How can roleplaying in a modern, historic setting be kept interesting?
I feel like a lack of diversity in player classes and enemies might make things repetitive. Not to mention realistic handling of damage could easily lead to needless TPKs
Depends on the story you want to tell. Indiana Jones like adventures might benefit from a different system than one where you hunt Werewolves which will be different from one where you play Special Operations soldiers fighting the Ayy Lmao's.
>>44203048
Look, no offense, but if you need half a million weird races and classes to make things interesting, you're a shit DM.
Realistic damage thing is easy to fix - a game where killing everyone isn't the first and only solution.
>>44204445
Likewise not as much importance on battle
If you are playing a setting with realistic damage like DnD you are not doing it right.
>>44204445
I'm a shit and new gm. Which is why I come to tg asking
it sounds lame, but I feel like a real world setting could quickly become tedious for players who expect fantastic exciting scenarios
>>44204668
First all, don't think small and don't think modern or historic settings confine class and species.
Not all contemporary settings confine themselves to human antagonistis-look at Delta Green, which is secret service Call of Cthulhu, or World of Darkness, which is werewolves and vampires. With the latter you can be supernatural creatures out the gate, though fighting them as normal humans is just as fun.
Encounters are boring in D&D even if you vary classes and enemies if you just come at the players head on each time. Have your enemies use traps, ambush pcs, take hostages, have deadswitch bombs, bluff about deadswitch bombs, retreat when the fight gets out of hand, surrender when the fight gets out of hand, etc. Vary the way combat happens and think of how modern or historical people would handle it.
If you are concerned about tpks, remember this is a role playing game, not a combat simulating game. Having a player character outsmart or outtalk a mob boss in a public setting will be a more important conflict to win than killing the nameless mooks he sends after you later. Modern settings do focus more on non violent conflicts because there are laws and police in place.
Look at modern films and historical films and tv shows like The Godfather, The Exorcist, True Romance, Near Dark, Chinatown, True Detective S1, any James Bond film, Lost, Die Hard, etc. for inspiration.
It's a different genre with different kinds of themes and challenges. Like >>44204866 says, look at films and TV set in the modern era for ideas.
Also, on the topic of combat specifically: In a game with realistically deadly combat and human (rather than monstrous) enemies, not only will fights generally be more uncommon than your stereotypical hack-n-slash D&D dungeon crawl, but they'll also be less commonly fights to the death. People have a strong inclination toward self-preservation, so unless there's a really strong impetus to put their life on the line they're going to try to avoid combat or, if it does come to that, surrender if they're going to lose rather than getting themselves killed. This should apply for the enemies as much as the players, and if the players see NPCs doing it that should nudge them to follow suit and thus avoid getting themselves killed. Furthermore, for a modern setting, that usually means people are operating within the context of a culture that, at least nominally, values certain standards of civility even in combat, so if the party is getting stomped it's not unreasonable for the enemies to honor an offer of surrender, or to take them prisoner rather than finishing them off if the PCs are incapacitated without quite dying yet.
>>44204668
>repetition
>TPKs
Sadly, if you're already this scared of things that may never happen, player karma is guaranteed to run over GM dogma in your first session. If you don't believe you're AT LEAST 11x as creative as the next-most creative person in your group, you're simply not ready to be a GM.
Sorry, anon. It's just not for everybody.
>>44206080
Actually, getting decent, creative players in your group isn't a bad thing. Otherwise you're gonna be another forever GM and burn out sooner or later.
>>44203048
>classes
>in a modern historical setting
What the hell is wrong with you.
>>44203048
Just because it's set in the real world doesn't mean it has to be realistic. Even if you don't include any supernatural elements, you can have your game work on 'action movie' rules where car-crashes and explosions are minor inconveniences and bullets usually only cause minor 'flesh wounds' to main characters which they can easily recover from.
Serious advice, stop playing D&D, before your brain damage becomes permanent.
>>44203048
>Not to mention realistic handling of damage could easily lead to needless TPKs
Only if you don't remember that an unskilled opponent can fire dozens or hundreds of times and still miss, and with ballistic armor you can take 4+ gunshot wounds as a starting character and still be ready to fight.
Example of an exiting scenario:
Hostages in a hotel/whatever. Gotta rescue them. Players got a helicopter and weapons. What do they do? Mission is highly time sensitive.
No need for a complicated rp system. Just ask what your players want to do and make them roll a die. If they say something too general like "I want to complete the mission" ask what the first step is, and ask for a roll for that. Proceed step by step from there.
When rolls are failed, don't make it a complete disaster at first. Let things escalate as more bad rolls are rolled. Fail a roll disabling the alarm or whatever? Mission is not over, it just got more interesting. Same thing with injuries. Got a bullet wound? You can still act with penalties, but you gotta get to the hospital in half an hour or whatever.
Add a surprise element near of the end of the session, like special service of a hostile nation getting involved or something.
And explosions. Don't forget big explosions.
>>44206630
Fuck you commie, classes are vital for society.
>>44206874
That's quite silly, the proles for instance have been made irrelevant by technology. There's an overabundance of useless people and classes.
How the fuck can this thread be a thing?
Does D&D cause lasting brain damage?
>>44207259
>>44206732
Not OP, but when I GM I tend not to take players that have previously played D&D. They're seriously broken.
The folks saying that D&D brainwashes children were right, it's the work of Satan.
>>44207246
It's not the same. I cannot menace robots saying their families will starve if I fire them.
