I don't mean urban fantasy, I mean high fantasy settings that have progressed to a state roughly analogous to modern society.Wizzas dealing scrolls in back alleys, paladins cracking down on black magic users, so on and so forth. I feel like there's a lot of room there to run a fun campaign.
>>96691668Shadowrun exists and it's shit.
>>96691668Eberron exists and it fucking rules
>>96691668they're working on turning 5.5e into that, but with less fent and more fags
>>96691722there should be an addictive drug that gives you temporary levels
>>96691668There is a lot of room. Problem is - who is going to do all the work in building the setting? Urban fantasy has three general approaches:1)Masquerade2)Suddenly - MAGIC!3)Fantasy world advanced to modernity1 - Is the most gay ass approach that shatters at the lightest scrutiny. In most cases author was just a lazy retard who couldn't be assed to actually think about the implications of magic in the modern world. 99% of urban fantasy is this shit. 2 - Magic is extremely recent addition to the world for some reason. A lot of them are pretty fucking gay with authors being either lazy or retarded and a lot of time both. 3 - This approach needs enormous amount of work to do properly. I can't even remember a setting that does this off the top of my head. Though theoretically it would give the most return on investment if you do it right. Except people are lazy and it is way easier to do approaches 1 and 2 even of they suck donkey balls.
>>96691668Because the modern world lacks the romance that we want from fantasy. But Harry Potter and Shadowrun both exist. It's rare because it's hard to make it interesting.
>>96691705Isn't Eberron closer to pre-WW1 level instead of Modern? So something like from the middle to the end of 19th century.
>>96691668Discworld is like that and it's getting a TG
>>966917473 only really works if magic isn't conjuring fireballs and smiting with lightning bolts and more like meditating/drugging to enter hypnagogic states to communicate with non-physical beings that teach how to do unknown sciences.that's how real life works btw
>>96691747i do think approach 3 is the most interesting and promising. it would be basically a world that followed a different technological progress than ours, developing and speading various magical techsi think it would be best served by designing a magical system (or multiple ones!) specifically for it, rather than just saying "well d&d has spells to make undead so let's just make a bunch of undead and use them to move stuff"this system doesn't even necessarily need to be something that the players need to interface too much for their character's mechanics of course this setting would also have regular technology, but seamlessly combined with the magical side (for example material sciences work with metals, plastics, ceramics, and their alchemical permutations)
>>96691668The problem is technology. If technology of this world is powered by magic, it means that the magic is just a dull metaphor for some vague energy, spice, mana juice. If tech and magic are two separate things, depending on what magic can, they should cancel out each other in a lot of things. Depends on what is more suitable in one situation or the other. But what exactly magic can? Asserting this question turns magic in some defined scientific force...
>>96691747If by "magic" we mean "supernatural" then a masquerade isn't hard to maintain in the modern age. The supernatural, by definition, cannot be demonstrated. If can be demonstrated and documented, it's natural, and you're just doing a sci-fi world in which "the laws of physics are a little different."For examples of which see about ten thousand 70s sci-fi novels.
Ahem.
>>96692130>>96692141autism: not even once
>>96692171>Wants to talk about how science and magic fit together>"Don't try to scientifically analyze magic, that's autism!"It's literally necessary to discussing the setting.
>>96692130>>96692141My two favorite 70s "actually it's scifi" settings.
>>96692130i'm perfectly fine if "magic" is just a shorthand for "special energy or force or other things that don't exist in our world but exist in this setting". It can make for fun fantasy worldbuilding depending on what abilities you give it. we are trying to play or make games here not write pseudointellectual dissertations about finding out if the meaning of "supernatural" can even be defined (which has nothing to do with games)
>>96691668Ask the worldbuilding general.
>>96692390Whether or not your setting is coherent has nothing to do with games?That's only true if you never run a game in them.
