Need ideas for 'super science' innovations in a fantasy setting

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm not arguing against the cool factor. I'm actually just doing what would normally happen in solving an engineering problem. One or more solutions would be thought of and maybe tested. If they worked, they'd get tweaked and refined. If they didn't, they'd get scrapped and they'd start over.

And a different group, trying to solve the same problem, might come up with entirely different solutions.

For instance, instead of a propeller system, another nation might dream up using a jet propulsion system for their submersible, utilizing one or more decanters of endless water. Such a craft could be incredibly streamlined.

 

[Fiddleback]

Now that WOULD be cool.

Or even jets of directed super-heated pressurized steam. Though that puts me more in mind of flight systems and potentially steam powered space flight, but again, we hit the oxygen problem.

Everyone solves things differently. It's fun to toy with ideas.

I wonder how long it will be before we decide that what these people really need is a steam powered underground tunneling machine complete with a gigantic drill bit and driven by at least one wizard with a Stone-to-Mud spell or three for breaching castle foundations?

Oh...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just a thought...

The free energy & water derived from using a decanter of endless water could lead to the creation of a world the exact opposite of Athas, the setting for the Dark Sun campaign- a water world.

Because free water and energy- the latter in the form of water-driven paddlewheels engineering or jets- would be addictive. More and more resources would go into creating devices run this way. And others, seeing its effects, woud copy the idea and use it for their own engineering projects. A source of energy that has only water as its byproduct- how green is THAT?

But beyond that, ask yourself what happens when a bottle gets lost or forgotten when in operation? It doesn't stop working, it just keeps pouring out water.

And all that water has to go somewhere...

Sure, it would take time. But as more and more decanters get made, the process accelerates.

Next stop, Waterworld.

 

[Tonguez]

Far Seeing Mirrors

Memory Storage Crystals

Electromagnetic Lift plates - charged by lightning spells of course

holographic zoetrope

ironclad steam boat

also how are you with bio-tech? cause you have the whole field of skin grafts and full body bio-prosthetics

 

[Hand of Evil]

Tesla had some crazy stuff, the Radio Controlled submarines/boats were built in 1897-98. But I would think Walkers, weapon platforms, to rockets. Also, gases, chemistry was just really getting started in what a lot of people see as the period seen as Steam Punk. Also, look to ERB, the nine rays and vacuum tube airships.

Stuff I would think about, camera's that capture souls (voodoo the image) or osolators that bring the dead back to life.

How about a machine beholder, rays, computer programs, camera eyes.


some inventions of the 1800
[sblock]
The voltaic cell (Volta's pile) in 1800, by Alessandro Volta
The first steam-powered pumping station in 1801
Discovery of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in 1801, by Johann Wilhelm Ritter
Jacquard loom in 1801, by Jacquard
Dry cell battery in 1802, by Johann Wilhelm Ritter
Modern electroplating in 1805, by Luigi Brugnatelli
Electric carbon arc light in 1808, by Humphry Davy
Gas-powered street lighting first appears in London in 1809
Safety lamp for miners in 1815, by Humphry Davy
Power loom in 1816, by Francis Lowell
Stethoscope in 1816, by Rene Laennec
Savannah - the first steamship across the Atlantic, in 1818
Nicol Prism (type of polarizer) in 1820, by Nicol
Thermocouple in 1821, by Seebeck
Portland cement in 1824, by Joseph Aspin
Metallic aluminum in 1825, by Hans Orsted
Photography in 1827, by Niepce
Achromatic microscope lens in 1827, by Amici
Braille technique in 1829, by Louis Braille
Electromagnetic motor in 1830, by Joseph Henry
Safety fuse for explosives in 1831, by William Bickford
Water Turbine in 1832, by Fourneyron
60/40 brass in 1832
Analytical Engine in 1833 by Charles Babbage
Electrical motor in 1837
Telegraph in 1837
Morse Code in 1838, by Samuel Morse
Fuel cell in 1839, by William Grove
Computer in 1840, by Charles Babbage
Computer programs in 1840, by Lady Augusta Ada Byron Lovelace
Use of wood for paper manufacturing in 1843
Faraday effect on plane polarized light in 1845
Cylinder printing press in 1846
Stereoscope in 1849, by Brewster
Bunsen burner in 1850, by Robert Bunsen
Occulting telegraph in 1852, by Charles Babbage
Petrol lamp in 1853
Glider in 1853, by Sir George Cayley
Halladay windmill in 1854
Mercury Seismometer in 1855, by Luigi Palmieri
Blast furnace for steel production in 1857, by William Kelly
Synthetic Dye Factory in 1857, by William Perkin
Photoheliograph device in 1858, by Warren de la Rue
Cathode ray tube in 1859, by Plucker
Internal combustion engine in 1860, by Lenoir
Color photograph in 1861, by James Maxwell
Motor running on solar power in 1861, by Auguste Mouchout
TNT, trinitrotoluene in 1863 by Joseph Wilbrand
Pasteurization process in 1863 by Louis Pasteur
Blasting cap for detonating nitroglycerin in 1865, by Nobel
Leclanche cell in 1866, by Leclanche
Dynamite in 1867, by Alfred Nobel
Fluorescent lamp in 1867 by Becquerel
Wireline sounding machine in 1872, by William Thomson
Four-stroke internal combustion engine in 1876, by Otto
Phonograph in 1877 by Thomas Edison
Remington Number 2 Typewriter in 1878
Vaccine for Cholera in 1879
Horizontal pendulum seismograph in 1880, by John Milne
Interferometer in 1881
Vaccine for anthrax in 1881
Vaccine for Rabies in 1882
Piezoelectricity in 1883, by Pierre Curie
Turbine in 1884, by Charles Parsons
Photographic film in 1885, by Eastman
Pneumatic tire in 1888, by John Dunlop
Mass produced camera in 1888 by Kodak
Vaccine for Tetanus in 1890
Vaccine for diphtheria in 1890
Rayon in 1891
Prototype radio in 1892 by Nical Tesla
Dewar flask in 1892, James Dewar
Electric Hand drill in 1895, by Fein
Hearing aid in 1895 by Miller Reese Hutchison
The inverted pendulum seismograph in 1899 by Emil Wiechert
Paper clip in 1899 by Johan Vaaler
Three-lens multispectral camera in 1900, by Ives[/sblock]

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Steam-powered zeppelins.

Pipe-based computing.

Mobile communications devices.

 

[Hand of Evil]

other crazy ideas:

• Electro Shock Armor - armor that creates a lightning shield around the players, fun in the rain.
• Gas Armor - releases a gas that weakens foes around the character - effect can very, say mustered gas or other - when was the gas mask invented?
• Phone that really does talk to the other side - who is picking up that ringing phone?
• Portals to other planes - Lovecraft
• Cure for vampires or werewolves - now to find a test subject

 

[Wednesday Boy]

There are already magical golems in the setting, so is there a place for, like, robots?

The adaptation of golem parts for use as prosthetics? Early prosthetics may use more maleable or primitive golem parts, like clay and stone. As golem prosthetics progress spies have almost undifferentiable flesh golem prosthetics.

 

[Hand of Evil]

You know, this is starting to sound a lot like the Iron Kingdoms

 

[darjr]

The iScroll. It would scribble out a text that someone setup on the either. You'd have to know the multiplanar resource locator, or consult an embeded search demon like Dr Vatson or that outplanar Gogal.

There would even be a spell store, though you should be careful about what you summon onto your iscroll.