Magic Industrial Revolution (Need Suggestions)

[GandalfMithrandir]

you could have some sort of magical phone booth or if your looking for something like a cell phone you could create wands that could communicate with another wand a certain number of times every day

 

[NewJeffCT]

you could have some sort of magical phone booth or if your looking for something like a cell phone you could create wands that could communicate with another wand a certain number of times every day

Good idea as well. I think the speed of communication would have an amazing effect on the medieval world. Imagine news available within 24 hours, instead of weeks or months later? ("OMG, Hannibal is xing the Alps!")

 

[Bishop Odo]

Advanced sewer systems populated by otyughs that clean up the refuse. Or at least have them at the end of the drainage system, so the surrounding lands are not contaminated by refuse.

Light posts with continual light on them.

For the most part all this could be done with the standard rules set. In fact the, the Healing priest,of a major city would most likely would take charge of such monsters to keep the population healthy. You then start to talk about de facto Germ Theory.

What about deforestation, after all how do you cook and heat your home. Introducing coal or elemental stoves could be big help, or central steam heating like New York.

What about Archeology, when you start talking about cities are thousands of years old, neat things start to happen. Ground elevation increases, streets become buried, think Jerusalem and Rome, Hills are leveled and eliminated not by removal, but by building over them, think artificial cave and buried street, think Edinburgh, cisterns are abandoned, think Istanbul, and these are only how old...some fantasy cities are 10,000 years old.

We need to make the distinction between Historical Medieval and Fantasy medieval cites.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I wanted to make a 3.5 DnD game with The Magic Industrial Revolution Theme to it.

Urbis is based on that theme, so you might want to take a look at it.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Urbis is based on that theme, so you might want to take a look at it.

That actually looks pretty interesting. Thanks for the link.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Urbis is based on that theme, so you might want to take a look at it.

That actually looks pretty interesting. Thanks for the link.

 

[HACKBattleMage]

Cannons could be basically wands of fireball. And for that matter guns could just be modified wands with charges that you have to "reload" with a magical clip or something.

I played a game where my Gnome Tinkerer found an ancient tank, and learned to power it with Potions of Shocking Grasp (not for drinking) that acted like batteries.

Magical Waste sounds like an awesome idea. The waste from the plants where these magical industrial items are manufactured would be hot beds for Oozes, Ochres, Jellies, etc. It could even affect nearby plants, animals and insects, doing who knows what to them (growing huge, granting intelligence, some random ability (acid breath or flight)).

When magic and industry collide, there is even the possibility for Time Travel I would say... but that is a huge can of worms for any campaign.

Oh man, just had a thought. What if all this excessive usage of magic became too much of a strain on the Weave, and at some point busted something so that magic becomes inert for a while, thus crippling this new burgeoning society.

Also do not forget to include those that hate new technology. Call them Luddites like in real life (or in my case from the Dark Tower).

 

[Sigurd]

You need to have a limiter for magic or a cost associated with it that is stronger than 3.5.

The classic examples for this are to contemplate what a fabricate spell cast multiple times daily would do to labour. If you calculate the amount of stone or metal in any of the wall spells its hard to justify getting the material any other way.

The big problem is when you get something for nothing. That 'something' becomes very very easy to flood the world with. Magic in most systems is too easy to do or too hard to make expensive. The game is designed for someone to do something because its neat not because it might be profitable.

Any industrial magic would have to cost something and have down sides as well as up sides.

Sigurd

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For reading purposes- in order to inspire you- 2 of the best fantasy novel settings with gear that mimic modern goods are Terry Pratchett's Diskworld series and Harry Turtledove's Darkness novels.

In Diskworld, for example, there are all kinds of gizmos like cameras and PDAs that are mimicked by boxes containing tiny gremlins who paint or take notes very quickly.

In his Darkness stories, HT is telling the story of a world undergoing its own fantasy version of WW2. In it, you see troops carrying rechargeable wands and staves that replace handguns and rifles, tanks simulated by immense, armored beasts carrying soldiers with larger versions of the staves, air forces comprised largely of riders of wyvern-like fire breathing dragons, and even fantasy analogs of the Manhattan Project and a necromantic Final Solution/Holocaust.

Other things that have popped up in similar threads and in the writings of other authors:

1) Mills, paddlewheels and similar technologies powered by automatons (like golems or clockwork beings) or undead (skeletons and zombies). They don't need rest, they don't need sustenance- used this way, they are essentially sources of infinite energy, albeit at a generally constant and leisurely pace.

Instead of fuel, the limiting factor would be replacing the gear and machinery that wears down through their constant use, and in the case of the undead, possibly the hazards of getting a bit too close...

2) Elemental or magical flames being used as incinerators or in forges. They may also be used in boilers that power steam engines, opening up the world of all kinds of steam-powered vehicles...including cars and trains.

3) Use of elemental or magical ice as "aircraft carriers" or similarly large ships. (Historical side note: something like this was actually proposed during WW2- and emulated in HT's novels- by George Pyke, and would have been made of Pykrete [a mixture of wood pulp and ice]. See Project Habakkuk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

4) Anything that produces unending flows of elemental or magically produced water can be used to power a paddlewheel or mill as well (see 1, supra), and has the additional benefit of being useful to limit the efficacy of a siege. Water is essentially non-compressible, so if the rate of flow (from something like a Decanter of Endless Water http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#decanterofEndlessWater) is constant, focusing that flow through narrow apertures results in a deadly jet of water.

5) Airships can be powered by elementals or magic. Those may be zeppelin-like, or may have a shape akin to ironclad or masted ships (see T.Brooks' Jerle Shannara books or the RPG products Spelljammer and Space: 1889). "Tamed" elementals may also be used for propulsion by standard masted ships as well.

 

[Quartz]

Harry Turtledove's Case of the Toxic Spell Dump might also be worth a read.