21st century man or woman suddenly dropped in the Forgotten Realms

[Tom Kalbfus]

This is one approach to doing a movie, but I want to get more specific, this idea is what if we picked one person from our World and dropped him or her into the Forgotten Realms. Now I don't want to make this person a Mary Sue, but what sort of person would you want to send? Let's imagine he arrives on the Sword Coast just outside the walls of Waterdeep, perhaps he is washed up on the beach, perhaps he fell overboard from whatever boat he was on, and he expects to be somewhere in California, but instead he sees the City of Waterdeep, assume whatever transport him there takes care of the communications barrier and he can speak Common.

[dancrilis]

... but what sort of person would you want to send?

Someone I hated would be ideal - if I can only pick a type of person I likely list criteria to ensure it was someone I felt our world was better off without.

[Prime32]

Ed Greenwood, since Elminster will recognise him and send him back.

[dancrilis]

Okay I'll start.
... his name is Fred Morgan,
And what did Fred ever do to you? Chances are those people he meets on the beach kill him either because he is acting crazy, or he freaks out or he acts entitled and knowingly or unknowing insults them.

Maybe the question that you might want to answer for the topic is what our goal in sending them there is?
Do we want someone who will survive their first week?
Someone who will be able to trive?
Someone who will learn a valuable life lesson?

If I am going to transport someone who is effectively powerless to a dangerous land filled with monsters and where rights are effectively defined by power (and I have no goal in sending them or stake in the outcome) - then I am going to pick someone who wronged me personally, if I can't narrow it down like that I will pick traits that I find unpleasant and banish a random person who meets those traits.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Just an exercise in your imagination, and I'm not talking about real people here. Learning a life's lesson is a good basis for a story. As for thriving, well that is part of the challenge, he is going to need to find food and shelter, the money in his wallet isn't worth much, the city watch intercepts him as he climbs out onto the beach, they ask him questions, and then leave him alone.

[Dire_Flumph]

Teenager might be best, someone like a Hank, brave, honest and determined with the qualities of a good fighter.
His best friend, say Sheila could be more shy and withdrawn, filling the thief role.
His other friend Eric would be the counterpoint, another fighter, but more of a spoiled, snotty, cowardly type who's always hiding behind something. Good comic relief potential.
Along for the ride could be a smarter, bookish sort. He's got a natural inclination for magic, but with his head more firmly planted in science, he's always messing his spells up. Let's call him Albert.
Hmm, for more plausibility for physical acumen, let's add an olympic gymnast. Call her Diana.
For a final character? Maybe a younger sibling? Headstrong, impulsive, doesn't realize the gravity of the situation they're in? Let's call him Bobby. Maybe give him an animal companion, they're all the rage.

So what you think?

It's been done? Really?

[Peelee]

Teenager might be best, someone like a Hank, brave, honest and determined with the qualities of a good fighter.
His best friend, say Sheila could be more shy and withdrawn, filling the thief role.
His other friend Eric would be the counterpoint, another fighter, but more of a spoiled, snotty, cowardly type who's always hiding behind something. Good comic relief potential.
Along for the ride could be a smarter, bookish sort. He's got a natural inclination for magic, but with his head more firmly planted in science, he's always messing his spells up. Let's call him Albert.
Hmm, for more plausibility for physical acumen, let's add an olympic gymnast. Call her Diana.
For a final character? Maybe a younger sibling? Headstrong, impulsive, doesn't realize the gravity of the situation they're in? Let's call him Bobby. Maybe give him an animal companion, they're all the rage.

So what you think?

It's been done? Really?

That's probably work, but the first time they met an epic level sorcerer or something it'll be a TPK. unless you have a Dungeon Master who just massively cheeses everything up constantly.

[Tom Kalbfus]

I was thinking a more mature themed movie, not made for young kids especially, not shying away from showing the effects of violence done with medieval weapons, not abstract hit points and all that. It would be interesting to have a teenager from our World as the protagonist, perhaps have him start out thinking it's a game, and then showing him the the real life consequences of what those die rolls represent.

It would be a coming of age story, the character basically learns to grow up and deal with it, he could fall in love with one of the native characters that he meets while there, he makes some friends as well, a very diverse lot, but they think he is rather strange for being so sheltered from the realities of existance.

The main protagonist learns to be a fighter, he has an expert teach him how to use a sword. There is a reason why he was transported here, it was no accident.

