Gurps Classic: Steampunk TL vs Normal TL

[marcusbaer99]

Hi,

I am back again. :) Okay so I was reading through Steampunk, since one of my players ased me to define how I had done the TL on my skills for it to exist in a space (TL/12) type setting. The way I had written it on my NPC's character sheet was for example: Engineering TL/(5+7). I missed one vital part in the steampunk book, assuming it was even there. Aside from the oddities in Tech IE Time Travel at TL/(5+1) does technology progress beyond TL/(5+1) or it is stagnant there and if it does progress beyond that is it linear to normal TL development except with steam?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by marcusbaer99

Okay so I was reading through Steampunk, since one of my players ased me to define how I had done the TL on my skills for it to exist in a space (TL/12) type setting. The way I had written it on my NPC's character sheet was for example: Engineering TL/(5+7). I missed one vital part in the steampunk book, assuming it was even there. Aside from the oddities in Tech IE Time Travel at TL/(5+1) does technology progress beyond TL/(5+1) or it is stagnant there and if it does progress beyond that is it linear to normal TL development except with steam?

I'n not sure what you mean by "linear."

The system of divergent TLs has been revised for GURPS 4/e; see pp. 511-514 of the Basic Set (that's in the second volume). Time travel would now be defined as TL5^ or TL(5+1)^, where the ^ means "involves radical innovations, superscience, or divergent physical laws that cannot be predictably assigned to any TL." For example, if we imagine that antigravity exists, then we can imagine that TL3 Martians might build flying ships out of liftwood.

There's no inherent prohibition on your progressing TL beyond TL(5+1) to (5+2) or even (5+7). The trick is to envision the advanced tech in a way that is still "steam" like. Things to look at include having the advanced technology exclude the innovations that characterized TL6, such as wireless communications, internal combustion, or powered heavier-than-air flight; having it develop ways of achieving comparable results using things that made sense to TL5 people, such as Babbage's analytical engines; having it get to TL6 or later inventions by some back door route that grows out of TL(5+1) or its successors; or introducing speculative science that follows from the theories of the age of steam—for example, technologies based on the luminiferous ether. Doing this in a serious way (a) is challenging in an exponentially more difficult way as you go farther ahead and (b) will work better if you read about the actual history of science and technology.

Bill Stoddard

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by marcusbaer99

Hi,

I am back again. :) Okay so I was reading through Steampunk, since one of my players ased me to define how I had done the TL on my skills for it to exist in a space (TL/12) type setting. The way I had written it on my NPC's character sheet was for example: Engineering TL/(5+7). I missed one vital part in the steampunk book, assuming it was even there. Aside from the oddities in Tech IE Time Travel at TL/(5+1) does technology progress beyond TL/(5+1) or it is stagnant there and if it does progress beyond that is it linear to normal TL development except with steam?

You aren't being at all clear abut what it is you have in mind. There's no inherent assumption in Steampunk that it is a technological dead end if that's what you're asking. But by the time you hit TL 12 the result will be pretty hard to recognize, just as you wouldn't expect to see a lot of internal combustion engines that far in our future. If you wanted to portray a visit to the far future from a steampunk reality then assuming that future wasn't post-apocalyptic like the one H.G. Well's time travel went to, then I'd suggest that you rely heavily on Victorian and golden age science fiction. Cavourite, healing rays, radium rifles, heat rays, super-sized computing machines, brain transplants...

[marcusbaer99]

Those replies pretty much answered my question. Thank you!

[blacksmith]

I was trying to think what a wildly divergent tech level might look like and wondered is lenseman best described as to (6+6)^?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by blacksmith

I was trying to think what a wildly divergent tech level might look like and wondered is lenseman best described as to (6+6)^?

That's probably a good call. Certainly it has multiple divergent TLs.

Bill Stoddard

[Ashtagon]

For TLx+y, x refers to the last point where the technology was essentially the same as in Homeline. The total of x+y indicates the effective tech level that the technology actually operates.

It is quite possible for a steampunk timeline to progress onwards to TL5+2, TL5+3, and so on to TL5+7 (TL5+8 in 4th edition doesn't make sense).

While the difference between TL6 and TL5+1 is quite clear to us, the difference between TL9 and TL8+1 is probably quite academic.

Also, It is quite possible for two different timelines to be TL5+1 but still be divergent from each other, suffering appropriate divergent tech penalties. (Any shorthand way to note all permutations would end up being insanely complicated; if a campaign has multiple divergent technologies, it is a definite case of "see campaign notes for details").

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

Also, It is quite possible for two different timelines to be TL5+1 but still be divergent from each other, suffering appropriate divergent tech penalties. (Any shorthand way to note all permutations would end up being insanely complicated; if a campaign has multiple divergent technologies, it is a definite case of "see campaign notes for details").

If they all diverge from the same point, you can call them TL5+1a, TL5+1b, TL5+1c, etc.

[Gedrin]

Originally Posted by marcusbaer99

Aside from the oddities in Tech IE Time Travel at TL/(5+1) does technology progress beyond TL/(5+1) or it is stagnant there and if it does progress beyond that is it linear to normal TL development except with steam?

Sure it progresses. Progress! (bang progress) is a key element of Steampunk. I'd come up with a Victorian SF themed tech tree. Maybe the next major innovation in power is harnessing lighting? You could have "Storm Ships" and "Tesla Generators" that fill the same technological roles of nuclear power. Lasers don't have the same feel as "peace rays" or "cosmic rays". If you go far enough forward you might see "Aether-drive" and the like.

Of course, depending on the similarity of the physics, the tech might reintegrate at some point.