The Kingdom of Ka: A Bronze-Age Dungeon Fantasy Setting

[AlexanderHowl]

One thing to consider is ETL, as the default spell casting magic system will just create a TL(1+7) world with its healing magic, communications spells, etc., even with the DF modifications. Now, if magic is rare, TL1 is preserved, as only the elites can afford magic. The same applies if you have magical abilities rather than magical spells, as the rarity comes from the expense of the ability.

For example, a IQ 12 character with Magery 2 can spend 32 CP to get Cure Disease-20 (with prerequisite spells at 12), for a total of 97 CP spent on magic, and will be capable of curing 3 people per hour without difficulty. It order to gain that level of utility from a magical ability, the character would have to replace spells with Healing (Disease Only, -40%; Magic, -10%; Reliable+10, +50%; Reduce Fatigue 20, +400%) [125], and they would still have trouble with something like AIDS.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

One thing to consider is ETL, as the default spell casting magic system will just create a TL(1+7) world with its healing magic, communications spells, etc., even with the DF modifications. Now, if magic is rare, TL1 is preserved, as only the elites can afford magic. The same applies if you have magical abilities rather than magical spells, as the rarity comes from the expense of the ability.

For example, a IQ 12 character with Magery 2 can spend 32 CP to get Cure Disease-20 (with prerequisite spells at 12), for a total of 97 CP spent on magic, and will be capable of curing 3 people per hour without difficulty. It order to gain that level of utility from a magical ability, the character would have to replace spells with Healing (Disease Only, -40%; Magic, -10%; Reliable+10, +50%; Reduce Fatigue 20, +400%) [125], and they would still have trouble with something like AIDS.

Sure, I'm thinking this is a setting where magic is fairly rare. I already have a few thoughts on how this fits in the setting. For example, Urkuga (agriculture) is an important goddess because her priests provide the all-important Bless Plants spell (see Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics). I admit I hadn't quite thought through the implications of a cleric being able to cast Cure Disease on multiple people per hour (IMHO skill-20 would be rare, but three people every two hours with skill-14 is still a pretty good pace).

[Michael Thayne]

For Know Location, it occurs to me that even if Kaians aren't normally good at measuring distance, a wizard with the Flight spell will pretty consistently fly 600 yards (1200 cubits?) So maybe Know Location gives your distance to within ~3 "flights", where a flight is the distance a wizard can travel with one unmaintained casting of the spell of the same name. As long as we're talking about units of measure, Google tells me that the ancient Babylonians had pounds that were only a bit larger than the modern pound, so I'm going to declare that the Kaians have a pound that by amazing coincidence is exactly equal to the modern pound (just like their cubit is by amazing coincidence exactly equal to 0.5 modern yards). And hmmm, if I gave them base-60 mathematics like the Babylonians, you could justify them having roughly our system of minutes and seconds.

[The Colonel]

Also, bronze age tech aside you can throttle the amount of actual bronze to be had by controlling the tin supply. Every application that cannot afford bronze must use copper or non-metal materials.
This also allows you to have another brake on agriculture (bless plants can only do so much whilst you are working with wooden tools and harvesting with flint lame sickles).
Possibly another species can be given a high arsenic tolerance and thus an alternative source of bronze (goblins are good for this) - in fact, if you want a multi species civilisation and are prepared for bronze to be relatively plentiful, try making that their hat. They could, in face, be the sole source of bronze smiths in a culture that only uses arsenical bronze - goblins exist as a smith caste, working in a profession that kills humans almost before they pass their apprenticeship.

As for measurement, a little adjustment of your humans could give you a 12" cubit and thus mysteriously invent the imperial foot - allowing an approximately 3 cubit pace on average would give you an in universe "yard" and then, if you like consistent and reliable magic, you could indeed proceed with the "flight" as your next unit up, although most primitive societies tend to be more interested in the amount of land that can be ploughed in a day and then divide that up (that was an acre, but the size of an acre can well vary dependent on your plough … whether that matters to PCs or not, especially if you're playing default assumptions DF...)

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Also, bronze age tech aside you can throttle the amount of actual bronze to be had by controlling the tin supply. Every application that cannot afford bronze must use copper or non-metal materials.
This also allows you to have another brake on agriculture (bless plants can only do so much whilst you are working with wooden tools and harvesting with flint lame sickles).
Possibly another species can be given a high arsenic tolerance and thus an alternative source of bronze (goblins are good for this) - in fact, if you want a multi species civilisation and are prepared for bronze to be relatively plentiful, try making that their hat. They could, in face, be the sole source of bronze smiths in a culture that only uses arsenical bronze - goblins exist as a smith caste, working in a profession that kills humans almost before they pass their apprenticeship.

