cyborgboy95
News Cyborg
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2019
- Messages
- 3,043
I've always dream of making a fictional setting that is essentially a Tolkien-esque/D&D-like planet (with elf, dwarf, orc and the like) that occurs in the modern age where the technology level is equal to our own (Smartphone, social media and such; very little sci-fi or too implausible tech), basically a mixture between Disco Elysium and D&D/The Lord of The Rings, if you will. Or how I would like to call it as a temporary project name: D&D&D (Dungeons & Dragon & Disco Elysium)
Source of the arts
Why, you ask? I just always has a soft spot for Tolkien-esque medieval fantasy setting and wonder what would happen if the modern day world have more intellengent species other than human, or what would happen to a run-of-the-mill fantasy setting if they manage to progress beyond the medieval era. How would these factors affect politic, ideology, fashion, etc...
Before you namedrop Shadowrun, it's not exactly what I have in mind. Shadowrun takes place on our own Earth (not a fictional planet/universe), and it's not modern age, more like the 80s vision of a cyberpunk future with sci-fi techs and all. Not to mention when it comes to my dream setting, the tone I aim for is a sense of adventure, humor and mundanity (again, a mash-up between Disco Elysium and D&D/Tolkien-esque fantasy), it may have some melancholic undertone based on the real world but not too dark/gloomy like Arcanum or a complete cyberpunk dystopia like Shadowrun.
The most suitable type of crpg for this hypothetical setting of mine would be a Disco Elysium-like game of course (Esoteric Ebb comes close to my ideal vision but not quite there yet). An advantage of my hypothetical setting is that we can always update the setting to somewhat fit with the technological and social progress of the real world, instead of getting stuck in one period only (usually medieval period like in D&D) no matter how many in-game and IRL time/era has passed.
Just to be clear, I don't want a pointless reskin or allegory like the movie Bright (The movie has Orcs, humans and Elves and other fantasy shit in modern times, but everything is 100% like our world so what's the point?), the fantasy elements will matter in my hypothetical D&D&D setting, the world will be different enough to ours, like how even a mostly mundane modern-day fictional setting of Disco Elysium has some fantasy element (the pale) that set it apart from our world.
Obviously, in order to build such a world in great details like Lord of The Rings and Disco Elysium, I would need to be very knowledgeable about various fields (science, philosophy, geography, history, politic vv... to name a few) and various ages (ancient, middle, early modern, modern) in addition to various cultures (especially the west), not to mention I also have to properly balance magic and technology (ideally magic would have to be somewhat limited or not as strong as it is used to, to explain the rise of technology). All of this is well beyond my ability, so just consider this post as a way for me to vent my idea as well as a fun challenge/prompt for my fellow codexers to build such a setting, I would also appreciate it if you can point me to a similar setting that someone else has already done.
Btw, no gnome in my hypothetical setting pls, I can never really tell the distinction between them and halfling in a run-of-the-mill fantasy setting, what's the point of having two very similar race (appearance-wise) in a D&D-like fantasy setting?
Source of the arts
Why, you ask? I just always has a soft spot for Tolkien-esque medieval fantasy setting and wonder what would happen if the modern day world have more intellengent species other than human, or what would happen to a run-of-the-mill fantasy setting if they manage to progress beyond the medieval era. How would these factors affect politic, ideology, fashion, etc...
Before you namedrop Shadowrun, it's not exactly what I have in mind. Shadowrun takes place on our own Earth (not a fictional planet/universe), and it's not modern age, more like the 80s vision of a cyberpunk future with sci-fi techs and all. Not to mention when it comes to my dream setting, the tone I aim for is a sense of adventure, humor and mundanity (again, a mash-up between Disco Elysium and D&D/Tolkien-esque fantasy), it may have some melancholic undertone based on the real world but not too dark/gloomy like Arcanum or a complete cyberpunk dystopia like Shadowrun.
The most suitable type of crpg for this hypothetical setting of mine would be a Disco Elysium-like game of course (Esoteric Ebb comes close to my ideal vision but not quite there yet). An advantage of my hypothetical setting is that we can always update the setting to somewhat fit with the technological and social progress of the real world, instead of getting stuck in one period only (usually medieval period like in D&D) no matter how many in-game and IRL time/era has passed.
Just to be clear, I don't want a pointless reskin or allegory like the movie Bright (The movie has Orcs, humans and Elves and other fantasy shit in modern times, but everything is 100% like our world so what's the point?), the fantasy elements will matter in my hypothetical D&D&D setting, the world will be different enough to ours, like how even a mostly mundane modern-day fictional setting of Disco Elysium has some fantasy element (the pale) that set it apart from our world.
Obviously, in order to build such a world in great details like Lord of The Rings and Disco Elysium, I would need to be very knowledgeable about various fields (science, philosophy, geography, history, politic vv... to name a few) and various ages (ancient, middle, early modern, modern) in addition to various cultures (especially the west), not to mention I also have to properly balance magic and technology (ideally magic would have to be somewhat limited or not as strong as it is used to, to explain the rise of technology). All of this is well beyond my ability, so just consider this post as a way for me to vent my idea as well as a fun challenge/prompt for my fellow codexers to build such a setting, I would also appreciate it if you can point me to a similar setting that someone else has already done.
Btw, no gnome in my hypothetical setting pls, I can never really tell the distinction between them and halfling in a run-of-the-mill fantasy setting, what's the point of having two very similar race (appearance-wise) in a D&D-like fantasy setting?
Last edited:
