Sorry if someone else has posted this, but I saw a new modern magic article on the Mother site (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/modern-magic). Still no conjure constructs, but still interesting.
Hhhhhhhnnnnnnngg!
More of this. I will kiss anyone who writes more of this, if that's your thing.
Or I'll kiss anyone who fails to write more of this, if that's totally not your thing.
I love this stuff. This is definitely the direction I hope d20 Modern takes.
Frustrated because both this material and the Behind-the-Screens material are clearly based very specifically on a narrow range of time – Post World Wars to Cyberpunk future.
Currently, the DMG supports Firearms from various time periods, and while Renaissance weapons can be added into the normal rules, and these rules allow for usage of the Modern weapons, anything in-between (from around 1750~ until ~1900) is left in a big gaping hole. This is the technology level of the Industrial Revolution, the Old West, the French Revolution, the Meiji Restoration, the Spheres of Influence in China and the rise of the Xiaolin Temple – this is a pivotal pulp temporal area and it's been nearly completely ignored.
This article doesn't help me much. :/
I feel I could use this from Noir, to modern world with secret magical underworld (like shadow chasers) through apocalyptic/cyber.
I was talking to a friend about it. He was thinking a modern setting lacked a certain hook to it. Felt mundane. But in the end, we found that the setting needs to embrace the fantastic in order to deliver on the kinds of awesome we enjoy.
For me, this is a great start.
It's funny Maran (Edit: And Bawylie!), I was just thinking how nearly everything in this month's UA would kill my suspension of disbelief in a modern era game, but I'd be fine with it as either a high tech supplement to baseline D&D, or as magic supplement to a futuristic era campaign. I mean, I like the material perfectly fine, and plan to use at least some of it in my homebrew, but casting find vehicle would kill my immersion in just about any modern era game, even one featuring the supernatural. Just because, that why; don't ask me.
Anyhow, a solid article I am glad to have read, however my kvetching may sound.
Hitdice wrote:
This information seems like it would blend well into Eberron with some tweaking to what constitutes technology in a setting. Some new spells cover the functions of an artificer, a magewright or dragonmarked abilities that are not covered by existing 5e rules.
Technosorcerer Wizard does seem basically like a d20 Modern re-write of the Artificer Wizard from the first UA.
I'm surprised people find it works now, when it didn't work really then.
Marandahir wrote:
Marandahir wrote:
Enevhar_Aldarion wrote:
I never really got into D20 Modern, so this doesn't really interest me. If a product comes out based on this, I'm gonna pass on it.
Enevhar_Aldarion wrote:
It wouldn't be hard to recook the City Domain to be useful in "normal" D&D campaigns: Power wise replace vehicles with mounts, firearms with crossbows, electronics with torches/lamps/latches/levers. Be a handy guy to have around in a large fantasy city.
TenaciousJ wrote:
It's amazing I really want a modern and futuristic setting that is just as magic rich as my D&D settings. I love technology and cool gadgets. But I don't want a crunchy system. So I hope 5E can make it work. I fear cyberpunk and shadowrun.
arnwolf666 wrote:
Marandahir wrote:
* I like the idea of a module about arcanepunk technology, but my doubt is about crafting machines, and battery. How many psionic powers points or which level spell to recharge a motor? A arcanepunk technomancer/artificier could spend spell slots to active a vehicule like a motorcyble or a truck. In a fantasy setting, goblins with a steampunk war wagon could face heavy cavalry. Or a simple spell to reload crossbows at will.
* The WotC "Shadowrun" has got its own name: Cyberrave. An alternate setting from "d20 Cyberscape".
* Warmage vs gunslingers. A true pain in the neck for game designers about game balance. My suggestion is modern weapons need a special XP reward.
* One of my past crazy ideas was the incarnum artificier, where the artificier would use points of essentia for the magic item, like the incarnum chakras (the body slots for magic item). An interesting idea to be playtested by gamers who want to try new things.
