D&D 5E (2024) Urban Fantasy via D&D 2024

[Reynard]

Would new species and magic be out in the open (like Shadowrun) or generally hidden/covered up (like Dresden)?

Very open, but not universally appreciated. This setting started out as my "Bright like" referring to the Netflix Will Smith vehicle.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I may have been unclear.

I am using the modern world as the backdrop, but instead of "folklore" creatures being the fantasy part, D&D stuff will be the fantasy part (Imagine something like Shadowrun without the cyberpunk elements).

Cool. Sounds like d20 Modern (or at least one of its settings).

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think vehicle and chase rules might be the biggest hurdle but there’s been stuff from Descent into Avernus that you can probably use.

Level Up has some solid vehicle rules as well, both in the main player book (the Adventurer's Guide) and the sci-fi focused Voidrunner's Codex.

Of course if you just want to use 5.5 rules for everything this might be moot. How willing are you to look beyond WotC for material for this (very cool) endeavor?

 

[Reynard]

Level Up has some solid vehicle rules as well, both in the main player book (the Adventurer's Guide) and the sci-fi focused Voidrunner's Codex.

Of course if you just want to use 5.5 rules for everything this might be moot. How willing are you to look beyond WotC for material for this (very cool) endeavor?

I want to use the 2024 rules to keep it relevant, but I am happy to steal from any source that has their rules in CC.

 

[TwoSix]

I'm not especially inclined to give guns a bunch of rules different than other ranged weapons. But I think weapon mastery properties could be used to give guns a flavor of their own.

That's fair. You simply set up the narration that guns aren't crazily more effective than medieval/fantasy weaponry, people on Earth simply don't (or didn't) enjoy any sort of supernatural resilience. A 10th level fighter can take a few bullets just like they take sword swings or claws.

Drive and Computers, maybe. What else do you feel is necessary, and what could be tool proficiencies trades, I think)?

Tools could definitely work. Land vehicles becomes medieval land vehicles. Then have tool proficiences for autos, motorcyles, large vehicles, planes, etc.

Some skills would need to be context-specific. History for a fantasy world refugee wouldn't necessarily include knowledge of ancient Egypt; likewise, History for an Earth human wouldn't cover the War of the Lich-Kings. That would depend on the relative recency of the fantasy world migration, though. Big difference between "last year" and "50 years ago".

If the focus is more on Earth humans as PCs, I might have more Int skills that focus on broad Earth-relevant topics. Science and Law come to mind. "Computers" could be a skill, or could be a tool proficiency.

Maybe classes and subclasses can be divided up between Mundane (people from our world with no connection to the fantasy world), Touched (people of Earth who have connected to the Fantasy world*) and Supernatural (people from the fantasy world*).

Good question.

*This is based on a setting I have used in previous games and am writing fiction for, in which the people of a very D&D-like fantasy world flee the destruction of their world to Earth through portals.

Really, this comes down to a worldbuilding question. Ideally, I'd take the main magical classes (and magical underpinnings) and decide how they work on Earth.

Can normal Earth humans level? Can they learn wizardry? Does divine magic work on faith, and is thus open to the faithful of Earth? Can a talented musician gain bardic magic?

 

[Umbran]

I am curious what folks might think will be the biggest barriers to using D&D 2024 for urban fantasy, and what rule tweaks or other changes might be necessary.

Biggest barrier? Squaring how monsters that classically can be handled with swords and arrows cannot, in a modern context, simply be mowed down with firearms. This answers the question: Why do you need a team of adventurers rather than just a couple of jamokes with uzis?

 

[Reynard]

Really, this comes down to a worldbuilding question. Ideally, I'd take the main magical classes (and magical underpinnings) and decide how they work on Earth.

Can normal Earth humans level? Can they learn wizardry? Does divine magic work on faith, and is thus open to the faithful of Earth? Can a talented musician gain bardic magic?

In previous iterations of the setting (and the one I am using for fiction) Earth is different from the fantasy world in that it does not possess an "arcanosphere" -- that is, there is no magical energy inherent on Earth. That's why we don't have wizard and dragons and stuff. When the refugees flee to Earth, they bring with them magic items and animals, and the only way to cast spells etc is to draw energy from those items and animals. And, yes, "animals" here includes sentient beings of various sorts.

One of they key drivers of action in the setting is the black market for these items and animals, and the attempt by certain factions to figure out a way to kickstart Earth's arcanosphere (it clearly once had one, hence our gods and monsters in the past).
how that relates to D&D: I am going to tie it to casters' foci.

 

[Corinnguard]

I am using the modern world as the backdrop, but instead of "folklore" creatures being the fantasy part, D&D stuff will be the fantasy part (Imagine something like Shadowrun without the cyberpunk elements).

How are you going to be introducing the PHB races into this Urban Fantasy? Shadowrun had it where the rising levels of ambient magic transformed certain humans in utero, at birth or older into metahumans. The Urban Arcana setting back in 3e had them being transported to Earth and forgetting their past.

Okay, I didn't see your post about them being refugees fleeing to Earth. I failed a Perception check there.

 

[Reynard]

Biggest barrier? Squaring how monsters that classically can be handled with swords and arrows cannot, in a modern context, simply be mowed down with firearms. This answers the question: Why do you need a team of adventurers rather than just a couple of jamokes with uzis?

I don't think it is necessary from a genre perspective to make guns OP.

 

[Umbran]

I don't think it is necessary from a genre perspective to make guns OP.

The issue isn't that they are individually OP. It is that they are, by comparison to the cost of adventurers and their built up experience, dirt friggin' cheap and easy. Any municipality and field a phalanx of people with guns when monsters come a calling.