>>96691685Shadowrun is Urban Fantasy, and its actually a really good take on Urban Fantasy as a setting. It's just never had an even half-way passable ruleset attached to it.Urban Fantasy is when you take the modern world and inject magic into it. What OP wants is fantasy that progressed past the cultural stasis that keeps most fantasy worlds locked into a medieval pastiche stasis.
>>96691722>>96691734D&D 5.5e was made in the greater Seattle-Tacoma area. There was a lot of fent involved, it just was in the boardrooms instead of setting guides.
>>96691685Shadowrun is cyberpunk future setting and fantasy, not modern fantasy.>>96691668Dresden Files RPGMaged20 modernPretty much any generic system can fill the role
>>96691668Isnt that basically the superhero genre? If you´re a Sorcerer shooting scorching rays or a X-men mutant shooting energy blasts is kinda whatever at that point. Or if your druid is a druid because of some nature connection or because he went into it poison ivy style.
>>96692567Nonsense. Shadowrun is the "earth" of Earthdawn. A fantasy setting, exactly like OP asked for. It is progressed forward to a technological level roughly analogous to "today," just like OP asked for.It is actually a PERFECT example of what OP asked for, which is:>I mean high fantasy settings that have progressed to a state roughly analogous to modern society.The fantasy setting is called Earthdawn. The roughly-analogous modern society it progressed into is Shadowrun.
>>96692628That hasn't been canon since 2nd-edition, grandpa.
>>96692667So your complaint is that you want >>96691685 to read >2e Shadowrun exists and it's shit.Pedantic, but sure.
>>96691761It's actually Interwar. Roaring 20s with magic.
>>96691668You guys should read the Dresden FilesProbably my favorite blend of modern society with fantasy elements
I don't know OP. What do you actually want in such setting and maybe we'll be able to tell you what game does that.
>>96692887If you want Urban Fantasy, tries Charles de Lint. The writing and characters of his Newford novels are just better than Dresden. Not hating on Butcher--I've read them all. But if you like those, there's a good chance you'll like these even better.
>>96691668That sounds incredibly dumb and unimaginative.
>>96692678no, nobody here wants cyberpunk but with magic in it. otherwise op would have asked for cyberpunk. cyberpunk contains a bunch of tropes that are unrelated to modern fantasy and take the focus away from it's core ideas.
>>96693480That has nothing to do with whether or not Shadowrun is an example of exactly what OP explicitly, specifically asked for. Which it is.
>>96691668I couldn’t tell you why, because I’ve caressed the idea of creating a game with that setting, for a long while.Inspired by this illustration.It was roughly our world (so, no made up kingdoms and such) but magic is real and existed right in the open since forever.But fantasy tropes evolved to blend into modern life, so for example:>Vampires were some sort of mix between AIDS and weird Hollywood rejuvenating techniques>Forbidden and a bit shameful, but there’s a few celebrities which are suspected to have caught vampirism>Magic has mostly been replaced by technology, which is much more scalable, but mages still whispers in the ears of heads of states and powerful CEOs>Fantasy races have nearly disappeared due to intermarriage, but lots of people are proudly claiming a smudge of elvish ancestry.Stuff like that.Then Bright came out and… eh… it wasn’t virgin territory anymore.Still think it could be very fun.
>>96691668Wasn’t there that one cartoon called Mysticons that was basically this?
>>96692017>>96692130Objection:Magic could very well a type of mental ability, channeled through symbols.Therefore you can’t produce magical effects without a trained adept, possibly one with innate abilities.Therefore it’s not something you can mass-produce.So, sure, if you are a powerful magic user you can produce a grenade out of your sheer willpower.But, guess what? I can pack ten of these and use the time I didn’t waste in the magical academy, to learn how to use a gun instead.History is full of technologies which were worse than what they replaced, at least initially, but won just by the virtue of being possible to mass produce and/or be used with much less training.Magic users will still have their use, of course. I mean who doesn’t want a tactical wizard in their squad?