[Brother Oni]

I was thinking a more mature themed movie, not made for young kids especially, not shying away from showing the effects of violence done with medieval weapons, not abstract hit points and all that. It would be interesting to have a teenager from our World as the protagonist, perhaps have him start out thinking it's a game, and then showing him the the real life consequences of what those die rolls represent.

Probably best not to make it too realistic as otherwise all you'd do is be demonstrating what failed Fortitude saves against a proper 'all nasty' disease looks like and the story would be over in a couple days.

[Peelee]

I was thinking a more mature themed movie, not made for young kids especially, not shying away from showing the effects of violence done with medieval weapons, not abstract hit points and all that.

Do you want a movie that shows the effects of violence done with medieval weapons, or do you want a movie in the Forgotten Realms? D&D is very explicitly not realistic; characters can be outright gored (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#gore) and still be relatively healthy.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Do you want a movie that shows the effects of violence done with medieval weapons, or do you want a movie in the Forgotten Realms? D&D is very explicitly not realistic; characters can be outright gored (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#gore) and still be relatively healthy.
A spell can put that right, it can heal organ damage, so that can happen quite often in a D&D movie, a character spills his guts all over the floor, the cleric comes over and heals him, then the guy picks up his sword again and resumes fighting, maybe stepping into his spilled guts as he does so.

[dancrilis]

A spell can put that right, it can heal organ damage, so that can happen quite often in a D&D movie, a character spills his guts all over the floor, the cleric comes over and heals him, then the guy picks up his sword again and resumes fighting, maybe stepping into his spilled guts as he does so.

I believe that the point was more that the gored character would not actually need to be healed to continue fighting as is nothing had really happened.

To make it more explicit: standing over the sleeping body of a foe a young killer brings their dagger across the neck of their enemy - as they have done many times before, this was the best way to end fights with stronger foes quickly.
Unfortunately for them they were an level 1 rogue who had previously been attacking level 1-3 commoners who tended to die when you did (((1d4+1)*2)+1d6) damage to them resulting in a fortitude save of ~20 to stay alive this time they were up against a level 20 fighter who would not only effectively ignore the ~10 damage easilly they would pass that save with confidence - and so our level 1 rogue gets murdered by an unarmed fighter despite the cut they delivered.
The fighter then goes back to sleep all healed up by the morning.

High level characters can take more damage then low level ones - not on account of them dodging, or being prepared or anything like that, but because they have more hit points.

[Tom Kalbfus]

I believe that the point was more that the gored character would not actually need to be healed to continue fighting as is nothing had really happened.

To make it more explicit: standing over the sleeping body of a foe a young killer brings their dagger across the neck of their enemy - as they have done many times before, this was the best way to end fights with stronger foes quickly.
Unfortunately for them they were an level 1 rogue who had previously been attacking level 1-3 commoners who tended to die when you did (((1d4+1)*2)+1d6) damage to them resulting in a fortitude save of ~20 to stay alive this time they were up against a level 20 fighter who would not only effectively ignore the ~10 damage easilly they would pass that save with confidence - and so our level 1 rogue gets murdered by an unarmed fighter despite the cut they delivered.
The fighter then goes back to sleep all healed up by the morning.

High level characters can take more damage then low level ones - not on account of them dodging, or being prepared or anything like that, but because they have more hit points.
That's what you get when you have levels and hit points, there is a rule for massive damage though, if the rogue inflicts what is considered massive damage but not exceeding the total hit points of the opponent, then that opponent needs to make a Fortitude save in order to avoid death, if he doesn't make that save, thenmhe dies, but if he does then he kills the rogue and goes back to sleep.

[Vahnavoi]

A person in their 30s, who has undergone basic military training in some real world army, practiced some real martial art for 10+ years, done scouting, hunting and historical re-enacment/live-action roleplaying/paintball/etc. as a hobby, and played enough D&D or some videogame adaptation of it to have a clue of what Forgotten Realms and Waterdeep are.

Or, in other words, an adult D&D player who has some actual merits and life experience, who isn't an academic nerd stereotype. :smalltongue:

[Tom Kalbfus]

A person in their 30s, who has undergone basic military training in some real world army, practiced some real martial art for 10+ years, done scouting, hunting and historical re-enacment/live-action roleplaying/paintball/etc. as a hobby, and played enough D&D or some videogame adaptation of it to have a clue of what Forgotten Realms and Waterdeep are.

