I’m not sure who the DM is, but they’re suffering. (Also I can’t decide if I’m actually implying that Jaskier is the broody one in a modern au OR if the created their characters as wink to the other one and have now evolved into using them to nag and tease each other all the time.)
Here are some 1920s tropes and ideas, for a “modern” world d&d campaign, that I like to think about.
To be clear… there’s not too much modern about this. Because in my mind, this world is filled with fantasy creatures and humans alike… it is set on Earth… sorta? But not sorta… Don’t mind me…
- In order to become an adventurer, one must enroll in and be accepted by an adventuring academy. Think… boarding schools or private schools. Edit: your adventures could easily start here or be graduates from an adventuring academy. Edit(@terrible-night-choices): OR your adventuring academies have become corrupt and your adventurers are the academy’s rejects
- Weapons infused with elemental magic (who needs gunpowder?).
- The Underground (or Underdark, or Under-what-have-you) is the sewers and the abandoned, first attempts, of the subway system(s). Home to Beholders, Drow, Duergar, Mind-Flayers, and Orcs.
- Cars, trains, and other modes of transportation need magic to operate. No gasoline needed. Limits the use of automobiles to those with magic or those who can afford a magic-wielding chauffeur.
- Mafia faction. Like the The Harpers, the Emerald Enclave, or the Lords’ Alliance but… gangster.
- Tieflings in fedoras or newsboy hats. Tieflings with bobbed hair. Tieflings.
- Prohibition but it’s magic potions that are illegal instead of alcohol (or both)
- Magic potions are brewed in basement bathtubs and smuggled by Tiefling Al Capone into speakeasies.
- Magically hidden speakeasies
- Jazz Bards
- (Oath-breaker) Paladin based law enforcement. Edit: I suggest Oath-breaker because of potential corruption in law enforcement or too many years on the job seeing too many horrible things.
- Investigator agencies that specialize in arcane and supernatural crimes
- Druids as flappers
- Vampire “loan” sharks. You “loan” your blood… they give you money.. or drugs… or information… or resources.
- Necromancers use the undead as factory workers. Round-the-clock labor for cheap.
- Undead labor unions
- Strikes against factories because many of the living have been laid off in favor of undead laborers.
- Anti-magic gambling houses. No cheating allowed.
- Goliaths and half-orcs as bouncers.
- Pawn Shop for magic items
- Dragons as a mode of flying transportation. Edit(@lampyboi): Dragons as bank owners/big business owners. Edit(@lampyboi): Dragons as even more secretive creatures. As the other races have progressed, they’ve created ways to fend off the dragons leaving dragons little choice but to hide or face extinction.
- Skills such as; first aid, biology, and psychology for clerics
- Skills such as; firearms and law for fighters (specifically crime-fighting fighters)
- Baseball Bat weapon
- Baseball games and a whodunit mystery
I’m going to convince my buds to do a 1920s d&d one-shot, if you have any other ideas post them!!!! okay byeeeeee
I feel like there’s needs to be, like, handbook for authors who post on Ao3 for effective metatext.
By metatext I mean like tagging, summary, and authors notes (especially initial authors notes at the beginning of a fic). The means by which we communicate to our readers what they’re getting into.
Because we kind of all have to learn it by osmosis and there are conventions but nobody’s really taught them at the start, so there’s inconsistencies and misunderstandings or people just not knowing things through no fault of their own.
This ends up breeding frustration and confusion and in the worst cases resentment, hurt, and aggression.
I’m severely tempted to make such a handbook and get it circulating.
I think it would do fandom a lot of good.
Good news, I’m writing it
Update:
I’m at 9680 words, roughly 16 pages single spaced, with two or three sections to go.
Update:
First draft done. 11,100 words, 29 pages with formatting
The final draft is getting cleaned up right now. I’ll probably be figuring out how to post it tomorrow.
On which note, anybody know the best way to make a PDF available online?
Okay it is done!
Go here for the PDF, or here to view the whole document as a tumblr post.
I recommend the PDF.
Related note: the post length limit on tumblr is apparently more than 13,000 words.
you are chasing discomfort:mostly movie scores, instrumentals, unsettling aura, perfect for spacing out, feels like sitting on the floor while the room around you is spinning
silver mist: movie +gaming soundtracks, instrumentals, also really nice for falling asleep, feels like mornings in february
you are cramming for exams at 3am:calm instrumentals, actually helpful for deep focus, piano, occasional lofi of course, perfect to listen to when you are the only one still awake
purple neonlights: lofi, minimalistic beats, mostly instrumentals. apologising in advance for the amount of lofi anime openings but the aot brainrot got me bad
mint chocolate: feels very similar to purple neonlights, but with vocals. mostly korean chill rap/indie/rmb, feels like summer evenings and dozing off in the sun
maths fuelled anxiety: feels like you have chugged a litre or two of coffee, drum and bass, electronic, more for low stim tasks and for waking yourself up, created this playlist out of irony but now i listen to it unironically
bloodsworn death:this too is more for low stim tasks, mostly nordic folk, ambient and dark folk, soundtracks feat. vikings, game of thrones and skyrim, makes you want to forge a sword and raid a small town in england
bayek: playlist based on bayek of siwa, the main protagonist of AC: origins, a game i love to pieces. only instrumentals, can feel like a fever dream, gives you the feeling of crossing deserts and exploring tombs
viktor v: another character playlist based on victor vale from vicious by V.E Schwab. has lots of vocals and more distracting tracks, makes you feel like a villain or at least an antihero. feels like the colour grey
