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<blockquote data-quote="Ath'kethin" data-source="post: 7471405" data-attributes="member: 6798775">You can also look at it this way: skill with mathematics in the real world is still seen as amazing and something akin to sorcery by many, many people. The fact that they could manage the same level of problem solving if they put their mind to it doesn't mean that they will. Or even that they recognize and/or believe they can.And gnome clockwork devices are far less useful than mathematics, and far less likely to improve anybody's life if they put in the time. So in terms of reverse engineering your gnomish devices: has someone done it? Probably. Has someone done it on a mass scale? almost undoubtedly not. Anyone who manages to do it likely also faces resentment and ostracism from their family and community, too; you can bet that not everybody is comfortable with weird devices made by other races. I mean, people in the U.S. were afraid to eat canned food made by Germans during and for a long while after World War II. I don't see why a bunch of medieval-ish peasants would be more open-minded. And if the gnomes are smart, they'd capitalize on that so &quot;gnomish toymaking&quot; would inspire the same sense of (misplaced) awe in your campaign as &quot;German engineering&quot; does to car aficionados here.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ath'kethin, post: 7471405, member: 6798775"] You can also look at it this way: skill with mathematics in the real world is [I]still [/I]seen as amazing and something akin to sorcery by many, many people. The fact that they [I]could [/I]manage the same level of problem solving if they put their mind to it doesn't mean that they [I]will[/I]. Or even that they recognize and/or believe they can. And gnome clockwork devices are far less useful than mathematics, and far less likely to improve anybody's life if they put in the time. So in terms of reverse engineering your gnomish devices: has someone done it? Probably. Has someone done it on a mass scale? almost undoubtedly not. Anyone who manages to do it likely also faces resentment and ostracism from their family and community, too; you can bet that not everybody is comfortable with weird devices made by other races. I mean, people in the U.S. were afraid to eat canned food made by Germans during and for a long while after World War II. I don't see why a bunch of medieval-ish peasants would be more open-minded. And if the gnomes are smart, they'd capitalize on that so "gnomish toymaking" would inspire the same sense of (misplaced) awe in your campaign as "German engineering" does to car aficionados here. [/QUOTE]

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