It really depends on the setting, actually.
In my setting, Adamantium is very rare, as it comes from meteorites, and will not decrease in cost really at all.
Mithril doesn't really exist in my setting.
It really does change with the setting.
D&D General The Transition of a D&D World into the Industrial Era
In my setting, Adamantium is very rare, as it comes from meteorites, and will not decrease in cost really at all.
Mithril doesn't really exist in my setting.
It really does change with the setting.
Zardnaar
Legend
I was talking about default D&D. It ranges from very expensive to expensive enough you're not going to use it for railroads.
Eltab
Lord of the Hidden Layer
In the sense of 'Faberge egg', as opposed to 'Pepsi can', I can see this as a Thing. Rich show-offs have several in a display, a bunch of people got one (and only one - for Christmas?) so they could brag, but only JP Morgan or the Czar drink a mithril can of pop whenever they feel like it, any old day.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
The one thing I want that is hard to find is a good setting where magic and tech both exist, and aren’t particularly in conflict.
Like Zeitgeist is rad, I’m just using this as a jumping off point because it reminds me of Arcanum, which I also love, but which also always made me long for a setting where the tension of the setting isn’t magic vs tech, that isn’t Final Fantasy.
And I mean, I’m building such a world, so I shouldn’t complain that a dozen companies haven’t beaten me to the punch in any way I’ve ever heard of, I suppose.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Just some notes in case no one has mentioned them.
Can low level magic be taught at a school? If so, what kinds? Can the Elemental Evil cantrips be learnt in a guild apprenticeship? If so, irrigation on a large scale is no longer labor intensive, nor is changing the landscape to better serve the needs of building.
Are there people who can cast detect poison and disease? If so, is medical science advanced by an early knowledge of viral and bacterial science? Just accurately diagnosing diseases creates an unimaginable difference in general public health.
Comprehend Language and a ton of other rituals of low level totally change the ability of the learned to share and improve their knowledge. Look at medieval Baghdad. There were Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and “doubter” scholars just sharing knowledge and challenging each other and reviewing eachother’s work all day every day. Imagine if that was the norm for much of history.
Do magic and tech compete? This is a fundamental question. Do the Fey and the gods and giants and such shun tech, delight in it, or is it as much a mix as it is for humans? Can tech be mixed with magic?
In my own rpg Quest for Chevar, they mix fine, but magic swords are “better” than magic guns because most magic needs a connection to a creature with a conscious Will to operate, and so enchanting bullets is hard while enchanting Melee weapons easy, and enchanting the gun is limited. But in the future era, there are magi-tech warp stations, and spaceships all have magical and tech components seamlessly integrated. Rangers (the PCs) often have enchanted cars and computers even in the modern era.
Are there Artificers? This is related to the preceding question. Are there people who specialize in magical tech to the point they can make homunculus, iron defenders, walking turrets, enhanced magical firearms, etc?
Is the Keen Mind feat a thing that npcs can have? This has a huge impact on how information works. On how reliable oral traditions can be. On how like fiction the geniuses are.
Are Druids uniformly anti-civilization, or more like eberron’s, where some hate cities and some sell goodberry wine to rich people and teach farmers low level Druidic rituals To help their harvests be reliable and keep wolves away without killing them?
this will help determine population density, but also how many people need to be farmers, as well as what sort of social (and thus political) leverage Druids have in the world, and thus how “sustainable”/green industrialization is. Best answered per region/nation, tbh.
Does magic make the industrialized world less terrible to live in for the average person? Does magic trap smoke and soot from factories and refineries and the like, and maybe convert it into useful stuff? Maybe industrial byproducts end up replacing classic spell components, or lead to variant versions of classic spells? Imagine a fireball that does a bit less damage but obscures the area by leaving it covered in a dense black cloud of greasy smoke.
Can low level magic be taught at a school? If so, what kinds? Can the Elemental Evil cantrips be learnt in a guild apprenticeship? If so, irrigation on a large scale is no longer labor intensive, nor is changing the landscape to better serve the needs of building.
Are there people who can cast detect poison and disease? If so, is medical science advanced by an early knowledge of viral and bacterial science? Just accurately diagnosing diseases creates an unimaginable difference in general public health.
Comprehend Language and a ton of other rituals of low level totally change the ability of the learned to share and improve their knowledge. Look at medieval Baghdad. There were Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and “doubter” scholars just sharing knowledge and challenging each other and reviewing eachother’s work all day every day. Imagine if that was the norm for much of history.