As for measurement, a little adjustment of your humans could give you a 12" cubit and thus mysteriously invent the imperial foot - allowing an approximately 3 cubit pace on average would give you an in universe "yard" and then, if you like consistent and reliable magic, you could indeed proceed with the "flight" as your next unit up, although most primitive societies tend to be more interested in the amount of land that can be ploughed in a day and then divide that up (that was an acre, but the size of an acre can well vary dependent on your plough … whether that matters to PCs or not, especially if you're playing default assumptions DF...)

Dwarves have Resistance to Poison (+3) for a reason! For measuring area, in a base-60 system, there's probably going to be a word for "3600 square cubits" (about 1/5th of an acre).

[Michael Thayne]

One reason to want to make sure a Dungeon Fantasy world has plenty of wilderness is so that "monsters" have enough food to eat. Assume most monsters that lack Doesn't Eat or Drink have food requirements proportional to the monster's Basic Lift. Because humans have BL 20 lbs., food requirements in multiples of human can be derived by dividing the monster's Basic Lift by 20. Also note that a realistic minimum viable population for any species that reproduces naturally will be in the thousands. Per Low-Tech Companion 3, human hunter gathers need one to three square miles per person. This implies that dragons, if their average ST is 35, must have tens of thousands of square miles of hunting grounds to themselves. The same goes for other large "monsters" that eat and reproduce naturally. Thankfully the Dungeon Fantasy books don't have too many of those, but Electric Jellies, Giant Apes, and Ice Wyrms all qualify.

[Michael Thayne]

I think Ka itself is pretty monster-free most of the time (unless you count the Stone Golems that serve the Kingdom). Most monsters are just as limited in their range to wilderness areas as real world megafauna. Even dragons mostly seem content to stay away, as long as humans don't try to expand this "civilization" business further. But electric jellies (from Dungeons) and spore clouds (from Icky Goo) are going to be persistent nuisances, because they can fly in from outside the Kingdom's borders fairly quickly. Erupting slimes (also from Dungeons) I think are going to be less common, but still show up periodically, and when they do it's potentially a huge problem due to their ability to double in population every hour. Many other monsters will only be seen by adventurers exploring lands outside the Kingdom or when a powerful evil sorcerer shows up and starts summing and creating Things. (Of course, when the latter does happen, all bets are off.)

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

would it make sense to have Know Location tell you not miles, but hours of travel time?

I'd figure the spell would give you a measurement in any units familiar and comprehensible to the user.

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

Indeed, on the whole the Southlands have a more temperate climate than Ka, as unbeknownst to Kaian science, Ka lies at about 30 degrees south latitude.

I don't think there'd be any mystery there- they'd understand that the noon sun was in the north, and going in the opposite direction would find cooler climes.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I don't think there'd be any mystery there- they'd understand that the noon sun was in the north, and going in the opposite direction would find cooler climes.

That much they could figure out, but we don't have any historical record of people believing the Earth was a sphere until the iron age.

[Michael Thayne]

A few more notes:

• It's a little more than half a day by boat from Ka to the Eastern Sea, and about four days from Ka to the Western Mountains.
• A shekel of silver is 1/60th of a pound, and worth $16.80 in GURPS dollars. This is a unit of weight, not coinage, because coins haven't been invented yet. (One-shekel ingots may be fairly common, but no one will accept them as money without weighing them). A grain is 1/180th of a shekel. Typical day's pay for a Status -1 laborer is 120 grain of silver.
• Architecture, especially along the coast, emphasizes keeping people safe from electric jellies. Lots of brick walls a cubit thick, at least ten cubits high, and with few openings wider than two or three cubits. Also, places to hide at least five cubits from any doors, so the jelly's tentacles can't reach them! Chasing jellies off is usually the job of stone golems with huge glaives, but sometimes priests of Biatakik will try to use magic to get marauding jellies to go away.
• Per Thaumatology, paut costs half as much as it does at TL3. Magic item prices are unchanged, though. (The difference in enchanter pay between TL1 and TL3 is a rounding error.)