Mechamancy...Explain It to Me.

[The Grumpy Celt]

1) Mechamancy focus on a system for the creation of basically non-magical items of technology in a way that will compliment and not ruin the typical D&D magically focused world.

They can be either magic or technology with examples of each. Some random examples- goggles that allow the use of identify, detect secret doors, and see invisibility; mechanical clock; astronomic telescope; wings for individual flight and a mechanical firefly the size of a small dog.

These assessments of mechamancy are correct, in my estimation – and I wrote the book.

My honest opinion is that Mechamancy has a bit of an identity problem...

I am surprised and disappointed to learn RangerWickett and GlassJaw believe the book is weak and unfocused, but c'est la vie.

Generally speaking, mechamancy combined magic and the rudimentary clockwork technology available during Renaissance period to make fantastic things possible, like a working version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “helicopter.”

Further, it was designed to make the items useful for anyone, not just mages. That is the nature of technology, to be available to everyone and not just specialists. From the outset my goal was that mechamancy made things like wands and staffs, but the mechamancy versions of those items could be used by anyone.

As for using the same set of rules for making mundane and magical items, I knew I was doing that at the time I was working on the book but it never concerned me a great deal. I handled it the way I did in an attempt to cover all the bases with one system for the sake of simplicity. This is not much of a conflict to me and certainly not one that keeps me awake at night.

My approach was to make a proverbial tool box. If you need something, you may take that element and use it and you are not required to use the entire book or entire systems. However, if you did want an entire system, then one was presented that was more good than bad.

The notion that wands – and similar tools and weapons – should only be used by levels magic users is ideologically opposite and fundamentally philosophically irreconcilable with the kind of book I wrote in mechamancy.

In any event, I make no apologies and remain pleased with the book.

 

[Ulric]

These assessments of mechamancy are correct, in my estimation – and I wrote the book.

Thanks for the reply, Robert. I love the idea behind the book, now that I think I understand it a little better. That's a good, simple explanation: a magic wand that can be used by anyone, even tough, like a t.v., it was created by experts. The focus being on...can be used by anybody.

The things I was think of are the same, in that they can be used by anyone, and would also be created by a skilled class of craftsman. My mental focus was just more on the particulars of the magic and technological combinations.

Heck, I don't write RPG books, so I expect to see the following items in Mechamancy III (just kidding). Here are some quick, off-the-top-of-my-head examples of what I was thinking.

1) A blender....what does it do? Blends things, of course. What would a magic blender do? Also blend things. But, lets say, via the blending process it seperated something into various magical components and liquids that can then be used in the creation of other magical items.

2) A Sexton. What does it do? Helps a person orient himself via landmarks and/or stars. What would a magical sexton do? How about orient a person to the particular magical energies of an area. Real useful if you need to find holy ground or a portal or something.

3) A pill box. What does it do? Holds a person's pills. What does a magical pill box do? It creates the right pill for a person's particular sickness. Kinda like the person's own little magical drug factory that fits in their pocket. I really like this one...open to all kinds of abuse.

4) A can of paint. What do you do with it? Paint things. But what can you do with a magical can of paint? How about paint things and people a particular alignment (good, bad, neutral, chaotic etc...) that they must function as until the paint dries and the effect stops. Cool. I think I'm going to go paint that good fairy's house with my black magical paint and sit back and watch Goody-Two-Shoes wreck the neighborhood.

5) A Telephone. We all know what a telephone does. But how about a magical telephone? Well, when crafted this particular way by the craftology expert (or technologist or mechanologist...or whatever you want to call 'em) you can use this magical phone to call people in heaven or hell. That would be fun. Maybe I'll use the phone to make prank phone calls to Graz'zt. And this cool phone even let's me leave a fake callback number...or location etc to get Graz'zt or Demogorgon mad at my annoying neighbor.

6) A lock. Of course it locks stuff. But a craftologist creates a magical lock that locks away a person's particular type of thoughts. A person can't remember those things as long as that lock is within twenty feet of them. And I just slipped that lock into the bottom of the person's backpack they carry everywhere and hardly ever unpack.

Like I said, the possible ideas and combinations are endless.

I like that you created a general system...not too narrowly focused.

I like books that give the reader ideas, while still leaving the system open enough that the reader/gamer can create tons of stuff within the author's structure.

