Fantasy style "modern day"

So urban fantasy without the Masquerade trope?

It's really "depends on the setting" time user. There is absolutely no way to tell before that.

What's the best way to keep swords viable with plate armor?

Miyamoto Musashi actually went into the differences between bows and guns, and how the former was incomparable to the latter because you could actually see the arrow.

He always wasn't the sort to go "muh honor" and say not to use them either. He was a pragmatist when it came to combat and even suggested things like cross training your soldiers with each other's skills so you can handle different situations and what not

Handwaving bullshit

The easiest answer and the one at least half of Veeky Forums will hate is that you are a HERO and you make them viable
Same reason Captain America takes out all those dudes with just a shield and Batman solos a room full of armed henchmen with nothing but his fists and some boomerangs
You aren't going to be some random schmuck you're going to be at worst Action Movie hero levels and at most Superheroic

The other answer is all those ancient 1000 year old magic swords are still around and wizards are still enchanting shit, just because you can buy a crate full of AKs doesn't mean Excalibur is worthless

Behold the fearsome PG-13 man, able to harmlessly incapacitate an entire room of armed goons with nothing but martial arts moves and his two stunsteel blades.

Even still, it's a game where you roll dice and believe it or not not all of the bullets are going to hit. Whether you describe them as all whiffing or plinking off the armor or whatever is irrelevent.

If you're looking for that level of realisem in a game then such a setting wouldn't be suited to your tastes anyways?

Rule of cool mostly

>Necromancers getting rich running cheap undead labor
>Government cracking down on illegal potion distribution
>Adventuring Guild has fused with not!NASA to explore the final frontier

Alternatively, settings that have magitech are like this, running on magical rules established in that setting's ancient or medieval eras. Though you seem to be against it, so the other option is magical realism, which isn't really any kind of setting so much as it is a literary genre.

>Alternatively, settings that have magitech are like this, running on magical rules established in that setting's ancient or medieval eras. Though you seem to be against it, so the other option is magical realism, which isn't really any kind of setting so much as it is a literary genre.

On the contrary, I'm not against it. It would make sense that the world would develop a certain way based on the way it's past was like. If some wizard discovered you could make cheap as crystals and use them as a light source by running electricty through them then what was a luxury item for the nobility is now something you pick up at fantasy wal-mart.

All I'm saying is that there is or clearly is a time period between the medievel olden stuff one one end and space barbarians with laser axes with a sexy techno witch in his arms while surfboarding a rocket ship to fight space liches on the other.

Enhanced speed and strength via magic or chi or Odr or whatever.

Monomolecular edge/vibrating weapons plus power armor or cybernetic augmentation.

I feel like this question is asked only to derail any further development.

Then you pretty much just made shadow run. The idea is not so high tech you have cyborgs and augmented limbs but then seeing as magic is involved I could see someone with some kind of metal arm or leg powered by magic or some shit.

Is it really not possible to do a modern style fantasy setting without going "Nanomachines, son"?

>Is it really not possible to do a modern style fantasy setting without going "Nanomachines, son"?
You could, but swords would only be used by people who have so specially trained for them they actually can use melee weapons in combat, or because they're insane. Pretty much everybody would have switched to magic guns or spellcasting tablets.

Perhaps deal with how adventuring has become obsolete in a setting with functional nationstates? I think that's the major thing. You go into either the future or past, because we can invent settings where things are unstable enough that there are fires that need constant putting out that we don't need nowadays. Save for a few hotspots, life today is very stable.

Devil is a part timer goes a bit into this. I'm sure you can still find reasons for adventuring, but maybe your group gets busted up by the police who want to take care of it officially.

Aside from that lots of racism, and racial civil rights. Imagine the kind of shit Orcs would get.

Of course, I mean, it's not like everyone in a typical fantasy setting is carrying a sword anyways. A knife or a handgun sure but then you also have the magic shit and only certain people are going to have those as well.

Then again people have a problem with the visuals of it as well, just because the King's Knights will be dressed in suits when in the city and dressed up in camo with their heradly on it doesn't make them any less of a knight unless your image of them is based purely upon what some class is suppose to look like.

>erhaps deal with how adventuring has become obsolete in a setting with functional nationstates? I think that's the major thing.

Well, you just change how the adventuring goes. Instead of dungeon delving your rescuing hostages or moving a high value asset for a customer who wants to keep it on the low. Maybe you're defending your town from an incursion of undead because some teen fucked up a create undead spell or go all Yojimbo and settle a war between two criminal factions.

