Slimepunk/Madsciencepunk DnD 5e Discussion · 9:43pm January 13th
Well, I couldn't think of anything fun/clever to do for the Question of the Week this week (sorry 
), so I decided to present a potential project that I might be working on for my Saturday DnD 5e group and see your thoughts on it. Hopefully that will be acceptable. 
So, the concept is that the world came to an end. While I'm still not too certain how, a part of me is leaning toward the idea of a magical cold war that resulted in everybody "nuking" everybody. Years later a group of mad scientists arose and used magic, science and technology to sort of revive civilization in the wastes. The newly established test cities (whether these are experimental cities or cities where the scientists experiment on the citizens is still uncertain) and are powered by slime, a magical byproduct excreted from oozes, essentially imagine pipes carrying neon colored fluid and that serve like powerlines, attached to every building and outlet.
-Arcane was definitely an inspiration for the setting. That and slime.
Note: I don't own any of these images, I am simply using them to convey my thoughts.
The idea is that these mad scientists, the Council of Geniuses, as they call themselves are kind of like the founding fathers of this new world, their legacy affecting the world decades/centuries later. While I haven't come up with names for them, I do have a general idea of the different "studies" that they focused on:
- Necromancy/Lightning - Kind of like Frankenstein and his monster. Necromancy is a common and accepted practice in this world (so hooray for players who want to play as necromancers and not be hunted by the inquisition every five minutes
). - Slime and Constructs - Slime is the main power source in this world.
- Mutations - Harvesting genes from an ancient, mutated creature called the Homunculoid, they can genetically mutate humanoids for practical or cosmetic use. Secretly this scientist is also responsible for the establishment of vampirism and blood magic (both of which are looked upon with suspicion and disdain).
- Transhumanism - The desire to evolve humans beyond the boundaries of the flesh into the mechanical and beyond. Perhaps even living weapons/armor (kind of like Ripout).
- Celestial/Psionics - The study of both the stars as well as psychic powers. One thought I did have was that in this setting they might use portals to explore/raid other worlds and bring back resources. Not one hundred percent sure about that.
Would like to explore how society grew out of these various mad experiments with different cultures and even religions taking influence from these experiments. Like there could be an order that practices both lightning magic and necromancy, viewing it as a means of praising/worshiping their scientist that they worship.
So aside from humans most other player races are the results of genetic/magical experimentation. Elves for example were once pompous noble humans that just wanted some traits to "prove" their regality to those they deemed "inferior." Of course, nothing goes as expected when dealing with crazy scientists/mages.
Plasmoids are playable sentient oozes. Might also try to add a monkey and rat races as both are creatures that have been experimented on in human history to a great extent.
I am considering making some racial feats for some of these races (seeing as WotC chickened out of creating racial feats after Xanathar's Guide to Everything for some reason). Maybe give vampires (dhamphirs) some bloodline feats, plasmoids could have their unarmed strikes deal acid instead of bludgeoning damage, perhaps changelings could develop the ability to absorb weapons, which they can conceal inside their body and pull out at a moment's notice. 
-Be careful. There might be glowing plants and fruit, but there are creatures that are bioluminescent too and they're hungry.
While outside of the cities, you are free from the influence of the mad scientists, you reside in a largely ashen/ruined wasteland with horrific monsters wandering around. Many of the monsters that the players would come across are the result of corrupted/mutated creatures from before the magical fallout as well as discarded experiments from the mad scientists. There might even be mutated kaiju like monsters outside of the test cities, kept at bay by some sort of invisible, magical barrier. Also, possibly angel/alien creatures, who maybe secretly influenced the destruction of the former world. 
The wastes seem to come alive when the sun goes down. Some of the plants have glowing leaves, sap and fruit, as well as some of the monsters which will try to use their lights to lure in prey.
Sometimes people are hired to go out into the wastelands either to scavenge resources, dispose of unwanted property and trash (or potentially failed experiments), or the investigate strange anomalies. One type of anomaly are spectral forms and images of things that happened before the world came to an end.
-Slime, palm trees and beaches.
Might try to mix of some tropical elements too. Like how many post-apocalyptic settings take place on an island or on a tropical coast? Might try to borrow some elements for Hawaiian/Polynesian culture (I just think their culture is pretty cool ).
I'm kind of leaning toward a modern/steampunk aesthetic but using magic, slime and other crazy things to make a potentially wacky and fun setting. Perhaps most of the store vendors could be constructs/vending machines.
But please tell me what you think and feel free to offer ideas/suggestions either for how the setting works or even characters that might be fun to see in such a world for a DnD 5e game. 
In "punk", quite often the hired people also qualify as "unwanted property and trash". In D&D and other higher fantasy, they often also qualify as "potentially failed experiments" (and usually the failure was in obedience training rather than the granted abilities themselves).
5763582 you're absolutely correct.