[D&D5e] [GMT] Modern Setting

Anyone interested in playing D&D5e in the modern world? There's an Unearthed Arcana article with some extra options . I'm thinking of running something like this but I don't have any definite ideas yet. What kind of storylines would people want to try out?

Sounds interesting to me, just how modern? For example could I roll an "IT Helpline" character?

Sure, although you could be pretty old and still be that!

Anyone else looking for a D&D modern game?

I'm very interested I will pm you my Skype

Anyone else interested? I still have a few ideas I'd like to run, I'm waiting to see what players might want to do in a D&D modern game. Post if you have any ideas for characters or plotlines, and I'll see if I can work them in. I'm in the GMT/UTC timezone, I can play from 6:30 pm on Wednesday or Friday evenings, and I use the built in voice chat of Roll20.net, or Google Hangouts.

I'm interested if you still have room. I think the modern archetypes for the classes all sound interesting and haven't played an RPG in a modern setting so I'd be open to anything really. I'm happy to make a character to fit into your world. I'm in Pacific Time so I think it'd be 11:30AM my time, which works for me. I prefer Wednesdays, but I might be able to make Fridays work.

So far I'm thinking that normal people just see the normal modern world, so whatever magic and supernatural things that exist, they're not obvious. If you've got any special powers, then you're probably not openly using them all the time. Starting at level one, you could have just found out that you have whatever abilities you have, and that the supernatural is real. Then there are bad guys... there could be evil corporations run by vampires or liches, terrorist cells, rogue states...

I'm intrigued by this entire idea, and totally up for it if there's still room. I'm EST but as long we play one Wednesday's it should be alright. I've started playing a ton of tabletop stuff and I'm still learning somewhat, but I'm no complete noob anymore. I also take it as a matter of personal pride to try never to be late or miss games without any good reasons. No real reason for it, I just prefer to stay on schedule. 

Cool, the timetable hasn't been worked out yet, I could probably play at other times so hopefully everyone can fit in. Any ideas for plots or characters? I haven't done modern day D&D before, so I'm not sure what to do with the story.

Sounds interesting! I'm CEST (Central European time) and the time works perfectly for me. Either day works fine, but I'd prefer Wednesdays.

Maybe like an intrigue thing? We all saw something we shouldn't have and have to fight for our lives against it? Seems malleable enough to fit a character of any background.

I think the whole idea sounds really cool. I like the idea of an intrigue thing. Maybe there's an organization of corrupt magic users or maybe the head of some corporation are using magic and their power over technology to amass wealth and power, able to control the wills of influential people and manipulate technology. They regularly "remove" individuals in society who they have discovered to have magical abilities or who are also able to "see" the supernatural, sometimes by killing them, sometimes by convincing them and/or the people around them that they are insane and getting them committed to psychiatric hospitals. The PCs have all recently become aware of the supernatural, and in some way or another have become targets for this corporation. Perhaps, they saw something they shouldn't have. Or maybe they were witnessed using magic. Or maybe they're becoming too vocal about what they can do and see. Or what have you. And they band together to survive and/or try to take down this corporation. Or you could have an opposite organization for the good guys. Maybe there's some military-esque organization that recruits people to protect the world from the supernatural, and the PCs are recent recruits (maybe they have recently discovered their ability to see the supernatural, band together when they are attacked by some monster, and are witnessed by one of the agents of this organization). Or you could go more hack-and-slash, and maybe there are monsters spilling out into the modern world (maybe being conjured by some big baddie?). Maybe there's someone trying to summon a demon or evil god into the modern world, and that's creating a ton of evil creatures spilling out. The PCs are able to see them and bond over the shared terror, perhaps trying to kill them before they terrorize the world (since normal people can't see them?) and trying to figure out who's behind it. I think there are lots of different ways it could go, but I think it'd be a fun balance to have to hide a lot of your special abilities or activities, unlike in traditional D&D where you can often cast spells and kill monsters without too much concern for who's watching.

Dude, if I can turn Joe from the cardboard box factory into a manly sword-wielding badass I'm so fucking in. Although that does bring up what'll be like for melee fighters if we're doing a "low profile" thing. Maybe you have to make sure you hide your weaponry so you don't go to jail or something. Also, how connected would we have to be to our class? Like, I was thinking of maybe making an ex-boxer and figured that would be close enough to a monk. Or would he would have to have ties to something more "monk-like"?

Depending on the day decided I would be interested, it seems pretty cool and I can think of a few characters that I can make. So I would love to give this game  a chance should it be at a day and time I can play on.

