04-12-2008, 04:51 PM | #121 |
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: The Wasteland
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Re: Yrth technology
Magic defies physics.
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04-12-2008, 06:55 PM | #122 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Upper Marlboro, MD
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Re: Yrth technology
Quote:
Then again... given the limited resources of SJGames... I am sure many other things take a higher priority to the point of making such a project a non-starter. Wht SJGames/GURPS needs is an official company that SJGames trusts enough to allow them to publish GURPS <insert name of book here> without taking up their resources, just providing them with some. It could work. But SJ/SJGames would *really* need to trust that organizaton. |
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04-13-2008, 01:32 AM | #123 | |
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Sierra Vista, Arizona
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Re: Yrth technology
Quote:
Such "justifications" work adequately for my gaming purposes, anyway.* Back on thread-track.. I still think that things like Franklin stoves and hurricane-style oil lanterns would be pretty nifty ideas. They are not threats to the MoS, and so would probably pass under the radar. Old-fashioned "boneshaker" bicycles seem to be doable, too...and although they would probably raise more than a few eyebrows at first with the MoS, they seem innocuous enough. I doubt that the MoS would be able to predict the kind of transportation/logistical revolution that reliable bicycles could spawn. I also really like the idea of the multi-shot crossbows from the old Popular Mechanics article. With that in mind, I'm still holding out for woodcuts of carefully-selected magazine articles...just because the idea is so cool (to me, anyway). * I have been told in the past that I don't know anything about this particular subject, so that's all I really have to say regarding it.
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04-13-2008, 04:11 AM | #124 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: Yrth technology
Quote:
We weren't actually completely stupid, you know.
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04-13-2008, 05:36 AM | #125 | |||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Yrth technology
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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04-13-2008, 05:39 AM | #126 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Yrth technology
Quote:
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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04-13-2008, 07:32 AM | #127 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Yrth technology
Quote:
By the time of the Spanish Armada you do get ships carrying hundreds of lbs of the stuff but that's well into TL4 and after 100 years of usable firearms and 200 years of messing about with the stuff. That's a significant accumulation of art. It's also a lot of money and support structure. Even knowing the optimum formula and maybe some more TL-related stuff I wouldn't want to be the one trying to mix 100 lbs of black powder in somebody's barn.
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Fred Brackin |
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04-13-2008, 08:43 AM | #128 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Chicago
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Re: Yrth technology
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04-13-2008, 09:32 AM | #129 | |
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Flushing, Michigan
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Re: Yrth technology
Quote:
I've got three explanations for this... First, the deal with magic...while the number of mages (about 2% at Magery 0 and about 0.2% at Magery 1 or better) is canonical (p. 23), the influence on magic on society can be greatly reduced by assuming that most mages are still only average or above average characters (i.e., 75 points or less). Most mages will only know a few spells, and will probably focus on the ones likely to help their village (plant spells, weather control spells, healing spells, etc.) The few who do specialize in Earth spells might get rich by spending their days as living factories of essential metal, but there are not enough of them to really change the basic economy of the world. And the number of characters who are both mages and heroic characters (150 points or more) will be very, very low. Again, high enough to change the course of individual adventures, but not high enough to change the course of history very often. Second, since Yrth is a world with magic, there is no reason not to believe that Other Forces might be shaping the world as well. Perhaps Yrth, as a world, has a DESTINY, and the Fates themselves work to keep it eternally as a strange, pseudo-medieval playground for heroes and villains. And so the Banestorm never brings the people who could make a difference, or brings them, but they get caught and their memories erased, or if they don't get caught and are able to get a workshop put together something else happens and their inventions never quite work or...there is a fire or...you get the picture. This might also affect some mages...maybe the Fates just keep most mages from thinking "outside the box," so they stay in their villages and learn the plants spells, etc. And the ones who "break the fourth wall" and start to churn out tons of essential metal, etc. Get Noticed, which means they will either fade into the background or die in some horrible accident or become important to an adventure or something. But the Fates won't let them actually break the world. If you read Witches Abroad, by Terry Prachett, there's a wonderful idea of worlds where narrative causality works--things don't have to really make sense as long as they make good stories. Maybe Yrth works that way, a little, too. For some reason, I'm also thinking of the Star Trek episode "Day of the Dove." The one where the entity traps humans and klingons on the Enterprise, gives them swords, tries to keep them fighting, etc. Three, maybe there IS a conspiracy. At the very least, there would be strong influences trying to keep technology out of human hands. Dragons would certainly benefit from humans having limited dragon-killing capabilities (e.g., machine guns). With their enormous wealth, magical abilities, and cunning, and the luxury (granted by near immortality) to employ very subtle, very long range plans, they might be working to keep technology out of human hands. Elves would feel the same way, although their motivation wouldn't be so much self-defense as defending forests--it would probably take elves about five minutes to figure out that a world with factories, skyscrapers, highways, etc. is a world where forests are in danger. Anyway, that's my take on it. Mark |
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04-13-2008, 10:08 AM | #130 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
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Re: Yrth technology
Quote:
So even if those PCs didn't charbroil themselves and all their equipment, they should still asphyxiate due to lack of breathable air. BTW, does drinking a potion of fire resistance somehow make all your clothes and equipment also heat proof somehow? I suppose it'd be amusing to end up with a naked party of fire proofed PCs who had all their stuff blown away. |
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