Do magic and tech compete? This is a fundamental question. Do the Fey and the gods and giants and such shun tech, delight in it, or is it as much a mix as it is for humans? Can tech be mixed with magic?
In my own rpg Quest for Chevar, they mix fine, but magic swords are “better” than magic guns because most magic needs a connection to a creature with a conscious Will to operate, and so enchanting bullets is hard while enchanting Melee weapons easy, and enchanting the gun is limited. But in the future era, there are magi-tech warp stations, and spaceships all have magical and tech components seamlessly integrated. Rangers (the PCs) often have enchanted cars and computers even in the modern era.
Are there Artificers? This is related to the preceding question. Are there people who specialize in magical tech to the point they can make homunculus, iron defenders, walking turrets, enhanced magical firearms, etc?
Is the Keen Mind feat a thing that npcs can have? This has a huge impact on how information works. On how reliable oral traditions can be. On how like fiction the geniuses are.
Are Druids uniformly anti-civilization, or more like eberron’s, where some hate cities and some sell goodberry wine to rich people and teach farmers low level Druidic rituals To help their harvests be reliable and keep wolves away without killing them?
this will help determine population density, but also how many people need to be farmers, as well as what sort of social (and thus political) leverage Druids have in the world, and thus how “sustainable”/green industrialization is. Best answered per region/nation, tbh.
Does magic make the industrialized world less terrible to live in for the average person? Does magic trap smoke and soot from factories and refineries and the like, and maybe convert it into useful stuff? Maybe industrial byproducts end up replacing classic spell components, or lead to variant versions of classic spells? Imagine a fireball that does a bit less damage but obscures the area by leaving it covered in a dense black cloud of greasy smoke.
The weapons in core D&D are already rennaisance technology, they just ommit firearms which existed alongside plate armor (unless they add pirates to the setting).
One of the biggest changes a industrial revolution would bring is imo economical and the relation to monsters. In the IR there was a massive movement from the country into the cities and the factories that sprung up everywhere had a large demand for labor. Somewhere someone will have the idea to hire monster races either as low paid workers or slaves. Dont forget that it were advancements in textile machines supercharged the slavery in the USA because the ability to process much more cotton made the large cotton industry in the south viable instead of a niche industry.
Another thing is the search for markets. With the large production capacity through industrialization you quickly reach the point where the local market is saturated and you need to expand ever further to sell your products and eventually someone will realize that goblins, kobolds or minotaurs also have gold.
And there is colonialism. Industrialization requires raw ressources and as mentioned above people who buy finished products. Both can be solved by conquering other, preferably unexploited, territories. In a magic setting you of course would not plant flags but teleport circles or instead of travelling the world do planar colonialism.
The main magic influence on industrialization would be imo artificing/magic item making. Spellcasting alone would not be able to match the demand. But it could be the start of having a large scale magical education to create more wizards.
One of the biggest changes a industrial revolution would bring is imo economical and the relation to monsters. In the IR there was a massive movement from the country into the cities and the factories that sprung up everywhere had a large demand for labor. Somewhere someone will have the idea to hire monster races either as low paid workers or slaves. Dont forget that it were advancements in textile machines supercharged the slavery in the USA because the ability to process much more cotton made the large cotton industry in the south viable instead of a niche industry.
Another thing is the search for markets. With the large production capacity through industrialization you quickly reach the point where the local market is saturated and you need to expand ever further to sell your products and eventually someone will realize that goblins, kobolds or minotaurs also have gold.
And there is colonialism. Industrialization requires raw ressources and as mentioned above people who buy finished products. Both can be solved by conquering other, preferably unexploited, territories. In a magic setting you of course would not plant flags but teleport circles or instead of travelling the world do planar colonialism.
The main magic influence on industrialization would be imo artificing/magic item making. Spellcasting alone would not be able to match the demand. But it could be the start of having a large scale magical education to create more wizards.
Kobold Avenger
Legend
Medieval firearms were basically siege weapons or weapons developed to provide extra power to units of soldiers with polearms. A fireball would really be a problem to armies without gunpowder too.
But it's definitely a case of it's far easier to train a soldier in how to use gunpowder weapons over how easy it is to train a spellcaster that can cast Fireball.
Also some D&D settings like FR guns don't even use gunpowder, but instead a magical substance like smokepowder that is less volatile.
Beleriphon
Totally Awesome Pirate Brain
Gun power is still fine, you just need to have expendable troops, or something that can soak up the few fireballs a wizard can use and then return fire with with your much less expensive to maintain troops wielding muskets.
In my setting, at least, Wizards are generally too valuable to be expended on the battlefield.
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