Mongoose Modern Pocket Handbook, The

Roleplaying in a modern setting is not very difficult to envision. The easiest analogy to grasp is probably that of an action movie set in the modern day with you and your friends cast in the starring roles. Maybe you are a team of special agents on the trail of a drug lord in some third world country or a group of commandos stalking (and being stalked by) a bizarre alien with a yen for deep fried earthling. Modern roleplaying is just like playing parts in a movie expect the script is only a guideline and the ending is not written yet.

That is the magic of roleplaying in modern times. Everything is familiar, or at least similar, to the things around us and the time period is second nature. That means that most things do not have to be described or explained in excruciating detail. When the Games Master, the ‘director’ running the game and handling all the of the roles that extras would normally play, tells you that a whopping huge bus is about to explode if its speed drops below 60 miles an hour, he does not have to provide you detailed information on what a bus is and whether 60 is really fast or very slow. This familiarity makes for a more comfortable gaming environment and keeps every player on a more or less even footing.

The familiarity also allows for stark contrast. When you, as a detective character, discover that the ice cream truck driver is actually an alien serving strange drugs to neighborhood children to control their minds and mutate them into a pint sized space army of death and destruction, the ordinary becomes unnatural. This twisting of normal reality is a powerful storytelling device and it also works extremely well in roleplaying. When even ordinary, everyday things become tools for the Games Master, modern roleplaying is at its best.