I'd probably be interested in playing a warlock, myself. The Ghost in the Machine-pact is way too cool. 

Chilling said: Dude, if I can turn Joe from the cardboard box factory into a manly sword-wielding badass I'm so fucking in. Although that does bring up what'll be like for melee fighters if we're doing a "low profile" thing. Maybe you have to make sure you hide your weaponry so you don't go to jail or something. I would think it'd be pretty much what you'd expect--you have to hide your weaponry on your person, and if you go around beating the crap out of random people, well, the cops might get a little perturbed haha. Basically, an actions have consequences model haha.

Ok, let's say there's some sort of evil group. You all were affected by it somehow, and now you want to find out more and put  a stop to their evil ways. Each player could decide who messed up their life (family, job, hometown etc) and what they know about the group. If you all get together to take them down, you'll all have different knowledge to use against them, and different skills to use.

I like it, it's open and a good plot hook for our setting. Also, the more I look at the spells the more I want to play a wizard. Maybe I'll do that instead. Or maybe a battlemage? Damn, it's getting hard to choose.

That story sounds great to me.

What level do you think we'd be starting at for this? Are we 1st level because we're all (assumedly) normal people? 

Level 1 sounds good. Another question is, where will you all meet up? Should the game be set in a particular place, or will you travel all over the world?

Personally, I wouldn't mind the scope of the campaign going beyond a single city. Other countries would get kind of weird though if you take into account the different languages that we actually have today on top of the ones that fantasy creatures will be using. So maybe stay within the scope of one continent, but not necessarily one city. Of course, this is just my opinion and I'll go with whatever the majority want to go with.

I'm fine with either.

Starting out within the scope of one city and then moving on past it once we feel we're done there seems like an alright idea to me.  I'd be fine with taking a sort of Shadowrun approach to the world itself: there's plenty of different nationalities and cultures across the world that exist across the races themselves. 

Calle A. said: Starting out within the scope of one city and then moving on past it once we feel we're done there seems like an alright idea to me.  I'd be fine with taking a sort of Shadowrun approach to the world itself: there's plenty of different nationalities and cultures across the world that exist across the races themselves.  So like, Elves and stuff exist, but we just don't know about magic or evil corporations? 

Magic and evil corporations can definitely be a thing, too. The Shadowrun thing I was talking about was a bit of cultural diversity within the races and vice versa.  EDIT: Either way, I think it's high time we set up a campaign page. Barry, I think that honor is yours.

I don't know about magic and evil corporations. I feel like a big part of the charm in this campaign is the clash between what we know of as the boring modern world and the high fantasy one. I think a cooler setting would be one similar to our own, but maybe elves and other magical races hide amongst humans in various ways? Edit-But yeah, let's get a campaign setup for this. Feels weird doing it all in the recruiting thread.

I'm thinking of things like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural. The magic is there, but most people don't know anything about it. They just get on with normal life. In this game the heroes have somehow found out about the real world, and now they're in danger, but they have decided to fight back. A bit like the doctor in the first Blade movie, after she found out about the vampires she couldn't just go back to her old life.

Barry O. said: I'm thinking of things like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural. The magic is there, but most people don't know anything about it. They just get on with normal life. In this game the heroes have somehow found out about the real world, and now they're in danger, but they have decided to fight back. A bit like the doctor in the first Blade movie, after she found out about the vampires she couldn't just go back to her old life. I think that sounds cool. That was kind of how I was thinking of it too.

I'm fine with that take on it as well.

Ok then, everyone who's interested please send me a private message, with the following information. D&D 5e character choices for your level 1 character (Race (human/variant), background, class, ability scores (point buy method), languages, skills, spells, and other class abilities. E.g. human, noble, fighter, 16/14/13/13/11/9, English, French, survival, athletics, archery. A brief outline of your character's upbringing, whatever you think is important to define who they are. A brief outline of how they were affected by the evil organisation, and what they know about it so far. I'll look at all your ideas to come up with the overall plan for this organization.

Sent mine in! Looking forward to this!

I went Monk. Figured we may need some physical power to back up all the cool ass magic we're sure to have.

Sent in mine! I'm happy to change characters/classes if there's another class that would fit in well with the party and/or we've doubled up on classes.

OK, I'll set up the game and get things rolling.

I'd be up for joining this. You got space for me?

Well what sort of game are you looking for? We do still have space, and all the details haven't been worked out yet.