Ruling concerning Technology.
Every Turn represents one month in game time, but of course technology is being shared at a prodigious rate, and greedy hands are helping themselves to the best weapons they can obtain.
In the Technological Arms Race:
A Strength Level of 3 indicates your country has primitive firearms.
A Strength Level of 6 indicates your country has very advanced flintlocks, cannon, and is beginning to seriously enter the field of Technomancy.
A Strength Level of 9 indicates your country is now able to produce early 19th century weapons.
A Strength Level of 12 indicates your country is now able to produce mid 19th century weapons.
A Strength Level of 15 indicates your country is now able to produce late 19th century weapons.
A Strength Level of 18 indicates your country is at 1900 Terran levels of weaponry.
A Strength Level of 21 indicates World War One technology.
A Strength Level of 24 indicates early World War Two technology.
A Strength Level of 27 indicates late World War Two technology.
A Strength Level of 30 indicates nuclear weapons.
A Strength Level of 33 indicates ICBMs.
A Strength Level of 36 indicates thermonuclear weapons.
A Strength Level of 39 indicates primitive computer guided weapons.
A Strength Level of 42 indicates your first space shot.
A Strength Level of 45 indicates your first moon landing.
A Strength Level of 48 indicates your first smart weapons.
A Strength Level of 51 indicates you have very sophisticated computer guided weapons.
A Strength Level of 54 indicates you have the war technology of 2002 Terra.
Of course, you want it, and you want it now.
You don't want to wait years for the good stuff, do you?
Well now, be honest ... do you?
Tell me you are not eager to get your hands on those firearms (much less the rest.)
The Lortmil Technomancy and the Shadow Empire both already have late 19th century weapons (and the Lortmil Technomancy also has a late 19th century society to boot.)
If one of these Powers decides to share their technology with you, you gain 3 points in the Technological Arms Race (whether you declared you were in it or not.)
Thus, if you announced you joined the Technological Arms Race, you'd gain 6 points on Turn 1, not 3.
If both of those nations decide to help you, you gain SIX additional points, and a total of 9 if you had already announced you were in the Technological Arms race.
If a Power shares technology with you, you may share it with other Powers as you please.
Any Power you share technology with, gains an additional 3 points of it's own, in addition to their efforts in the Technological Arms race.
This can add up in a terrifying way.
Let us say the Shadow Empire and the Lortmil Technomancy both give technology to Celene.
Celene had announced it was in the Arms Race, so it gains 9 points (3 base, plus 6 from the two Powers.)
Celene announces it is giving technology to the Lendores, and they thus receive an extra 3 points to the 3 they already had for declaring themselves in the Industrial Race.
However, both the Lortmil Technomancy and the Shadow Empire had ALREADY given technology to the Lendores, as well as Celene.
The Lendores had already gained their base 3, plus the 6 from the help, for a total of 9.
Since Celene is also helping them, they gain TWELVE points.
Then the Lendores turn around and bequeath what was given to them, to Celene, which now also gains 12 points.
That's the limit. No nation can gain more than 12 points in the Technological Arms race on Turn One, except under the most extraordinary of conditions.
It doesn't matter how many further nations bequeath technology to your power: it can't gain more than 12 points on Turn One.
On Turn Two, this absolute limit drops to 6 points (as higher technology is harder to transport and share, much less build.)
On Turn Three and beyond, you can only gain 3 points per Turn, regardless of how many Powers help you.
Incidentally, neither the Lortmil Technomancy nor the Shadow Empire can ever increase faster than the rate of 3 points per turn. Ever.
They cannot benefit from giving each other technology.
They cannot benefit from others giving them technology.
But of course both of them start with late 19th century technology anyways (the equivalent of 15 points for everyone else) so they have no right to complain.
None of this has anything to do with your CIVILIZATION.
You can be extremely advanced technologically, and very primitive otherwise (remember Dune?)
As a rule of thumb, if you are obtaining vast amounts of help from other nations, and making a massive effort yourself, your country will progress through the Renaissance at a rate equal to 10 times the IRL historical rate.
Which means that, if all the Turns lasted one month, your society would progress through the Industrial Revolution at the rate of about a year's equivalent per Turn.
Thus, since the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution up til now lasted 400 years, it would take 400 turns for your society to reach it's own equivalent of our modern world.
You have the option of using your Strength Total to speed up the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution in your society.
For every 3 points you give up from everything else, you can advance the process by 1 year.
For every 3 points someone else gives you out of the kindness of their heart, you gain another year.
Thus, the Lortmil Technomancy could state it is deploying it's entire Strength Total of 17 to helping the Kevellond League to advance industrially.
The Kevellond League would then be considered to have advanced 5 2/3rds years into the Renaissance.
If the Kevellond League devoted another 21 points to this process, it would advance another 7 years into the Renaissance, for a total of 12 2/3rds years of advancement ... to about the equivalent of 1513 IRL.
Does this sound slow and unreasonable? Consider what you are trying to do, folks.
The Renaissance and Enligtenment, and the Industrial Revolution, and everything up til now, took 400 years!
You are trying to compress hundreds of years of social progress into a few years.
I am allowing that it is possible, if you spend the incredible number of points it would take, but you cannot go from medieval to modern in a few months ... it is just not possible.
There is a payback, however slow it may be, for this activity ... a big payback.
For every 10 years your Power advances into the Renaissance, you gain one point of Base Power per country you are running, permanently.
Large countries, like United Ahlissa, gain more: up to 3 points of power.
Entire peoples, like the Drow of Oerth, gain 4 points.
So, consider the Baklunish Confederation. Zeif, Ekbir, Tusmit, Ket, Yecha, Ull, the Paynims, Istivar, and Garnak. 7 small countries, 1 intermediate sized one, and 1 big one.
A gain of 5 + 2 + 3 points, for advancing that 10 years, for a total permanent gain of 10 points.
That is the reward.
The penalty? You are not using your society's power to commit acts of war, or to defend itself from attack.
If you are attacked during the Turn, I will take this into account.
You must PUBLICLY STATE you are placing Power Level into advancing your civilization, and how many Points you are devoting ... it is not something you can keep secret (that is, e-mailing me with your activity is useless.)