 

[Kelleris]

Thanks for the reply, Robert. I love the idea behind the book...now that I think I understand it a little better. That's a good, simple explanation: a magic wand that can be used by anyone, even tough, like a t.v., it was created by experts. Thanks for writing the book.

I'll buy the bundle (bundled with The Fantastic Science) and give 'em a good, detailed reading.

Hmm, please let us know what you think of our respective work, if you can - I'm the guy who wrote TFS.

DMH has the right idea about the book, too - it's basically a variant "spellcasting" system, like psionics, for another example, and tries to avoid requiring an Industrial Revolution-type set-up for a game to make use of it. If you don't like the default flavor text - magic as "gremlins" and technologists as half anti-magical experts and half fantasy scientists - there are some suggestions for tweaking the device lists to get something either focused on a particular tradition of spellcasting or away from the antimagic basis for technology entirely. The system is very deliberately impossible according to actual science - as JustKim put it, clockwork in, fireball out (and there's a device that does exactly that).

If you're inclined to use both in the same campaign or setting, you might fiddle with the Mechamancy rules a bit (they require spellcasting to create, IIRC) so technologists can take part in their creation as well, and reserve the ridiculous super-tech for technologists, who get some crazy stuff at high levels to compete with miracles and shapechanges from the other guys - the aforementioned ray that hits before you fire it, an obscenely powerful death ray that comes with its own pocket dimension, a device that lets you teleport opponents around by way of lakes of acid, that sort of thing.

At the very least, you might consider pilfering the expanded masterworking rules and modified craft point rules, since they tend to make mundane items more important and adventuring builder-type characters easier to fit into an ongoing campaign, respectively. Let me know if there's anything I can help you with, and, er, sorry I didn't see this thread earlier.

 

[Ulric]

Looking for a new, improved way to handle high technology in fantasy d20? Check out The Fantastic Science! Want to know what it's all about? Check it out here!

Hey, Matthew, I tried to download the 24 page teaser for TFS, and when I attempted to add it to the cart, it said "product is not available." I'm going to buy it anyway, but it would have been cool to have had that. I wouldn't've needed to have asked so many goofy questions in this thread.

 

[Kelleris]

Hey, Matthew, I tried to download the 24 page teaser for TFS, and when I attempted to add it to the cart, it said "product is not available." I'm going to buy it anyway, but it would have been cool to have had that. I wouldn't've needed to have asked so many goofy questions in this thread.

The teaser? Hmm... Unfortunately I have nothing to do with the shop side of things - you'll have to hope RangerWickett shows up in this thread again and can point you to it. Failing that, all of the material in the teaser is in the book, in the form of an appendix, and I do have the pdf of the teaser around here somewhere. If you want to give me your e-mail I can send it to you that way.

To be fair, though, my judgment after the fact is that the teaser does not do a very good job of showing off the book. I'm almost glad it's apparently not available. Not that it's bad material, of course, just that it doesn't have the pizzazz you would hope for with a "trailer" product like that...

 

[DMH]

If you haven't bought them yet, I strongly suggest getting the PODs. There is enough material that the price is well worth it and you can read it if the power goes out

 

[Ulric]

Who's selling the PODs? Is that through Lulu? Or RPGNow? Where?

 

[DMH]

The printer is Lulu, but you can buy them via rpgnow (though for not much longer, I understand).

 

[GlassJaw]

I am surprised and disappointed to learn RangerWickett and GlassJaw believe the book is weak and unfocused, but c'est la vie.

I never said it was weak at all - I certainly like it. I just think that there was some overlap with Steam & Steel and I think the mechanics in S&S are a little more "solid".

 

[jmucchiello]

6) A lock. Of course it locks stuff. But a craftologist creates a magical lock that locks away a person's particular type of thoughts. A person can't remember those things as long as that lock is within twenty feet of them. And I just slipped that lock into the bottom of the person's backpack they carry everywhere and hardly ever unpack.

How are these things any different from normal wondrous items? Aside from working blenders and telephone, why couldn't you make a masterwork lock and add some kind of compulsion effect (using I guess suggestion) to work like you say. Where is the craftology? The boots of striding and springing are just as "technological" as ordinary boots. The spell caster buys the boots and adds some mumbo jumbo to them. If there are clock makers, what stops a wizard from adding a room painting effect (purple of course) to the existing clock using the existing Craft Wondrous Item feat?