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

[CleverNickName]

Civil Engineering - Absence of concrete limits the scope of constructions, with magic sometimes used as a replacement to create lasting aqueducts and other “marvels” of engineering equivalent to Roman constructions.

Concrete has been in use since ancient times. Poured-in-place concrete floors were used in Greece as early as 1400 BC, and cement grouting as early as 800 BC. Batch production of concrete was developed in the middle east in the 4th Century, and ancient Egyptians figured out how to get concrete to set underwater (by adding volcanic ash to hydraulic lime). In Medieval Europe, the kilns couldn't really get hot enough to slake the lime, so when the Romans came it took them a few hundred years to figure it out...but they were back to using concrete by 1200 AD, and by 1400 AD the quality was quite good.

Anyway--I have no arguments at all about the tech levels that you mention and how you use 'em in your game. I only bring it up because I think concrete is an amazing material, and except for the occasional argument with my sister who watches too many episodes of "Ancient Aliens," I never get a chance to talk about it's history. Concrete as we know it (lime + aggregate + water) has been around since the Bronze Age, and I think that's rad.

 

[James Gasik]

I'm a big fan of James Burke's Connections series, and one thing it taught me is that achievements don't happen in a vacuum. Technological advancements lead to other advancements, sometimes even in unrelated fields. So the schizo tech of D&D has always been especially weird, defined more by what it's missing than what it has.

The Forgotten Realms in the 2e era was especially pushing towards early Renaissance technology in some areas. Then in 3e, it actually regressed a bit (the fact that some of it's firearms technology was literally brought by aliens is a whole different kettle of fish).

Of course, with how heavy-handed the Faerunian pantheon is, this is usually explained as "The Gods yelled at Gond in order to make him stop letting the mortals have cool toys", lol.

I watched a video recently that pointed out that Ancient Rome may have had everything it needed to start the Industrial Revolution, and most D&D worlds are farther along technology-wise than this.

In some campaigns, it's the Wizards who are keeping the common man down! After all, if you could make a machine that does what magic does, then who needs Wizards?

On the other hand, humans are their own worst enemy at times- there's an adventure in an old Dungeon magazine where someone invents a fountain pen, and the Scribes Guild, feeling threatened, hired an assassin to murder the inventor!

 

[Steampunkette]

Enjoy a comedy about cavemen inventing fire and a giant saber-toothed-tiger puppet.


And behold Chorn!

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I would say it varies by region in what I play. I am cool with Firearms but they are typically early ones like Flintlocks and Muskets, and are also fairly rare.

 

[Bitbrain]

Reply to OP.

Short answer?

No bullet shooting guns for me. If the other players want to use them, I’ve absolutely no problem with that.

Long answer?

As a player, no character of mine will EVER use or carry a “slugthrowing” firearm. You wanna give me a flamethrower or some sort of futuristic raygun? Sign me up!

Likewise, as a DM, my home games take place in a “frankensetting” divided into four time periods, each at a different level of technology (one of which is very “futuretech” and rayguns are commonplace here). The only universal in all four is that regular old firearms have not and will never exist.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Anyways I took a closer look at things from the 1800s and realized that these might exist if a campaign setting is in the 1800s.
Camera Photography (mid 1800)
Modern Indoor plumbing (mid 1800)
Household electricity (late 1800)
Gramophones/Phonographs (late 1800)

 

[Kobold Avenger]

As for the default technology age, the designers realized that default assumptions of D&D is really in the early Renaissance, it's one of the rationale for having Muskets and Pistols in the 2024 PHB.

 

[OB1]

Great thread! I’m generally good with throwing all kinds of modern and sci-fi things into the mix of my games, including robots, laser guns and spaceships. The one thing that I stay away from is any kind of mass manufacturing capability. If you want to make a spaceship, three generations of elves decide to do it piece by piece, taking the time to figure out each challenge and solve for it in a bespoke way that can’t be easily reproduced.

Magic is what prevents mass manufacturing from developing, and keeping the world one for artisans and crafters.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I'm actually tinkering with a Gunslinger class for A5e right now, riffing off Pathfinder 1e's Gunslinger. Would it be "Anachronistic" for the 'Time Period' of the Elissar setting? Probably. So what? There's also Dragons and Magic so 'Realism' went out the window and the idea of limiting things to technological 'realism' just feels like a -huge- waste of time.

Send Frodo to Mount Doom with a Musket. It'll even the fight between a Hobbit and an Orc and if he rolls a nat 1 to create a backfire, halfling luck kicks in and he gets to reroll! How fun is that?

is this for the martial artistry book you mentioned a while back?

as for the OP, i guess that depends by what you mean by "included in the game". if you mean the base rules, i think level up's/one dnd's approximate tech level (pretty solidly late medieval/early renaissance) is about right, at least in terms of providing options. if you mean in a setting, that obviously depends on what you're going for. i like the idea of early renaissance personally, but i've found i've got a soft spot for victoriana (thanks, zeitgeist).

 

[MGibster]

I'm okay with early modern Europe with anachronisms. I don't care for firearms at all because they take me out of the fantasy. I can certainly accept some variation in tech level depending on the campaign, but for me, early modern Europe is the default.