Anybody got any neat ideas for a Modern/Urban Fantasy game? My table's been looking at trying a Savage Worlds game - not strictly because of The Thing, but because most of us have never played anything but 5e and we've been thinking of diversifying for a while now. I'm on the hook for running the thing because I'm the only one with SW experience, but heck if I can think of any good plot seeds for a short game run.
I don't really need advice on the ruleset or anything, this is a D&D forum, but a lot of people run Not-High-Fantasy in D&D already. Curious if anybody has any possible suggestions for a relatively short, two to five-ish game run of something Modern Fantasy I can try and give my table.
If you have ever seen Kurosawa’s outstanding film The Hidden Fortress, I think that plot would lend itself very well to a short form adventure. It already feels a lot like a TTRPG - a group of four adventurers (some with secrets from the rest) get thrown together by circumstance and have to go through a series of different encounters in order to cross the border from hostile territory into friendly territory.
The story itself is fairly simple, but there is a lot of complexity you can add. You have stealth components of sneaking past enemy groups too powerful to fight, “face” components of trying to get folks in enemy territory to shelter you, survival components, particularly if the landscape itself is hostile, combat, etc. Whatever your group wants, the underlying basic “escape from hostile land” story can provide.
If we're riffing on classic material, I've long toyed with the idea of turning Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest (which became Kurosawa's Yojimbo, which became Leone's Fistful of Dollars...) into a campaign, where the party has to free a town from the rival gangs that control it by playing them off against each other
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Outside of 50s samurai movies, a heist is always a good option - they’re fun, they involve setup, planning, and the heist, and getaway, so cover a lot of different playstyles. Plus, at least in my experience, every TTRPG party I’ve played with absolutely loves to go rip off some rich jerk—I think it’s one of the few things that unite players across the entire spectrum.
I was just about to suggest a heist, like a bank robbery or a museum robbery. Something like that would work really well. Hey Yurei1453, have you ever seen The Italian Job, Oceans 11, or Heat? Any of those would make great short adventures.
Anybody got any neat ideas for a Modern/Urban Fantasy game? My table's been looking at trying a Savage Worlds game - not strictly because of The Thing, but because most of us have never played anything but 5e and we've been thinking of diversifying for a while now. I'm on the hook for running the thing because I'm the only one with SW experience, but heck if I can think of any good plot seeds for a short game run.
I don't really need advice on the ruleset or anything, this is a D&D forum, but a lot of people run Not-High-Fantasy in D&D already. Curious if anybody has any possible suggestions for a relatively short, two to five-ish game run of something Modern Fantasy I can try and give my table.
My first thought was ghostbusters. There’s also a lot of urban fantasy that was popping up alongside the post-apocalyptic teen dramas a few years back. It usually revolved around, you’re a member of an ancient secret order of good guys dedicated to fighting an ancient secret order of bad guys. Basically like the harpers vs the zhentarium, but with the serial numbers filed off and set in New York. Pretty easy to do 2-5 sessions stopping bad guy shenanigans, and if you like it, just keep going with ever more shenanigans.
Can't believe no one's mentioned Dresden Files or Supernatural for modern/urban fantasy fodder. Contemporary world with monster/mythic underbelly, with the added bonus of crime syndicates that operate in those circles. A monster hunt in downtown Chicago, all while trying to be stealthy so as not to freak out the Muggle world.
You could also go noir and steal from Jessica Jones. Private investigators getting into scrapes can sustain a short campaign, and most people enjoy a tidy whodunit.
I'm not sure if we're generating story inspiration or systems for Modern/Urban Fantasy but:
Witches of Eastwick, magic powers but mostly tied up in suburban life if you wanted to go social intensive with magical flourishes rather than magic basically being guns. Death Becomes Her is in a similar vein in a higher income bracket.
John Constantine, and I always thought both version of the movie Bedazzled would intersect well with Constantine, the archetypal warlock in a modern trench coat
Clive Barker is sometimes organized into a sort of coherent "universe" and is largely set in modern times, though it's very gory, and while often put squarely in the "horror" genre, it's really a straddle of horror and what we today call modern urban fantasy, though does lean more toward the horror.
