D&D General Is there a D&D setting that actually works how it would with access to D&D magic?

[Greg Benage]

Would they develop it the hard way? Probably not. Would they trap fire and water elementals together to create a magical steam engine? Sure! Why not?

I'm no 18th-century engineer, but I think making steam is the easy part.

 

[Maxperson]

Just poking around a bit. Coal is a material component of the 1e darkness spell, as is pitch, which can be formed from petroleum. The Isle of Dread has tar pits, which means oil. So it would seem that these things do exist in at least the default assumptions of some of the editions. I didn't check more recent editions.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm no 18th-century engineer, but I think making steam is the easy part.

They make golems, Machines of Lum the Mad and such, so it's not as if they are incapable of making the moving parts for the steam engine.

 

[Micah Sweet]

My preference is for settings at or approaching Victorian levels of technology, with a few outliers. I'm not interested in the narrative gymnastics required for medieval stasis.

 

[Vaalingrade]

My preference is for settings at or approaching Victorian levels of technology, with a few outliers. I'm not interested in the narrative gymnastics required for medieval stasis.

Agreed.

Also it allows me to traumatize my players with carbonated milk and beef 'essence'.

I actually made the former. This was a mistake. And ruined one of those in home soda machines.

 

[Oofta]

I agree, but I will point out that iron and gold are fundamentally different than coal. The amount of iron and gold on our planet was fixed from basically the beginning, but coal and oil need eons of plant & animal life to die off and then be burred and compressed for more eons (same with diamonds of course).

On fits the idea of divine intervention better than the other. Though we need not limit divine power really or assume the true histories of the settings a fully known.

The amount of gold and iron available is due to tectonic activity.

Any correlation between a fantasy world and the real world is completely arbitrary. Want gold so plentiful streets are paved with it? Make it so. Want there to be coal but no oil? No problem. I just don't see a reason for it any more than you would need to justify gold being as plentiful as limestone. After all, half of which is from long dead organisms.

I don't see anyone deciding marble shouldn't be a thing because there's no reason for it to exist. Not sure why anything else would be that much different.

 

[Faolyn]

Just poking around a bit. Coal is a material component of the 1e darkness spell, as is pitch, which can be formed from petroleum. The Isle of Dread has tar pits, which means oil. So it would seem that these things do exist in at least the default assumptions of some of the editions. I didn't check more recent editions.

One could declare that the oil, coal, or petroleum is too-low grade or exists in too-small of quantities to be of use for mass industrialization. But there's enough for magic, since you only need a tiny amount).

You could also assume that charcoal would work as well as regular coal. And you could also claim that pitch is actually made by black dragons or something similar (it's actually their blood, goop left over from their breath weapon, or their scat) and isn't from petroleum. Obviously neither of these are canon, but if you want an excuse to not have industrialization because of lack of raw materials, this is as good a reason as any.

Or possibly, that dwarfs are hoarding all the coal. I've often thought that dwarfs should have discovered how to make plastic. Same with elves, who could have developed bio-plastics. And possibly latex and rubber, depending on where they live. And at any rate, elves, druids, and fey creatures could prevent humans from cutting down all the forests to feed the stokers if there isn't coal to do it and you don't want to go Eberron and enslave fire elementals.

 

[Mind of tempest]

One could declare that the oil, coal, or petroleum is too-low grade or exists in too-small of quantities to be of use for mass industrialization. But there's enough for magic, since you only need a tiny amount).

You could also assume that charcoal would work as well as regular coal. And you could also claim that pitch is actually made by black dragons or something similar (it's actually their blood, goop left over from their breath weapon, or their scat) and isn't from petroleum. Obviously neither of these are canon, but if you want an excuse to not have industrialization because of lack of raw materials, this is as good a reason as any.

Or possibly, that dwarfs are hoarding all the coal. I've often thought that dwarfs should have discovered how to make plastic. Same with elves, who could have developed bio-plastics. And possibly latex and rubber, depending on where they live. And at any rate, elves, druids, and fey creatures could prevent humans from cutting down all the forests to feed the stokers if there isn't coal to do it and you don't want to go Eberron and enslave fire elementals.

what about those nearly perpetual motion undead could they be used for power?

 

[Micah Sweet]

One could declare that the oil, coal, or petroleum is too-low grade or exists in too-small of quantities to be of use for mass industrialization. But there's enough for magic, since you only need a tiny amount).

You could also assume that charcoal would work as well as regular coal. And you could also claim that pitch is actually made by black dragons or something similar (it's actually their blood, goop left over from their breath weapon, or their scat) and isn't from petroleum. Obviously neither of these are canon, but if you want an excuse to not have industrialization because of lack of raw materials, this is as good a reason as any.

Or possibly, that dwarfs are hoarding all the coal. I've often thought that dwarfs should have discovered how to make plastic. Same with elves, who could have developed bio-plastics. And possibly latex and rubber, depending on where they live. And at any rate, elves, druids, and fey creatures could prevent humans from cutting down all the forests to feed the stokers if there isn't coal to do it and you don't want to go Eberron and enslave fire elementals.

But again, in these cases you are making up a reason for something to be scarce to serve your own purposes (which are incidentally the opposite of what the thread is looking for).

 

[Vaalingrade]

what about those nearly perpetual motion undead could they be used for power?

I suspect that's another part of why undeath is so demonized in D&D lore -- an inexhaustible workforce of meat robots would change the world too much from 'Earth with magic haphazardly painted on'.