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

[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.

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!