Highlander (back when World of Darkness 1.0 was a FORCE in TTRPG there was a bootleg "Immortals" game floating around that tried to use the Storyteller system for it, I want to say they had a cool sub system for the "flashbacks" that were the staple of the TV show), though there are canonical complications of a group of Immortals working as a crew.
I'm not sure if we're generating story inspiration or systems for Modern/Urban Fantasy but:
John Constantine, and I always thought both version of the movie Bedazzled would intersect well with Constantine, the archetypal warlock in a modern trench coat
i think Constantine would fall under a DC license specifically. But that style would be a welcome, a more modern warlock/pact style magic setting.
I know the conversation has moved on at this point, but if anyone wants to hear some funny D&D stories, then All Things D&D is a great YouTube channel that I would highly recommend. A lot of their stories may involve completely disfunctional party dynamics... But they're still really fun to hear about. The video of their's that I watched most recently was one about a group of superheros murdering each other.
The channel has stories from Pathfinder and a couple of other different RPGs too. But all in all, it's still really cool.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explainHERE.
John Constantine, and I always thought both version of the movie Bedazzled would intersect well with Constantine, the archetypal warlock in a modern trench coat
There was a thread a while ago with different ideas for Constantine builds
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Anybody got any neat ideas for a Modern/Urban Fantasy game? My table's been looking at trying a Savage Worlds game - not strictly because of The Thing, but because most of us have never played anything but 5e and we've been thinking of diversifying for a while now. I'm on the hook for running the thing because I'm the only one with SW experience, but heck if I can think of any good plot seeds for a short game run.
I don't really need advice on the ruleset or anything, this is a D&D forum, but a lot of people run Not-High-Fantasy in D&D already. Curious if anybody has any possible suggestions for a relatively short, two to five-ish game run of something Modern Fantasy I can try and give my table.
If you have ever seen Kurosawa’s outstanding film The Hidden Fortress, I think that plot would lend itself very well to a short form adventure. It already feels a lot like a TTRPG - a group of four adventurers (some with secrets from the rest) get thrown together by circumstance and have to go through a series of different encounters in order to cross the border from hostile territory into friendly territory.
The story itself is fairly simple, but there is a lot of complexity you can add. You have stealth components of sneaking past enemy groups too powerful to fight, “face” components of trying to get folks in enemy territory to shelter you, survival components, particularly if the landscape itself is hostile, combat, etc. Whatever your group wants, the underlying basic “escape from hostile land” story can provide.
If we're riffing on classic material, I've long toyed with the idea of turning Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest (which became Kurosawa's Yojimbo, which became Leone's Fistful of Dollars...) into a campaign, where the party has to free a town from the rival gangs that control it by playing them off against each other
Good luck doing that without a railroad. Most campaigns I’m involved with would end up with both factions attacking the party….
Anybody got any neat ideas for a Modern/Urban Fantasy game? My table's been looking at trying a Savage Worlds game - not strictly because of The Thing, but because most of us have never played anything but 5e and we've been thinking of diversifying for a while now. I'm on the hook for running the thing because I'm the only one with SW experience, but heck if I can think of any good plot seeds for a short game run.
I don't really need advice on the ruleset or anything, this is a D&D forum, but a lot of people run Not-High-Fantasy in D&D already. Curious if anybody has any possible suggestions for a relatively short, two to five-ish game run of something Modern Fantasy I can try and give my table.
If you have ever seen Kurosawa’s outstanding film The Hidden Fortress, I think that plot would lend itself very well to a short form adventure. It already feels a lot like a TTRPG - a group of four adventurers (some with secrets from the rest) get thrown together by circumstance and have to go through a series of different encounters in order to cross the border from hostile territory into friendly territory.
The story itself is fairly simple, but there is a lot of complexity you can add. You have stealth components of sneaking past enemy groups too powerful to fight, “face” components of trying to get folks in enemy territory to shelter you, survival components, particularly if the landscape itself is hostile, combat, etc. Whatever your group wants, the underlying basic “escape from hostile land” story can provide.
