Ideas on modern themes or roles for traditional D&D character classes in a world of secret magic, horror, and urban fantasy…
THE REALMS
THE MORTAL REALM: Modern Earth, the Material World. Humans, machines, technological civilization. Supernatural beings and threats hide behind glamour disguises or at remote locations, giving rise to urban myths. Breaking the rules of secrecy (the Veil, the Masquerade) risks provoking censure (hunted by magical police) or backlash (paradox, causality echoes, tears in the weave).
THE GREEN REALM: AKA The Feywild, the Bloom, Arcadia, the Young Lands, Middle Umbra. Creatures of manifested emotions and potential (playful faeries, wise talking animals, patient trees, cruel fomorian giants, ravenous trolls).
THE DARK REALM: AKA The Shadowfell, the Gloom, the Dead Lands, Low Umbra. Creature of expended life and old knowledge (shades, ghosts, hungry undead, forgotten spirits, “dead” gods).
THE ASTRAL REALM: AKA The Silver Void, the Dreaming/Plane of Dreams, High Umbra. Creatures of pure thought, beings beyond time, the collective unconscious of mortals, adrift corpses of “slain” or abandoned gods.
THE REALMS BEYOND: AKA The Outer Planes, Deep Umbra, the Outer Horizon. Heavens, hells, and all manner of utopias reflecting various “perfect” worlds fitting a specific ideology.
OTHER REALMS: The Far Realm (incomprehensible alien realities), The Void (oblivion, entropy, negative material plane), The Radiance (pure energy, animus/anima, positive material plane)
CLASSES
BARBARIAN: Street brawler, cage fighter, gang enforcer. Gear includes brass knuckles, liquor bottle, patched coat.
BARD: Pop idol, viral content creator, media personality, outlaw journalist, street performer, political speechwriter.
CLERIC (GOOD): Clergy, crisis counselor, religious activist, combat medic, street EMT. Gear includes trauma medical kit, spiritual spell focus items (dog tags or photo of someone who died, ashes or children’s drawings from a disaster grounds).
CLERIC (EVIL): Cult leader, clergy with selfish secret agenda. Gear includes symbols of luxury, non-disclosure agreements, vial of blood from an innocent.
DRUID: Shaman, pagan practitioner, herbalist, park naturalist, ecoterrorist. Gear includes herbal remedies, “save the planet” cards, bike.
FIGHTER: Soldier, bodyguard, SWAT operative. Gear includes modern armor, uniforms, weapons of all kinds.
MONK: Martial arts master, parkour runner, special ops specialist, gun-fu killer (if firearm is allowed as a monk weapon).
PALADIN: Federal marshal, vigilante, demon hunter. Gear includes badge, kevlar, taser, sacred oath handbook or written manifesto.
RANGER (WILDERNESS): Survivalist, wilderness guide, sniper. Gear includes hunting bow (compound), trail camera, crowbar.
RANGER (URBAN): Paranormal investigator, monster hunter, slayer. Gear includes UV flashlight/torch, EMF meter, silvered weapons, incendiary “dragon rounds” shotgun shells.
ROGUE (THIEF): Burglar, con artist, hacker, corporate spy. Gear includes security kit (lockpicks and electronic decoders), swappable ID badge kit and RFID duplicator.
ROGUE (ASSASSIN): Contract killer, black ops operative, hitman. Gear includes concealed or disposable weapons, firearm suppressor (“silencer”), garrote wire hidden in belt lining.
SORCERER: Psychic prodigy, psion of a lost magical bloodline, mad science trial subject. Gear includes non-prescribed medications, headphones, overall “weird” energy or vibe.
WARLOCK: Occultist, cult member, cursed viral influencer, anyone who “sold their soul” for success. Gears includes modern fetishes, symbols of one’s patron spirit or entity.
WIZARD: Academic researcher, parapsychologist, occult scolar, fringe scientist, hermetic mage. Gear includes spellbook on a laptop or other small electronic device, techno-magical talismans.
ANY MAGIC-USER (SOR, WAR, WIZ): Mage, technomancer, theurgist, chaos magician.
TIMELINE
* 7,000 years ago … Change in Earth’s orbit shifts weather patterns, forests of northern Africa turn into the Sahara Desert.
* 3,500 years ago … Sailors in the Mediterranean Sea report sightings of sirens and sea serpents.
