Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Takes on Modern Magic

This month's edition of Unearthed Arcana from WotC's Dan Helmick takes on the topic of Modern Magic! Following on from an earlier column about d20 Modern items using 5E rules, this article "presents new rules for expanding the repertoire of spellcasting characters in a modern setting."

This month's edition of Unearthed Arcana from WotC's Dan Helmick takes on the topic of Modern Magic! Following on from an earlier column about d20 Modern items using 5E rules, this article "presents new rules for expanding the repertoire of spellcasting characters in a modern setting."

"A few months ago, Daniel Helmick described his adaptation for d20 Modern in a Behind the Screens article. He expanded on the rules for using firearms and explosives in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Now, what if we extended the D&D rules to cover a campaign not only touched by, but actually set in a modern era? The newest iteration of D&D features various archetypes, traditions, domains, and other options for the base classes, all of which present opportunities for customization. With that in mind, this article presents new rules for expanding the repertoire of spellcasting characters in a modern setting."

Find it here!


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Yaarel

He Mage
D20 modern had it's own style of classes, one for each attribute...
Strong hero
Fast hero
Heathly hero
Smart hero
WIse hero
Charasmatic hero...

Personally, I love the direction of the UA article that uses the normal classes in the Modern context - Wizard, Fighter, Rogue, Mystic, Bard, Druid, Paladin, etcetera. (I particularly like Paladins as cops.)

My only problem with the name ‘Cleric’, in the sense of ‘clergy’, is that spirituality focuses too much on a particular worldview, and thus in game terms predetermines too much a specific setting cosmology.

The name ‘Healer’ is better, because it *can* include various kinds of clergies, but at the same time welcomes any kind of Modern concept of a healer.
 

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aramis erak

Legend
Personally i have no interest in d20 modern. There are other systems for that. Back to fantasy - or generic rules - please devs.

There are a good number of people who want "D&D modern" - like you, I'm not one of them... I'd rather not see it, but this being the second item about moderns - I wouldn't be surprised to see a 5E Modern corebook in a year or so.
 

Herobizkit

Adventurer
From the d20 Modern SRD:

Acolyte

Requirements

To qualify to become an Acolyte, a character must fulfill the following criteria.

Base Attack Bonus: +2.

Skills: Knowledge (theology and philosophy) 6 ranks, Listen 6 ranks, Sense Motive 6 ranks.

Allegiance: At the time that the character receives her first level in the Acolyte advanced class, she must decide if her faith leans toward the positive energy or negative energy of the universe. This choice adds either the good (positive) or evil (negative) allegiance to the character, and determines how the Acolyte uses certain aspects of her faith.

Holy Symbol: When the character declares her allegiance, she must designate one of her personal possessions as a symbol of her dedication to her allegiance. This possession can be either an actual religious object or some other item of personal significance. This object is referred to as the Acolyte’s holy symbol.

Done. :)
 

SilentWolf

First Post
@Herobizkit: In this topic we talk about having Modern rules in 5e Style, not about having a simple Copy and Paste from d20 Modern. ;)


@Yaarel: My Wizard example was a demonstration of use of what we might simply call "Re-flavoring" or "Reskin". You don't need necessarly to have new rules to play a different flavor. If you consider only the mechanic part of a rule, you can assign it all the flavor you want (will is a fondamental part of this solution; only if a player/DM want to see the same mechanics with different perspective, he/she can play them with different flavors). "Spell", "Wizard", "Ranger", "Magic Item", "Divine Magic", "Elf" are only names. If you consider only the mechanics, you have the Generic System you're searching for and you can reshape this mechanics with all the Flavors you want. Like I said, you need to want that. ;)
Of course, re-flavoring is not an exhaustive solution, but it is a very useful one to resolve many of the needs of a group.
It's right to ask more rules, but at the same time you have to remember that, unfortunately, not everything can be had.
Between the utopic perfection and real not perfect rules, I choose the second ones: at least this last are rules that I can use. :)


@To all of you: You want more Classes, more options, more Modern or Futuristic D&D 5e rules? Thant's why you have to make your voice heard and dimostrate to WotC that you want D&D 5e Modern rules.
I know lot of you prefer to have a true d20 Modern new Edition, but that's it's nearly impossibile, sure for now.
D&D 5e Modularity is the best opportunity we can have, for more than one reason:

1) For WotC writing brand new d20 Modern Core Books is a cost that she currently does not take into account. Design individual Modules is more profitable for them.

