Turning conventions on their heads...

[lukelightning]

yes, assuming you're playing D&D. I don't think the OP was thinking of a D&D like world.

Well, I was thinking of "what would a D&D world be like if these were changed?" I guess this world would be more of a steampunk feel, with or without actual mechanical items. It's not dangers of the past that are the main enemy, but current groups and individuals.

Evil wizards would be of the "mad scientist" personality type; the horrors they unleash wouldn't be some imprisoned demon but the brand new monster they just created. The insane mage lords of old successfully bred owls and bears...what new horrors are modern insane wizards cooking up? Meanwhile, PC wizards would be adventuring to discover new breakthroughs in the field of magic, looking for ways to improve existing spells, and trying to keep their accumulated knowledge up-to-date.

Warriors wouldn't be looking for secret swordfighting manuals, they'd be seeking experience teachers with state-of-the-art training. Much like in standard D&D, they'd need to constantly upgrade their arms and armor.

The difference between clerics and wizards would be highlighted..religion tends to look to the past and history, so divine spellcasters would cling to the "myth of the ancients" while wizards would dismiss those beliefs as outdated nonsense.

This would also give the PCs room to grow. While there would be people far more powerful than they at first, there is the possibility that the PCs could be the first to become "epic" and not be overshadowed by heroes of the past.

Dungeons could still be ancient ruins, but the perils in them would be recent. The sinister Cabal of Golemology, dedicated to ruling the world through their construct servants, has established a base in the tunnels beneath Old Freetown. Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil? Well there was a big ancient temple complex handy, a perfect base for the Revolutionary Fraternity of Doom. Perhaps remnants of the old cult are there, but their magic is petty and weak compared to modern magic, so the old cult is enslaved by the newcomers. The goblins inhabiting the Caves of Chaos? Well they'd be the same as in default D&D.

This isn't to say that peril and adventure can't be from the past, but it would be rare and mysterious. How could the primitive pre-iron-age orcs of old craft such a deadly magic weapon? The Valley of Serpents has a powerful magic ward that defies modern magic... perhaps the ancients here did have a secret... we must learn it and adapt it.

Also the time scale would be closer to the real world. An old castle? 200 years. No more 10,000 year old dungeons...people 10,000 years ago didn't even have cities.

 

[Rackhir]

You might want to look at Steven Brust's Jhereg books. They have a situation some what similar to what you are looking for. 400-500 Years ago there was a major disaster that wiped out the capital city of the empire and did a bunch of other nasty stuff. However due to the diminishment of magic during the Interregnum, the wizards had to learn to be much better and more skillful, to compensate. So once the magic returned to normal, lots of people were doing stuff that had been unknown or extremely rare before it.

 

[Stormborn]

Why not flip it all the way around.

There exists a self organizing and personifying principle to the universe, not a god nor any kind of being but simply a known process. The first beings to arise were simple elementals, then monsters that reflect the chaotic nature of the universe at that time, primative animals then mosterous humanoids are next,and a millenia ago the PC appropriate humanoids. In the last thousand years new forces have arisen as the universe grows both more complex and more self aware. The fey were the first born of the new godlings and taught primative divine magics to druids, followed by celestials and fiends who spread arcane magic. Then arose the gods, not the authors of creation but its product, some of these evolved naturally from previously inanimate, or rudemintarilly animate, objects while others come from humanoids, fey, celestials, and fiends that tapped into the growing magical energies of the universe to rise in power. Thus, for example, the sun becomes self aware and then becomes a god. PCs are proto-deities, beings of exceptional skill and ability that have the potential, but not the certanty, to become powers that both reflect and shape the universe. Civilization grows ever forward in complexity, but rifts exist between those who follow the 'old ways' from the time before gods while others worship the arising powers and some on the cusp of ascension seek to rule the world.

 

[WayneLigon]

What would a setting be like if these things were reversed? In the real world it is modern discoveries that dwarf those of the ancients. Discovery is about finding something new, not something old. In such a world, an ancient lich lord, asleep for a thousand years, would be a thousand years out of date, hardly a match for a modern mage. Ancient magic swords? A quaint discovery. Demons of the past? They are an endangered species, eclipsed by newer evils. Wizards no longer research magic by looking for ancient spellbooks, they work in laboratories, trying new combinations of magic (possibly with disastrous results).

You'd get Eberron, for the most part Or any number of more modernistic fantasy novels where wizards keep spells on iPods, or magic is so codified that it's basically a programming language. It wouldn't be a different game or 'not D&D', just.. different.

 

[lukelightning]

You'd get Eberron, for the most part

Ah, but Eberron is practically crawling with "secrets of the primordial past." An age of dragons, an age of giants, mighty civilizations greater than any current one, cataclysmic rakshasa lord wars, and all that stuff.

Now that I think of it, Eberron presents a good opportunity to showcase a war of ideas, as Eberron also has an idea of progress and development (e.g. development of warforged, spread of utility magic, etc.).

How about a world with evolution similar to our own? Most campaign settings seem to have planets at most tens of thousands of years old, often less. What about a four-billion-year-old planet? In this world, the supreme primordial creator being is pretty much a lot of algae.

wizards keep spells on iPods

It would be called an iMage and was developed with a plan called "Project iMage."