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Gydian
2018-08-21, 08:05 AM
I’m making a modern urban magic campaign. It’s kind of like Dresden Files, with the history from Bright, and Discworld for good measure. I have A LOT of the world written out already.

I’m looking for a few things:

A good version of the Chronomancer class
Any other moder classes and archotypes are welcome but I already have the WotC UA and a few others from DMs Guild.

Good backgrounds that would fit.

Suggestions on what 5e mechanics might not work in a modern setting.

Vogie
2018-08-21, 11:27 AM
A lot of the things will work really easily with refluffing.

A handful of Spellcasting classes could also work as mundane classes who have access to technology that needs recharging or consumables.

Mechanics to consider:

Brute fighters shouldn't get added bonus damage to firearm attacks
Land Druids will either need a City Domain list, or some way to fit their schtick into a city (Growing up on the coast makes them a coast druid, or the city used to be a forest, therefore it's a jungle, et cetera)
You may want some sort of one-trick Race OR class that centers around the use (oft to the point of exploitation) of a single ability... This will help fill the role of "mutants", misfits, superheroes, et cetera.
Open carry of weapons may be an issue... Also armor, and Area of Effect attacks (depending on your level of masquerade, more on that below).
If the above is a problem, you'll need to adjust unarmed damage, improvised weapons, and base AC. This could also be avoided by giving *everyone* a level of monk... Their "unarmed defense" is based not on a monastic training regimen, but on Spry-ness (dex) and perception/Awareness (Wis).
You may also want to adjust weapon proficiencies to be based on background, rather than class.
The Ranger will need a bit of an overhaul... the levels 1, 6, & 14 features are effectively useless when they're hanging out in the city. I can help with this if you want to have a Urban Ranger rethink, but a lot would have to do with your setting as a whole.

Things to consider:

One of the tropes in Dresden Files & several other urban fiction is that Magic & technology cannot co-exist - Dresden "can kill a fax machine at 50 paces" and Kate Daniels (the Magic Bites series set in Atlanta) has magic come in waves, like weather, and when the magic is strong, the technology stops working.
Whether or not you have to deal with a masquerade - that is, how much the populace knows that magic exists, that monsters exist, et cetera. Supernatural, Iron Druid & Harry Potter are very high masquerade, Dresden is in the middle (as there are police forces/the beginning of gov't agencies being formed during the series), while Shadowrun/Magic Bites/Discworld has none whatsoever.
If there is no masquerade, then how prevalent is the magic & magic items in the normal populace. Are you worried about creating a Tippyverse?


I haven't made a chronomancer, but I have some ideas. Are you looking for a Base class or archetype?

MFOV has a neat one as a Wizard School (http://mfov.magehandpress.com/2015/05/the-chronomancer.html).

Knaight
2018-08-21, 11:48 AM
I'd generally recommend not using 5e for a modern campaign, but if you're set on doing it there's a few key mechanical areas you'll probably want to flesh out a bit. Notably:

Vehicles. The limited boat rules and mount rules work for fantasy, but in a modern campaign vastly more likely to see cars, motorcycles, planes, and helicopters in use you'll probably want a system with a bit more focus and heft.
Automatic Weapons. To some extent this is both semi-automatic and automatic weapons, but essentially there are core parts of modern combat that don't show up in basic D&D because of the weapons. You'll probably want suppression fire rules, burst fire rules, and area fire rules, just to flesh out the space for modern firearms a bit.
Computers. If you're keeping the Dresden Files style magic suppression you might be able to get away without this, otherwise you probably want some basic computer rules, particularly on the hacking and security side.
Skills. The list of skills has a definite implicit setting, and it's not the one you're using. You'll want to update the list a bit.

JeenLeen
2018-08-21, 12:19 PM
If you don't want different races to be a thing, you could refluff races as different physical builds/proficiencies, sorta like another Background. Basically, whether you are an elf or half-orc or gnome is just an array of stats you put on a character, but to the setting they are still human. That way you don't limit players to just human, but can maintain a 'just human' setting.

If you do want it to be a thing, you could borrow from Shadowrun and have it be a relatively recent thing. Of course, this goes with 'no Masquerade'.

---

Otherwise, seconding the stuff above.

One other thought is how illegal is vigilantism/murder and how much does law enforcement care? In general D&D, there's a sense that you can kill evil without much consequence. If that's not the case in a modern setting, make sure to spell it out to your players. Especially if you are using D&D mechanics as your core.

Gydian
2018-08-21, 01:56 PM
The idea is the stereotypical D&D world but takes place several hundred years so the technology has advanced to that of our modern day. All the D&D races have been around and made there impact on the shaping of the culture. The national government of the main country has a prime minister, Executive, a council of elders, judicial, a senate, republic, and a house of peoples, representative.

All the races are included and have there place in this world, such as some crazy things that are happening in Silicon Valley with modern computers and new spells, the gnomes, humans and dwarves are the tree most common races there.