2) Modularity for us is an opportunity to play different things using the same system. If you need to mix things, like playing Science fantasy or Urban Fantasy, in a Modular RPG you need only to select different Modules of the same game, instead of trying to match the rules of two completely different games with each other. If this is already a typical advantage of a modular game, D&D 5e guarantees another one thanks to its highly simplified system: obtaining rules of different flavors is more simplier with D&D 5e.

3) Economically speaking, D&D 5e Modularity is more convenient even for us. D&D 5e Core books have shown us how much can cost buying whole new Core Books. New d20 Modern Core books would cost as much as the D&D 5e ones. What is the real benefit of having books completely separated from each other? It is much more convenient to have just one game, with a single system, in which modules are created to ensure rules of different flavors. Why be forced to buy completly new Core Books, when we can just add to the 3 D&D Core Book only one or few more Modules? I know, some of you would play only with Modern rules. But what if some groups would mix things up between them? What if players would mix Fantasy Rules with Modern ones? Paying for 1 game is always better than be forced to pay for 2.

4) Having two or more different RPGs implies DMs and/or players will have a greater psychological difficulty in mixing the rules of the 2 RPGs. If you have two different RPG, wou will continue to see them like two different games and play them separately. It is no coincidence, in fact, if today many players argue that D&D is D&D, while d20 Modern is D20 Modern, two different games. It is no coincidence that most people think the 2 RPGs must be played as two separate games, even despite the two use the same identical system (the old d20 system). Having two different RPG it makes difficult for players to conceive the possibility of using the rules of both games in the same campaign. In contrast, being able to rely on different Modules of the same RPG allow players to mix them easily, without any psicological barrier.

Having a modular RPG allow to pay less, to have rules of various types in the same game and to mix them with less difficulty.
 
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Remathilis

Legend
D20 modern had it's own style of classes, one for each attribute...
Strong hero
Fast hero
Heathly hero
Smart hero
WIse hero
Charasmatic hero...

I hated those names. I hate them because they are generic and tell you nothing your ability scores can't. To me, they are placeholders that basically say "wait until 3rd level when your advanced class defines your identity".

I'm a bigger fan of having "modern" classes that define a role, much like how D&D's classes do. Star Wars (Soldier, Scout, Noble, Scoundrel, Jedi) and even Masque of the Red Death (Adept, Mystic, Soldier, Tradesman) show it can be done. d20 Modern, in an attempt to fit all genres, made classes that were so bland and uninspiring they might as well gone with a point-buy system (like M&M) rather than a class one...
 
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Remathilis

Legend
There are a good number of people who want "D&D modern" - like you, I'm not one of them... I'd rather not see it, but this being the second item about moderns - I wouldn't be surprised to see a 5E Modern corebook in a year or so.

If it proves popular. So far, this has been one designers labor of love that WotC doesn't mind filling the UA slot with. I don't think a Modern book is in the cards (yet), but if people clamor for one, WotC will try for that "agile" response to fan desire...
 

I hated those names. I hate them because they are generic and tell you nothing your ability scores can't. To me, they are placeholders that basically say "wait until 3rd level when your advanced class defines your identity".

I'm a bigger fan of having "modern" classes that define a role, much like how D&D's classes do. Star Wars (Soldier, Scout, Noble, Scoundrel, Jedi) and even Masque of the Red Death (Adept, Mystic, Soldier, Tradesman) show it can be done. d20 Modern, in an attempt to fit all genres, made classes that were so bland and uninspiring they might as well gone with a point-buy system (like M&M) rather than a class one...
it almost seemed to me like they really wanted to make a classless pointbuy system but was straight jacketed to make classes... other then that I pretty much agree
 

So here's the question, are we looking at a modern campaign setting for D&D or are we looking at d20 Modern (5e)? If we are looking at the former, then give it a name and make it a real D&D setting, and I won't complain (much) about it coming out in the D&D space of the UA articles. If it is the latter, then it is a different role-playing game and has no business being in an article series devoted to D&D.

My point is, ‘systems tailor-made’ are antithetical to imagination.

There needs to be balance.

