How much technologywould you allow in a non-steampunk setting?

[HeavenShallBurn]

I'd be willing to incorporate many things that are usually considered steampunk into non-steampunk fantasy. Partly it's because used well they can be cool and exciting and a campaign should be cool and exciting. But it's also because at various points these things or a very close relative were actually designed if not produced during antiquity.

Firearms-at several points during antiquity various groups came close to developing firearms. Byzantine's had infantry flamethrowers. There have been various detractors but the steam cannon purported originally developed and tested by Archimedes was within the realm of their technology. See this link http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/experiments/steamCannon/ArchimedesSteamCannon.html
Remember these are the same people who invented what was effectively a semi-automatic ballista and napalm.

Railroads-I don't use railroads but that's for setting reasons, in a setting that didn't emphasize the impenetrable howling wilderness bashing at civilizations' gates I'd be happy to use something like them, whether as a magical lightning rail type thing or say trains pulled by teams of dinosaurs or elephants or other big animals.

Printing-This I use as I think with clerics of gods of Knowledge and Wizards working so dilegently they would eventually come up with it, even if they never let go of a monopoly of its use.

Airships- I use airships quite a lot, they're the only semi-safe way to travel between cities over the previously mentioned howling wildernesses full of dangerous beasts and barbarian hordes. Basic rules are from Bastion press Airships with minor modifications. There is a trio of cities well known for their steam-powered non-magical zepplins(though nobody else will believe them when they say no magic is involved). Many smaller communities use what are essentially hot air ballons with underslung cargo platforms and sails. The seldom seen and intensely militaristic human cities are renowned (and feared) for their skyborne ironclads lifted with great blocks of "floatstone." The Sky islands use airships similar to Eberron with bound elementals(since floatstone mining is a capital crime as it's what keeps their islands aloft). And the serpent peoples use airships built using "liftwood" which is has a negative weight and only grows in dense jungles.

Ornithopters- not yet and probably won't due to the feel that imparts but under the right circumstances I'd use one or two sparingly.

Mechanical Computers- yes but only very simple ones and only produced by the sky island trade cities who have a generally higher tech level. Even then only devices similar to the antikythera mechanism that are basically celestial navigation tools and simple mechanical adding devices.

Large Scale Machinery- Yes in fact very large scale machinery in the larger city-states. The key is aside from certain city-states and regions I limit the power source to that which is naturally available ie wind, water, and muscle(humanoid or beast of burden).

Long Distance Communication- Unconditionally no fast communication is something that I specifically want to limit to preserve the atmosphere of the setting. Keep fast communication for wizards as one of the things that only emphasizes their inscutable and odd nature.

Small Devices- some small devices but they all come from particular places well known for producing that sort of thing and there isn't really a market for it.

 

[Tonguez]

I once played in an Antediluvian 'Atlantis' setting in which crystal-tech powered all kinds of mecanics including flying barges, lightning-spears (firearms), Levitation devices (elevators), artificial lighting, remote image projection (teleconferencing) and a plethora of other magical effects. It was Psionic High fantasy and didn't seem steampunkish at all

I also don't restrict fantasy to Medieval milieu and have played in a psedu-17th Century in which pistols, gunnes, cannons and the printing press were common.

And besides the gun isn't that much different to a wand


Railroads- never wanted to use a train (because river boats are more fun) but Steam Engines were known in ancient times (see Heroes Engine) soit isn't too out of possibility that a steampowered tank might be developed. I'ved used a steampowered golem so why not

Airships- Airships are kewl

Ornithopters- now ornithorpters but I did have a group of air pirates who had small personal gliders that acted like Bi-Planes


Large Scale Machinery- like Cranes and Catapults?

Long Distance Communication is the work of spellcasters

Clockwork golems exist but nor watches

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

but Steam Engines were known in ancient times (see Heroes Engine) soit isn't too out of possibility that a steampowered tank might be developed. I'ved used a steampowered golem so why not

The Romans had a type of siege engine that was essentially an iron faced truncated pyramid that moved on dozens of rollers made from treetrunks turned by a gear assembly attached to a windlass in the center of the floor. Torsion artillery was mounted behind shutters on the upper decks. Replace the soldiers turning a windless with a steam engine and the ballistra and ballista with steam cannon and you've got a rolling plot point.

