D&D 5E Gnomes/clockwork/making sense of it
Satyrn
First Post
You could make it so that this gnome is the only one making clockworks, or part of a single community of gnomes doing so. And while everyone outside of that gnome or community marvels at the fascinating clockworks, none of those people have ever really been tempted to build their own. So, with no visionary who realizes its full potential - or no visionary with the drive to launch the product effectively, the gnome technology fails to spread.
And the gnome . . . is left to his own devices.
And the gnome . . . is left to his own devices.
iserith
Magic Wordsmith
Firmly plant in your mind these two facts about the setting:
1. Rock gnomes can make tiny clockwork devices.
2. These devices have not been reverse-engineered on any grand scale such that they are commonplace in the world.
Now instead of thinking about why these things can't both be true, start brainstorming how they might, could, or may be true. Then pick one or more of those reasons, go with it, and don't look back. This is a good exercise in imagination for almost any facts that might seemingly come into conflict when thinking about the setting. When we stop thinking about how something can't be, it becomes easier to see how it could be.
An easy one might be that this gift of artifice is divinely-inspired, something imparted only to rock gnomes by Nebelun the Meddler, a lesser god of inventions and good luck. Other races don't have that special something to get the clockwork machines to work, even if they can replicate them mechanically. From his workshop in the Golden Hills, he can see all rock gnomes tinkering away on their inventions throughout the multiverse. Those creations that meet with his approval begin to click and whir and spring into motion.
1. Rock gnomes can make tiny clockwork devices.
2. These devices have not been reverse-engineered on any grand scale such that they are commonplace in the world.
Now instead of thinking about why these things can't both be true, start brainstorming how they might, could, or may be true. Then pick one or more of those reasons, go with it, and don't look back. This is a good exercise in imagination for almost any facts that might seemingly come into conflict when thinking about the setting. When we stop thinking about how something can't be, it becomes easier to see how it could be.
An easy one might be that this gift of artifice is divinely-inspired, something imparted only to rock gnomes by Nebelun the Meddler, a lesser god of inventions and good luck. Other races don't have that special something to get the clockwork machines to work, even if they can replicate them mechanically. From his workshop in the Golden Hills, he can see all rock gnomes tinkering away on their inventions throughout the multiverse. Those creations that meet with his approval begin to click and whir and spring into motion.
Storyteller Hero
Adventurer
It's not that easy for a Medieval level society to reverse engineer more advanced technologies. The people likely have to learn math and physics for some of these things, for which they might not even possess the concepts necessary to see the clockwork as anything other than magic.
bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
Gnomes are evil geniuses....
Oofta
Legend
We've had clockwork and calculating devices for a long time. There was that analog computing device the antikythera made by the ancient Greeks over 2,000 years ago. Just because such an advanced device existed doesn't mean that others could recreate it.
That, and maybe rock gnomes just have a way with small mechanical things. Or it's a closely guarded secret. Or making them does require a bit of magic even if the actual device is not magical.
That, and maybe rock gnomes just have a way with small mechanical things. Or it's a closely guarded secret. Or making them does require a bit of magic even if the actual device is not magical.
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