Reskinning D&D Classes and Backgrounds for Modern Fantasy

Making D&D work outside of medieval fantasy settings

D&D is fundamentally built around the assumption of a medieval fantasy world. The Player’s Handbook provides rules for lodging at a tavern, overland travel on horseback, and equipment like swords, shields, and armor. The Dungeon Master’s Guide, contains guidelines about building pantheons, kingdoms, and city states. But what if we want to use the familiar rules of D&D in a modern setting? Can we run D&D in a modern fantasy world like the fantastical mirror of an present-day metropolis?

This article provides an example of how to reskin the classes and backgrounds from the Player’s Handbook to make them feel at home in a modern setting.

Why not play a different game?

Instead of reskinning the 5th edition D&D rules, we could just run a system with a more modern flavor. Call of Cthulhu or a setting-agnostic system like Fate are strong contenders. In previous articles (Fiasco, or Icarus) we already talked about what we can learn from playing other roleplaying games.

But not everyone is interested in learning a new game. Most RPG rulebooks are thick, and require a lot of time to study for both the DM and the players. Our group already knows D&D. And they might not be interested in learning a new system. In that case, we can reskin the existing rules of D&D. Then we can use the familiar mechanics in settings that are not medieval fantasy.

Reskinning Lite: Keep the mechanics, give it modern flavor

It is possible to completely rewrite the 5th edition D&D rules to cleanse them of every last remnant of medieval fantasy. For the game Esper Genesis the designers have rewritten all three core books. They turned the Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manual into a 5th edition science fiction ruleset.

But for our home game this approach is not feasible. We want an easy way to reskin D&D to fit our modern fantasy setting. Let’s call this method “Reskinning Lite.” With this approach, we leave all of the wording of the mechanics untouched, and simply drape a modern costume over the classes and backgrounds.

Essentially, we only need a few examples of what a class or background represents in our present-day fantasy setting.

Turning Player’s Handbook classes into modern equivalents

In a modern urban fantasy game, classes might look something like this:

Player’s Handbook Class	Modern Urban Fantasy “Class”
Barbarian	Raging Alcoholic, Party Animal, Street Brawler
Bard	Musician, Creative/Artist, Politician/Public Speaker
Cleric	Doctor, Nurse, Street Worker
Druid	Hippie, Climate Change Activist, Florist
Fighter	Bouncer, Weapon’s Trader/Instructor, Military Personnel
Monk	Athlete, Bodybuilder, Martial Artist
Paladin	Law Enforcement, Firefighter, Security
Ranger	Park Maintenance, Dog Walker, City Cleaner
Rogue	Gangster, Drug Dealer, Private Investigator
Sorcerer	Psychedelics User, Esoteric, Street Performer
Warlock	Corrupt Politician, Businessperson, Influencer
Wizard	Professor, Student, Journalist

And that’s it for Reskinning Lite. We can hand a list such as this one to our players, and let them fill in the details of their character. We use all of the class mechanics as written, and improvise details of the reskinned class mechanics during play. The sword of the City Cleaner/Ranger might look like a trash picker instead of a sword. The Influencer/Warlock might shoot eldritch blasts from their phone camera’s flash.

We don’t have to write all of these reskinned aspects out beforehand. We let the atmosphere of the modern fantasy setting inspire us during the game to fill in the blanks. As a starting point, however, a table like the one above is more than enough.

Turning Player’s Handbook Backgrounds into modern professions

Backgrounds can be reskinned as professions in a modern urban fantasy setting:

Player’s Handbook Background	Modern Urban Fantasy Profession
Acolyte	Social Worker, Yoga Teacher, Priest
Charlatan	Street Hustler, Dodgy Shopkeeper, Politician
Criminal	Pickpocket, Gangster, Drug Dealer
Entertainer	Musician/DJ, Actor, Street Performer
Folk hero	Firefighter, Law Enforcement, Youth Activist
Guild artisan	Plumber, Construction Worker, Freelancer
Hermit	Hacker, Homeless, Rich Eccentric
Noble	Rich Kid, Businessperson, Celebrity
Outlander	Park Ranger, Dog Walker, Public Transportation Worker
Sage	University Student/Professor, Technologist, Journalist
Soldier	Law Enforcement/Military, Gang Member, Bouncer
Urchin	Homeless, Street Worker, Party Animal

The background’s ideals, bonds, and flaws require more reskinning, because they refer to medieval fantasy tropes like thieves’ guilds, untamed wilderness, and aristocracy. For our Reskinning Lite approach, we handle these during character creation. We can work with the players to rewrite some of the language from the Player’s Handbook backgrounds to fit the modern setting.

An example of the flexibility of D&D

No one forces us to play D&D in a medieval fantasy setting. As we have seen, the system is flexible enough to accommodate almost any fantasy setting. With just a list of classes and backgrounds and their modern equivalents, we can let our players build appropriate characters.

As for running a modern fantasy adventure, the three pillars of roleplaying, exploration, and combat work whether we’re slinging spells in the wilderness of the Forgotten Realms, or in the streets of a fantastical version of London, Berlin, or New York.