Magic as technology - Spells and TL

[Gnomasz]

Somewhere between an old post on these forums stating that Spells become less powerful on higher TLs, one of my GM's opinion that mundane technology wouldn't advance if there was magic, and my own thought that a fireball is not that different from a pistol shot, I came to a conclusion that magic is just a different way of technology advancement and the world should follow it. You now, if wizards are flying around the battlefield and hurling exploding projectiles, why would warriors still fight medieval-style?

So, to be able to extrapolate real-world history to magical settings I decided to sort the Spells by TL. Of course, the whole magic is TL^, nonetheless I decided to compare Spell effects with mundane tools - so magic only grants a way to accomplish something. Campaign TL says what can be accomplished. So, in a TL3+2^ world magic is the answer for all the above-medieval technology. You can buy a Revolver for 150$, but it's mana sensitive - mind, it's not created with Enchantment Spell, just with Armoury/TL3+2^ (Small Arms). But the TL also limits spells. For example Flight Spell is off limits, as flying is TL6 achievement.

All above assumes that magic is common. But IMHO it could be also used to limit and/or balance wizards if they are unique. A mage with access to all the spells in Magic can accomplish "whatever he likes," to paraphrase Campaigns, thus magic is a set of TL12 tools for him. In a TL 3 setting he should buy 9 levels of TL for [45]. In modern world just 4 [20].

This destroys prerequisite chains, so I'd use it instead of them or created new ones, fitting technological progression.

But first and foremost, I wanted to know other's opinions, either about the general idea and about my quick work on Earth college (I don't have any -Tech books, and I don't have real knowledge. I've worked only with the TL table in Campaigns and wikipedia). "Create Earth 1" means Create Earth with base cost 1, which I find less advanced than the full version.

 TL|          Spell          |          Explanation
0  | Sand Jet                | just a dirty trick
0  | Seek Pass               | just a supernatural Naturalist application
1  | Create Earth 1          | resemblance with Earth to Stone
1  | Earth to Stone          | Mesopotamian cement
1  | Earth to Water          | Irrigation (and melting, but I've found nothing on it's historical usage)
2  | Stone Missile           | thrown mace, catapults, trebuchets etc. (considered sling a TL0 2 Energy equivalent but dropped the idea due to damage type)
2  | Stone to Earth          | pickaxe
3  | Purify Earth            | harrow
4  | Earth to Air            | alchemical sublimation (Basil Valentine, George Ripley, „Rosarium Philosophorum”)
4  | Rain of Stones          | canister shots
6  | Mud Jet                 | concrete pump
6  | Seek Earth              | Exploration Geophysics (V. Goldschmidt, A. Fersman, F. W. Clarke)
6  | Shape Earth             | steam shovels (earliest excavators); jackhammer
8  | Earth Vision            | ground-penetrating radar
8  | Predict Earth Movement  | earthquake prediction
9  | Create Earth Elemental  | combat robot (p. B512)
9  | Essential Earth         | wild guess at very advanced soil fertilisation
9  | Flesh to Stone          | feels like it would go along with tissue engineering (p. B512)
9  | Partial Petrification   | like Flesh to Stone
9  | Summon Earth Elemental  | Attracting attention of a combat robot (p. B512)
9  | Volcano                 | probably the same scale as heavy laser weapons (p. B512)
10 | Alter Terrain           | complete wild guess
10 | Control Earth Elemental | hacking a combat robot, requires a bit of time after their creation
10 | Create Earth            | reverse of antimatter (p. B512), gut feeling for matter transmission („create” meaning „summon from the plane of earth”)
10 | Earthquake              | wild guess again
10 | Entombment              | gut feeling for matter transmission; suspended animation is lower level (successful experiments in 2005, developed till TL9? – also a Healing Spell?) but not enough
10 | Move Terrain            | again a wild guess at matter transmission
10 | Sandstorm               | creating the vortex is probably less advanced than nanotech armor, so Windstorm is probably TL9, but Sandstorm creates the sand – see Create Earth
10 | Walk Through Earth      | I don't like repeating myself, but it's a wild guess at matter transmission
11 | Steelwraith             | advanced matter transmission
11 | Stone to Flesh          |cellular rejuvenation (p. B512)
12 | Body of Stone           | full metamorphosis (p. B512)

[fifiste]

Cool idea - if anyone bothers to mess with these kind of lists I might steal and use them :D

[reverse_atomic_roger]

I really like the idea too. But it will take someone with more dedication than I to convert a useful number of spells to this system.

If anyone does it, I'd definitely have a go at using the results.

[Nereidalbel]

I like this idea, and here's something to remember with it: All magic is just technology that has yet to be explained.

[Dusqune]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

I like this idea, and here's something to remember with it: All magic is just technology that has yet to be explained.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic...
...and any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from technology.

[dataweaver]

Nitpick: any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from SCIENCE!

(Still awaiting GURPS Girl Genius…)