important as the traditional humans and demihumans. I started this in 1st Edition, made some conversions and refinements for 2nd Edition and ran my first full-fledged campaign in that (as opposed to single adventures now and then for the 1E version), and when 3E came along converted and further refined that into the beginning of its present form.

Most cultures of the world are assumed to be at a pseudo-medieval level of technology, as in a standard D&D world, but sages and others with the right Knowledge ranks are perfectly aware that those strange devices constructed of unknown metals, not-quite-metals (like plastics) and other exotic materials aren't magic at all, but instead products of ancient science. Some objects in the setting, like the six Diamond Towers which once contained space elevators connecting the surface of the world with the orbiting Ring Station (still visible in the sky even in the modern day as a thin white band), are obviously technlogical and obviously beyond the capability of present people to create or maintain. Technological ruins are essentially treated as exotic dungeons, much as such places are treated in some video RPGs like the old Might and Magic series- and of course several entries in the Final Fantasy lineup.

Technological items, I've gone to some trouble to "balance" with magic- in that you can find a tech item to do just about anything, but you'll be paying a price comparable to a magic item that would do the same thing. Nearly all tech devices require special Power Cells to work, which are devices in their own right as far as treasure is concerned; also, most tech devices available today require some sort of repairs or jury-rigging to function fully or properly. I wrote up special rules for how energy weapons work, based on rules from Dragonstar and other sources such as the "high tech weapons" suggestions in the 3.5 DMG; all technological weapons are considered Exotic for characters from most modern cultures. They don't tend to get used much in the games I've run, but characters built around using them can be quite handy in a fight and deadly to their enemies. This is partly because I knew going in that weapons using my new rules would find it difficult to compete with powerful magic weapons in higher-level games, so I gave tech weapons a few advantages to compensate- the most important one being that tech weapons tend to have high critical multipliers, such as the "Mag Rifle/Rail Gun" which gets x5.

Finally, robots and ancient computer AIs do exist; I've written up a special "Robot" subtype for Constructs, and made several monsters using it (ranging from a cute little CR 2 Maintenance Bot up to the terrifying CR 40 Death Machine, my interpretation into my 3.5E setting of the old beast from Gamma World). Several of the most memorable adventures I've run for parties in the current incarnation of the setting have involved interaction with ancient AIs that are still functioning. I even made templates for Cyborg creatures, and one for Living Constructs which in my setting represent "androids" or other robots designed and expressly built to look like and blend in with normal living creatures. They've seen play several times, and in one high-level game one of the PCs was actually a Living Construct whose character background was that he'd been deactivated for roughly 3000 years and only recently "woken up."
 
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CharlesRyan

Adventurer
The year that d20 Modern came out, at a local game gathering in the Seattle area, I ran a game that pitted a modern SWAT team against a segment of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. (The rather thin and unimportant premise being that while raiding the home of a secretive mystical cult, the team stumbled through a portal and into the source of the cult leader's power.) I ran follow-up adventures (higher level SWAT-types with slightly better intel about what to expect, against tougher parts of the dungeon) at the same gathering over 3 or 4 subsequent years.

The sessions were always a lot of fun, but the encounters were very swingy. Up against relatively "mundane" foes (say, hill giants), the good guys cleaned up pretty quickly. Against more arcane opponents, they had tremendous vulnerabilities.

Tactics were also somewhat different, as modern technology favors ranged combat (though there were some good melee characters among the heroes). And some less-combaty technologies, like radios and night-vision gear, added an interesting element to the game. Also noteworthy is the dependence of the modern combat team on ammo availability--they loose a lot of their punch when ammo gets short.

As far as rules/conversions go, it couldn't have been easier. I ran the sessions using unmodified 3.5 rules, into which the d20 Modern classes and equipment fit just fine. (The modern characters might have had one or two skills that didn't equate directly to 3.5 skills--such as Treat Injury--but I just used the d20 Modern rules for them.)

All in all, I give the experience a thumbs-up as a one-shot. For a campaign, I think you'd need to introduce some balancing factors--restraints on the power or utility of modern weapons against mundane opponents, and some defenses for modern-style characters from the arcane/supernatural capabilities of D&D creatures.
 


I brought in some items from StarGate d20 to my Greyhawk campaign.

Some of them ended up in a magic shop, and the PC's acquired light-amplification binoculars. I treated it as dark vision with range limited only by terrain. There's also a handgun (FN FiveseveN 5.7mm, fires the same high velocity armor piercing ammo as the FN P90), but no player has gotten ahold of it yet.

Seems like there's no reason such stuff can't work. Batteries and ammo limit them to being cool, but not permanent. The rules are very easy.
 

Tetsubo

First Post
Take a look at the Dragonstar setting. I also recommend the books Arsenal and Factory for magical techie goodness. And if you don't mind the Amizing Engine rules system there is the Magitech setting.

As for a Post-Apoc setting... after about 50 years it isn't a Post-Apoc setting anymore... it's just a new era of history... Post-Apoc is a very narrowly defined time span... Once new nations and societies form it's just the usual daily grind again... but with mutants...
 


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