Because of magical melee weapons, some knightly orders are still around and they are powerful and moneyed enough to keep developing plate armor with new materials out of tradition and aesthetics.

>King's Knights
The "most elite guard" trope could be transformed into spec ops forces, or they can ride around in tanks. Magical tanks, with force field runes, spellcasting cannons and a bound demon in the engine.

Thinking about it, problem with the design here is whether you want to start off with a medieval fantasy world and fast forward it into the modern age, or start with the modern age and add fantasy to it. Both of them give very different results.

I run a sort of roaring 20's noir Eberron game where I sort of handwaved it by saying that defensive tech was keeping pace. There was a shot period (essentially WW1) where the gun had completely outpaced defensive capabilities. Sure wizards and the like could make force barriers and noble knights/samurai and wealthy fighters could afford armor made of special materials, but for the average soldier it wasn't much better than real life.

Then a pair of alchemists in separate parts of the world made the discovery of the artificial fiber of what would come to be called "Ironsilk," despite it being more akin to linen in feel. On it's heels came the discovery of how to fabricate a lightweight and tough alloy it's designers labeled "feathersteel." Both of these occured in what we would call 1916.

Suddenly the rifle wasn't preeminent anymore. Combat on the fronts of the Great War started getting closer and nastier, and in response training in close combat for soldiers became a regular thing again.

That car too big

The former, start with the medievel age and fast forward it to the modern setting. This should get around the trigger of people assuming it's Earth but with hidden fantasy elements in it.

How else are you going to carry everyon's sword, plus have it transform into it's flight mode.

Here's what you need to make melee viable

>A way to cover the distance between you and your target(s) quickly and safely, preferably instantly.
>The skills to take out said target(s) when in range while minimizing risks.
>A way to defend against, maybe even trivialize ranged attacks made against you.

No matter what flavor you go with, viable melee needs to have these. My favorite answer is Alchemists. If you actually have a fantasy setting, then the world is full of very strange and very magical plants and monsters. Plants that can be mixed and refined to make some pretty cool shit and monsters that can be harvested for some awesome and very magical parts.

So my answer is drugs and grafting monster parts to your guys.

The question now is, how do we get a medievel era setting into a more modern setting. Certain technologies or ideas at least will have to be invented in order to swing society in that course and frankly magic is probably the way to do it.

You'd think needing all those regents and resources for spells eventually someone wouldn't just try to automate the process as much as possible;

-Set up mining companies for the particular metals and precious stones needed for spells and weapons
-Set up a printing press to mass stamp spell books that can be done in that way
-craftsmen who specialize in particular products like molds for spell circles with cutouts that have the exact depth and amount needed
etc, etc

No doubt, the first factory workers will be people who are taught how to use certain spells and all they do is cast those spells in the process of making stuff.

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Yeah, sword holders are just a thing that exist in Kill Bill World.

In Shadowrun the real answer is always "because it's cool", but they have a decent number of fake answers. People and devices hearing gunfire (despite all its tacticool, Shadowrun has semi-realistic silencers/suppressors that only make it harder to tell where a shot came from), combined with the amount of urban, close-quarters combat, combined with the non-human metatypes that have enormous bonuses to Strength makes melee a decent choice.

Less frequently used is the fact that some creatures can't be hurt by non-magical weapons. Can't make a magic bullet... apparently. It's magic, it can work however you want. As always, the real answer is "because it's cool".

In Shadowrun the real answer is they aren't. Melee is shit.

Like this

Not having magic bullets makes sense to me, like yeah you COULD enchant every bullet, but you're better off enchanting a sword once and being done with it. Still can do things like silver bullets and such, but for reusable enchantments (assuming its a difficult/lengthy process to enchant a weapon, which it usually is) you're better off keeping something reusable.

Copy Dune, make it possible for personal shields to exist and the only way to kill someone with a shield on would be with close range weapons.

This reminds me of Valkyria Chronicles.

I think Valkyria Chronicles could be made into a modern fantasy setting, you would only have to come up with the history after the second war.
The setting is basicly WWII as a romantisized fantasy anime, in VC2 you have both the Empire and the Federation (Russia and USA, kinda) manipulating smaller countries around, causing wars but not fighting eachother directly, it was pretty much the start of their Cold War.
Ragnite technology develops even further, the wourld could look a bit like FFXV but with less magic and demons and more magitech.

Now, if you must stay close to D&D you could make a Shadowjog setting, like Shadowrun only with less tech.
Or you could adapt our world to become this setting.

