D&D General Tech in DnD; What should be included and how much is too much? (+)

[Minigiant]

I mostly go with the route that gunpowder and magic powered laser guns exist but are rare and expensive. Only the rich have them and only the rich can field troops with them. That's why you don't shank a noble for the lulz. Lord Bartleroy is packing heat and his bodyguard is a Gnomish Robot.

Gnomes have Power Armor and Mechs when I DM. Gnomes Space Marines are Human sized. Though the Bolt Pistols are +X repeating hand crossbows.

 

[Tonguez]

I think folks are using eras as short hand. "Medieval" invokes a certain set of technological parameters (even if most people are wrong about what technologies are actually "medieval") and Renaissance another.

But I think I get what you are saying. You want to know if people are ok with printing presses or gunpowder or Ironside warships, etc.

Yeah pretty much, when I say Napoleanic its shorthand for musketloaded rifles, canons and flintlocks,. But Im not going to go into detail on every inovation of that era like steam engines, blast furnaces, steel production and industrial textiles. Especially when DnD already has so many anachronisms like Kwalish apparatus, Warforged ‘constructs’, Magic missile wands and (personal fav) Goggles of Night Vision

That said I have run an adventure involving silk manufacturing (and stolen moth eggs) so the history of the Textile industry became interesting. My alchemist character also built his own lime kilns and smelter

 

[jmartkdr2]

It's like they say: "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." So I guess one DM's photon blaster is another's wand of magic missiles.

Heh.

But its more: if there's no magic, you really shouldn't be using DnD rules. Too much of the game depends on magic being a thing. But you can re-fluff magic a lot and still have it work.

 

[Clint_L]

I don’t really worry about having hard and fast rules. In general, it’s high fantasy with a liberal dollop of steampunk, but if the plot demands a robot, then a robot there shall be.

 

[Deset Gled]

It's like they say: "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." So I guess one DM's photon blaster is another's wand of magic missiles.

The issue with this statement is that it does nothing to address the industrial level or comonality of the blaster/wand. I don't mind if a BBEG wizard has a phasor that's indistinguishable from a magic staff. It's a lot different if a low level army carries them into battle.

IMNSHO, sufficiently advanced technology is serviceable. You can refuel a spaceship, or repair a computer. Sufficiently advanced magic isn't. Your Tensor's disk gets disrupted and it's gone forever. Snap a wand and it turns into a stick. From this perspective, I consider D&D to be at a very low level of tech.

In play, this means the players may find a laser gun. But they better keep an eye on the ammo level. And make sure it doesn't get wet, or hit with a lightning spell. Because when it's gone, it's gone.

 

[MNblockhead]

 

[M_Natas]

What I would like as a 300page "Setting" Book would be a Tome that gives like 5 or 6 (or 7) technological stages, from Stone Age to Space Age with rules adjustments, items and so on.
So for every Age you would get advice and rules adjustments, like different skills, different class abilities adjusted to the era, different weapon tables, setting advice (how would a setting with that technological level look like) and so on.

Like:

• Stone Age: No Metal - Druids and Clerics are the strongest casters, wizardry is in its infancy.
• Bronze Age: first bigger states, organised religion, arcane research gets stronger
• Mediaeval Age: "the current D&D age"
• Gunpowder Age: so roughly napolenoic times or wild west
• Industrial Revolutions: everything from the first steam engine to the 1930s-lookalikes. - So Ebberon?
• Modern Age: Basically Urban Fantasy
• Near Future (Cyberpunk/Solarpunk)
• Far Future (Space Age/Adjusted Spelljammer?)

So DMs have guidlines to adjust their setting to their liking.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

In my current setting Artra most advanced civilizations are at an early bronze age, and large parts of the setting practically operate at stone age.

I think it is cool for different settings have different tech levels. Though for high-magic game like D&D, I feel magitech instead of actual advanced tech makes thematically more sense to me. Eberron basically ran with this approach.

What I would like as a 300page "Setting" Book would be a Tome that gives like 5 or 6 (or 7) technological stages, from Stone Age to Space Age with rules adjustments, items and so on.
So for every Age you would get advice and rules adjustments, like different skills, different class abilities adjusted to the era, different weapon tables, setting advice (how would a setting with that technological level look like) and so on.

Like:

• Stone Age: No Metal - Druids and Clerics are the strongest casters, wizardry is in its infancy.
• Bronze Age: first bigger states, organised religion, arcane research gets stronger
• Mediaeval Age: "the current D&D age"
• Gunpowder Age: so roughly napolenoic times or wild west
• Industrial Revolutions: everything from the first steam engine to the 1930s-lookalikes.
• Modern Age: Basically Urban Fantasy
• Near Future (Cyberpunk/Solarpunk)
• Far Future (Space Age/Adjusted Spelljammer?)

So DMs have guidlines to adjust their setting to their liking.

Yes, absolutely this!

 

[M_Natas]

In my current setting Artra most advanced civilizations are at an early bronze age, and large parts of the setting practically operate at stone age.

I think it is cool for different settings have different tech levels. Though for high-magic game like D&D, I feel magitech instead of actual advanced tech makes thematically more sense to me. Eberron basically ran with this approach.


Yes, absolutely this!

Yeah, one would need yo adjust the Era to work with mostly Magi-Tech.

How would a modern world look like where Cars run on magical batteries or Manafuel, where magical networks connect a world wide population and where banking is backed my magical encryptions? Where war is fought over magical lay lines that produce an excess of Mana...
I would pay money for such a book.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Late-medieval, early-Renaissance is generally my preference, with some leeway allowed to either side.

E.g., a universe closer to the 12th century, where plate armor is nonexistent unless recovered from ancient sources and gunpowder is truly unknown? Sure, that's fine. Gives more of an Arthurian feel.

A universe closer to the mid-18th century, where the first inklings of "science" as we would define it have begun to take root? Sure, that's fine too. Gives more of an "age of sail"/"early empire" feel.

As long as it's more "magitek" than "steam engine," I'm even okay with something mid-18th, early-19th century, the magical industrial revolution, though that's a bit more of a sometimes-food for me than bread-and-butter per se unless it's executed really well (e.g. ENWorld's Zeitgeist setting is well-handled.)