Or, in other words, an adult D&D player who has some actual merits and life experience, who isn't an academic nerd stereotype. :smalltongue:
Assuming there is a D&D game in the setting where the character came from, and rolling dice doesn't prepare you for actual combat. Knowing karate doesn't help you when your opponent has a sword. Anyway you don't start out fighting the biggest bad guys around, your problems start out small. The new guy is not going to save the kingdom until he has spent time in this world. The real world army doesn't teach you how to sword fight.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

A person in their 30s, who has undergone basic military training in some real world army, practiced some real martial art for 10+ years, done scouting, hunting and historical re-enacment/live-action roleplaying/paintball/etc. as a hobby, and played enough D&D or some videogame adaptation of it to have a clue of what Forgotten Realms and Waterdeep are.

At that point though: why even have a movie about a person from our world going there? Why not skip the middle man, have a main character who not just mentally but also physically has lived there their entire lives.

[Vahnavoi]

Assuming there is a D&D game in the setting where the character came from...

That's a low bar to pass for an actual 21st century person. :smalltongue:


... and rolling dice doesn't prepare you for actual combat.

No-one fitting my criteria would think it does. That's not the point. The point is that knowing what things like "Waterdeep" and "Forgotten Realms" are prepare a person to act in those places just like a tourist guide would.


Knowing karate doesn't help you when your opponent has a sword. [...] The real world army doesn't teach you how to sword fight.

You'd be surprised. :smalltongue: There is no "the" real world army. There are real life armies, plural, with varying curriculums for training. Ditto for martial arts. Many of which would be applicable in parts to self-defense and military life in an archaic setting.


Anyway you don't start out fighting the biggest bad guys around, your problems start out small. The new guy is not going to save the kingdom until he has spent time in this world.

And? No-one fitting the given criteria would jump to the conclusion that they have to fight the biggest baddest guys around or save a kingdom.

---


At that point though: why even have a movie about a person from our world going there? Why not skip the middle man, have a main character who not just mentally but also physically has lived there their entire lives.

Because a modern person who has a clue is not equivalent to someone who has lived their whole life in a fantasy world. You could build an entire story around, say, contrasting real world military experience with how militaries work in the Realms - just like you could build a story around contrasting one real military's culture with another's.

[The Glyphstone]

Is this just an excuse to go Connecticut Yankee on the Forgotten Realms?

[Vahnavoi]

Well you could ape that plot, but it's not what I was thinking of.

[Peelee]

Knowing karate doesn't help you when your opponent has a sword.

In the real world? No, it doesn't. In Dungeons and Dragons? Yes, it does.

It kind of sounds like you'd rather a D&D character come into real world medieval times, really.

[Tom Kalbfus]

Well you could ape that plot, but it's not what I was thinking of.The world of Connecticut Yankee had no real magic except Hank's time travel to that period, once there, he had the advantage of future knowledge, and he was able to amaze the locals with his futuristic 19th century knowledge of engineering. The Forgotten Realms will not be so amazed by a 21st century man, as they have real magic, a modern man will have to adapt to this setting, and he will know stuff that the locals don't but they will know stuff that he doesn't. The main function of the 21st century protagonist would be to introduce a set of modern eyes to the setting to be a standin for the audience watching the show. The Realms would barely be affected by a modern person simply showing up, and there are characters in the Realms who may already know about our world, such as Elminster for example.

[Dienekes]

A person in their 30s, who has undergone basic military training in some real world army, practiced some real martial art for 10+ years, done scouting, hunting and historical re-enacment/live-action roleplaying/paintball/etc. as a hobby, and played enough D&D or some videogame adaptation of it to have a clue of what Forgotten Realms and Waterdeep are.

Or, in other words, an adult D&D player who has some actual merits and life experience, who isn't an academic nerd stereotype. :smalltongue:

I’d just throw in Vin Diesel. The movie would be this action movie star who loves D&D gets sucked into a D&D world where he gets to be alternate between being cool and then fanboy over everything he sees.

[Tom Kalbfus]

In the real world? No, it doesn't. In Dungeons and Dragons? Yes, it does.

It kind of sounds like you'd rather a D&D character come into real world medieval times, really.
If my character pulled out his cellphone in Waterdeep, he would express his frustration at getting no bars, a local noticing the glowing screen would just dismiss it as magic and pay it no more mind than it's due, a real medieval person would suspect sorcery and may accuse the fellow of witchcraft, may call out the Inquisition and have him burned at the stake, but there is no danger of that in the Realms, the main purpose of the character is to present the audience's perspective in the movie, he wouldn't be so special there simply for being from our World. There has to be something else that is special about him, that perhaps even he doesn't know about, maybe something having to do with his ancestry. Some agency was responsible for transporting him to the Realms, perhaps one of the gods, but don't make it too obvious!