* You are imagine PC with high-tech toys agains primitive enemies... but have you thought about a campaign where the PCs are barbarians tribes with low-tech, and the main antagonist is a goblin civilitation with steampunk weapons and a army of living half-golems?
bawylie wrote:
Silentwolf wrote:
Interesting stuff. It reminds me of bits of Shadowrun and Mage: The Ascension. I’d dig a D&D technofantasy setting. As much as I like Shadowrun, it’s the setting that I enjoy, not so much the rules.
The difference behind steampunk as fantasy or scifi is where the story is focused. Scifi is about how the "other" changes society; in this case, how would the world hVe been with steampunk tech. Fantasy is about the journey of the heroes. Fantasy lends itself to games more, and many games and movies that seem to be scifi on the surface (I'm looking at you Star Wars) are in fact fantasy stories couched in the art of scifi.
Xeviat-DM wrote:
This is lovely. A few thoughts, though:
- Technovirus is a little unclear. Can you issue as many commands as you want (with the caveat that each command requires an action to issue), or can only one command be issued per infection?
- Chained Device is playing a very dangerous game. It's awesome, but the ability to concentrate on two things at once can do bad things to the action economy.
- I wish Find Vehicle had a level 9 option for summoning something like a celestial cruse ship.
- Haywire is incredibly vulnerable to a Bag of Rats strategy. Or in this case, more like a Bag of Furbies. Get the fighter to dump a bag of as many furbies as they can carry onto your enemy and run away, then cast Haywire on the pile. That's roughly 1d6 lightning damage per furby per round (decreasing somewhat on later rounds).
you could probably create a reflavored 5th edition version of Trollish Fortitude and Iron Body spells from 2e spells & magic, to create a Phalanx virus, similar to the techovirus effect that inflicts damage. Once the character is 'killed' they become infected with something akin to vampirism or lycanthropy, except they take on a variety of Construct aspects. The Phalanx virus (a level 9 instant/concentrate till permanent Transmutation effect) probably conflicts with non-technomagic, and might be compatible with Mystic Psionics or opposed (X Men's Cable used his TK to fight a technovirus).
The phalanx effect would have characteristics of a metal golem/construct + a form of regeneration and sentience, and would be completely compatible with technomagic. I would imagine damage resistance and high AC were other traits, while something like heat metal would be dangerous.
Wait a moment! Could the technomancer to create a laager/ wagon fort to run over a horde of zombies? Or to craft a missile launcher to kill dragons and dinosaurs? What if firearms were cursed by deities of wars? For example in a battlefield the dead soldiers killed by guns could return like undead/deathless warriors to take revenge and punish the "dishonorable" gunslingers. Why not to create a exosuit like the ones from videgame "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare"?
If firearms are allowed.... who, and why, would choise a hand-to-hand fighter like a paladin or a barbarian?(mmmm, it would be like Red Sonya steampunk version from Legenderry comics)
* Why if we mixture "Spelljammer" and "Iron Lords of Jupiter" (From Dungeon Magazine #101/Polyhedron#160) (and d20 Future!!)?
* What if martians from "mars attack!" were D&D monsters? or a D&D world to be in an interestellar war between the fraals (little gray alien men) and the illithid.
This was far more interesting than I was expecting it to be. I now want to start up an urban fantasy campaign.
I'm thinking a small college town in Appachia, plenty of wildeness, indian sites, and folklore.
This could actually make for an interesting BPRD-style campaign. Hellboy would be a tiefling Fighter/Barbarian multiclass...
Wait a moment! What about the "furry" humanoids from Gamma World? I love "exotic" PC races...(but sharminds were too exotic for me.. in the begining)
What if we mix "Gamma World" and "Cyberrave" (Urban Arcana + d20 Cyberscape)?
The Sword of Shannara is a fantasy saga about a post-apocalyptic Earth where the fantasy races appear.
Another option can be create crazy mash-ups, for example "Brave New World vs 1984 being attacked by a zombie apocalypse from a third Earth", or a "Superman: Red Son" where the main antagonist is a Powerwoman from another Earth where a soft anarcho-capitalism created an almost Utopia, and then Powerwoman defends Locke's ideas.
* Do you imagine a weird western where magic armous could be bullet-proof? (blessed by divine magic for "honrable" warriors).. or an alchemist could create modern materials like graphene?