the blending of magic and technology

[boothbey]

Gnometech...

Well...much to the consternation of my party....Actually they did seem to enjoy it. I introduced the Gnome Artificer prestige class from Magic of Faerun with a vengeance.

If you have not seen that class, it is essentially a item crafter that uses alchemical processes to duplicate spell effects. Lightning guns, strength enhancers, etc...

Took a lot of these types of things and attached them to the bodies of shield guardians. A nice melding of magic and "technology" that caused the party no end of problems. The guardians had hollow chests that served as a cockpit for kobolds inside that operated the "guns" from relative safety.

(I like kobolds so allowed them to take the artificer class despite the gnome only restriction.)

The evil operation that constructed these also used magically propelled submarines which they used to disrupt shipping.

Both the party and myself enjoyed the adventure, but it is not something I would plan to build an entire campaign around. The novelty mixing of science and technology can quickly play itself out.

There is always the saying that any technological wonder would be seen by a more primitive society as being possible only through magic. That might be your hook right there.

 

[Horacio]

Dragonstar is a wonderful mix of magic and technology, it works great and it doesn't kill any flavour...

 

[thol]

maybe i should check Dragonstar out.

i was also thinking of checking out darwin's world. anyone have any experience with that setting? is it too post-apocolypse?

what about Earthdawn? that's a sort of after technology is lost type of world isn't it?

 

[Horacio]

maybe i should check Dragonstar out.

Check Dragonstar, download the free previews and adventures and enjoy. It's a setting I really love.

 

[Churchill]

magic vs. technology

I think the key to maintaining the fantasy flavor while introducing technology is to not let the players know those things are technological.

Keeping the "feel" is all about eliminating metagame thinking from entering into the mix. If the players know technology is present, their knowledge of tech is going to intrude on the game (if you have good players, this will still happen, though it'll be more subconscious).

You mentioned robots as golems in your example, and I think that's a good way to go. If there's no reason reason for the characters to know that the golems are robots, you should never describe them as such. If they acquire a "laser pistol", don't describe it as such...call it a wand.

Perception is everything. If the players have no reason to suspect that technology is present, then they will still look at the world through their "fantasy-tinted" glasses.

And, hey, I think it was Arthur C. Clarke that said, "Any technology, sufficiently advanced, will look like magic."

 

[jmucchiello]

I assume you've seen Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (the 1st edition module S3). The simple solution is battery packs. All of the laser guns run on battery packs. The reason the ancients disappeared is because their battery packs ran dry. They lacked a required element to recharge them.

I also recommend L.E. Modesitt Jr's Recluse saga. It is both a low fantasy world with both high and low magic. Low fantasy because there are no weird creatures or races, just humans and the occasionaly wizard. The series has no single protagonist. It is written as a bunch of different histories. The fifth (or so) novel goes the farthest back in time to the time when the spacecraft landed on the world bringing "magic" to it. It's called Fall of Angels. I don't recommend reading the series too out of order but that book can safely be read first. The first book is The Magic of Recluse.

 

[Mallus]

Three recommendations....

1) The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe {which are Shadow of the Torturer, The The Claw of the Concilliator, The Sword of the Lictor, and The Citadel of the Autarch.

They're amazing books. In the final anaysis they're science fiction, but there is a sense of wonder in these books that strikes to the heart of fantasy fiction. They're really timeless.

2) The Dying Earth by Jack Vance. Enough said.

3) The Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen. Wacky, pulpy, and wonderful. The big bad is a demon lord who began life as a nuclear explosion...