If we're riffing on classic material, I've long toyed with the idea of turning Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest (which became Kurosawa's Yojimbo, which became Leone's Fistful of Dollars...) into a campaign, where the party has to free a town from the rival gangs that control it by playing them off against each other
And became Last Man Standing, with Bruce Willis as a Prohibition Era gun for hire. But as Headless noted, while there is combat, the real challenge is threading that needle to keep the factions against each other & not the players.
I'm running Dungeon of the Mad Mage for my main group. We're about 5-6 sessions in. Thus far, the following has happened (minor spoilers ahead):
-The first party Wizard has found a cursed longsword, which affixed itself to his hand (got the curse removed later)
-The party was assaulted by a gang of bandits masquerading as vampires
-The party has viciously murdered an innocent married goblin couple who were searching for skulls
-They have fireballed several inhabitants
-Been surprise-attacked by a sahuagin-statue-reverted-to-fishman-form
And just this session the party:
-Adopted a goblin who appeared from a magic rune, and was promptly slain by 3 manticores about 5 minutes after materialising
-Have been attacked by shadow clones of themselves
-And immediately found themselves face-to-face with 3 carrion crawlers, after the fighter was left at 5 HP and now has a Strength score of 8. The rogue is now the party's tank.
I'm running Dungeon of the Mad Mage for my main group. We're about 5-6 sessions in. Thus far, the following has happened (minor spoilers ahead):
-The first party Wizard has found a cursed longsword, which affixed itself to his hand (got the curse removed later)
-The party was assaulted by a gang of bandits masquerading as vampires
-The party has viciously murdered an innocent married goblin couple who were searching for skulls
-They have fireballed several inhabitants
-Been surprise-attacked by a sahuagin-statue-reverted-to-fishman-form
And just this session the party:
-Adopted a goblin who appeared from a magic rune, and was promptly slain by 3 manticores about 5 minutes after materialising
-Have been attacked by shadow clones of themselves
-And immediately found themselves face-to-face with 3 carrion crawlers, after the fighter was left at 5 HP and now has a Strength score of 8. The rogue is now the party's tank.
Every time I've run it, the players instantly called shenanigans on the "vampires" with the semi-meta claim of there is no way vampires hang out on the first level right next to the entrance. Actual vampires would either mow down all the lowbies, get reported by the mid-level groups that ran away, or wiped out by a high level party. I mean come on, a entire clan of vampires, one rope slide down from Durnan's tavern, just asking to be judged, juried, & executed? That what the Order of the Gauntlet calls "A Friday night well spent".
Oh man, Mad Mage is a great time. That sahuagin statue is a real kick in the teeth, lol.
We got the goblin rune and the poor guy died INSTANTLY. I think we had somehow set off two runes at once, and the other one vaporized him or something. It was way later on than where you are right now.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
If we're riffing on classic material, I've long toyed with the idea of turning Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest (which became Kurosawa's Yojimbo, which became Leone's Fistful of Dollars...) into a campaign, where the party has to free a town from the rival gangs that control it by playing them off against each other
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I was just about to suggest a heist, like a bank robbery or a museum robbery. Something like that would work really well. Hey Yurei1453, have you ever seen The Italian Job, Oceans 11, or Heat? Any of those would make great short adventures.
I used to love that show.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
My first thought was ghostbusters.
There’s also a lot of urban fantasy that was popping up alongside the post-apocalyptic teen dramas a few years back. It usually revolved around, you’re a member of an ancient secret order of good guys dedicated to fighting an ancient secret order of bad guys. Basically like the harpers vs the zhentarium, but with the serial numbers filed off and set in New York. Pretty easy to do 2-5 sessions stopping bad guy shenanigans, and if you like it, just keep going with ever more shenanigans.
Can't believe no one's mentioned Dresden Files or Supernatural for modern/urban fantasy fodder. Contemporary world with monster/mythic underbelly, with the added bonus of crime syndicates that operate in those circles. A monster hunt in downtown Chicago, all while trying to be stealthy so as not to freak out the Muggle world.
