Tarrasque Wrangler
First Post
s/LaSH said:
I wholeheartedly agree. The last thing WotC or their customers need is another medieval fantasy game.
Unfortunately, that's sorta how WotC pitched it in their Setting Search, for better or worse.
Ebberron - Dragon magazine preview
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I wholeheartedly agree. The last thing WotC or their customers need is another medieval fantasy game.
Unfortunately, that's sorta how WotC pitched it in their Setting Search, for better or worse.
Monster Manuel
First Post
Tarrasque Wrangler said:
Not Really... I never got the sense that medieval was the way to go. All they said was '*similar* in scope and flavor to Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms". To me that meant: "high fantasy, sweeping, epic." In fact, part of my problem in round two was likely that I hadn't gone far enough away from the standard. I honestly think I tried to play it too safe. I have since rectified that.
Henry
Autoexreginated
Monster Manuel said:
Hear, hear!
I've heard people in the past mumbling about a lawsuit against WotC for misrepresentation. The amount of bovine byproduct in those ramblings is astonishing. They never said, to my knowledge, "medieval tech" as a prerequisite; many people misinterpreted what they said to mean, "EXACTLY LIKE" the Realms - which is incorrect.
I didn't get the feel when I was writing our group's submission that they wanted Medieval - in fact, our concept took place in the Twentieth Century.
However, I can understand the desire to stay away from "Technology with a thin veneer of magic." I just think people looking to understand this setting need to brush up on their Doc Savage and their John Carter of Mars if they want to understand its "feel" - and that includes some super-science in it.
Lalato
Adventurer
I don't personally have a problem with stuff that is beyond medieval technology. I do, however, find it odd when I see things passed off as magical technology, but it looks like industrial/mechanical technology. Seems a bit silly to me.
I would much rather see something truly fantastic. Something that I would have never imagined. Something that has no "real world" analogs.
Something that I can look at and say "Holy Cow... I would have never guessed a passenger vehicle that was actually a golem in the shape of worm that hovers a few feet above ground. Weird... and kind of gross how people enter the worm through the "mouths" in front and back"... That seems far more interesting to me than, "hey... it's a bullet train that hovers above the ground and runs on *magic*"...
--sam
I would much rather see something truly fantastic. Something that I would have never imagined. Something that has no "real world" analogs.
Something that I can look at and say "Holy Cow... I would have never guessed a passenger vehicle that was actually a golem in the shape of worm that hovers a few feet above ground. Weird... and kind of gross how people enter the worm through the "mouths" in front and back"... That seems far more interesting to me than, "hey... it's a bullet train that hovers above the ground and runs on *magic*"...
--sam
s/LaSH
First Post
The problem with a big hovering wurm thing, of course, is that passengers tend to thing it's gross too. And it's harder to make something look like a wurm than to bolt some metal plates onto a frame. The question then becomes, Is it a noticable difference to craft something so finely?
I'm thinking, Yes.
This does, however, indicate a sort of maturity in the technology (used in the sense of a technique used, and therefore applicable to everything from electronics to the practice of keeping cattle in a herd) of Eberron. Look at the development of firearms - in the early days you had these massive things with dragon mouths and stuff, and eventually they just gave up and started making them tubes with bits to hold onto, because that was easier.
After all, what's easier - making a five-hundred-ton golem, or making half a dozen egg-sized levitators and putting them in a metal frame you got some dwarves to make you? (Not that Eberron dwarves are guaranteed smiths. Come to think of it, we don't know what they are.)
I'm thinking, Yes.
This does, however, indicate a sort of maturity in the technology (used in the sense of a technique used, and therefore applicable to everything from electronics to the practice of keeping cattle in a herd) of Eberron. Look at the development of firearms - in the early days you had these massive things with dragon mouths and stuff, and eventually they just gave up and started making them tubes with bits to hold onto, because that was easier.
After all, what's easier - making a five-hundred-ton golem, or making half a dozen egg-sized levitators and putting them in a metal frame you got some dwarves to make you? (Not that Eberron dwarves are guaranteed smiths. Come to think of it, we don't know what they are.)
Lalato
Adventurer
I think what you're talking about has a lot more to do with mass production which is an industrial concept that I'm not sure exactly fits here. Granted, I could be wrong about that.