The guy makes some quick friends once he arrives, Waterdeep is not a hostile location for him, there are plenty of people there that would sympathize with his situation and would befriend him, but there are other powers in the world that have other plans, and they start to get involved in driving the plot. The visitor is going to need whatever friends he has to get through this and eventually return to his own world if that is what he wants.

[Vahnavoi]

I’d just throw in Vin Diesel. The movie would be this action movie star who loves D&D gets sucked into a D&D world where he gets to be alternate between being cool and then fanboy over everything he sees.

I actually thought of that too, but didn't want to name a specific actor. But yes, Vin Diesel being Vin Diesel in Forgotten Realms would be pretty hilarious. :smallsmile:

---


Knowing karate doesn't help you when your opponent has a sword.

In the real world? No, it doesn't.

I'm getting kinda curious of what you base these kinds of assertions on. :smalltongue: Yes, if a person's only trained in limited contact kickboxing under modern sports rules, that's gonna be of limited use. If they've instead trained in some traditional school, their training includes stickfighting (bo) , and even period swordsmen agreed that hitting people with a long stick is perfectly good response to a swordwielding opponent.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I’d just throw in Vin Diesel. The movie would be this action movie star who loves D&D gets sucked into a D&D world where he gets to be alternate between being cool and then fanboy over everything he sees.

That would be pretty cool. One moment he's sitting in front of his cabinet of prizes full of best selling DVD's, pictures of public appearances and Street Sharks toys wishing that just for ones he could really be a hero instead of pretending to be one, the next moment he gets his wish, courtesy of some trickster god who looks a lot like Gygax.

I'm not quite sure Vin could and would do it though. (He would definitely do a d&d movie, just not sure if he'd do this one.) Vin's unique quality is that he is always super serious about his role yet in on the joke at the same time. This would definitely require him not be the great action hero and only be in on the joke in some scenes. It could for instance be hilarious to have him boastfully walk into a monster's lair only to come running out screaming like a little kid. Schwarzenegger or The Rock or Eddie Murphy or a bunch of other people have done lots of stuff like that. For Vin it might be a bit of a new thing.

He's an actor though, I'm sure he has more than one mode if he really tries.

[Cheesegear]

This is one approach to doing a movie, but I want to get more specific, this idea is what if we picked one person from our World and dropped him or her into the Forgotten Realms.

Didn't A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court already spawn dozens of copycats?
Didn't Martin Lawrence already star in this movie?
Something, something...Evil Dead III; Army of Darkness.


Let's imagine he arrives on the Sword Coast just outside the walls of Waterdeep, perhaps he is washed up on the beach, perhaps he fell overboard from whatever boat he was on, and he expects to be somewhere in California, but instead he sees the City of Waterdeep, assume whatever transport him there takes care of the communications barrier and he can speak Common.

You've just described every Commoner in Waterdeep.
But, he wasn't born there, has no frames of reference for anything he sees, and has no money.
He's dead in a week.


I'm not quite sure Vin could and would do it though.

Joe Manganiello absolutely would do it in a hearbeat.
Henry Cavill would do it for the nerd cred, to say that he did.

[Hopeless]

First the question is what caused them to arrive there?
Maybe a couple of them aren't actually human so appear in the Realms as an elf, dwarf, etc they're just unaware since we see them as human instead of dwarves, elves, etc.
What if they're unaware what they can do and their past is what defines them when they first arrive but not afterwards as they try to figure what happened and how to survive...

[Rodin]

Why would a modern person be getting involved with the Big Bad of the setting? Or becoming an adventurer at all?

A modern person would be at an inherent disadvantage to literally everyone else in the setting. They would need even basic concepts explained to them. They aren't used to the heavy labor of living in a Medieval-esque setting. They want to train as a fighter? Too bad, they're in line behind the guys who got trained in sword fighting by their father, who is a guard in the city watch. They're in line behind the farm hands who want a better life, because the farm hands have been doing the physical exercise required to become a fighter and have saved up money from when they were young to pay guild dues. What incentive does the Fighter's Guild have to pick this person, other than "they are the protagonist"?

Even if the person is an engineer or a scientist they're in trouble. How many engineers and scientists know how to get their materials from the natural world? How many could do so in a D&D world where the saltpeter is in the mountains surrounded by Orcs?

A normal person would have trouble just surviving. Yes, even a teenaged isekai protagonist. Their best chance of survival would be to get a job as a day laborer and then try to work their way up from there. At no point would they become a renowned sword fighter or wise wizard. This is because they would not be able to in the real world.

