My Dream RPG Setting D&D&D... Has Anyone Done This Yet?

[v1c70r14]

I've always dream of making a fictional setting that is essentially a Tolkien-esque/D&D-like planet (with elf, dwarf, orc and the like) that occurs in the modern age where the technology level is equal to our own (Smartphone, social media and such; very little sci-fi or too implausible tech), basically a mixture between Disco Elysium and D&D/The Lord of The Rings, if you will.

Why? Outside of Japanese games modern day setting RPGs are rare enough already, what would sprinkling one of them with orcs and goblins do for the setting and story? What do you think it would add to a game?

 

[cyborgboy95]

I've always dream of making a fictional setting that is essentially a Tolkien-esque/D&D-like planet (with elf, dwarf, orc and the like) that occurs in the modern age where the technology level is equal to our own (Smartphone, social media and such; very little sci-fi or too implausible tech), basically a mixture between Disco Elysium and D&D/The Lord of The Rings, if you will.

Why? Outside of Japanese games modern day setting RPGs are rare enough already, what would sprinkling one of them with orcs and goblins do for the setting and story? What do you think it would add to a game?

I just always have a soft spot for Tolkien-esque medieval fantasy setting and wonder what would happen if the modern day world having more intellengent species other than human, or what would happen to a run-of-the-mill fantasy setting if they manage to progress beyond the medieval era. How would these facors affect politic, ideology, fashion, etc...

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Btw, no gnome in my hypothetical setting pls, I can never really tell the distinction between them and halfling in a run-of-the-mill fantasy setting, what's the point of having two very similar race (appearance-wise) in a D&D-like fantasy setting?

Gnomes as described in the AD&D rulebooks are simply a mixture of elves, dwarves, and halflings, without any real identity of their own. Moreover, in actual campaign settings, gnomes were generally presented as quite similar to dwarves, which made them redundant. This changed with the Dragonlance campaign setting establishing Tinker Gnomes, based around madcap engineering of baroque technologies that frequently malfunctioned in amusing ways. The hardcover Dragonlance campaign setting rulebook released in 1987 even had a Tinker Gnome race and character class available for players, but they were never really suitable as PCs for adventuring, so as much as this differentiated gnomes from the other demi-human races, it didn't make them any better suited to being a player-character race option. Tinker Gnomes were directly carried into the Spelljammer campaign setting in 1989, and a bit earlier were borrowed by Bruce Heard for the Known World campaign setting, which utilized D&D rules and therefore did not allow gnomes as a player-character race option but did have a few scattered gnomish communities which now had a distinguishable identity.

A fantasy high-tech setting would surely be all the more suitable for the Dragonlance tinker version of gnomes.

 

[lightbane]

I was going to say Bright, which is urban fantasy yep. Shame it never got a sequel.

 

[vota DC]

Sciascia in 1961 published a detective story featuring five races that are not too different from D&D. They could adjust that.

 

[JarlFrank]

Basically I want this for an RPG:

 

[Faarbaute]

I'd like to state for the record that I think Bright was a good movie. Sure, it's heavy handed in its use of allegory, but it's straight forward and efficient in conveying its messaging about social tension and all that other garbage, and in less than 2 hours at that. Taking into account that the audience mostly consists of knuckle dragging retards, you got to be blunt to get your point across sometimes, so I consider it entirely adequate and acceptable even.

Anyway, what is it you'd like to explore in modernity, by introducing additional humanoid species, that isn't handled in Bright? (i.e racial tension). Is it just that it's lacking in subtlety and/or you think it's just poorly executed?

edit: I mean, there's a racial cast system, world event altering magic, combined with the mundane modern realities of living in a decaying urban zone with gangbangers, cops and robbers, etc. I don't see what's missing from this point of view, except maybe that you'd like more exotic, yet superficial stuff, like people walking around in costumes.

 

[Dedicated_Dark]

Aren't the Dresden Files kind of like this or am I remembering that wrong!

 

[Vic]

https://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Dungeon-Logan-Jacobs-ebook/dp/B09NLPT1VP

 

[mondblut]

I read "modern day", I swipe left.

The only games allowed to be set in "modern day" are Jagged Alliance and VTM. Even there, "modern day" is a stretch, they belong in the 80s and 90s, before millenials ruined everything.

 

[mondblut]

modern day setting RPGs are rare enough already, what would sprinkling one of them with orcs and goblins do for the setting and story?