You could also go noir and steal from Jessica Jones. Private investigators getting into scrapes can sustain a short campaign, and most people enjoy a tidy whodunit.
I'm not sure if we're generating story inspiration or systems for Modern/Urban Fantasy but:
Witches of Eastwick, magic powers but mostly tied up in suburban life if you wanted to go social intensive with magical flourishes rather than magic basically being guns. Death Becomes Her is in a similar vein in a higher income bracket.
John Constantine, and I always thought both version of the movie Bedazzled would intersect well with Constantine, the archetypal warlock in a modern trench coat
Clive Barker is sometimes organized into a sort of coherent "universe" and is largely set in modern times, though it's very gory, and while often put squarely in the "horror" genre, it's really a straddle of horror and what we today call modern urban fantasy, though does lean more toward the horror.
Highlander (back when World of Darkness 1.0 was a FORCE in TTRPG there was a bootleg "Immortals" game floating around that tried to use the Storyteller system for it, I want to say they had a cool sub system for the "flashbacks" that were the staple of the TV show), though there are canonical complications of a group of Immortals working as a crew.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
i think Constantine would fall under a DC license specifically. But that style would be a welcome, a more modern warlock/pact style magic setting.
I know the conversation has moved on at this point, but if anyone wants to hear some funny D&D stories, then All Things D&D is a great YouTube channel that I would highly recommend. A lot of their stories may involve completely disfunctional party dynamics... But they're still really fun to hear about. The video of their's that I watched most recently was one about a group of superheros murdering each other.
The channel has stories from Pathfinder and a couple of other different RPGs too. But all in all, it's still really cool.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.There was a thread a while ago with different ideas for Constantine builds
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Good luck doing that without a railroad. Most campaigns I’m involved with would end up with both factions attacking the party….
idk sounds kinda fun and doable
And became Last Man Standing, with Bruce Willis as a Prohibition Era gun for hire. But as Headless noted, while there is combat, the real challenge is threading that needle to keep the factions against each other & not the players.
So, ‘Rei, you like any of these ideas?
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Definitely food for thought. Has been a boon to read. Thank you very kindly for your input, everybody.
Please do not contact or message me.
Good, I’m glad.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
You know, this is my favorite active thread. Just a bunch of nerds being chill and helping each other out. Thanks for the respite, Sposta.
As usual, happy to help.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I'm running Dungeon of the Mad Mage for my main group. We're about 5-6 sessions in. Thus far, the following has happened (minor spoilers ahead):
-The first party Wizard has found a cursed longsword, which affixed itself to his hand (got the curse removed later)
-The party was assaulted by a gang of bandits masquerading as vampires
-The party has viciously murdered an innocent married goblin couple who were searching for skulls
-They have fireballed several inhabitants
-Been surprise-attacked by a sahuagin-statue-reverted-to-fishman-form
And just this session the party:
-Adopted a goblin who appeared from a magic rune, and was promptly slain by 3 manticores about 5 minutes after materialising
-Have been attacked by shadow clones of themselves
-And immediately found themselves face-to-face with 3 carrion crawlers, after the fighter was left at 5 HP and now has a Strength score of 8. The rogue is now the party's tank.
[REDACTED]
Every time I've run it, the players instantly called shenanigans on the "vampires" with the semi-meta claim of there is no way vampires hang out on the first level right next to the entrance. Actual vampires would either mow down all the lowbies, get reported by the mid-level groups that ran away, or wiped out by a high level party. I mean come on, a entire clan of vampires, one rope slide down from Durnan's tavern, just asking to be judged, juried, & executed? That what the Order of the Gauntlet calls "A Friday night well spent".
Oh man, Mad Mage is a great time. That sahuagin statue is a real kick in the teeth, lol.
We got the goblin rune and the poor guy died INSTANTLY. I think we had somehow set off two runes at once, and the other one vaporized him or something. It was way later on than where you are right now.