Things change a little bit if you get very specific on who you drop in. A swordmaster in the real world would have an inherent advantage if dropped into a fantasy world, because they have had the opportunity to study techniques from all around the world which may not have been invented at the time of the setting. Drop a guy who does blacksmithing at the Renaissance Festival and he could easily make a successful business.

I'm reminded of the Harry Turtledove novel "Guns of the South", where time travelers go back and interfere with the American Civil War. One of the time travelers is asked under threat of execution to teach the locals how to make a computer. He tells them they may as well shoot him now, because they don't have the tools to make the tools he would need to even begin making a computer. Modern knowledge is only so useful without the infrastructure to back it up.

[Tom Kalbfus]

First the question is what caused them to arrive there?
Maybe a couple of them aren't actually human so appear in the Realms as an elf, dwarf, etc they're just unaware since we see them as human instead of dwarves, elves, etc.
What if they're unaware what they can do and their past is what defines them when they first arrive but not afterwards as they try to figure what happened and how to survive...
Instead of a Connecticut Yankee, think of the Wizard of Oz, you have a character named Dorothy Gail and one of the first questions she is asked is what kind of witch is she. I haven't read those books, I mostly know about the movie, but this does bring to mind a particular character class, the sorcerer. The character could be from our World, but maybe one of his parents is not. Which brings me back to the Wizard of Oz. Who were Dorothy's parents, why is she being raised by her Aunt Emily and Uncle Henry? The movie doesn't exactly say what happened to Dorothy's parents and why they are no longer around. So maybe someone from the Realms in this story ended up in our World for a time, got married and had children, and the child in question has no idea. It would have to be for a good reason, his parent is perhaps a refugee from something that was going on in the Realms from which she had to escape. In our World, let's say, magic does not work except when stored in certain prepared magic items. Our protagonist comes in contact with one of those magic items and through it he is sent to the Realms.

[Peelee]

I'm getting kinda curious of what you base these kinds of assertions on. :smalltongue: Yes, if a person's only trained in limited contact kickboxing under modern sports rules, that's gonna be of limited use. If they've instead trained in some traditional school, their training includes stickfighting (bo) , and even period swordsmen agreed that hitting people with a long stick is perfectly good response to a swordwielding opponent.

I assume the martial artist is otherwise unarmed. In which case, there's little difference between a sword and a knife (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kvlrnc7hlQI).

[Vahnavoi]

Why would a modern person be getting involved with the Big Bad of the setting? Or becoming an adventurer at all?

The classic answers in the genre to these questions are, respectively, "because the Big Bad is also from the modern world" and "because they want to find a way back home".

---


I assume the martial artist is otherwise unarmed. In which case, there's little difference between a sword and a knife (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kvlrnc7hlQI).

Yes, it's fair to assume the martial artist is without any appreciable equipment immediately after being stranded on a beach. There isn't a real reason to assume that they would willingly stay that way perpetually, or that they'd willingly face a swordwielding opponent like that. A long stick isn't particularly hard to find or make.

In short, you're conflating two very different arguments: "an unarmed person would be at a disadvantage against an armed person", which even D&D rules mostly agree with, and "[whatever martial art] would not help against an armed opponent", which is extremely dubious. Even when facing an armed agressor unarmed, I bet one would be better off knowing knife defense tactics than they'd be knowing none.

[Peelee]

In short, you're conflating two very different arguments: "an unarmed person would be at a disadvantage against an armed person", which even D&D rules mostly agree with, and "[whatever martial art] would not help against an armed opponent", which is extremely dubious.

I don't believe I am; I am not factoring "an unarmed person" into anything, I am explicitly talking about an unarmed martial artist. D&D rules give monks benefits and bonuses for fighting unarmed, and it is assumed they are regularly capable of fighting armed opponents. In the real world, the best reason to use active, learned blade defense techniques while unarmed is if there is no other viable option, because it's remarkably foolhardy. Any instructor who teaches knife defense in which the very first lesson is not "the best defense, and the one you should default to, is to remove yourself and others with you from the situation. The rest of these are for if that is not viable," is an instructor I would feel confident in ignoring.

[Red Fel]

A normal person would have trouble just surviving. Yes, even a teenaged isekai protagonist.

I think you just hit the nail on the head with this point: this is an isekai plot, and it has been done.