The reason why early firearms had dragons mouths carved into them had more to do with the fact that each gun was pretty much a unique piece of equipment. As the concept of mass production of parts became part of society, we started to see less stylized firearms.
Again... I'm not saying that I'm against technology... I just think that magical technology would look different than industrial technology. The worm was just a quick example... we could just as easily replace the worm golem with something a bit more palettable (sp?), but equally fantastic.
--sam
The reason why early firearms had dragons mouths carved into them had more to do with the fact that each gun was pretty much a unique piece of equipment. As the concept of mass production of parts became part of society, we started to see less stylized firearms.
Again... I'm not saying that I'm against technology... I just think that magical technology would look different than industrial technology. The worm was just a quick example... we could just as easily replace the worm golem with something a bit more palettable (sp?), but equally fantastic.
--sam
teitan
Legend
I look at the technology and think Steampunk, but I also understand it is not a steampunk setting and I still like it. I don't care how it came to be, it is fantasy and after a lifetime of reading fantasy (mainly comic books) I have no qualms with trains and dirigibles etc in my fantasy games... I look forward to that kind of weirdness. Better than flying schooners and what not that populated DnD in the 80s... Princess Ark my ass.
Jason
Jason
If Eberron really does incorporate "magical" industrial technology extensively (we only know about the train for sure now, right?) then I also think that it would be more interesting to take a look at how to make the more high-magic elements unique rather than copying industrial items. I could see that as a very interesting undertaking.
What would a transport system look like based on magic extrapolation from horse and cart (rather than railroad)? Aircraft based on seacraft have already been done and is interesting. What else can you extrapolate from medieval technology via magic to create things that do the same things as devices today, but in a very different way?
I think that could actually be a very interesting setting. A bunch of industrial technology where they swap the engineering for magic, however, seems like a cheap shortcut. I'll wait and see if that's what is really happening though. We still don't know.
What other interesting juxtapositions could be made?
- A network of teleportation chambers that are like castle gatehouses, complete with guards, taxable goods checks, and protocol for only allowing certain nationalities access. The price to use them is expensive but still within the ability for a peasant to use it, albeit rarely and only for very special occasions.
- Communication networks based on courier gargoyles carrying scroll tubes from location to location or pairs of statuettes that copy what you say at a remote location.
- Humanoid golems with holes in their backs for passengers. The grab wheels between their hands and feet to move quickly. The passengers can command them to move as desired.
- An arms race/cold war of powerful wizards with the ability to summon elemental forces capable of instantly destroying entire cities.
- Automated production facilities made by dwarven wizards that create golems to slave away in caverns deep beneath the earth, tirelessly turning out manufactured goods.
- Street displays for business establishments that use permanent illusions to attract attention.
Any other ideas? Maybe we could make our own web-based community setting.
What would a transport system look like based on magic extrapolation from horse and cart (rather than railroad)? Aircraft based on seacraft have already been done and is interesting. What else can you extrapolate from medieval technology via magic to create things that do the same things as devices today, but in a very different way?
I think that could actually be a very interesting setting. A bunch of industrial technology where they swap the engineering for magic, however, seems like a cheap shortcut. I'll wait and see if that's what is really happening though. We still don't know.
What other interesting juxtapositions could be made?
- A network of teleportation chambers that are like castle gatehouses, complete with guards, taxable goods checks, and protocol for only allowing certain nationalities access. The price to use them is expensive but still within the ability for a peasant to use it, albeit rarely and only for very special occasions.
- Communication networks based on courier gargoyles carrying scroll tubes from location to location or pairs of statuettes that copy what you say at a remote location.
- Humanoid golems with holes in their backs for passengers. The grab wheels between their hands and feet to move quickly. The passengers can command them to move as desired.
- An arms race/cold war of powerful wizards with the ability to summon elemental forces capable of instantly destroying entire cities.
- Automated production facilities made by dwarven wizards that create golems to slave away in caverns deep beneath the earth, tirelessly turning out manufactured goods.
- Street displays for business establishments that use permanent illusions to attract attention.
Any other ideas? Maybe we could make our own web-based community setting.
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