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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7581280" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>I have severe difficulty seeing this working except as a comic device in settings like Disc World and 'Harry Potter'. </p><p></p><p>Most anachronisms I note tend to be accidental things ships with 14th century sailing technology but which also have a "crow's nest" or expecting professional journalism to exist in a basically medieval culture. I try to avoid these things myself, and when I do mix and match technology from multiple eras I try to do it consciously as a result of the very different history of the imagined world compared to the real world. (For example, my settings tend to be a bit more egalitarian and cosmopolitan than any real world culture was, both for in game and out of game reasons, though not quite as anachronistic as say Golarion is in that regard.)</p><p></p><p>When technology shows up in my games, I try to make it look somewhat different than real world technology and I tend to apply the perhaps over worn trope of the object being from some past age of wonders when a sufficiently advanced magic creating an age where magic looked like technology was more plausible than the heroic if somewhat backwards age the PC's presently live in. So for example, various sorts of magical elevators have appeared in the plot of my latest campaign, and all though the players never drew the connection I did describe to them the ruins of magical satellite radio dishes and an electric substation complete with transformers. Had I drawn the scene rather than verbally described it through the eyes of the characters, I'm sure the connection would have been drawn, but I was quite OK with the players not realizing quite how modern the ruins they were traversing actually were. </p><p></p><p>Aside from comedic effect, the problem with a setting where magic is sufficiently advanced as to resemble technology is that it is very rough on a traditional 'zero to hero' story arc that traditional fantasy encourages. If the "normals" have guns, tanks and airplanes then you don't really have a heroic age because "normals" can mow down each other by the hundreds and daunt even formidable foes. They don't need heroes, and heroes are very likely to find that their ability to sway events is diminished compared to heroic ages when only the prowess of a mighty hero could win security from foes. Simply put, you have to be pretty darn high level already to survive a 155mm shell impacting mere yards away, or to charge across a field under machine gun fire. Such heroes have to begin the narrative already as superheroes to have much importance in their persons.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7581280, member: 4937"] I have severe difficulty seeing this working except as a comic device in settings like Disc World and 'Harry Potter'. Most anachronisms I note tend to be accidental things ships with 14th century sailing technology but which also have a "crow's nest" or expecting professional journalism to exist in a basically medieval culture. I try to avoid these things myself, and when I do mix and match technology from multiple eras I try to do it consciously as a result of the very different history of the imagined world compared to the real world. (For example, my settings tend to be a bit more egalitarian and cosmopolitan than any real world culture was, both for in game and out of game reasons, though not quite as anachronistic as say Golarion is in that regard.) When technology shows up in my games, I try to make it look somewhat different than real world technology and I tend to apply the perhaps over worn trope of the object being from some past age of wonders when a sufficiently advanced magic creating an age where magic looked like technology was more plausible than the heroic if somewhat backwards age the PC's presently live in. So for example, various sorts of magical elevators have appeared in the plot of my latest campaign, and all though the players never drew the connection I did describe to them the ruins of magical satellite radio dishes and an electric substation complete with transformers. Had I drawn the scene rather than verbally described it through the eyes of the characters, I'm sure the connection would have been drawn, but I was quite OK with the players not realizing quite how modern the ruins they were traversing actually were. Aside from comedic effect, the problem with a setting where magic is sufficiently advanced as to resemble technology is that it is very rough on a traditional 'zero to hero' story arc that traditional fantasy encourages. If the "normals" have guns, tanks and airplanes then you don't really have a heroic age because "normals" can mow down each other by the hundreds and daunt even formidable foes. They don't need heroes, and heroes are very likely to find that their ability to sway events is diminished compared to heroic ages when only the prowess of a mighty hero could win security from foes. Simply put, you have to be pretty darn high level already to survive a 155mm shell impacting mere yards away, or to charge across a field under machine gun fire. Such heroes have to begin the narrative already as superheroes to have much importance in their persons. [/QUOTE]
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