Is anyone else like this?

[AeroDm]

I think technology fits into any culture depending on _what_ it is.

Dwarves with steam powered furnaces to work the forge makes perfect sense and seems like a logical progression. Halflings or gnomes with crazy little contraptions to fit their crazy little races just works. Humans, of course, can have any variety of technology to suit their needs.

Also, technology doesn't have to be weaponry or crude. If you dislike elves with guns, give them the technology of alloys and make mithril an alloy. Give them the technology to make paper while the rest of the world is on parchment. Give them ornate aquaducts that flow unseen through the forest.

All too often people become trapped in the notion that the pinnacle of technology is the gun/rifle/nuke, while this clearly isn't the case. Of course, I sorta think an elf toting two pistols and a rapier is cool...

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Well, i believe technology can be powerful on both basises, individual,as well as for a society.

Also, i know this will sound weird. But i once heard someone on these forums say, in regards to the Ents in TTT. That it was nice too see nature fighting back after having been abused so much. Well, it seems lately in the real world, that it has become the "cool" thing to do to portray nature as always being abused. And that technology is a bad thing. Which is also why LOTR is not at the top of my favorite books, with its clearly anti-technology message. And that things get worse as time moves on. This directly opposes my beliefs. I know Tolkien said he disliked allegory, but it still seems like this way to me. I also feel more of a connection to the artifical, than to the natural, but i am sure everyone here is tired of my ramblings, so i will stop for now.

EDIT: Sorry for the MASSIVE multi-post.

Hmm, I think this is a fairly tough stance to take on Tolkien. I certainly don't think that Tolkien feels the world is getting inevitably worse, by the end of the books things are much better and the fact that things have gotten worse since the end of the second age is mostly a testament to the glory of the second age not the inevitability of decline.

By the same token it would be impossible to argue that Tolkien portrays a world where history marches on to an inevitable better tomorrow, and in that sense he certainly doesn't work with the current traditional technological myth.

Tolkien certainly has a beef against technology that burns resources without stewardship but there are plenty of fairly 'high tech' cultures that seem to do all right in his world, and most of the major foundational characters are craftsmen and tool users.

I honestly have a problem with the idea of humans being the tech race, most of human history is not noted for rapidly advancing and widely and well distributed technology. I have to agree that it depends on the individual culture.

If you have gnomes and dwarves who create pretty stable community politics and create great records then I would guess they would pull it ahead. Their 'natural' lifestyle would have to put them into contact with more substances and weird engineering delimmas and their long lives and many generations would give them significant advantages.

Also, I do like the idea of ReichsElves cruising through Halfling land on their Unicorn Panzers singing "Aelfland Aelfland uber alles..."

 

[Dark Jezter]

Irony: The latest special-effects technology being used to make a movie trilogy that has nature fighting back against technology.

Back to the topic at hand. After playing Warcraft III and reading the Warcraft RPG book, I'm more accepting of fantasy races using technology. After all, that setting features things like dwarf riflemen, goblin-made zeppelins, gnomish flying machines, steam-powered tanks, etc.

 

[megamania]

It's up to the Dm and what he/she thinks is right for the world the players are in. In some games Tech is okay, in others it is not. Hinted at already- what kind of tech are we talking about? Mithril and Adamantanium are more than likely alloys which are a form of technology, Steel is already. The typical Dungeon Trap is a form of technology. The bigger sea going craft are forms of technology.

So it's more of how MUCH tech do you want to offer rather than to have some or not.

If its the mixing of the two- then many better dungeon traps will need to be removed, Steel enchanted weapons will have to be removed. Heck- Golems could be in a gray area.

 

[Nifft]

IMC, the basic building blocks of reality -- Superstrings -- are sentient. "Technology" doesn't work -- experiments differ depending on who's the observer, and in the absense of any observer, things just don't work.

Luckily, the world is full of spirits who "observe" within their paradigm, and keep the natural world "running". If a mortal wants to make a "machine" that will work in his absense, he needs to expend XP -- and effectively make it a magic item.

-- N

 

[JoeGKushner]

Gnomes and dwarves would be the first ones I'd think would have technology and would pass that onto the humans.

Elves and others wouldn't relaly use it I think unless it was such 'super science' that it was magic.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

One thing that I used to figure out how the races in my world viewed tech is to set up a rudimentary technology timeline - so in my world, gunpowder exists, but it was only discovered 100 years ago. Guns are in use, but different races use or don't use them based on various factors:

Gnomes are innovators and inventors; they discovered gunpowder and use it. They're open to technological innovations.

Humans will use whatever makes a good tool. Amusingly enough, orcs have pretty much the same philosophy.

Dwarves are very tradition-bound, but also very technical. They're very good with technology, but tend to be late at adopting it.

Elves, due to their long lives, tend to stick with the things they learned when they were young. It's often said that the biggest reason guns won out over bows is because of the long time it takes to train bowmen; elves don't have that problem, as they've got hundreds of years to perfect their skill. A new technology has to clearly beat an old one for it to be of use to them. For example, I'm sure the elves picked up on stirrups very quickly; guns may take a couple more hundred years, in my world.

 

[Kilmore]

Well, for one thing, I don't assume that "magic" and "technology" are mutually incompatable. I believe that applying magic to tech can result in some interesting combinations, such as combining portals to elemental planes of fire and water in a boiler to create steam (or rockets!, the space shuttle is basically a big steam rocket), ley line railroads, and things like that.]

I agree that it doesn't seem like elves in general will develop bolty-geary type contraptions that other races might favor. However, they may well have methods for growing and cultivating tools and items to fufill a technological function while retaining it's natural essence. Magic may or may not be a part of this process.

 

[TempSn]

Well, for one thing, I don't assume that "magic" and "technology" are mutually incompatable. I believe that applying magic to tech can result in some interesting combinations, such as combining portals to elemental planes of fire and water in a boiler to create steam (or rockets!, the space shuttle is basically a big steam rocket), ley line railroads, and things like that.]

Thats exactly what i do not like. I believe it ruins the pure technology. Okay, everybody probably thinks i am a weirdo now, but that is alright.