Re: The Low Tech You want
 

I'd laugh at that one.

Re: The Low Tech You want
 

Horses. Lots of horses. Breeds, cost to obtain, maintain. Realistic and Epic travel distances. How feed, fodder, and "breakdowns" will affect travel. Slow and fast speeds for horseback or camelback travel. Nearly every fantasy epic has this stuff as background, from just transport to fighting while mounted with hand weapons to lances and pistols and cavalry charges - still done at least once, I believe, in WWI, and certainly through TL5 like the US Civil War and the Crimea.

Re: The Low Tech You want
 

From this point of view, more detailed equipment quality rules would be fun if not only pertaining to weapons and armor, but there for everything. Every time a PC buys something new, the GM can, VERY optionally, assume the skill of the craftsman and his equipment, make a quick skill roll, and instantly have something to say about each item. maybe there's an aesthetic flaw which can be used to reduce the price but doesn't change quality, or a non-visible flaw that might actually make the object one quality level lower...but charged for the higher price, etc.

Again, optional, but one of the actual BENEFITS of high TLs is quality control and inspection, so having the stuff on the shelf be pretty darn variable would be fun.

Re: The Low Tech You want
 

OOh I like that

Was just thinking the other day how most fantasy settings have markets that seem cut and paste

Re: The Low Tech You want
 

I definitely want statistics for black powder matchlock and wheel-lock firearms, pistols and long-arms. The flintlocks in High-Tech were a good start, but I've got a setting which hasn't invented the flintlock yet - wheel-locks are standard.

I also echo the call for different armor weights; preferably for full suits of armor and individual pieces.

One other item should be "daily life in the rural area" and "daily life in the city" for all tech levels. City life in TL 0 is definitely different from TL 2, and both are different from life at TL 4.

One of the things I liked about Low-Tech for 3e was that it was essentially broken down by tech level, not by category like 4e's High-Tech and Ultra-Tech are. I'd love to see that format carried over to 4e's Low-Tech.

Re: The Low Tech You want
 

I don't think this is a very accurate description. You changed TL ranges. Year 1990 was TL7 back then, now it's TL8. I felt that the turn of millenium was a good moment to change TLs. Back then, I was kinda proud we reached TL8, felt a 'digital' sense of progress. Now I feel cheated like a child running for the horizon.

(Reminds me: I was born in the previous millenium, in a country which no longer exists.)

Re: The Low Tech You want
 

Spoken like someone who didn't actually work on the book. Believe me, TL5-8 in 4e have every bit the technological range that TL4-7 did in 3e. The 3e edition of High-Tech choose to ignore much of its range, while the 4e edition actually paid attention to it, which meant that a lot of stuff that was brushed under the carpet to make things fit into 128 pages expanded into major word count in the 4e version.

Re: The Low Tech You want
 

We need the things ordinary travellers have to deal with in a low-tech society...accomadations, travel methods and times, things like that. Riding with a caravan is slower, yet has advantages...how fast will they be moving?
What sort of food can be preserved for journeys? And how heavy is it?
All the things that are so important when the trip isn't across town, or stepping through the teleportal, but when you're using feet, wheels, or wind (or even steam)

Re: The Low Tech You want
 

I mean that the 'addition' of TL8 is not quite a true addition, as 4e TL8 stuff basically is TL7 by 3e standards. I don't claim that TLs 5-8 in 4e are smaller than 4-7 in 3e. I'm claiming that 4e pushed a half-TL (20 years out of 45 belonging to TL8, IIRC) into the range which was initially occupied by TLs 4-7. The 'Special Year' was pushed from 2000 to 2025. Now we have 25 years of tech which is neither HT nor UT. I know it's purely subjective, but still it leaves a feeling of a minor loss.

Re: The Low Tech You want
 

3e Low Tech is a great read as is. To make it worth while to update, I'd think it'd need to be beefier in the settings department.

Maybe:
a chapter addressing low-"punk" settings (as in Bronze Age punk) and rules would be decent.

worked examples of survival, warlord/tyrant, merchant, and politician
centered campaigns.

some of the location specific flavor of the relevant 3e setting books (China, Egypt, etc..)