Technology and magic

[Bishop Odo]

I been out of the RPG gaming for a bit and I wonder if there are any products that address, either in rules, Dragon articles or game setting, what a magical, even low level stuff, or even a polytheistic society would do to a European fantasy/medieval model setting?

What I have found in the past, players have difficulty releasing their preconceived notions of what medieval and fantasy campaign setting. When you remove the dark ages, Christianity, and add magic with a society that’s 2000 years old interesting things happen.

For instance, banking, money changing and the art of coin clipping would change dramatically with the simple wide spread, and even not so widespread, application of the 1st level spell Wizards Mark or Sigil. Letters of credit would be almost impossible to forge, and let’s not forget an active priesthood that would worship a Merchant god, after all currency stability is good for business.

 

[Arkhandus]

Hard to understand quite what you mean, due to several missing words and unclear question.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Well, Urbis tries to answer all this to some degree...

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Monte Cook's "Ptolus" as a setting, and more importantly, as one of the test-beds for D&D3e, takes magic into account. It might be worth taking a look at, if you know someone with it.

In general, though, I can't think of anything in any of the rule books that deal with this at length. I know it's touched upon a few times, but beyond that, I can't recall much. I would imagine there have been Dragon articles about it, but again, I don't have any specifics.

Now, when it comes to this subject, I do know it's been addressed many, many times on message boards like this, including this one. Since I don't have access to the "search" function, I (once again) can't provide concrete examples. However, I'm sure you could get a discussion going about it on this very thread.

 

[WayneLigon]

A Magical Medieval Society will probably answer most of the questions you have.

Most of the time when people discuss bringing magic into the mix they forget some important things, the main ones being the limited number of times a day that a wizard can cast even the simplest of spells, and the fact that there just are not all that many wizards or clerics to begin with, not when compared to all the things that need donig. In your example with Arcane Mark a 5th level wizard could mark only 13 coins a day assuming he fills all his slots with that one spell and has a 16 int; in most worlds 5th level wizards with 16 Int don;t grow on trees and they have better things to do tnan mark coins.

That said, also look at Eberron. They have harnessed magic to the point that a number of specialty NPC classes exist, and they have spells and processes that allow some of the things you're talking about. Dwarves of House Kundark for instance create uniquely identified credit slips for money transfers, for instance. Eberron is probably what you get when you take a society and give it a technological attitude towards magic.

 

[Warren Okuma]

Technomancer is the best. It has stuff like Necronium, a mana dead metal and other cool stuffs like clips of holding. Warning: It's for Gurps 3e.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

A Magical Medieval Society will probably answer most of the questions you have.

I'd say it's close to the perfect answer to this question.

Less realistic, but possibly more fun -- since it's more game-oriented than it is simulation-oriented -- is Ptolus.

Both are excellent values and, if you've got the scratch, are what I'd consider "must buy" books, particularly MMS:WE, which is much, much cheaper.

 

[avigor]

One setting that comes to mind: Arcanum. Yeah, it's a video game, but it has magic and 19th century tech combined into one world.

There's 3 human kingdoms, plus an elven kingdom and some dwarven clans. The humans use both magic and tech, one kingdom supposedly specializing in each with another combining the two. I say "supposedly" there because magic shops can be found anywhere but the supposedly magical country, although they were almost wiped out before the game began by the techy country. The elves use magic almost exclusively (with techy elves being oddballs), and dwarves use tech almost exclusively (doubled fatigue/mp cost makes dwarven mages oddballs).

In addition, there are several deities in the game. These are ancient deities that are mostly unworshipped, however finding the altars and making the appropriate sacrifices can grant you significant power, although sometimes it'll come with curses from other gods if you don't do it right. If you do the blessings in the right order, however, you'll get the blessing of the pantheon's ruling deity.

 

[Yair]

I think it's nearly impossible to seriously contemplate what magic would do to a setting. It's particularly difficult as the specific details of what that magic is are very important. I remember a 0th or 1st level cleric spell that prevented the dead from rising as undead, for example; that could make a tremendous difference.

So instead of thinking of the ramifications of every spell in a vaccum and imagining how society evolves from there, I suggest you work in the opposite direction. Consider how you want the society to work and function in broad terms, and then go over the spell lists and figure out how these are used within and to support this framework.

A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe imposes a pseudo-historical social structure, based on medieval Europe; this leads to such concepts as taxation on magic items and arguments for the military benefits of castles. Ptolus imposes a setting conductive to and in line with D&D adventures; this leads to great racial tolerance, vast underground dungeons containing great treasures, and so on. Eberron takes things in an even more fantastic direction, introducing magical trains and airships, robots, and more.

You can justify just about any social structure and theme.

 

[Bishop Odo]

Thanks for the input, I do appreciate it. I was hesitant to write anything because I don’t have a search option, and I have looked at the past posts to see if this has been answered before.

I plan on buying the Magical Society book and have read Monte Cooks diaries, Player’s guide on Poltus, and it seems interesting. However, a 100 bucks, I think I will have to wait before I buy it, even though it's 800 pages and worth it.

Most likely I’m over thinking this, brought on by some History Channel shows like Secrets of the Underworld, What Did the Ancient Know, and Engineering an Empire. I love the History Channel. With the abundance of D20 stuff prestige classes and variant spell list I’m sure, I can justify what ever society I would like.