I essentially used this at one point as the centerpiece of an invasion by an undersea empire. It rolled up under the sea and emerged on the beach like Godzilla rising over Tokyo harbor, followed by the Akwavi army and their engines of destruction.

 

[DarkKestral]

Basically, I'm talking 'real world' for my medieval fantasy, so...

Guns are ok, though they'll be hard to reload in combat. THey had reloadable early versions starting around the 1400s, and had single-shot type dealies in the 1100s in Asia, so we can do medieval guns really easy.

Printing is in, because well, movable type presses were first built in the 1050s, and Gutenberg made his in 1450, so they're well within the medieval capacity to build, and if literacy is as common as it is appears to be standard D&D, then the presence of the printing press helps explain that. (Seriously, only one hero class is illiterate. Clerics and wizards pretty much have to be literate, real world druids were usually the scribes for their tribes and so D&D druids probably should be, bards only a little less, rangers a little less than that, fighters can be, sorcerors should be just so they aren't completely screwed...)

Mechanical computers are in, though they're mostly astronomical computers, and not really the 'general purpose' type associated with steampunk. The classical Greeks had 'em (look up the Antikythera Mechanism for an example) so they're doable, but as I said, limited. They're also generally quite BIG.

Clockwork's in, for the reason above, since most of the big computers WERE clocks. That's all people originally wanted out of computers.. the ability to know the time an event would happen. Mostly, I'd limit clockwork to defensive machinery (for an example, think of a gate w/ a clockwork lifting mechanism, so that only one person is needed to close or open a heavy gate.)

Large scale machinery's OK too, since the Romans had pumps and whatnot during their empire. Siege engines were common enough in the medieval era, and I am pretty sure some medieval castles had pumps to help w/ water supplies in time of siege, so that the castle could remain on the high ground. However, most large scale machinery is stuff that is either designed for war (siege engines and similar types of gear) or is stuff that makes it a lot easier to defend a place during war (water pumps and similar stuff)

But, the presence of all of these technologies is LIMITED. Sure, there are printing presses, but in general, no one knows how to build them except printers' guilds and perhaps the occasional group of monks and/or clerics. Wizards shouldn't probably have them, unless they too have a guild, and their own spellbooks are likely to be hand-written, meant mostly for their own consumption. (Wizards hoarding knowledge? That's just too classic to give up..) Sure, there's a clock, but it's kept at the village's main temple and is used only by the priests and the bell-ringers to ensure that the faithful come to worship at the right time. Sure, there's a gigantic clockwork mechanism, but it's the gate lock for the castle's main gate. Guns are generally complex, sometimes unreliable, hand-built, and probably only owned by the local lord and handed out only during wartime. Any time you see a lot more of a technology than that, chances are that area or race is known for producing that type of stuff. So you can largely IGNORE them in gameplay, most of the time, without affecting the feel.


However, things such as railways, airships, ornithopters (well.. successful ones at least, though a genius might produce plans for one which they THINK will work), and long distance communication machinery are pretty much out of the question, because they weren't around until well after the Renaissance period.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I voted "Complex answer explained below", but its not really that complex, namely:

It would depend upon the setting I devised.

long distance communication

Depending upon how you define that term, long distance communication has been around in the real world for quite some time, either in the form of signal drums or some kind of light manipulation system. The signal fires in the LoTR movies were inspired by the ones used on the Great Wall of China- and that system could deliver info quickly over thousands of miles.

***
Really, if I gave it some serious thought, I could probably include all of the above and still not have a steampunk setting.

(For the record, Harry Turtledove's Darkness novels are darn close to achieving that, and they're a High Fantasy version of WW2...)

