Modern Fantasy General #3

Check this out. Its got a lot of stuff you can use.

Flying monsters are easy, perpetual threats. Even in the modern day, a child going missing after being snatched by a Hippogryph isn't too uncommon, at least the further away you are from the walls.

What about the seas? How dangerous are those?

What about more intelligent monsters, do they eventually integrate into society or are they driven back to special monster reserves?

I'd imagine even today a kraken or a sea serpent would be pretty hard to deal with

Maybe cargo ships are protected by armed escort vessels that have some sort of torpedos?

Depth charges. Torpedoes. Shock waves are brutal in water. And "Kracken" technically exist.

>OD&D
My nigga
Funnily enough I posted that as inspiration in a previous thread

When it comes to the seas I'm thinking treacherous on a good day the farther out you get the more dangerous monsters you start to encounter, the oceans are vast and hide all manner of creature both terrible and beautiful
That would encourage the use of airships for transportation and shipping

I don't think anyone would really trust a monster, no matter how intelligent it seems.

However, depending on the city and people nearby, I could see some sort of Monster Villages pop-up. They might use stuff that floats down river or abandoned adventurer huts to start their own towns.

From places like these, more monsters might join them and eventually become 'civilized'.

ooo thats a good justification for use of primarily airships!

So troll ghettos basically?

What about dragons? I'm partial to the shawdowrun style rich boy bad-ass dragons

I THINK I GOT IT!
I am content with this one.

THIS IS IT GUYS!!!

Perfect

looks sick!

Fuck yes that's glorious.

what program did you use to make it?

Now we must name and lore up the city-dots. unless you guys want to edit in better placed ones. If we are using my kobolds 3 or so city's will have warrens under them.

We still need to figure out the other two "Exotic" Races.

donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/world/

Sort of.

Too close to normal civilization and you'd get Adventurers called in UNLESS they lucked out somehow.

So some distance away actually makes them a bit safer, since they can integrate their buildings into the land proper.

Actually, what kinds of monsters becoming sapient were you thinking about?

When I think of dragons, I don't think they would be extinct.
It gets me thinking, dragons are intelligent so a point. And they hoard gold! So if the nations wizened up to this would they have just up and switched to a fiat currency? Just let the monsters be and don't take their shit.
If you wanted to tie it to the ruin/old fantasy history you'd easily have sizeable amounts of gold in ruins/very old cities and as the races move towards a more magitek based future and away from these places you could see dragons be easily attracted to them.

Ruins -> Gold -> Dragons -> Adventure!

Also dragon president. Preferably not assassinated this time.

Well dragons are usually long lived and attracted to magical items
Some great adventures could be made from trying to acquire ancient magical treasures from a dragons hoard or sizable mana crystals

Here's my write-up for the fascist (majority) elvish nation that was proposed last thread:
Name: The Enchiri Empire (feel free to give me suggestions for a different name since I'm shit at naming
Governmental type: Fascist Constitutional Monarchy
Capital City: Naran (One of the cities near the center of the main continent that has trees surrounding it)
Fluff: The nation-state of Enchiri is mainly inhabited by elves and humans. They are a nationalistic country that exercises strict control over their mages and magical education programs. They employ very mobile land armies as well as small fighters and airships.

if any more info is needed please tell me

Center Island, city near lake.
Umm... mainly human 60% but mixed races. Democracy.
, currently dragon president, taking advantage of "President for life" terms. luck most everyone is okay with him. Kobold warren underneath, know an more mixed with above city than most.
its a very old city.

I suck at lore. this is really my first time though.

Whay sort of national identity does it have? German-esque? I'd suggest the Ottobek Empire, capital: Ostland

I'd let him be my president
if you know what I mean

Holy fuck auto correct. This is more unreadable than usual.

Thank you for the suggestion. The user that originally suggested it wanted it to be German-ish so yeah that works.

I've been thinking about the security of towns and cities. Why not have them employ the use of golems? They'd basically be magic robots that protect citizens in the outskirts of the cities.
It'd be quite interesting to see different "brands" of golems around with security guilds competing for the business of the government (With some governments making them themselves).

maybe in one very ancient. and magic focused city. also would be very exclusive. May cause jealousy in other races. could be source of our main collage too. forgotten technology? People scared it will fail soon? Quest plot?