Make it so that Neanderthals (Dwarves) still managed to survive and prosper on the northmost parts of the world, in hard to reach mountains and cave systems in Europe.
A different branch of nocturnal hominids (Elves) evolve on the Americas before homo sapiens reached them, they managed to live along the homo sapiens by being furtive.
On an island on Asia a small species of hominid (Halfling) evolves isolated.
On Africa homo sapiens drives a very aggressive, not very smart species of hominid (Orks) into extinction on the continent, the few survivors go into exile, they end up forming their own primitive war mongering civilisation on an island, isolated from other hominids, maybe on Madagascar.
Dragons, wyverns could have evolved from dinosaurs deviantart.com/art/Wyvern-664956445 , other fantasy creatures could also be explained by weird evolution of different creatures.

Gods and magic are optional.

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>Shadowjog setting

VC isn't terribly fantasy really. Ragnite is about as magical as element zero, more responsible for advanced technologies and the applications thereof than fireballs or glamours and the like.

dune

It's herbert's sci-fi handwave to allow for space feudalism where the masses cannot threaten aristocrats

So "modern" adventurers are basically private contractors? Just the people you hire to take care of "stuff"?

It's a car for royalty in the world that never hit depression.

Essentially, it's not like the concept has changed. except now everyone is better armed and you have to be a bit more careful about it (or not)

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They could also be documentary guys, treasure seekers, crocodile hunters, etc. There are little corners of the world that are still plain untamed, and in a fantasy world this means chimeras and manticores and lava elementals and who knows what else.

You're gonna have to deal with the elephant in the room. Why the hell are people still using swords in a modern setting? It's fucking weird. Did Final Fantasy explain that? (I'm guessing no)

Final Fantasy's explanation is that the guys using swords are all superhuman and can get away with it
That explanation is really the only one that works but no one here ever seems to want to use it

Look at this pic, this motherfucker is using a "sword" heavy enough that no normal person can wield it and just stopped a giant monster charging him at full speed
He can get away with using a sword because in his hands it is a viable weapon

I know right? Is it really that mind blowing to believe that a swordsman can train themselves to be strong like Gladious in your pic?

You know, a wizard can train to throw fireballs but apparently the martial can't train to suplex a dragon

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>Spec ops looking dude with a sword
I need more of this in my fantasy

I've always wanted a setting like this. The big thing is trying to advance the Setting plausibly. See, because reaching the modern day isn't just about teching things up, you also have to take into account the vast social, economic, and political changes that would occur.

My own setting D&D is trying to be a transition period taking that into account. It's roughly in a 1600s time scale, technologically. Some highlights:

- Drow civilization is collapsing under its own insanity; drow refugees are starting to come to the surface
- Orcs formed a horde to do their orc thing as they do every century or so, only this time it was stopped dead in its tracks by muskets and canon. The Last Horde's near-annihilation has resulted in massive uphevals in orcish society
- A bunch of kobold tribes living sandwiched between dwarves, humans, gnomes, elves, and halflings decided that, fuck it, it was either get over their xenophobia (a little) or get wiped out. So they formed an actual nation and started interacting with people around them in ways that didn't involve killing them. Also they invented guns (not gunpower, but the hand-canon, then latter the matchlock and later still the flintlock).

One look at modern Africa should be able to demonstrate that adventuring need not be dead.

I mean, fuck, North Korea has literally been referred to as a necrocracy. It would take absolutely minimum effort to make a campaign about toppling the North Korean government, freeing the people from their undead masters, while fighting off zombies and skeletons and eventually facing down
- Kim Jong-un, the Great Successor (necromancer)
- Kim Jong-il, the Dear Leader (death knight)
- Kim Il-Sung, the Supreme Leader (Lich)

That VC4 brainstorm saddens me greatly. Why can't SEGA do that instead of that dumb Valkyria Revolution stuff?
They turned an interesting setting into a generic "Trails in the Xenoblade : the Chinese MMO". The charm of the setting was that it was a mirror universe of our own with fantasy anime stuff, now it is just fantasy anime.

