Urban Fantasy + Coastal City + Magical 80s
The Paper Plane Engine is an urban campaign for DnD 5e set primarily in the coastal City of Calderi, a place where we have magic, technology and a lot of salt mixing with conspiracy in the air.
The world is past the edge of something new. Galvanic devices have shrunk, music now fits in a pocket, phantomscopes are turning performers into city-wide celebrities and voxlines let voices cross districts instantly carring gossip and secrets with them.
And, under the city, deeper than even the ancient dungeons, we have sealed a god.
Beneath the city’s cable cars, vending machines and glowing signs, one who was responsible for the creation of this material plane is now sealed away forever. But maybe the god below Calderi can still have their presence felt in how we are shaping the ley lines into a ley network, of how innovation and ambition alike flourish in the surface. How maybe with each passing decade, life feels like it’s going faster and fester. An age of information approaching as we lay the foundations to the technology that will enable it over the bodies of the ones who created this world.
There are many responsible for balancing and maintaining the order of this world. Above all, in the city of Calderi, stands the Arcadium Arcanum, guiding magical education, pushing new technology advancements and carefully curating the future. Almost training a next generation while deciding which frontiers are allowed to be researched and which should quietly be pushed underneath the historical rug. Not everything they do is cruel. But, well, also not everything they do is right.
And yet, for all its speed and shrinking distances, the world remains vast with many mysteries left to be found. The discovery of an entirely new realm have not erased the old magical world. Beyond the city lights of Calderi, ancient forests still stand untouched, forgotten ruins and sealed dungeons continue to guard forbidden knowledge, and mysteries older than the Arcadium are waiting.
This is not a world of firearms or mundane industry replacing wonder. Firearms haven’t even been invented. Magic remains at the center of existence, shaping the progress rather than yielding to it. For every question technology answers, it uncovers ten more questions. Much of this world’s magic has yet to be truly understood. And the fact we sealed away the gods, just makes finding those answers even harder than before.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6v8SNylIVLzLUzVyt1EDkj?si=893e506a0e234167
Who You Are in Calderi?
There are many ways your character might find themselves in this story.
You may have come to Calderi chasing answers or escaping a bad situation. You may have been born in the city, shaped by its streets and noise.
Whatever path brought you here, your story will be part of the central plot of the campaign. So the DM would like you to try to come up with something interesting, something you feel you would enjoy to be a part of and enjoy making your fellow players engaged in your character’s story.
If you need, here are a couple of suggestions to help you get your mind gears running:
The Revenge against the Arcadium
You were personally wronged by a member of the Arcadium Arcanum, probably a Chair member, someone with authority. Perhaps a policy erased your village, a failed experiment ruined your family or your discoveries were buried to protect someone’s research. Somehow your life was shattered, and you know you seek either justice or revenge.