For those unfamiliar, isekai ("another world") is a genre in which the protagonist, generally a typical salaryman or student, is transported to (as the name suggests) another world. Speaking very broadly, there are two subgenres - isekai where the protagonist has a "cheat skill," or a special and unique power that makes this into a power fantasy, and isekai where the protagonist is otherwise ordinary.

Let us immediately rule out "cheat skill" isekai, because that's not in the prompt. And I am not counting "modern knowledge" as a cheat skill. Let's also rule out isekai where the transported protagonist is some kind of "chosen hero" destined to face evil. What are we left with?

A lot, actually. Does your isekai protagonist set out to become a hero? That covers too many to mention. Does your isekai protagonist decide to settle down and introduce modernity, gradually, to the Forgotten Realms? That's part of the premise of Ascendance of a Bookworm, in which a librarian awakens in a Fantasy Europe, discovers that books are a rarity owned by the rich, and decides to print her own books - as well as revolutionize the craft of bookmaking so that she can do so. Or Log Horizon, in which a clever sociopath protagonist transported to a fantasy game world uses real-world knowledge of real-world modern developments to acquire power and impose order. Does your isekai protagonist just want the lazy way out? That's basically KonoSuba, in which the protagonist is sent to a fantasy world to save it from evil, and immediately gives up and becomes a slacker. Does your isekai protagonist just want to create a nice, peaceful home for himself and others? In That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, the admittedly OP protagonist spends his time just helping to build and protect a town, full stop.

Would a normal, modern-day person have trouble surviving in a D&D setting? Absolutely. And if that was your movie premise, it would be a snuff film - protag appears in a world of wizards and monsters, and dies horribly, the end. If you wanted to go somewhere with it, now, that's a different story - and one that's been told in many ways already. That's not to say it can't be done well, or can't be done in a new way - both Slime and Bookworm are relatively recent innovations - but you'll have to come up with more than "modern person in D&D, shenanigans ensue."

[Vahnavoi]

I don't believe I am; I am not factoring "an unarmed person" into anything, I am explicitly talking about an unarmed martial artist. D&D rules give monks benefits and bonuses for fighting unarmed, and it is assumed they are regularly capable of fighting armed opponents.

An unarmed martial artist is not synonymous with monks; their ability to fight unarmed without a disadvantage is a special case even within D&D, and even they are better off wielding a weapon at low levels. Your arguments aren't wrong on their own, but they do feel like a non-sequitur to me: it's a weird progression from "some real martial art" (in my original post) to "karate" to "monks".

[Hopeless]

True so what would be an ideal setup for such a series?
What was the name of that series set in Japan where invaders from another world and were eventually fought off due to them being a mix of Roman era and Medieval period weapons with magic not being part of their military.
Whilst the Japanese Self Defence Force had regular modern arms, weaponry as well as air support.
They eventually secured the portal including the opening on the other world and began a recon using diplomacy to properly explore the world and eventually deal with the empire responsible for the attack.

Edit:Gate

[Peelee]

An unarmed martial artist is not synonymous with monks; their ability to fight unarmed without a disadvantage is a special case even within D&D, and even they are better off wielding a weapon at low levels. Your arguments aren't wrong on their own, but they do feel like a non-sequitur to me: it's a weird progression from "some real martial art" (in my original post) to "karate" to "monks".

Unarmed martial artist is indeed not synonymous with monks, but they are the closest real-world analog to D&D monks. Since the premise is "real-world character transported into a D&D world," then I simply assume that an unarmed martial artist would effectively be treated as a monk.

ETA: I was originally responding to a specific claim by Tom Kalbfus. I'm not considering any of the other traits the character you posited had, which he was responding to. That may be why it seems like a non-sequitor.

[dancrilis]

Unarmed martial artist is indeed not synonymous with monks, but they are the closest real-world analog to D&D monks. Since the premise is "real-world character transported into a D&D world," then I simply assume that an unarmed martial artist would effectively be treated as a monk.

I would assume they would be a Commoner with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat - subject to edition they enter under of course.

[Vahnavoi]

@Peelee: I don't make that assumption, since I was talking of martial arts on a much general level.

[Red Fel]

True so what would be an ideal setup for such a series?
What was the name of that series set in Japan where invaders from another world and were eventually fought off due to them being a mix of Roman era and Medieval period weapons with magic not being part of their military.
Whilst the Japanese Self Defence Force had regular modern arms, weaponry as well as air support.
They eventually secured the portal including the opening on the other world and began a recon using diplomacy to properly explore the world and eventually deal with the empire responsible for the attack.