 

[Wombat]

Firearms, Printing, Small Scale Machinery ... and to a much lesser extent Large Scale Machinery are all pre-boilers anyway, so I have no problem with them.

The rest of the stuff I would expect full-on steampunk.

 

[jefgorbach]

As previously mentioned, somewhere its either stated or implied the default dnd campaign is approx equal to earth's 14th/c tech level -- therefore its perfectly reasonable to allow anything invented HERE to possibly exist THERE; albeit wide-spread use is another matter.

secondly, most of the aforementioned items do not -need- steam/combustion engines to work. granted the 19th/c saw steam invade many many areas of live because of the labor-savings ... but WE lacked that key ingrediant: MAGIC.

Why resort to noisy, cumbersome steam engines when an enchanted waterfall or windmill engine can do the same thing quietly in less space without needing constantly refueled??
once advanced tech comes into play, enchanted solar cells would be the primary power choice for routine items.

 

[Ibram]

Guns have been a feature of my D&D games since I first started DMing.

Railroads (for long distance travel) where featured once, as an oddity.

Printing presses have only come into play once, when a character printed a pamphlet decrying a major religion. Before and after that printed materials were used, and the printing press was implied but not featured.

An airship appeared in a game, but it was an oddity (the same group that built the railroad)

I've never used Ornithopters.

Astrological devices similar to Mechanical Computers have appeared on occasion, used to calculate various celestial occurances.

Large Scale Machinery does exist, but has never been a major part of a game.

Long Distance Communication does exist, tall towers with mirror for daylight and lanterns for night time communication, link some of the cities IMC

Small Mechanical Devices have appeared, but have yet to impact

 

[paradox42]

Complex answer here. The answer is effectively "None of the above- except for exotic, powerful firearms advanced far beyond what modern Earth technology is capable of producing."

The setting I've used for all my 3.X campaigns to date is sort of a post-apocalyptic world with thousands of years of history laid down after the actual catastrophe, and the society before the catastrophe being a truly intergalactic civilization (i.e., they didn't just move at will between stars, but actually between entire galaxies). Some ruins of this incredibly powerful civilization are still around in the "present day" of the setting, and many Ancient devices are as well. For the most part, they work along similar principles to magic items, and can accomplish similar things, though they work within anti-magic zones (an advantage) and consume power from still-intact power cells to operate (a disadvantage since they tend to have many less "charges" overall unless one is able to take the time and resources to recharge the battery).

Example devices include hologram projectors, robots (treated as a subtype of Construct of course, and using rules for creatures rather than items), replicator technology, teleportation devices, powered armor, and of course lasers and other energy weapons. Rail guns are about the closest to Earth firearms that you'll see in the setting.

So, the tech I allow in my game is super-high tech, far far beyond steampunk. Steampunk is silly and primitive compared to this stuff. Heck, some of the things seen in Star Wars are primitive compared to this stuff, if you can find and refurbish something really nice like a Wormhole Generator or a Singularity Gun. Of course, those are artifact-level items that no PC below Epic level gets their hands on if I have anything to say about it.

 

[Voadam]

Firearms (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, not Steampunk)

Railways (whether magically powered or not) (magical transports and beast pulled transports are not necessarily steampunk even if functionally are railways)

Printing (nah, some renaissance era tech is default for D&D fantasy genre and newspapers and printed books not too out of line, particularly in Ravenloft).

Airships/Zeppelins (whether magically powered or not) (magical = fantasy)

Ornithopters (My first thought is Magic the Gathering, not any steampunk)

Mechanical computers (e.g. difference engines) (I don't think of computers as steampunk but as higher tech from modern or sci-fi eras).

Large scale machinery (such as pumps and lifts/elevators) (Dragonlance Xax Tsaroth had a wood and rope lift/elevator and I did not consider it steampunk).

Long distance communication (such as Terry Pratchett's clack towers) (Sending spells, various magic items peform long distance communication without feeling steampunkish)

Small scale machinery (such as watches and clockwork devices) (Clockworks are kind of steampunky but often used in fantasy)