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Technology in D&D, the IRL Timeline, and Pausing It.
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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 8604781" data-attributes="member: 177"><p>We have coal because there was a period in our distant history during which we had trees, but didn't have microorganisms that broke down the cellulose that makes up their bulk. The trees then don't completely rot away when they die, and their carbon remained to be buried and transformed by geological processes into coal. You break nothing in biology or physics if those microorganisms develop earlier, preventing the creation of coal at any scale.</p><p></p><p>Without coal, though, metallurgy at scale stalls out, unless you burn huge amounts of wood, or another energy source is available.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The basis of smokeless powder is nitrocellulose. You can get it by treating wood, paper, cotton, or other cellulose-rich material with nitric and sulfuric acids. Nitroglycerine (which you get in a reaction of those acids and glycerine) is not required.</p><p></p><p>Can folks never develop nitrocellulose? Sure. The effective original discovery of gun cotton for us was, iirc, an accident when a cotton apron was used to mop up acids, and combusted after it dried. Just have that accident not happen, and nitrocellulose for firearms is delayed indefinitely.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Lodestone is already extremely rare. Current best guess is that it is formed when lightning strikes near magnetite deposits, but only when the magnetite also has some specific impurities. If you want it even more rare, nothing breaks - it is just a world in which the specific circumstances don't happen often.</p><p></p><p>But, note that you don't really need lodestone to discover electrical generation. Faraday's original generator didn't use lodestone. You can (and we largely did) discover the dynamics necessary using leyden jars or chemical batteries and wire.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Sure. For example, in our world, you likely don't get industrialization if your world doesn't have unbalanced development of seafaring technology. In our World, Europe made some leaps in development of ships before the rest of the world - that led to Europe's "Age of Discovery", which needed mass finances, and gave us the modern notion of the corporation. If sail technology is more evenly spread around the world, nobody has the opportunity to expand rapidly enough to need cooperative private financing, and the profit motives that come with it led to industrialization.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 8604781, member: 177"] We have coal because there was a period in our distant history during which we had trees, but didn't have microorganisms that broke down the cellulose that makes up their bulk. The trees then don't completely rot away when they die, and their carbon remained to be buried and transformed by geological processes into coal. You break nothing in biology or physics if those microorganisms develop earlier, preventing the creation of coal at any scale. Without coal, though, metallurgy at scale stalls out, unless you burn huge amounts of wood, or another energy source is available. The basis of smokeless powder is nitrocellulose. You can get it by treating wood, paper, cotton, or other cellulose-rich material with nitric and sulfuric acids. Nitroglycerine (which you get in a reaction of those acids and glycerine) is not required. Can folks never develop nitrocellulose? Sure. The effective original discovery of gun cotton for us was, iirc, an accident when a cotton apron was used to mop up acids, and combusted after it dried. Just have that accident not happen, and nitrocellulose for firearms is delayed indefinitely. Lodestone is already extremely rare. Current best guess is that it is formed when lightning strikes near magnetite deposits, but only when the magnetite also has some specific impurities. If you want it even more rare, nothing breaks - it is just a world in which the specific circumstances don't happen often. But, note that you don't really need lodestone to discover electrical generation. Faraday's original generator didn't use lodestone. You can (and we largely did) discover the dynamics necessary using leyden jars or chemical batteries and wire. Sure. For example, in our world, you likely don't get industrialization if your world doesn't have unbalanced development of seafaring technology. In our World, Europe made some leaps in development of ships before the rest of the world - that led to Europe's "Age of Discovery", which needed mass finances, and gave us the modern notion of the corporation. If sail technology is more evenly spread around the world, nobody has the opportunity to expand rapidly enough to need cooperative private financing, and the profit motives that come with it led to industrialization. [/QUOTE]
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