I just always have a soft spot for Tolkien-esque medieval fantasy setting

So you want to ruin both.

 

[Nortar]

I've always dream of making a fictional setting that is essentially a Tolkien-esque/D&D-like planet (with elf, dwarf, orc and the like) that occurs in the modern age where the technology level is equal to our own (Smartphone, social media and such; very little sci-fi or too implausible tech), basically a mixture between Disco Elysium and D&D/The Lord of The Rings, if you will. Or how I would like to call it as a temporary project name: D&D&D (Dungeons & Dragon & Disco Elysium)

If you don't want cyber- or steam-punk elements try to check out D20 Modern and Urban Arcana.
Might be just the thing you're looking for.

Edit: And as far as various "urban fantasy" settings go, I alwayd had a soft spot for Nick Pollotta's Bureau 13, probably coz it was my first meeting with the genre.

 

[Hellraiser]

So Arcanum 2001: a social media odyssey?

People already raised the two big points about this, that the only way to make it interesting and not just modern world with orks porch pirates and elven e-thots is to actually explore the consequences of magic on the world.

 

[Lagole Gon]

At first I was like - No.
But on the other hand, maybe it would allow some subtle social commentary about intercity crime in 'murica.

Did you know that bugbears, despite being only...

 

[Maxie]

At first I was like - No.
But on the other hand, maybe it would allow some subtle social commentary about intercity crime in 'murica.

Did you know that bugbears, despite being only...

I'd rather not be subjected to any social commentary produced by people ostensibly in charge of game development

 

[Hellraiser]

At first I was like - No.
But on the other hand, maybe it would allow some subtle social commentary about intercity crime in 'murica.

Did you know that bugbears, despite being only...

 

[cyborgboy95]

So Arcanum 2001: a social media odyssey?

People already raised the two big points about this, that the only way to make it interesting and not just modern world with orks porch pirates and elven e-thots is to actually explore the consequences of magic on the world.

Yeah, another thing to make this hypothetical rpg setting of mine interesting is to keep the number of sentient species small but distinct IMO. The nature and psychology and culture of each sentient species would be different than human and each other as well, instead of just being human with different coats of paint. Not sure if this feature would translate well to tabletop and crpg though, since asking players (human) to role-play an alien species would be difficult, maybe human would be the only playable species/race in my hypothetical setting.

Orc, Goblins, Elf, Drow, Dwarf, Dragons and of course good old Homo Sapiens are currently what I have in mind in terms of sentient species. No superfluous race like gnome or halfling.

 

[Reinhardt]

Orc, Goblins, Elf, Drow,

completely useless and evil races, but you can't say it openly, because it's raycis.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Yeah, because having Blacks in your neighborhood isn't enough, you want actual fucking Orcs. jfc

 

[Faarbaute]

You'd have to dispense with any serious realism and any serious attempt to model a modern society — only with dwarves and orcs thrown into the mix — at least if you want a result that isn't just a complete nightmare or completely contrived and stupid, to avoid that nightmare — and to achieve something that is enjoyable to read or roleplay in.

What I'd do instead, is I'd lean more heavily into a kind of fairytale logic. Where you could, for example, have a secretive guild of dwarves mining for adamantite, under the employ of not-apple, because the new not-iphone is being fitted with indestructible adamantite glass. Does it make sense? Not really. Does it have to make sense? Who cares. If you just think dwarves are rad, and mining for adamanatite is rad, and you wonder what that would look like anno 2023, or you just want to see orc samurai on a mystical quest to right some ancestral wrong, riding the buss to get where he's going, then this kind of approach would allow for that coexistence of the fantastical and the mundane you seem to want to permeate this hypothetical setting, without IMO bogging itself down with reality, and the plausibility of it all.

 

[Bastardchops]

It sounds very lame.

 

[BlaineMono]

Came here expecting D&D&D to stand for Dongs, Dicks, and Dildos

was disappointed

 

[Abu Antar]

With the rise of "AI" image creation, you're closer than ever to fulfilling your vision.

 

[Abu Antar]

An elven spell hacker.

Heavily armored police dwarf.

Mind reading halfling detective reading the minds of the dead.

Lizard gang preparing to rob a bank.

 

[jaekl]

I have grown to hate AI art with all of my heart. The longer I look at it, the more strange, unnatural and misplaced stuff I notice and then I start to get creeped out and feel like I need to shoot my computer and bury it in the backyard because it has become haunted.