Back on topic, that VC4 sounds like a more natural progression of the story, but on a tabletop setting you can follow other paths, instead of a third war on Europa you could have a Cold War like what I said previously, or you could have developments on the Ragnite technology, Ragnite refinement or even the discovery of new Ragnite rich sites somewhere else, shifting the focus of the conflict between the Empire and the Federation. There are infinite ways to have the setting develop till it reaches the late 2010s
In the VC universe, how would things be? Did the space race even happen?
Was there a cool charismatic Federation politician assassinated in broad day light?
Was there a Galian Wall, torn down in the 90s?
What about the evil Imperial Japan, did they exist in the VC universe?
Are the medieval aesthetics still in use?
Could Ragnite be used to power some sort of pseudo-magic, kinda like FF8, a development of the artificial Valkyria maybe.
TV, Internet, robotics, so many things that could or could not have happened.

Who said they are?

Seriously, if you go all the way with this, a society built upon both magic and modern technology, you'd have to ask questions about very fundamental shit and examine the social impact of new magical techniques or mundane technologies. Electricity was such a big fucking deal because it can be used for so many things. It allows people to keep functioning pretty much the same at night as they do during the day. Its specific properties are such that we can use it to generate magnetic fields and vice versa, making a great number of applications possible. Without electricity we we wouldn't have modern computers or television or radio. Air conditioning, central heating, electric fans, etc. etc. That's just daily life. Electricity made it pretty easy to get to a point where automation is the norm. Assembly lines were as much a social innovation as they were a technological one. It goes on and on and on.

The real question is, is it possible to make effective weapons using magic? Ones that can be produced in large numbers, quickly and efficiently, and given to people who can be trained in their use with relative ease? If so, then why is anyone using a gun? Presumably, bulletproofing would be a practical application of magic. Maybe they're considered antiquities for collectors and mall ninja wannabes, like swords? Maybe SCA is dudes doing tacticool stuff with rubber bullets or some shit.

Point is, just taking stock fantasy elements and plugging them into a modern setting is lazy as fuck. If your goal is to create a plausible setting you need to go deeper.

>Point is, just taking stock fantasy elements and plugging them into a modern setting is lazy as fuck. If your goal is to create a plausible setting you need to go deeper.

I would think that's the intent of the thread but it keeps coming up with that damn question of how to deal with swords and guns

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I did this in a game I ran

>North Korea has literally been referred to as a necrocracy
My dude, I like this idea.
It puts a whole new spin on the Supreme Leader Eternal President thing.

So should this topic be about ideas on how to do such a thing or should we do a collaberative effort of sorts?

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Well if no one else is going to come up with anything.

>A wizard's apprentice accidently discovers a new means of near permanently maintaining a spell without the need for a spellcaster to re-cast it.
>This was done when the associated runes and markings for the spell joined at certain angles creating a loop that only required the input of energy such as electricity
>This leads to the creation of several luxury items such as electric torches which, while outside of the range of most common folk at the time, was vastly less expensive than sun rods and lasted longer as well

So how would you make guns and gun-users viable then?

Unshielded individuals can still be killed by shots from afar, and if you are close enough point blank shots would be possible, maybe, if you are inside the shield it can't stop the bullets.

You would end up having both sword fighting and gunkata being common.

Guns would also be useful against animals and monsters that can't use magic.

Basicaly, guns would still be useful but would not have the real world advantage over swords and other close range weapons since you need to fight up close and personal.
Kinda puts all combatents on similar grounds.
Even magic could be deflected by shielding and the best way to fight using magic would be with full contact magic or something like element bending from Avatar.
There could be jamming magic and guns meant to dispell the shields in order to allow long range attacks, though. It falls to the GM to balance things out and allow this or that thing.

You don't with that kind of shield system

If you try to bullshit sword into legitimacy the way Dune does it you end up making guns virtually useless
Which is why making the users of swords viable like said is the easiest
But then no one wants to do that because it just becomes the martials v casters debate but replace casters with gunmen

And then you could have some hyper legendary hit man or whatever who uses enchanted bullets.

What is that show with the kung-fu puppets? There was a scene with some lady who uses a rifle and fires from like a million miles away and nails a swordsmen with crystal bullets.

When you can let go of "realism" and have fun with it then things will be fine.

Realism is the antithesis of fun

Sword-users have magic.

Can take a variety of forms: enhanced speed and strength, ability to deflect bullets, magical impact shields that can't be penetrated by bullets, etc.

Source on that webm?

a shitty anime everyone forgot already

Obviously, the sort of magic armor that can resist bullets isn't something you're going to find lying around in someones basement.

If it's made its purpose made and probably is the cream of the crop secret weapon of whatever group made it and is only to be used by that group's elite who walk onto battlefields and shred low-level soldiers with their bare hands.

The only time you see this is when things are really bad, otherwise you assume duels like Mitsurugi from Soul Calibur dueling against a rifle squad are the norm.

