Bicycles in fantasy?

[Jon_Dahl]

Please note that this is not ment to be an overly serious thread

IRL bicycles are a relatively new invention and therefore very poor choices for quase-fantasy environment, BUT I'd like to have something new for the regular D&D. Something not too powerful but a fresh breeze into the game. Before I introduce this idea to my group, I'd like to sniff out the general consensus of Enworlders

So just out of curiosity, would you mind something like bicycles in your game? And also, how to stat them out according to... let's say... 3.5? Gnomish Warbicycle anyone?

Thumbs up or down?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Think they would fit in a steam-pulp game setting or close to it. Next will be skate boards.

One of the biggest issues is the "animated object" spell, the casting of that on an elbow type joint and you have a motor bike.

 

[IronWolf]

It would toe the line of what I consider fantasy in my mind, but I have a rather narrow scope at times! So it might work just fine for others!

If you were to do this, perhaps only in some wayward gnomish settlement and they exist but are extremely unreliable as they continue to work out the kinks.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

The precursor of our modern bicycles, the Draisine is close to 200 years old, and it looks only remotely similar to a modern bike, so it might fit the bill. Maybe some enterprising gnome might attach some animated feet to the vehicle to relieve its rider from the task to propel himself?

 

[the Jester]

My dwarves sometimes use Flintstone-style bikes, with wide wheels and all.

 

[Cor Azer]

Basic implementation of bikes doesn't phase me; after all, they have wagons and such, so wheeled travel is known, and buildings like mills show that if you have an external force turning one wheel, that wheel can be hooked up to another to turn it too - not that unbelievable to extrapolate and join the two ideas to make pedals and a bike.

Amusingly, given a wagon as the initial chassis, you might start out with more of an ATV than a bike.

 

[Eric Tolle]

Although the Caprotti bicycle of 1493 is most likely a fraud, it still seems to be within the realm of Renaissance technology. In fact, if you look at the designs made by Leonardo de Vinci's peers, you can see designs more complex than that of a boneshaker. Pre-industrial engineers were quite smart and had a good knowledge of physics and engineering principles; they were mainly limited by available power sources and materials.

There are two main limitations to D&D tech level boneshakers:

1. Materials Technology: even on a setting with mithril and the like, its doubtful that spokes or a frame could be m made out of metal. Most likely it would have to be made out of wood.

2. Road quality is a bigger issue; a boneshaker needs smooth paths or well- surfaced cobblestones to operate on. The typical rutted dirt paths that most pre-industrial roads were would render a boneshaker unusable.

So find a place where streets are well surfaced, and you might have an environment for primitive bicycles. I doubt they'd be more than curiosities though.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court- a nice bit of fantasy- included knights on bikes, so I'd be cool with it.

As for implementation, I agree that some kind of mechanical or magi-tech cart would probably show up first, at least from the gnomes.

What might follow next would be a trike with one biiiiig drive wheel in back for stability.

Appearance: instead of chain or belt drives, lots and lots of visible gears & cogs, perhaps looking like the innards of a clockwork construct. Heck, the drive wheel itself might just be an oversized sawtoothed gear.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Places a bike can come from:

• Other Planes
• Alternate Timelines

This is one of the things I dislike about a number of gamers, they know it is a fantasy setting but yet they keep treating it like it is the middle-ages.

Wheels and frame acn be from monster parts, I am sure a troll blader can be used for long lasting tires!

 

[Corathon]

Bicycles in general use would be jarring to me as a player. Brian Lumley did this in his stories set in H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands - and they really felt out of place.

A bicycle (or other technological item) as a rare device in the hands of some character wouldn't bother me.