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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kelleris" data-source="post: 2688945" data-attributes="member: 19130">They complement each other as diverse takes on the same basic concept of "technology in D&D."  The trilogy thing arose from my noting that ENP seems to publish an awful lot of these sorts of books, and that, looking at it in a certain way, the three books cover all the possible ways of having technology interact with a magic-rich world - Steam & Steel introduces technology that acts like technology, Mechamancy features magic that acts like technology, and The Fantastic Science presents technology that functions like magic.  And of course, the core rules themselves cover magic that acts like magic.What I mean by acting like technology is that the results of the knowledge in questions are useable by anyone and capable of being mass-produced (to some significant degree).  Systems that act like magic instead focus the relevant esoteric knowledge in the hands of a select few masters (wizard-types or technologists, depending).Essentially, Fantastic Science presents a spellcasting tradition, akin to arcane or divine magic or psionics, that happens to be based on technology instead of magical spellcasting, with all the particulars that that implies.  One of the selling points of the book is that it allows DMs to introduce technology into their setting without necessarily introducing an Industrial Revolution at the same time, although there are some suggestions for going that route if you want to.You could use all three books together, but they'd be essentially independent versions of the same "technology in a world of magic" theme.Hmm...  That'd be pretty interesting, actually.  I would present it in the context of a conflict between two cultures, one ruled by a technocratic organization coveting their knowledge and taking the role traditionally filled by wizards in a campaign setting (Fantastic Science) and the other heavily influenced by a guild of craft-mages producing magical artifacts for the use of the masses (Mechamancy).  Use Steam & Steel's toolkit approach to develop the really revolutionary science/magic hybrid technologies that arise from the conflict of ideas.  It'd be an interesting inversion of the usual respective roles of magic and science.</blockquote>

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