Modern technology that will have some magical parts or magic that might have some technological parts. I’m taking inspiration from Eberron.

Wands and Guns are highly regulated. A character may have proficiency with fire arms but not able to get one. I have three different docs that have modern weapons and modern armor.

Though smartphones exist the internet is not open to all and isn’t free. The free connection to the government supported networks are all monitored, duh. The elvin online library requires a fee to access. In other words no googling out of a problem.

I’m looking for a full class Chronomancer

Vogie
2018-08-21, 02:10 PM
Vehicles. The limited boat rules and mount rules work for fantasy, but in a modern campaign vastly more likely to see cars, motorcycles, planes, and helicopters in use you'll probably want a system with a bit more focus and heft.
I hadn't thought of that. Mount rules would work with Motorcycles and jet skis, but anything larger than that would need some sort of better connection. Maybe steal the variable levels of driving skills from the WOD games.


Automatic Weapons. To some extent this is both semi-automatic and automatic weapons, but essentially there are core parts of modern combat that don't show up in basic D&D because of the weapons. You'll probably want suppression fire rules, burst fire rules, and area fire rules, just to flesh out the space for modern firearms a bit.
If you don't already have firearm rules, MFOV also has those HERE (http://mfov.magehandpress.com/2018/04/firearm-rules-redux.html) that you can use, or use for inspiration.


One other thought is how illegal is vigilantism/murder and how much does law enforcement care? In general D&D, there's a sense that you can kill evil without much consequence. If that's not the case in a modern setting, make sure to spell it out to your players. Especially if you are using D&D mechanics as your core.
This is a good thing to consider. It may be as simple as expanding the grapple rules, having dropping to 0 hp indicate being knocked unconscious but not killed.

Depending on what the party is normally fighting, it may be perfectly okay with them killing dragonspawn or dire wolves that are showing up in definitely-not-Chicago (or whatever your city is loosely based on).

Gydian
2018-08-27, 11:48 AM
I started with a complete and thorough police force than realized in D&D there are things that can bend reality. What if you had such a creature as your nabor? Ask them why they live in this neighborhood, and they say they like the dairy farm, it has the best milk.
In a city there are more of these powerful people and not all of them play nice. So I’m thinking let the players do what ever they want and maybe they’ll get a warrant and a bounty on them or they could become knighted.
A big organized city have complex organizations on both sides of the law.

“Officer I just saw a man get killed and that’s the murderer”
“Don’t you see the dragon destroying that building? We have bigger things”
Or
“We have reason to suspect you for the theft on 41st st. Come quietly”

Derpaligtr
2018-08-27, 01:00 PM
I started with a complete and thorough police force than realized in D&D there are things that can bend reality. What if you had such a creature as your nabor? Ask them why they live in this neighborhood, and they say they like the dairy farm, it has the best milk.
In a city there are more of these powerful people and not all of them play nice. So I’m thinking let the players do what ever they want and maybe they’ll get a warrant and a bounty on them or they could become knighted.
A big organized city have complex organizations on both sides of the law.

“Officer I just saw a man get killed and that’s the murderer”
“Don’t you see the dragon destroying that building? We have bigger things”
Or
“We have reason to suspect you for the theft on 41st st. Come quietly”

Technically, nothing within D&D bends reality. That is their reality.

It bends our reality, except, it doesn't.

There is no difference between high level technological advancements and magic.

I mean, I'm lookimg at this post via a phone... I can't give you a lot of details on how the phone works and it may as well be black magic. Side note, this is kinda how the MCU has been working with magic and technology merged.

Vogie
2018-08-27, 01:38 PM
I started with a complete and thorough police force than realized in D&D there are things that can bend reality. What if you had such a creature as your nabor? Ask them why they live in this neighborhood, and they say they like the dairy farm, it has the best milk.
In a city there are more of these powerful people and not all of them play nice. So I’m thinking let the players do what ever they want and maybe they’ll get a warrant and a bounty on them or they could become knighted.
A big organized city have complex organizations on both sides of the law.

“Officer I just saw a man get killed and that’s the murderer”
“Don’t you see the dragon destroying that building? We have bigger things”
Or
“We have reason to suspect you for the theft on 41st st. Come quietly”

Of course! Just like normal police forces in large cities have various levels of competing departments.

Law enforcement would also include:

Homicide
Robbery Units
Vulnerable Population Protection
Bounty hunters
Federal marshals
Beat cops that specialize in specific locales
Prison & Correction officials
Major/Organized Crimes
Community facing officials
Highpowered SWAT teams
Various Administration officials

Magical law enforcement wouldn't be all that different. If the PCs are detectives that are on the trail of something, and it turns out to be part of a conspiracy, they may lose jurisdiction as Major Crimes takes over.

By the same token, a normal beat cop could be anything from a cleric, monk, ranger or fighter... while a SWAT-style PC may be an Arcane Archer/Warlock MC so they can both see, and shoot, through walls

Gydian
2018-08-27, 05:22 PM
Those are some good points. I will put some of this some into the game.