* 1,500 years ago … Reports about wendigo, human-eating spirit tied to winter famine in the Quebec and Ontario regions of Canada.
* 793 … Reports of lindworm serpent-like dragons attacking villages in Scandinavia.
* 1492 … Crew members of Christopher Columbus’ ships report sighting merfolk in the Atlantic Ocean.
* 1623 … The Illumines (Illuminati) movement reaches France from Seville.
* 1666 … Royal Danish Navy logs report sightings of a kraken in the seas off Norway.
* 1789 … Chinese Qing officials confirm reports of yeren, hair-covered forest humanoids in China’s Hubei region.
* 1805 … First reported sighting of “Nessie” in Scotland’s Loch Ness. (The famous photo would be taken in 1933.)
* 1848 … British naval accounts report sighting a sea serpent near the HMS Daedalus.
* 1882 … The Society for Psychical Research is founded in London to do paranormal research.
* 1871 … Western explorers share reports about mokele-mbembe, a dinosaur said to live in the Congo.
* 1887 … Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn secret society founded with headquarters in London. It lasts until being dissolved in 1903, with many successor groups claiming its lineage.
* 1893 … First Western journalism report of the Mongolian death worm in the Gobi Desert.
* 1919 … Post-war British intelligence officers begin monitoring occult fraternities over fears about telepathic psychic powers.
* 1921 … The Soviet State Institute for Brain Research begins exploring telepathy experiments under scientist Vladimir Bekhterev.
* 1927 … The Leningrad Institute of Psychophysiology begins state-backed research into supernatural powers.
* 1930s … Fraternity of Saturn high occult lodge active in Germany, influencing some Nazi leaders.
* 1935 … Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler founds Ahnenerbe, a study of ancient artifacts and relics tied to lost Aryan civilizations and fringe paranormal sciences.
* 1943-1945 … Both sides during and just after World War II use psychic powers (Operation Persil, British medium Helen Duncan, Operation Paperclip).
* 1945 … July 16: Start of the Atomic Age. Trinity nuclear test in New Mexico detonates “the gadget,” the first atomic blast resulting from the Manhattan Project.
* 1947 … Pilot Kenneth Arnold reports about aerial objects flying near Mount Rainier coins the term “flying saucers.”
* 1947 … Alleged crash of “flying saucer” in Roswell, New Mexico, later dismissed as a military balloon used to detect Soviet nuclear tests.
* 1952 … The Soviet Ministry of State Security (MGB) begins study into telekinesis and “bioenergetic emissions.”
* 1952 … The U.S. Air Force begins Project Blue Book, a stundy into unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The program runs until 1969.
* 1953 … The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency begins Operation MKUltra begins, studying mind control via LSD, hypnosis, sensory manipulation, and suggestion.
* 1955 … Goblins (or aliens, “little green men”) terrorize rural communities around Kelly and Hopkinsville in Kentucky.
* 1969 … The “Psychokinetic Weapon Feasibility Study” about Soviet psychic programs is circulated among U.S. defense officials.
* 1970 … The CIA begins a psychic powers program called SCANATE.
* 1976 … Japan establishes the Real Energy Research Association to study ki energy and bioelectrical fields.
* 1972 … The Standford Research Institute begins a study on psychic remote viewing.
* 1977 … Start of the Stargate Project, a consolidation of previous secret psychic initiatives by the U.S. Army, Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Stanford Research Institute. It would overlap with work in SRI’s “Grill Flame” and INSCOM’s “Center Land” Project
* 1978 … The Soviet KGB Directorate S directs experiments using an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to disrupt brain waves.
* 1980 … China begins its “Exceptional Human Functioning” Program in state-supported labs studying supernatural powers and “Qi transmissions.”
* 1981 … Institute of Noetic Sciences founded by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell to study consciousness and psionics.
* 1983 … U.S. DIA issues “Assessment of Soviet Bioenergetics” a classified report warning about the Soviet Union’s potential psychotronic weaponry.
* 1984 … U.S. conducts Operation Sun Streak (Stargate-based project) to psychically locate downed planes and hostages.
* 1989 … Soviet psychic research ends due to state budget restrictions.
* 1990 … U.S. Stargate Project shifted to CIA, rebranded “Project CF” with declining scope.
* 1995 … Stargate Project and its related programs) end and are declassified after CIA analysts claim it produced few useful results.
* 2019 … The U.S. Navy patents “spacetime manipulation” technologies developed by engineer Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais.