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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CruelSummerLord" data-source="post: 3982109" data-attributes="member: 48692">In considering this, as well as various other aspects of human life in a given setting, people tend to forget the presence of sentient non-human creatures in the setting.  Gnomes, depending on what conception of them you use in your game, would be plunging headlong into the advancement of the sciences.  They're portrayed as often the most scientifically-apt of the major races, and especially in the physical sciences, they will likely be leaders in research and development.  Dwarves can also contribute to engineering and technology, but they're traditionally depicted as more conservative.  Gnomes are also very skilled craftsmen and miners themselves, so they might be the leaders in technological development.  On the other hand, nonhuman creatures might end up consuming a lot of natural resources that would otherwise be used to fuel technological advancement.  Fossil fuels played a key role in the Industrial Revolution-if races like orcs, hill giants, and other races that don't give a flying fig about technology use a lot of the coal and oil for their forges, cooking fires, and balls of flaming pitch, that can severely limit the amount of fuel available for mass industrialization.  People often have more practical uses for oil-what does your average city dweller care about more, having oil to burn invading trolls, or letting the town eccentric waste it all on his cockamamie projects?  At the same time, the amount of magic can also affect the pace of technology.  Previous posters have noted teleporting wizards...but what if your setting simply doesn't have enough high-level wizards to do the teleporting?  If reaching 6th level as a wizard means you have real talent, then it's exceedingly unlikely that there will even be enough wizards capable of teleporting to do anything at all-and how many of the wizards who can teleport are willing to waste their energies blinking around the continent seeking out new markets?  If a merchant wants to scout out a safe route through the forest or the hills for his caravans to reach that rich mining community, or the port town that's rapidly growing as a trading hub and is the perfect place for an enterprising businessman, he can hire some adventurers, who are probably more apt for that sort of thing, anyway.  Similarly, you can simply mess with physics a bit to cherry pick what kind of technology you want in your campaign.  No matter how hard they try, alchemists just can't get this stuff called "smokepowder" to work.  It just becomes an inert waste of chemicals that won't burn, much less project a missile over a long distance.  After all, if wizards can essentially create energy out of nothing with fireballs and lightning bolts, and directly violate the laws of physics in the process, surely not all chemicals will react the same way?  In this manner, you can allow for greater advancements in fields like anatomy, biology, or physics without subjecting your world to an industrial revolution in the process.  Ten thousand years from now, people will still be wielding broadswords and wearing armor in combat, simply because they can't create any kind of more advanced weaponry.  The internal combustion and the firearm never get a hold, and man can never fly without magical aid.  In this way, a DM can justify why his or her science works the way it does, and to quash any player hopes of starting an Industrial Revolution.  I'd permit a lot of things with my players, if I had any, but industrialization would not be one of them-if a player insisted on it, he'd be more than welcome to go find another game.</blockquote>

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