It doesn't really matter. As long as not everyone can use the magic, whether it's because not every can use magic or not everyone can master the specific kind of magic involved or what have you, it maintains the balance the setting requires.

Precisely, it's not like everyone is going to become an ultra badass warrior or anything. The baseline is just different is all. PCs are going to be that exception of course and that's what keeps the balance.

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Yeah, if we wanted realism we would be outside, playing that danmable game called real life.

I made a setting that is modern, well, actually it's in the near future, but based on our world, that has magic as common place education, with everyone learning basic magic at school and one of the most basic forms of magic is magic armor, it envelops the body and protects it against damage.
Magic can pierce this magic armor and only if applied directly. Magic can not be applied to bullets or arrows.

Magic works as part of the body in this setting so you can use magic on your body or on things that are close to your body, working as extentions of it, like meele weapons, and that's the best way to break the magic armor, you pretty much use your spiritual energy to invade the spiritual energy of your foe. Sounds kinda gross now that I think about it.

Magic is also very restricted, since you can only affect your body or your immediate area, or other people's body if you force yourself into them or if they allow you to use magic on them like a healing spell, it's a bit like the alchemy from Fullmetal Alchemist, you must be in near contact to affect the thing/person.

>Magic works as part of the body in this setting so you can use magic on your body or on things that are close to your body, working as extentions of it, like meele weapons, and that's the best way to break the magic armor, you pretty much use your spiritual energy to invade the spiritual energy of your foe. Sounds kinda gross now that I think about it.

Not really, this is usually the basis I work on. Your magic power is basically your will power. Two fighters whether they use spells or swords or guns or whatever are directly pitting their willpower against each other. The greater of the two will prevail and their will power affects the reality around them hence why swordsmen can deflect bullets and gunmen and shoot through swords.

really reading the fight from as well as examples like HxH and Guts are potent examples of what I'm referring to.

I also tend to prefer "magic" systems like that
The same energy that lets you shoot a fireball or curse someone or summon a fucking Stand to fight for you can also boost your physical stats from 5 to 10 or 15 depending on how good you are

That's why my preferred system let's you have a character that can dead stop a car going 60 with a kick and another who can summon and control flames in the same party and both are able to contribute to the campaign and not feel left out

Make shields unusable in some situations.
Have you read the book? The Fremen use guns and rocket launchers after they join Paul's rebellion.

Right, you missed the point.

If you make bullet nullification commonplace, you make guns pointless. They'd drop the technology and work on gunswords or something.

Why do I associate this type of fantasy with airships?

It would make sense for the given flavor of the time period.

Avatar: Legends of Korra comes to mind as another good example of a modern fantasy setting seeing as they have cars and modern looking buildings but the setting clearly reflects the fact that people use kung fu elemental magic

That was really the only part about that show that I liked
It felt like the world had advanced while still retaining the core elements of the setting

>It puts a whole new spin on the Supreme Leader Eternal President thing.

That's why it's been referred to as a necrocracy in real life: Kim Il-Sung is still the head of state and de jure leader of the country.

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>gunswords or something
That does not mean dropping the technology entirely but only using it on a different way, it would most likely cause guns to be way more primitive, since they would not see the same use on wars.
Guns would be used to hunt, so rifles would exist, assault rifles could be used against hard to kill monsters ... and maybe gunswords.
It could generate a situation were people that walk around with guns are presumed to be hunters/monster slayers while people that carry swords are prepared to fight/hunt humans. People with gunblades/gunswords would be something in between.

Since not everyone is able to use magic on a level that allows them to shoot destructive spells like fireballs or lightning bolt, magic shooting guns could be a thing. By using this technology or something similar, the spell os placed into the gun and a "battery" powers it, making it work kinda like a spell scroll or spell wand but more automated and easily rechargable.
So spellguns with bayonets would be more common than pistols and assault rifles, I don't know, I tend to go for what sounds cooler.

>unironically using FF as good example
Are u even white?

Because it serves to illustrate the goal unlike your pic which is our world but with the fantasy elements hidden beneath the surface.

The goal is just make a fantasy setting that has it's own modern era but everyone is caught up with trying to ensure everyone is able to fight on par. I don't doubt that magic could or wouldn't be weaponized in new or unique ways but common people are going to be more concerned with things that are convient for them not a dude who can't use magic suddenly having a gun that shoots magic for him (although that is cool as hell) then again the typical wizards of all sorts and warriors of all sorts still exist, it'd matter to them naturally

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