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Old 05-01-2019, 12:41 PM   #51
KevinJ
 
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Default Re: What is Cidri's average tech?

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I think the GURPS splatbook for Banestorm provides a nice snap-shot of what the average technology and innovations might be like. You could skip the "technological issues" created by the victims of Banestorms arriving willy-nilly and substitute discovery of Mnoren artifacts to explain those anomalies on Cidri quite easily. Which then lets you set the tech levels at anything you like for almost any reason you choose to give.

However, I would like to remind folks that back when TFT was originally drafted, the "gonzo" version of Fantasy Roleplaying was still in full swing with things like Expedition to the Barrier Peaks being accepted as totally normal in the FRPG genre. It wasn't until self-contained universes like Dragonlance and whatnot started popping up that people wanted some sort of internal consistency in their worlds in terms of technology and civilization -- think of it as "the novelization" of FRPGs as opposed to people just winging it and having a blast (even Forgotten Realms was predicated on being accessible by gates from this world -- which would have led to all kinds of tech "bleed over" when it first came out; that was only changed after the "steam tunnel incident" to avoid any possibility of a recurrence).

In the event that Stygian Fox ever releases their Distant Realms campaign world (originally kickstarted back in January 2016 and supposed to deliver in December of that year, so it's a tad "late"), you'll find another world based on the idea that it can be reached via gates from this one.
Not a big fan of Banstorm, but still useful. Low Tech and High Tech are also useful books for technology, with the TL system from GURPS being an excellent tool for establishing a coherent way of distributing stuff in a given world.

TLs provide an easy shorthand when X culture is TL1 agriculture, transportation, TL2 medicine, TL0 power and metallurgy, and so on.
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Old 05-01-2019, 04:08 PM   #52
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Default Re: What is Cidri's average tech?

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Not a big fan of Banstorm, but still useful. Low Tech and High Tech are also useful books for technology, with the TL system from GURPS being an excellent tool for establishing a coherent way of distributing stuff in a given world.

TLs provide an easy shorthand when X culture is TL1 agriculture, transportation, TL2 medicine, TL0 power and metallurgy, and so on.
I won't disagree with you about Banestorm, but here's the weird thing -- I have a hard time trying tell you WHY it just missed with me! It's a great book in many ways, but for some reason it was just...just...too...something, I guess. Maybe there was too MUCH explanation, so it felt kind of limiting? Maybe that's it. In something like Wilderlands, we had these very specific places/cultures like CSIO or City State of the World Emperor, but at BEST these only covered part of one of 18 total mapsheets, so there was always a ton of room on there for you to flex your creative muscles. I think maybe Banestorm didn't hit my "sweet spot" for Fantasy worlds 'cause it seemed like there wasn't anything left open for me to create (even though, intellectually, I know that's just silly...).

But, having said that, the conceit behind Banestorm was brilliant, and I loved how they dealt with a wide variety of cultures there, so there's plenty of gaming goodness even if I never wanted to run the Banestorm campaign or anything. And yes, the TL concept is a good way to encapsulate how cultures differ from one another in everything from actual technology to level of development of the bureaucracy and so on (though I might instead use the term "TSL" for "Tech-Social Level" with a tip of the hat to none other than TSR in a couple of Sci-Fi books they produced many, many years ago).
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Old 05-02-2019, 10:52 PM   #53
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Default Re: What is Cidri's average tech?

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But, having said that, the conceit behind Banestorm was brilliant, and I loved how they dealt with a wide variety of cultures there, so there's plenty of gaming goodness even if I never wanted to run the Banestorm campaign or anything. And yes, the TL concept is a good way to encapsulate how cultures differ from one another in everything from actual technology to level of development of the bureaucracy and so on (though I might instead use the term "TSL" for "Tech-Social Level" with a tip of the hat to none other than TSR in a couple of Sci-Fi books they produced many, many years ago).
Banestorm is just a random version of Cidri. Cidri is all about Intelligent Design...
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Old 05-03-2019, 12:51 AM   #54
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Default Re: What is Cidri's average tech?

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Banestorm is just a random version of Cidri. Cidri is all about Intelligent Design...
Unless it isn't...
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Old 05-03-2019, 11:59 AM   #55
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Default Re: What is Cidri's average tech?

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Unless it isn't...
Well, since the disappearance of the Mnoren, Cidri could become the new Yrth.
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Old 05-03-2019, 05:01 PM   #56
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Default Re: What is Cidri's average tech?

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Well, since the disappearance of the Mnoren, Cidri could become the new Yrth.
Actually, you know, you raise an excellent philosophical point for debate here -- if Cidri is supposed to be an example of "intelligent design," shouldn't we reflect that there wasn't much "design" in it? What "choices" did the Mnoren make? All they really did was grab a bag full of everything and dump it on the surface of a really big planet. Seems kind of a random way to design something, to me.

Heh. Maybe THAT'S the secret of the Mnoren! Really they're just a bunch of teenagers sitting around a table and using the box-lid drop tables from their most recent RPG Kickstarter reward to "design" a game world... ;-)
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Old 05-03-2019, 05:22 PM   #57
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Default Re: What is Cidri's average tech?

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Heh. Maybe THAT'S the secret of the Mnoren! Really they're just a bunch of teenagers sitting around a table and using the box-lid drop tables from their most recent RPG Kickstarter reward to "design" a game world... ;-)
Or like dragons, accumulating a horde as fast as possible, but then working to make it aesthetically pleasing. It would never turn out as nicely as if you had a plan.

But did they dump a bunch of stuff on a planet, or did they build the planet? Perhaps Notch Mnoren's algorithm wasn't quite perfect and there was too much random noise in the biome generation suite. Sadly, they didn't have the budget for Cidri 2.0 (or perhaps that's where the Mnoren are now, and Cidri 1.0 has been abandoned because they have a better toy)
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Old 05-04-2019, 09:15 PM   #58
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Default Re: What is Cidri's average tech?

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Actually, you know, you raise an excellent philosophical point for debate here -- if Cidri is supposed to be an example of "intelligent design," shouldn't we reflect that there wasn't much "design" in it? What "choices" did the Mnoren make? All they really did was grab a bag full of everything and dump it on the surface of a really big planet. Seems kind of a random way to design something, to me.

Heh. Maybe THAT'S the secret of the Mnoren! Really they're just a bunch of teenagers sitting around a table and using the box-lid drop tables from their most recent RPG Kickstarter reward to "design" a game world... ;-)
Well the Mnoren were powerful enough to do pretty much anything they wanted, so you end up with each of them making stuff they liked, like a live action game using other people against their will. You end up with a chaotic mish-mash of stuff that might have started out quite separated, but eventually bled over into other people's stuff after they stopped caring about their toys.
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