WotC setting search winner - Eberron

[NickTheLemming]

No, not on rails. Look at the picture. It's flying, for crying out loud. With lightning coming out the bottom of it.

Arse, I forgot it was a hovertrain. Just like in the middle ages. ;-)

 

[d4]

It's flying, for crying out loud. With lightning coming out the bottom of it.

again, i don't think that's relevant. it's still a train, and still implies certain things about the culture that built it.

it implies a level of organization that includes train stations, train schedules, and whatnot.

it implies a social class (presumably middle class) that can afford the train's services that's large enough to keep the train running. it implies widespread and common movement of people and goods across large distances. it implies these people have the freedom and the money to do such travel.

in short, trains imply a certain level of organizational technology and civilization regardless of whether the train runs by steam engine or by magic.

that one picture of a train says to me this setting is not the pseudo-medieval / feudal setting implied in the core rules, but something much, much different and much, much closer to our own industrialized world.

and i don't care for that.

 

[Carnifex]

again, i don't think that's relevant. it's still a train, and still implies certain things about the culture that built it.

it implies a level of organization that includes train stations, train schedules, and whatnot.

it implies a social class (presumably middle class) that can afford the train's services that's large enough to keep the train running. it implies widespread and common movement of people and goods across large distances. it implies these people have the freedom and the money to do such travel.

in short, trains imply a certain level of organizational technology and civilization regardless of whether the train runs by steam engine or by magic.

that one picture of a train says to me this setting is not the pseudo-medieval / feudal setting implied in the core rules, but something much, much different and much, much closer to our own industrialized world.

and i don't care for that. <shrug>

But the usual fantasy fare has *ships* that run along these lines. Surely, by basically making a flying ship that runs on magic, you are making the setting *more* magical and *less* technological? It has nothing to do with a culture's technology at all (though of course, until we actually see more on the campaign setting in question, it's hard to tel what 'tech' level is being used).

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

again, i don't think that's relevant. it's still a train, and still implies certain things about the culture that built it.

it implies a level of organization that includes train stations, train schedules, and whatnot.

it implies a social class (presumably middle class) that can afford the train's services that's large enough to keep the train running. it implies widespread and common movement of people and goods across large distances. it implies these people have the freedom and the money to do such travel.

in short, trains imply a certain level of organizational technology and civilization regardless of whether the train runs by steam engine or by magic.

that one picture of a train says to me this setting is not the pseudo-medieval / feudal setting implied in the core rules, but something much, much different and much, much closer to our own industrialized world.

and i don't care for that.

I'd say your reading too deeply into that one picture. For all we know, the trains are confined to a single country. There are many other modes of transportation, and there's that picture of the dinosaur thingy mount. It looks to me like this is a very very diverse world at a technological standpoint...I'm interested, but I'm still hanging back to see more details.

 

[Dismas]

Arse, I forgot it was a hovertrain. Just like in the middle ages. ;-)

It's a land boat. If you have enough magic to make things fly, why wouldn't an enterprising merchant comission a flying boat to make transporting stuff easier.

In one of the Dying Earth stories Cugel creates a floating boat using special osip(?) wax and then runs a commercial land ferry.

 

[Carnifex]

It's a land boat. If you have enough magic to make things fly, why wouldn't an enterprising merchant comission a flying boat to make transporting stuff easier.

In one of the Dying Earth stories Cugel creates a floating boat using special osip(?) wax and then runs a commercial land ferry.

My thoughts exactly. Having a flying ship that runs due to magic doesn't indicate tech. It indicates a high-magic world.

 

[NickTheLemming]

It's a land boat.

No, it's a train. If in doubt, look at the words next to the picture. It says "train".

Nick the Lemming

 

[Dismas]

No, it's a train. If in doubt, look at the words next to the picture. It says "train".

Nick the Lemming

So they call it a train, this is highly likely if they were commissioned by merchants that already used wagon trains (train being a middle english word) to transport goods overland.

 

[Carnifex]

No, it's a train. If in doubt, look at the words next to the picture. It says "train".

Nick the Lemming

So what? This in no way actually means more advanced tech - all it needs is still just applying magic to make a shiop float. I still don't get how this makes it advanced technology rather than magic?

 

[Gargoyle]

I never claimed that D&D was Harn, or even that this was desirable. Go back again and look at the original post I replied to. It stated that this setting did not possess tech above the mediaeval level. This is obviously arse. It doesn't matter what tech they have; I really don't care. But to claim that the tech they have is no higher than mediaeval when it obviously is is bollocks. It doesn't matter whether D&D has other forms of tech that are far beyond our own. The setting synopsis stated that tech was below a certain level, and yet it also includes tech that is above this level. What is so hard for you to understand about this point? Talking of how other conventions of D&D don't match up with mediaeval reality is besides the point and completely irrelevant. Do you understand yet, or are you going to post again without actually considering the point I was making? Just to eb safe, here it is again:

The original post claimed that the setting had tech that was no higher than the mediaeval period. It has trains, which weren't around in that period. Therefore, they're talking crap.

Now, what's so hard to understand there?

Nick the Lemming

Yes, let's go back and refer to my original post that you replied to:

FYI, the setting is not technologically advanced. The technology is medieval level. That was made clear in the seminar.

Magic is being used in daily life rather than tech, so you do have very tall buildings being held up by magic, and some magical transport. An example that was given is that on the Forgotten Realms a farmer uses middle ages technology to farm (plows etc.) On Eberron, a farmer would use magic.

WOTC told me at the seminar that the technological level is medieval. I'm repeating what they said. If you don't believe it, that is your prerogative. What I don't understand is why you can't imagine trains that are designed around magic, instead of steam power or other forms of technology? If your point is that you don't like magic functioning like technology does in the modern world, as a commodity that provides convenience, then I can understand that. But to say that they're lying...I don't know why they would...

BTW, Bill Slaviscek refers to it as a "magical conveyance" rather than a train, and the handout refers to it as the "lightning rail" and not a train. Even if they had referred to it as a train that ran on magic, I don't think I'd object.

edit: grammar/spelling