Edit:Gate

Yep, that was Gate, full title Gate: Thus the Japanese Self-Defense Force Fought There. It started as a pretty clever take on the isekai concept, with fantasy invaders coming through a stable portal into modern-day Japan, being promptly routed by modern military technology. From there, the modern military proceeds through the portal - which conveniently goes both ways - to prevent future incursions and possibly engage in diplomacy and trade.

A neat concept, but not necessarily the right one for the prompt - "protagonist from modern-day stranded in a fantasy world" has very different stakes from "protagonist travels via stable portal to a fantasy world and can come back at any time." Even InuYasha realized it had to strand its isekai protagonist a little bit - easy travel back and forth changes the dynamic significantly.

Really, it depends on who you send. Send someone you don't like, they die horribly. Send someone beefy, you're basically expecting them to fight their way to glory. Send someone charming, you're anticipating conquest by diplomacy. Send someone smart, you want to see an industrial revolution. It's the what they accomplish, and especially the how, that makes for an interesting story.

By way of example, a recent season gave us Kemono Michi, the story of a famous wrestler who is summoned to a fantasy world by a princess to kill off the monsters around her country. Instead, he knocks her out with a German suplex, and proceeds to frolick with all of the monsters and beast-people, because he loves animals in all shapes and sizes. Subversion of expectations leading to comedy.

Of course, an outcome like that kind of requires us to follow a less realistic take on how this kind of story would play out. Typically, a prompt like this, absent evidence to the contrary, suggests that you're looking for a more realistic narrative - die fast, or live long enough to eke out survival. "Tames terrifying monsters by giving them belly rubs" is not typically what one would expect from the prompt.

Not even if you're really, really good at belly rubs, and that Dragon has had an itch for ages.

... Kind of want to see a story about a traveling Dragon masseur now...

[Brother Oni]

Or Log Horizon, in which a clever sociopath protagonist transported to a fantasy game world uses real-world knowledge of real-world modern developments to acquire power and impose order.

To be fair, the main protagonist (at least for the first series) starts off with the advantage of his high level character.


Whilst the Japanese Self Defence Force had regular modern arms, weaponry as well as air support.
They eventually secured the portal including the opening on the other world and began a recon using diplomacy to properly explore the world and eventually deal with the empire responsible for the attack.

Edit:Gate

The first attack that the Empire do on the JSDF toehold around the gate is beated back mercilessly. Entrenched troops with fully automatic weapons, machineguns and 155mm SPGs with barbed wire and minefields versus an attacking medieval army did not go very well. Even the Empire's flying griffon knights came up a cropper against CIWS AA.

The funny thing is, the JSDF isn't even a proper army, despite the author's assertations to the contrary in the average skill of the main protagonists - if a full fledged NATO force came in (let alone an American force with CAS like the AC130) the Empire would be smashed within a week.

[Tom Kalbfus]

The classic answers in the genre to these questions are, respectively, "because the Big Bad is also from the modern world" and "because they want to find a way back home".

---



Yes, it's fair to assume the martial artist is without any appreciable equipment immediately after being stranded on a beach. There isn't a real reason to assume that they would willingly stay that way perpetually, or that they'd willingly face a swordwielding opponent like that. A long stick isn't particularly hard to find or make.

In short, you're conflating two very different arguments: "an unarmed person would be at a disadvantage against an armed person", which even D&D rules mostly agree with, and "[whatever martial art] would not help against an armed opponent", which is extremely dubious. Even when facing an armed agressor unarmed, I bet one would be better off knowing knife defense tactics than they'd be knowing none.
I think a modern character from our World who does not know he is a first level sorcerer would work well, his sorcery was nonfunctional when he was in our world, but send him to the Realms and his magical abilities become functional, they come out when the character faces danger, and danger finds him shortly after he arrives.

[Cheesegear]

Would a normal, modern-day person have trouble surviving in a D&D setting? Absolutely. And if that was your movie premise, it would be a snuff film - protag appears in a world of wizards and monsters, and dies horribly, the end.

Ash starts his adventure with a shotgun boomstick, a chainsaw and a car. He does okay.

[Red Fel]

Ash starts his adventure with a shotgun boomstick, a chainsaw and a car. He does okay.

Ash is not a normal modern-day person.

He's the King.

[Prime32]

... Kind of want to see a story about a traveling Dragon masseur now...
Closest I can think of is Send My Regards to Kenshiro, a comedy about an ultra-serious guy who became a masseur because he read too much Fist of the North Star and thinks it will let him kill yakuza by touching them.