There needs to be concrete suggestions to *inspire*. At the same time, it is important to avoid suffocating.

‘Core’ rules need to be open-ended.

‘Setting Guides’ can indulge in specifics.

Details are only great when you like them. They suck when you dislike them.

You are describing a universal role-playing system. There are a lot of good ones out there for various style tastes and preferences. GURPS, WEG d6, Fate, and Savage Worlds are some of the most well-known.

Dungeons & Dragons is not, never has been, and will lose my business if it becomes one of those. It is, like many, many other role-playings games, a game with a specific focus, settings, and themes. There are a lot of options within its purview. The official setting of 5e is the multiverse, which is vast enough that it includes all of the other campaign settings, and then some. And after all that, D&D still supports certain types of fantasy without needing to use the multiverse at all. That's pretty darn broad. Any broader and it wouldn't be Dungeons & Dragons, it would just be d20.

If you are taking the position, "D&D should just become d20" then feel free, but I'll fight that position tooth and nail. :)
 
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Herobizkit

Adventurer
@Herobizkit: In this topic we talk about having Modern rules in 5e Style, not about having a simple Copy and Paste from d20 Modern. ;)
Sure, of course. I was merely pointing out that what Yaarel was asking has already been done, and it would take little to some effort to 'upgrade' d20M to 5e as the framework is essentially the same.

Also, Healer, Spiritualist, Mendicant, Apothecary, Doctor, Physician, Moon Child... they all have different connotations, but they can all be used to describe a "not-Cleric".
 

Dan Helmick

Villager
RE: UA Modern Magic

After the Behind the Screens article I wrote on my 5e d20 Modern campaign, I was raring to go on this, and there was a window for a nice little contribution. It was a fun article to write. Of course as a UA article, the most important bits are word count and a looming deadline, so a few of the concepts in the article are very rough. No time for playtesting - you talk it over with an editor and bounce things back and forth once or twice and that's it. Put it out on the 'Net and see what the fans think. So, yes, a couple of things are a bit broken - features like Online Casting in particular would need some reworking to make them viable - but if someone does that, it's not gonna be me, since I don't own the rights to the article. (Work-for-hire is like that when you're not too experienced.)

It was interesting to see how many people immediately asked me if any more Shadowrun-style game elements were being planned. I got a lot of e-mails and IMs asking for things like cybernetic enhancements or expanded 'decking' rules. While those game elements are certainly interesting, it was never my intention to set the rules in a cyberpunk setting, per se. I was more interested in a spin on modern Urban Fantasy with some meshing between magic and tech. When you describe magical elements and creatures making their way into the world outside your door, you have two choices: you make magic and tech not play well at all together, or you make it so that magic interacts with science in unexpected ways. The first has been done pretty often, so I was more interested in the second. That's not to say that you can't use the Modern Magic rules for a cyberpunk setting - by all means, if it floats your boat, go for it - it's just that my intention was never to make Shadowrun-lite.

With the advent of the DM's Guild and the new OGL, I no longer have to work through WotC to get more D&D Modern-inspired stuff out there into the electronic cosmos. Of course I can't afford reprint rights even from the UA article - thanks again, work-for-hire contracts - but I have a lot of other tricks up my sleeve so I'm not worried about replacing these three subclasses with something equally flavorful. Of course I can't borrow (read: rip off) things like spell names or classes from the d20 Modern books like I had in the article, but the beauty of designing spells in 5e is that you're only really beholden to some amount of game balance. Otherwise, the sky is the limit.

Designing a full system in the vein of this article was always my ultimate goal, and it was my (naive) hope that it would be something that might merit some consideration when I was still at the old 'dragon mill'. So I've been working on it on my own, at precisely the sort of perfectionist's pace that you can afford when you're not being paid for work except in endorphin rushes. I don't want to go off half-cocked and put out a rushed game, though. If and when I announce a Kickstarter for a full system book, expect it to be one executed with an eye towards quality rather than wanting to be the first (or third, or fifth, or fiftieth) kid on the block making a game about half-orcs with S&W .500s. During my time at WotC I made extensive contacts with people with whom I would like to work and who would like to work with me, and when my day job allows it, I'll do just that.

Thanks for the interest in the article. Reviews and comments are what keep an ex-D&D hack like me inspired.
 

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