D&D Fantasy version of 1938

I've never actually built a world/setting before. My friends and I were talking though about World War II done on a world where magic existed and technology never progressed beyond D&D standard.

There was a novel, "Operation Chaos" that did something similar but I didn't care much for it.

As long as I am replicating this era, I think that I'd rather use this to play Pulp Adventures and use WWII as a backdrop.

Like i said, I've never built a world before and I don't really know where to start. Part of the problem is that it seems like I might already be basically done.

I have a pretty good idea of what Earth circa 1938 looked like. Society and fashion and the like stay pretty close but obviously there will be some changes but again, they seem pretty obvious.

Cleric PCs would mostly be Christian, Jewish or Muslim(?).

I'd use Airships and the Lightning Rail from the Eberron setting to replace planes and trains. Smaller fighter planes could be replaced by riders on griffons, pegasi or any number of winged mounts.

Guns get replaced by swords. Cars get replaced by horses, carts and carriages. Magic would help some but without refrigeration, cities would have to be smaller. I figure that there is probably an Underworld/Underdark full of monsters so those cities would have to be walled.

I have a bunch of advance classes for D20 Modern that are for the Pulp genre. It would probably be dirt simple to convert to 3.5

I don't know. Am I oversimplifying this or did I just land on a really easy project for my first build?

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Originally Posted by Bryan1108

I don't know. Am I oversimplifying this or did I just land on a really easy project for my first build?

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Yes, but that's a good thing. Accurately replicating society with such significant changes is quite a process. I'm working on a revolutionary war setting with the same idea, and I'm basically on my way to rewriting history.

Also, guns would be wands with a simple acid orb or something in them. Modern war does not work without ranged weapons, and magic is simple and effective as a way of doing this (right down to the touch AC, which represents the ease of getting hit by a gun). Cover and concealment will likely need to be hammed up, and you might need to do a little reworking of the action economy.

I started thinking about that as soon as I wrote, "guns are now swords."

While magic will be more common than in most D&D settings, I'm not sure I want wands to be that plentiful. That is part of what I didn't like about "Operation Chaos". The magic was so plentiful and such a spot on replacement, you might as well of had technology.

I have the Sorcery and Steam source book so I could just have flintlocks but once you let a little steampunk trappings in, it seems like it overpowers the rest of the setting.

I'll have to think on it. I may go simple and just have hand crossbows with poisoned bolts to make then as deadly as bullets.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bryan1108

I started thinking about that as soon as I wrote, "guns are now swords."

While magic will be more common than in most D&D settings, I'm not sure I want wands to be that plentiful. That is part of what I didn't like about "Operation Chaos". The magic was so plentiful and such a spot on replacement, you might as well of had technology.

I have the Sorcery and Steam source book so I could just have flintlocks but once you let a little steampunk trappings in, it seems like it overpowers the rest of the setting.

I'll have to think on it. I may go simple and just have hand crossbows with poisoned bolts to make then as deadly as bullets.

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Crossbows are less accurate, harder to aim, slower to load guns. Just go with guns in the first place. It's not too bad; not super technologically advanced.

You may be right. I don't want to turn it into a steampunk setting but just the stuff from Sorcery and Steam, kept in context shouldn't be too bad.

Also has normal steam powered locomotives which I could make use of.

Sort of an Americanized Pulp version of the Lord Darcy mysteries.

Well, you also could just add some magic in a D20 modern campaign. D20 past has some stuff on the right era, and you can finish it off with the Urban Arcana setting.