Because the "magi-tech" of our setting basically being and uncomplex magical energy source is imagine that golems aren't as mass-producers as something like Airships would be.

Actually, I rescind that idea because that's removing some players agency in that whether or not something is being attacked like that (In this case Monsters -> City). I'd rather leave that to the DM and plot.

That seems more like it.
Something cutting edge, experimental and very expensive.

Wizards could craft custom made golems for purchase for more well to do people for the purposes of body guards or sex.

I would hope that golems are rare new inventions
Really hate to see what amounts to magical robots being common, feels like they would be prototypes or exclusively military like drones
And god forbid we end up creating not!Warforged

Or the army of magitech empire in FFXV

this.

Yeah, I thought more about what I said here .
It just makes more sense that way, especially since robots are a very cutting edge thing in the real world (in terms of the way we think of scifi robots).

I love the idea of Elf Steve Jobs announcing the new iGolem, but how would the nation at large react?

Last thread I joked about having a "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animates," but really, if we go this route it should probably be super rare, and it should probably be controversial.

Imagine a social rights movement for golems.

Alternatively, they should probably be viewed in the same way we view drones today - dangerous, dystopian, but sometimes necessary.

What is everyone thinking when it comes to the landscape, how fantastical do you see it
Same question about the architecture magic could build some impressive buildings without worrying about structural integrity

I'm cool with whatever as long as it looks breathtaking enough.

So as for names for the Dwarven nation I'm thinking something like Gromstrien, Gildhest, or Hundrin.

This might be modernizing a fantasy setting, but the world itself is still a fantasy and no amount of "modern" can change that.
Go fucking nuts.

That picture got me thinking. Magic in this setting is reserved for the most highly educated, right? Magic would inevitably become a symbol of the rich and powerful.

There could have been a communist revolution in one country - where the phrase "Power to the People" meant forcing mages into government service. A part of the cultural revolution after the new government was established could involve using magic to build massive and improbably constructed state-run residential areas.

I'm imagining a lot of Brutalist and Neo-Brutalist architecture.

This could work well with

A former Magocracy, now under the oppressive thumb of the People's Revolution.

So the Timeline doc mentions Mana Crystals and I need a little clarification
Would they function similar to Eberron Dragonshards being used in magic item creation or are they just mana batteries

That sound more like a possible adventure hook than anything else to me

Mana batteries, never read Ebberon.

Why? It sounds like solid backstory fluff for a nation.

I suppose and to be honest I could envision an entire campaign set amongst the rising tide of anti-governmental sentiment with the players forced to choose sides
Guess I just saw it as something of a potential story idea and not as anything tied to a particular nation

Either way I concede, it makes sense to include it in a Nations write up

Already on it (and with a stock name too, because why not):
Name: People’s Republic of Tristteen
Governmental type: Previously Magocracy, now a communist republic.
Racial makeup: Mainly humans and dwarves
Location: Southern forests
Stance on magic: Mages are forced to work for the government and all magical education is heavily controlled by the government. Mages are discriminated against and heavily monitored by the state secret police (think KGB or Stasi).
Military: The Tristtani military has been hesitant to implement magical forces into their military but uses them when necessary, such as to power their airships and battleships or deliver messages between divisions. Mages are forced to serve in the military like any other citizen. Specialist magical units are uncommon and more often than not are state secrets.
Fluff: Previously, the Kingdom of Tristteen was a nation ruled by the most powerful and presitgious of mages, those that came from the most powerful families and backgrounds. Non-mages were subjugated and reduced to peasants, craftsmen, or at worst, slaves. In the mid 19th century however, there was an uprising from the non-mage minority groups within the nation shortly after the invention of the mana power converter. Taking advantage of this new technology, the revolutionaries rose up, displacing their magic-using masters and usurping control of the nation from the leaders of the country. It was then that the new rulers of the country drafted a political doctrine based on communist ideals and as their first action the new regime began public projects to build incredibly massive residential and administrative areas and buildings. Utilizing the slogan "Power to the People", the government forced the large majority of their previous overlords into government service, forcing them to build these new buildings through magic. Now, the mages that used to rule the country are workers for the government.

Continuing the question from previous thread

>Fuck Nos

>Anime Fightan Magic
Martials should be Mundane, they should be balanced by technology, not by becoming pseudo casters

>Humans Elves Dwarves
to me thats just Humans only with a new hat.
I think the Idea of elves and dwarves beeing subraces for humans can work (still they should have their own identity) but there should be other races.
In a modern fantasy setting these races should be recognizeable fantasy races tho such as Orks, Goblins, Lizardmen, Gnolls, Merfolk and so on, else you veer into Sci Fi.

>Martials only use Guns
Melee weapons should be an important part of martials, this could be done due to Dune like shields that block (some ammounts) of bullets or magical armor that can sustain some firearms pounding.

>Magic and Technology do the same things
A fireball is not a rocketlauncher and shouldnt be treated as such. Technology and Magic should be filling seperate roles. As such Magic can be used for quite powerfull things such as Scrying the future, animating the dead (if you want to go there) , summoning creatures and so on.
Technology can be used for gunfire, hacking, RPGs and the like. That doesnt mean that there shouldnt be battlemages but that battlemages should be using far stronger magics than your average RPG battlemage does.

>One Race one Nation
Each Race should have several cultures and Nations should be made out of several Races, think Ivalice

>Urban Focus
I think we arent doing that anyway but the idea should be that outside of cities, weird shti should be going on, and even cities should have Ravnica like elements of fantasy weirdness.

>Religion is Magic
Works for DnD but for a modern fantasy setting if Clerics were just casters, Religion would be treated as a science, that might be interresting for one or two gods but not for the entire pantheon.

>Magic Replacing Technology
As bad as the other way around. No Smartphones should not be replaced by magic mirrors

I was going to reply to each of those points individually to give my opinion on them but let me save some time

NO, Oh please god no to all of that
Almost everything you just said is like the opposite of all the setting elements we have talked about for the past three threads

>Martials should be Mundane
This one is what gets me the most, but I refuse to start that argument in this thread

Wew lad

read what i said

>Fuck No

These things are all what i DO NOT want the setting to be.

in the previous thread there was a question of what you DO NOT want to have in this setting.

Readin

If that's the case I apologize
I'm going on 18 hours awake and it's probably affecting my reading comprehension and temper

Its just from my own Fuck No post last thread and a lot of the opinions I've voiced I have a problem with the modern overshadowing the fantasy and I've been a supporter of the magic using Warrior since the idea of a mundane martial offends me on a personal level

Bumping with an airship and a skyline

If anyone still has questions about the magic system, ask away.

>dragon uses breathe fire!
>its not very effective
>USS Freedom uses RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile!
>Its Super Effective!

so what year is this?

wow, those green txts arent really what you guys have come up with is it?
i have to agree with the user here, its boring as fucking fuck.
i agree with all his complaints

2016

No they aren't.

How is babby formed

Just so we are clear hear nothing that has been written here as actually been what we've written down in the slightest.

>2016
2017 user

I fully agree.
Religion hasn't really been discussed but the few times it's been brought up it is definitely a thing but it's not quite as...heavy handed as it is in traditional fantasy and the standard greek mythos style.
The idea that has been thrown out there is that gods do exist, there is some proof that they do but they are very much not involved (99%, not 100%).
I think it's similar to how Guild Wars handles its mythos in that "gods" do exist but at this point they are long gone/don't care but it does differ in that whatever higher powers exist don't do a whole lot of anything [anymore] and when they do something it's not quite the same extreme as seen in stereotypical fantasy.

I think that offers a lot of possiblities for various cultures to have different takes on this. Some, bowing down in worship seeing indifference and lack of signs as them being failures, unworthy, or that they have done something wrong. It's a punishment, Westboro Baptist Church style.
Or like we have in the real world, some have complete indifference. They don't see this as anything that affects them so why should they care?
Maybe some see if as a triumph or sign of trust. Higher powers have allowed the races to go about their own business without interference. They have complete control over their lives and the future. Whatever free will brings.
There are many ways it can be looked at.

Now that's only one suggestion that I have offered a little elaboration on (Though it's not originally mine) and it's very much open to discussion now or in the future.

I think that a world benefits from a great mythos in ways that we can't really imagine but are experienced by players. But not everything needs to be explained. We give it the history; DMs gives it a future.

That could allow for some interesting possiblities

CURRENT YEAR

>2016 in 2017
get with the times Veeky Forums

Those aren't his complaints about tbe setting, those are the things he doesn't want in it. Can you not read?

So since this was brought up in the tech doc, what do you guys think of using mana crystals as a sort of communication system? As an user outlined in a previous thread, you would store information in these (sort of like a hard drive) and send this info to the recipient, resulting in a system similar to a "magical telephone/internet" of sorts (I think a comparison was drawn between this and holocrons). What do you guys think?

>Or fighting magical Nazis with swords and SMGs.
You mean fighting magical commies, since National Socialists were the good guys.

I remember some time back there was a setting made that was basically various mercenary companies based on Garden from FF8.

I liked all of them but for this worldbuilding two in particular I want to bring back:

One was the Hound company which was basically !Out Heaven. They were nominally based on Native American culture and moved around on massive land fortress which they would go around to various tribes and collect orphans (exclusively orphans) into their ranks where through brutal training and indoctrination they were joined into the family. Speaking of which familial loyalty was a big part of their faction referring to each other as brothers and sisters, older individuals being aunts and uncles and sitting at the top of Old Wolf himself lovingly referred to as Grandfather. I would think maybe in this case various tribal nations lean on them as their standard military not having proper nation states and have developed a culture ritual of giving over children to them having been forced form their ancient practices and ways due to modernization.

Second would be the Koudika institute which was the magic faction. The woman who formed it would train students in esoteric magics as well as conducting research taking jobs that offered the chance to bag or contain anything of interest to them. Similarly they would adopt (or steal) kids with magical talent and train them into various taskings with more powerful ones forming the upper ranks of their command structures and becoming teachers. I imagine a groupe like this would be secretive and powerful being linked to various governments and institutues of learning being an open secret of sorts. They are not evil but if you need some fucked up shit handled you go to them .

So, I have an idea of how we can make Elves more interesting.

Elves are creatures who live abnormally long lives, compared to baseline humans. Imagine the stereotype of the old grandpa - set in their ways, stubborn. Then apply that to a race that survives for a thousand years instead of less than a hundred.

Elves take ideologies to the extreme. In elvish culture, a "right-leaning" elf would be a diehard Fascist in any human society. A "pacifist" elf would be the most tree hugging hippy to ever grace the face of Burning Man.

There's no middle ground in elvish society. Their political compass would look like the attached picture. There's no room for nuance or subtlety. Elves view humans as indecisive and naive.

Their extremism soaks into every aspect of elvish society, from the architecture to the food. A possible drawback to this might be a lack of creativity. Elves tend to take a path and stick to it. Every elf is a paladin-in-the-making, they just don't know it yet.

Since we already have a Fascist and Communist country, we could add a third Radical Capitalist country based on Objectivist themes. Three countries representing what elves feel are the real political positions someone could have.

Fascist country: Mostly Elves, and humans
Communist country: Mostly Elves, and dwarves
Objectivist country: Mostly Elves, and another race.

This could imply that elven society is driven by the influence of younger races. Humans trend towards right-leaning, dwarves tend towards left leaning.

Would Kobolds be a fan of Ayn Rand? Would they get along with extremist elves?

I like the extremism that the elvish perspective brings but my only worry comes from their life span. How long would they live? And while we're on that subject, how long would humans live? 60 years? 80 years? 100 years?

Sooo, are there suburbs around the cities? Do the suburbs have a hunter guild to keep the monsters and shit at bay?

Suburbs are a modern invention so I imagine most modernized countries would have them. I don't know if it would be the duty of the military or the police (maybe in some countries MPs would fulfill this duty) to protect cities and towns from monsters but I think only the most dangerous of monsters would be entrusted to monster hunter companies (since guilds are a thing of the past at this point). At least that's my view on it.

I don't think so, perhaps there would be some towns outside of the cities but none hugging against the wall I would think.

I imagine that would vary city to city and most likely be found only in the largest or most well defended
The current idea of cities is that they are built with defense in mind, either with high walls, defensive armaments, magical wards or some combination of the three with the military and skilled adventurers helping to fend off the lagers and more aggressive monster that could attack
That isn't set in stone of course but it seems to be the trend forming among some of the posts here

I like the idea of Elves being somewhat predisposed to extremist views but it should probably be made clear that that is only in terms of their societies as a whole rather than the individual
An individual elf can me moderate on many issues the stereotype is just one of an Elf who refuses to budge on an issue

The life span of the elf is probably something that would need ti be hammered out before we start to develop a culture for them
I would say that humans would probably live around a 100 years thanks to magitech medical advances but elves would have to be at least double that if we're keeping them long lived

...

I was honestly thinking something around 25% to 50% longer lived than humans. We should figure out elvish biology though? Are they immune to sickness? Are they still more graceful/physically adept than humans? How long do they have to sleep?

Stuff like this are questions we need to answer.

Frankly I would say only slightly better than humans as far as hardiness. But rather than being neigh immortal they are as fit at 200 years as they are at 20 but don't tend to live longer than that.

I agree. They keep their appearance in their prime but can still die from the stuff humans can. However, I might say that 200 years or so is stretching it a bit, especially if they are able to be functioning people at that time. Let's not forget that 100 year old people today can barely do simple actions and are more often than not confined to a wheelchair.

That sounds fine to me they aren't significantly longer lived than humans but they maintain a youthful vigor the whole time

Not true in most cases. I personally know a woman who is 100 years old. She's not an athlete but she still has her faculties about her.

That said I think there was an indian guy who did a marathon at 100 years old.

I think this fits. Not sure about how EXACTLY longer they live from humans (maybe 30-50 years?) but they look youthful, even in their old years.
I was just speaking from experience as my great grandmother could barely walk or talk when she was 100. That being said, my 80 year old grandparents are still fairly active. I guess it just depends on the person.

Yeah it just depends on the person more or less.

That said, perhaps humans should be around 100 but unless they are using some kind of rejuvination to keep up their vigor they suffer from old age like everyone else does.

This leads to some interesting things to explore such as youth rejuvenation being a thing. Sucking the life force from other people to keep yourself young and vital.

Imagine that being your death sentence is for someone to essentially suck out your life to keep themselves going?

>I guess it just depends on the person.
It does youtube.com/watch?v=skRb-oND3qA
And since this is a fantasy setting you can only imagine what kind of badass old dudes are hangin around

Indeed

Well we have already established that elves continue to look young even as they age but do they still degrade internal even if they don't degrade externally? Stuff like mental degregation and vulnerability to sicknesses. Are old elves still vulnerable to that

Since we're talking about races I think Ill post my ideas about dwarves, feel free to offer any criticism

For me dwarves would be shorter than humans of course but just as if not more broad, I imagine the dwarves as stocky with larger or at least thicker bones and more muscle mass than a human making them on average stronger. They would have a lot of thick coarse hair and possessing large noses to take in more oxygen, having in my mind at least evolved in a cold rugged rocky high altitude environment

Life span is something I'm still iffy on but I think somewhere between elves and humans would make sense

Basically I envision them as a sort of modern neanderthal

...

So how about some locations to help build up this world?

>The Golden Wastes

One of the Three Great Wastes of the World essentially vast desert like locations that have a presence in spite of the harshness of their condition.

The Golden Waste is a vast desert boardering next to a savanna and budding against an ocean with a great moutain range cutting it off from the rest of the continent.

The Golden Waste receives its name due to the apt name sand as well as the various cave systems filled with precious metals that have attracted many far and wide to it.

However, even with the promise of wealth comes immense danger as many areas have the sand so fine it flows like water giving rise to special monsters uniquely adapted to this envionement naming giant worms and airbreathing fish and even a group of merfolk adapted to live on land and swim in the sand seas although they are more primitive then their ocean going counterparts.

Vast floating cities are often situated over these sandseas prompting the creating of hovering sandskiffs and barges.

Minerals, precious metals, exotic sand fish are the main exports with the cities acting as economic hubs for wealthy and decadent travelers

>TL:DR Quate/Saudi Arabia/Dubai on a giant floating disk above sandseas and underground tunnels.