D&D 5E Thoughts on Divorcing D&D From [EDIT: Medievalishness], Mechanically Speaking.

[Gammadoodler]

Literally the next paragraph talks about eliminating the importance of armor.

Yep. The following paragraphs are implementation ideas.

You think reducing armor would provide mechanical reinforcement for a near-modern setting.

You could have put any proposed mechanical change in those paragraphs. Rules for manned spaceflight and GPS. Elimination of HP. Mechanical implementation of various economic systems. And they could do a better or worse job of achieving your design goals.

I happen to think that the reduction in armor effectiveness isn't essential for what you are trying to achieve, specifically as far as dungeon delving is concerned.

Like I'd agree that walking onto the battlefield at Gettysburg in full-plate is unlikely to help your chances, but if you're going into an ancient crypt to fight an ancient Pharoah and his undead guards, maybe it makes sense to bring tougher attire than just some shirtsleeves and a cravat to deal with the cursed swords, poison darts, werecreature bites and the like that you might expect to encounter there.

 

[Reynard]

Like I'd agree that walking onto the battlefield at Gettysburg in full-plate is unlikely to help your chances, but if you're going into an ancient crypt to fight an ancient Pharoah and his undead guards, maybe it makes sense to bring tougher attire than just some shirtsleeves and a cravat to deal with the cursed swords, poison darts, werecreature bites and the like that you might expect to encounter there.

I'm not sure what the disconnect here is. You seem to be concerned about realism or practicality, where I am talking about aesthetics. Your suggestions are completely counterproductive to the stated goal of the thread, also.

So I don't know what to tell you other than Indiana Jones never wore platemail.

 

[GrimCo]

Tbh, Indy was more 30/40s. In that period, you don't go into tomb with armor and sword. You go in with tommy gun, BAR, 12 gauge shotgun and offcourse, frag hand granades. And you do dungeon crawl like you do house sweeps. Breach, bang and clear.

Moving it back a bit, you have your lever actions, 6 shooters and 12 gauge pump action shotguns. Also, hand granades. So, that ancient King Tut wannabe is gonna get his face full of lead fast. Plus, nice explosive surprise, courtesy of good old swedish uncle Alfred.

 

[Corinnguard]

The idea is to maintain the same kinds of adventures that D&D does well, from treasure hunting to saving the prince from the dragon, but to move it completely out of the shadow of the medieval and into the recent (pre information age) past.

Less medieval and more Urban Fantasy (ala d20's Urban Arcana)?

 

[Reynard]

Less medieval and more Urban Fantasy (ala d20's Urban Arcana)?

"Urban Fantasy" comes with its own set of Anita Blake and Harry Dresden shaped baggage, so I am not necessarily talking about that. I am mostly just talking about taking out the knights in armor, the castles and galleons, the thatch roofed villages and the cathedrals and monasteries as typical back drops. The sole goal is to excise the medieval from the aesthetic and find a few rules tweaks to make that easier.

 

[Micah Sweet]

"Urban Fantasy" comes with its own set of Anita Blake and Harry Dresden shaped baggage, so I am not necessarily talking about that. I am mostly just talking about taking out the knights in armor, the castles and galleons, the thatch roofed villages and the cathedrals and monasteries as typical back drops. The sole goal is to excise the medieval from the aesthetic and find a few rules tweaks to make that easier.

Have you looked into any of the Mage Hand Press stuff yet?

Here's a free version of their firearms rules:

Firearms - Mage Hand Press

Add firearms to 5th edition with these balanced rules for any setting from Mage Hand Press.

magehandpress.com

For armor, they chose to come up with alternate names for existing armors to maintain the math, but you could easily replace that with inherent bonuses (perhaps based on class) a la 4e if you want.

Like I said, I prefer other ways for handling these issues, but I think they would work for you.

 

[Reynard]

Have you looked into any of the Mage Hand Press stuff yet?

Here's a free version of their firearms rules:

Firearms - Mage Hand Press

Add firearms to 5th edition with these balanced rules for any setting from Mage Hand Press.

magehandpress.com

For armor, they chose to come up with alternate names for existing armors to maintain the math, but you could easily replace that with inherent bonuses (perhaps based on class) a la 4e if you want.

Like I said, I prefer other ways for handling these issues, but I think they would work for you.

Thanks. Am I missing something or did they not make any changes regarding the interaction of firearms and armor?

 

[Corinnguard]

"Urban Fantasy" comes with its own set of Anita Blake and Harry Dresden shaped baggage, so I am not necessarily talking about that. I am mostly just talking about taking out the knights in armor, the castles and galleons, the thatch roofed villages and the cathedrals and monasteries as typical back drops. The sole goal is to excise the medieval from the aesthetic and find a few rules tweaks to make that easier.

Are there any RPG settings outside of D&D that come close to what you are looking for in a less medieval D&D?

 

[Reynard]

Are there any RPG settings outside of D&D that come close to what you are looking for in a less medieval D&D?

I am not sure, although I don't particularly se the relevance. The goal is to still play D&D, just change the aesthetic (with some reinforcing mechanics tweaks).

 

[Stormonu]

Should be some allotment for armor, but no one starts with proficiency in it. Everyone should probably start with the equivalent of Unarmored defense (I'd suggest adding PB instead of a stat) or everyone's going to be too easy to hit when combat breaks out (unless you want that for some reason).

With this being a sort of "hidden world of the supernatural", what are your plans for how spellcasting will be handled - the same as D&D or more "hidden/involved" with hermatic-type magic, occultism and rare miracles? Masque and the various historical campaign settings of 2E often made it that outside of the PCs spellcasting was basically unheard of, and in the latter multiplied casting time by 10 and/or threw in drawbacks to using magic/miracles, if at all.