Alt-history: Non-industrialized technology?

[Ry]

I'm thinking of running an alternate history game, d20 Modern style, with the following premise:

Rather than an industrial revolution, technology continues to develop in a master-apprentice craftsmen environment. So we'd have some very fancy items, maybe even local rail lines, but nothing that would have required the systematicity of the modern environment. Thus, it would be a present-day campaign, with major advances since, say, the 1500s, but still not on par with what we'd call "modern" technology.

Has this been done? Does anyone know a good resource for something like this? I was thinking it would be a no-magic campaign, but if there's a good source of ideas I'd love to hear it.

 

[Cithindril]

It's an interesting idea, but I'm not aware of any handy source-material for it. You would have to think carefully about how the lack of industrialization would affect the advances that could be made. It wouldn't necessarily need to be lower tech, but it would most certainly be different. As you point out many of our modern transportation systems depended on the assembly line for their efficient production so there would be less cheap infrastructure. This would lead to less urbanization (less food could be moved into urban centers requiring people to live near the farms). Obviously factories would also be largely non-existent. I don't think communications and data processing technology would be significantly set back but there would be much more localization of markets. For inspiration you could look to real-world pre-industrialized societies and their cultural and social norms.

Good luck with this, and keep us posted..

 

[painandgreed]

I've thought about doign it. If you remove the large amounts of coal and oil that this world has, you remove the power sources that allow industrialization. No large factories using vast amounts of industrialized power. Without that, you'd no longer have cheap consummer goods. Things would still be made to last and quality would be the main goal. Without vast amounts of cheap goods for everybody to buy, the economy will not bound ahead like does today. This will be further stagnated due to the lack of transportation methods. Trains require large amounts of coal and cars require oil. There might be some and you could say that it simply isn't cheap and thus no large factories running off of it. A large, central train system might exist and probalby be run by the government for logistics reasons for moving soldiers and supplies in time of war. In peacetime, it is an expensive luxury for the rich and powerful. Everything else would probably still rely on horses and other beasts of burden to move goods around. Technology might be about the same up into the 1900's but with no electricity except in may areas with access to hydro power, no cars, and no airplanes. Imagine WWII fought with no tanks or airplanes and you essentially have WWI. Artillery remains king as far as combat goes. Sailing ships would still be requied to move things across the oceans. With hydro or geothermal power, such areas with access to it would become the industrialized regions and it would still be at the mercy of the seasonal weather. Industry could start up but things would still be more expensive and more tightly controled by the government, especially in times of war. Electricity woul also be very expensive and as everything moved into the electronic age, what devices existed would be battery powered, once again toys for the government, rich and powerful. For that matter, withoout the large amounts of consumer goods, the industrialized factories, and such, the labor movement might take much longer to happen as agriculture and locally made products remain the main economic forces. Social reform might take longer to happen and you'd still be looking at a vast difference between the rich and the poor.

 

[Ry]

I definitely agree that consumerism is right out if we don't have industrialization, qua mass production. I'll have to keep thinking on this one, though, and figure out how far back I'd have to pinpoint to start changing the timeline. Does anyone have a good resource for the history of how technology changed modern (1600+) history?