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<blockquote data-quote="Sunseeker" data-source="post: 6062329">Bolded part for emphasis.&nbsp; I would honestly be fine with someone &quot;inventing gunpowder&quot;, why?&nbsp; Because there's a lot more to it than that.First you must identify which, if any elements in the world are combustible.Then you must figure out where they're located.Then you need to set up extraction operations, many of which are likely to fail.All of this is going to cost serious money, which probably means investors.Investors need to be sold on the idea that finding certain rocks and then grinding them in to powder and them using them to make a &quot;fireball&quot; is somehow superior to simply getting a mage who's short on cash to cast &quot;Fireball&quot;.&nbsp; Even if you DO succeed in all of these efforts, you'll still need to ensure a solid refining process that isn't prone to blow up in your face(which many early ones were).Then you'll need to develop a delivery method, which once again will beg the question of &quot;how is training thousands of horses to haul tons of explosives better than one mage who can cast &quot;fireball&quot;?&quot;Even if you succeed in doing that, portable firearms are still a long ways off, and even if you do develop them, they're going to plainly suck for hundreds of years.So really, the player who says &quot;I invent gunpowder!&quot; is going to really have it coming to them.But in the end, I agree, none of what I said above should be codified in the rules as to how it should play out.&nbsp; Some DM's may have no problem with adding firearms, steampunk, or other such things to an otherwise magical world.&nbsp; Other DM's, like myself and I suspect you, would want to make the actual process of &quot;inventing&quot; black powder so difficult as to dissuade players from trying.It's reasonable that players should be able to try almost anything, but it's equally reasonable for the DM to set the bar, just like any other DC in the game, for success.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Sunseeker, post: 6062329"] Bolded part for emphasis. I would honestly be fine with someone "inventing gunpowder", why? Because there's a lot more to it than that. First you must identify which, if any elements in the world are combustible. Then you must figure out where they're located. Then you need to set up extraction operations, many of which are likely to fail. All of this is going to cost serious money, which probably means investors. Investors need to be sold on the idea that finding certain rocks and then grinding them in to powder and them using them to make a "fireball" is somehow superior to simply getting a mage who's short on cash to cast "Fireball". Even if you DO succeed in all of these efforts, you'll still need to ensure a solid refining process that isn't prone to blow up in your face(which many early ones were). Then you'll need to develop a delivery method, which once again will beg the question of "how is training thousands of horses to haul tons of explosives better than one mage who can cast "fireball"?" Even if you succeed in doing that, portable firearms are still a long ways off, and even if you do develop them, they're going to plainly suck for hundreds of years. So really, the player who says "I invent gunpowder!" is going to really have it coming to them. But in the end, I agree, none of what I said above should be codified in the rules as to how it should play out. Some DM's may have no problem with adding firearms, steampunk, or other such things to an otherwise magical world. Other DM's, like myself and I suspect you, would want to make the actual process of "inventing" black powder so difficult as to dissuade players from trying. It's reasonable that players should be able to try almost anything, but it's equally reasonable for the DM to set the bar, just like any other DC in the game, for success. [/QUOTE]

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