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

[TwoSix]

I'd look to something like the Anita Blake novels for inspiration even if I'm not sure they're worth reading them after about book 10.

Whether or not they're worth it is generally driven by your appetite for a hard shift into polycule romantasy.

I'm trying to think of some fictional examples of a "reverse isekai" at a world level, but can't come up with too much (other than the previously mentioned Bright movie.) Maybe the Earth arc of He Who Fights With Monsters, which does have the concept of a no-magic Earth slowly gaining a magical field strong enough to support fantasy-character magic.

 

[Umbran]

Yea, I think "immune to non-magic damage" is the key here. Having a good narration around what exactly that means within the fiction is important for the genre.

And nobody has invented magic bullets.... why, exactly?

Or, wands of magic-missile are an "uncommon" item, daily self-recharging - why isn't every SWAT team member armed with several of them? I mean, you literally cannot miss the freakin' target with those!

And so on. The problem with the urban fantasy genre, as compared to our usual fantasies, is that you no longer have low population densities to blame for not having people to craft things. In a modern setting, wouldn't there be schools to teach you how to craft magic items just like we have them to teach the plumbing, HVAC, and electrician trades?

I’ve watched too many 50s/60s B movies and episodes of Doctor Who to rate the ability of the military to deal with monsters particularly highly.

Well, the Brigadier is well-noted for the quote, "You know, just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets." Dr. Who has the benefit of no implied ability to make magic weapons.

Strong monsters having some kind of aura effect that wipes out mundanes with 4-5 Hit Points

... is a freakin' emergency that will get combat helicopters with rockets and napalm dropped on it. The thing walks down the crowded streets of Manhattan or Tokyo, and hundreds of people die every minute?

is also good for explaining why adventurers are needed to take care of a dragon, versus just calling in the Army.

Sure. I am not saying that it cannot be handled, but that it ought to be handled. Because whatever solution you use has repercussions on the setting. And if you don't handle them beforehand, players will very quickly ask very awkward questions.

 

[Reynard]

And nobody has invented magic bullets.... why, exactly?

Or, wands of magic-missile are an "uncommon" item, daily self-recharging - why isn't every SWAT team member armed with several of them? I mean, you literally cannot miss the freakin' target with those!

And so on. The problem with the urban fantasy genre, as compared to our usual fantasies, is that you no longer have low population densities to blame for not having people to craft things. In a modern setting, wouldn't there be schools to teach you how to craft magic items just like we have them to teach the plumbing, HVAC, and electrician trades?

Well, in this setting in particular, you just can't because there is no magic except in items and creatures already made. That's just the magical physics of the setting.

 

[Corinnguard]

I'd look to something like the Anita Blake novels for inspiration even if I'm not sure they're worth reading them after about book 10.

You could also check out the Allison Beckstrom series by Devon Monk for inspiration.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Again, making guns OP turns the game into a different genre.

Maybe not skills per se, but the systems behind them, for sure. Investigation is always a sticky one for D&D: do you make a system for it, or let the GM handle it?

Earth has no arcanosphere. you cannot cast any spell at all unless you directly draw magical energy from something invested with that energy (primarily monsters and artifacts from Fantasy Earth -- but a case could be made for the Spear of Destiny or whatever, if you found it).

All of those things seem perfectly normal effects of firearms. How are they OP?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Well, the Brigadier is well-noted for the quote, "You know, just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets." Dr. Who has the benefit of no implied ability to make magic weapons.

Cold Iron (the Daemons), salt (Image of the Fendhl) and silver work though.

• Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: [showing the Doctor their ammunition] Armor-piercing, solid core with a teflon coating. Go through a Dalek.
• The Doctor: A nasty bullet.
• Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: UNIT's been very busy, Doctor. We've also got high explosive rounds for yetis and very efficient armor-piercing rounds for robots. And we've even got gold-tipped bullets for you-know-what.
• The Doctor: No silver?
• Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: Silver bullets?
• The Doctor: Well, you never know.
• Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: Quartermaster Sergeant! Silver bullets! Have we any?

-Battlefied​

 

[Micah Sweet]

And nobody has invented magic bullets.... why, exactly?

Or, wands of magic-missile are an "uncommon" item, daily self-recharging - why isn't every SWAT team member armed with several of them? I mean, you literally cannot miss the freakin' target with those!

And so on. The problem with the urban fantasy genre, as compared to our usual fantasies, is that you no longer have low population densities to blame for not having people to craft things. In a modern setting, wouldn't there be schools to teach you how to craft magic items just like we have them to teach the plumbing, HVAC, and electrician trades?



Well, the Brigadier is well-noted for the quote, "You know, just once I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets." Dr. Who has the benefit of no implied ability to make magic weapons.



... is a freakin' emergency that will get combat helicopters with rockets and napalm dropped on it. The thing walks down the crowded streets of Manhattan or Tokyo, and hundreds of people die every minute?



Sure. I am not saying that it cannot be handled, but that it ought to be handled. Because whatever solution you use has repercussions on the setting. And if you don't handle them beforehand, players will very quickly ask very awkward questions.

Agreed. I know I'd be asking those questions right at session 0.

 

[Corinnguard]

All of those things seem perfectly normal effects of firearms. How are they OP?

I think it's a matter of whether or not the firearm is an automatic capable of doing lots of damage per second.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And nobody has invented magic bullets.... why, exactly?

I've just watched Elevation: the plot is all about inventing a magic bullet (it's even referred to as that).

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think it's a matter of whether or not the firearm is an automatic capable of doing lots of damage per second.

Sure, but the real world this setting is based on has a ton of exactly those.