[oxybe]

I remember reading something like this a bit ago, and after some googling, the Manga you are looking for is "Another World Munchkin".

Modern day japanese hikki gets killed saving his sister and is reincarnated into D&D land with the serial numbers barely scratched off. While he's making his character sheet, he sneaks a peek at what is effectively God's campaign notes and sees a sheet for his sister, indicating that god probably lied to him and his sister died too. Guy then mucks up the chargen process and winds up enterings the world with the campaign notes, but a curse that makes him stuck as a first level D&D wizard with 1hp. I remember what stood out was that it used a very D&D like descriptor for a spell used and the character sheets look frighteningly like some I used back in my 3.5 days.

His first encounter with goblins ends up with him being "saved" by a low-strength paladin and both of them being bailed out by the paladin's 3HD, 20Str Warhorse.

I only read the first couple chapters so I can't say if it's quality in the long run, but it's something.

[Rodin]

I think a modern character from our World who does not know he is a first level sorcerer would work well, his sorcery was nonfunctional when he was in our world, but send him to the Realms and his magical abilities become functional, they come out when the character faces danger, and danger finds him shortly after he arrives.

How is that functionally different from a farm boy discovering he has magical powers? He isn't using his modern day knowledge to solve things, he's using his magical powers. The best use you get out of that premise is explaining the world to the protagonist as a proxy for explaining the world to the viewers. However, that can work just fine without that premise - take Slayers. Gourry acts as the audience surrogate because he's the lone swordsman of the group who knows nothing about magic.

You have to define two things here.

1) Is this a story, or a "what if" scenario that treats The Forgotten Realms as a real place? If the latter, my earlier post comes into play. The odds of him getting wrapped up in a major plotline are vanishingly small. Even getting someone to believe that he came from another world would be exceedingly difficult unless the modern character was exceptional in some way.

2) If this is a story, what kind of story are you trying to tell? Red Fel covered this pretty well. "Fish out of water" stories are a dime a dozen, and the isekai variant doubly so. The story you wind up with changes greatly based on the starting background of the character you send into the Realms. Are they a lawyer who uses their analytical mind to break the magic system? Are they a scientist who uses their knowledge to introduce magitech? Are they a military historian who works their way into the king's council by teaching the military how a phalanx works?

The result varies wildly based on what type of person you send back, as well as what type of story you want to tell. Even the premise "I want to find my way back home" isn't exactly guaranteed - the kids in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe wound up staying. Kagome from Inuyasha successfully made it home by, what, the second episode? Out of 150+?

[137beth]

When I saw the thread title but not the OP's username, I expected this to be a Bartmanhammer thread. I'm shocked that it isn't!

As for who I'd want dropped in? Maybe someone who has made a FR character based on themselves, so they can team up with themself?

[Hagashager]

When I saw the thread title but not the OP's username, I expected this to be a Bartmanhammer thread. I'm shocked that it isn't!

As for who I'd want dropped in? Maybe someone who has made a FR character based on themselves, so they can team up with themself?

I can imagine myself meeting my Bhaalspawn PC from Baldur's Gate.

"Ah yes, you're the jerk who thought it was a good idea to send my level 2 ass into the Basilisk's Garden without Protection from Petrification.

Thanks...
*******."

[AvatarVecna]

An avid optimizer, but their in-universe stats/build are more or less identical to what they had in the real world (ie, maybe Expert, maybe with Elite Array equivalent if they're lucky). The D&D universe operates by the rules for the most part, except that learning new spells/techniques/feats/etc requires actual time be put in, and how you train for this mechanic vs that mechanic isn't nearly so obvious in-universe. And also they don't have the internet to fall back on when they forget the specifics of how a combo works, or the fiddly bits of a mechanical interaction buried in some footnote in the DMG that has a very particular workaround but damned if you can't remember quite what the problem is or how to solve it. And the more knowledgeable/powerful people in-universe are at least passingly aware of these possibilities rather than being played like complete morons, and will have made some vague attempt at dealing with such things.

So yeah file that under "wishes that shouldn't be granted" I guess.

[Hopeless]

Could be worse imagine if you're transported into that world as your current d&d character?

50 year old former clerical worker wakes up to find they're now a Gwendoline Christie lookalike elf whose a whole lot better liked here because the world over there is full of power hungry lunatics and being utterly uninterested in taking advantage of the situation is literally resolving situations because the people over here have no idea they're using every trope and cliche from the various anime, book, television and movies they watched to sort the mess out unaware whatever deity responsible for sending them has a really bizarre sense of humour!