Common Magic for a TL3 Wuxia Fantasy Campaign

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by ericthered

That leaves the ideal vehicle as being large, without much more in the way of requirements. That might suggest large boats as the most efficient method, but also leaves open the possibility for massive self-propelled wagons.

Interesting thought. Though it does bring up why you want it animated in the first place. Horses are a plenty.

[zoncxs]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Interesting thought. Though it does bring up why you want it animated in the first place. Horses are a plenty.

Horses require training and housing and food. I good marketing team would be able to sell the idea of animated boats and carts as overall cheaper and better.

"It takes a horse several years to mature, and several months to train it to obey commands well enough to not cause danger to people. Not to mention the amount of food you would have to buy to maintain their growth and land to let them roam and exercise, All of that cost, not to mention a place to hold them, is more than the amount to output the Autoboat Mark 2!"

[Anders]

Yeah, there's a reason we use cars rather than horses. Mechanization of agriculture, in particular, can double* effective yield because you don't have to feed the horses.

* I think. May be increase by 50%, but a substantial increase anyhow.

[dcarson]

And for non agriculture the part of the year that you have snow or the dry season when the rivers are low or whatever the local climate has for non travel weather the animated ships and wagons don't sit in the barn needing food and medical care.

[sjard]

<Moderator> Removed derailment.
Please try to avoid such potentially flammable side topics in the future.
</Moderator>

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Interesting thought. Though it does bring up why you want it animated in the first place. Horses are a plenty.

I was just working through if automated transportation is practical. Transportation is something the ancient world always seemed to need more of.

I suspect the two things wanted are either a superior price which may be unlikely, but is worth checking or a superior speed... which is likely to be even more expensive, but possibly worth the extra price, because now you can reliably outrun almost anybody.

Sending messages is important, I suspect one fairly common enchantment will be for communications. Some ideas:

Crystal balls that allow speaking to anyone who owns one of the crystal balls.

Paired writing slates that mimick each other's contents.

paired stones balanced on a pedastal. If one falls, so does the other.

[Anders]

Communications is extremely important for any empire. That's why the Persians built the Royal Road. Yes, I would expect magical means to emerge.

Magical pools that act as two-way portals (Water)

Crystal balls (Earth)

Fires that transmit voices (Fire)

Gongs that are linked, allowing a Morse-code of sorts (Metal)

A wooden stylus that can write on a surface located somewhere else (Wood)

[zoncxs]

Stone roads that allows for faster travel between two cities (earth).

Ships that rides wind currents (Air) I think this one was suggested already.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by zoncxs

Stone roads that allows for faster travel between two cities (earth).

Smooth stone roads would be a vast improvement over even something like the old Roman roads. Less bumps mean less damage to whatever goods are being transported. Even textiles suffer some damage constantly bumping against a surface. Additionally a smooth road means you can safely go at higher speeds than on a bumpy road. Not only is there a lower risk of the vehicle veering off course, but the vehicle itself will also sustain less damage to wheels, axles, joints, etc.

The main two downsides are a) construction time and b) maintenance. While a team of stone shapers might be able to handle the job, their services may be requested elsewhere. Other important infrastructure tasks could be building and maintaining tunnels, bridges, housing, aqueducts, sewers and so on.

If one region has a lot of Earth aspected mages, they might have enough to allocate to everything they want. But most places will likely have to prioritize and roads that are "good enough" will probably not make the top of the list of what should be improved.

[zoncxs]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

Smooth stone roads would be a vast improvement over even something like the old Roman roads. Less bumps mean less damage to whatever goods are being transported. Even textiles suffer some damage constantly bumping against a surface. Additionally a smooth road means you can safely go at higher speeds than on a bumpy road. Not only is there a lower risk of the vehicle veering off course, but the vehicle itself will also sustain less damage to wheels, axles, joints, etc.

Though this is great information, it is not what I was implying. I was talking about enchanted roads that grants people the quick march spell. These type of roads are very useful to the military and economy. Being able to rapidly move resources around is great, doing it faster is better. To counter the need for rest and FP cost you would have on hand a few mages that can cast Lend Energy and Awaken.

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

The main two downsides are a) construction time and b) maintenance. While a team of stone shapers might be able to handle the job, their services may be requested elsewhere. Other important infrastructure tasks could be building and maintaining tunnels, bridges, housing, aqueducts, sewers and so on.

For the enchanted roads, once they are constructed, it would need very little maintenance unless someone is deliberately destroying them, even then that is creating a niche that provides work for specific mages.

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

If one region has a lot of Earth aspected mages, they might have enough to allocate to everything they want. But most places will likely have to prioritize and roads that are "good enough" will probably not make the top of the list of what should be improved.

I agree, roads that are "good enough" won't make it to the top of anyone list. The roads I am suggesting are "better than any road to date".