Technology in Ptolus

Technology has advanced in Ptolus, through the study of the forces of law, so that gunpowder fires bullets from single-shot dragon-pistols and dragon-rifles. Clockwork gears control clocks and even pocket watches. Printing presses crank out news sheets, and steam powers the occasional motorized device. There are even hot air balloons flying high over the city.

This raises some issues, however -- particularly since I try to pride myself on having a well-thought-out setting.

~Monte

Why Technology Hasn't Overwhelmed the World
Well, in a way, it has. Or rather, it had. To use our own world's history (not as an example, but an analogy), it's as though the Roman Empire, when it fell, had actually risen to Victorian technology and thus when the Dark Ages came along, things had even farther to fall into barbarism. My campaign is seemingly at the start of its own Dark Ages. Fewer and fewer people are trained in the upkeep of the technological items, and fewer still in their manufacture. If things continue in the direction they seem to be going, guns, printing presses, and pocket watches will be things of the past, not the future.

Why Guns Haven't Eliminated Armor
In the real world, they did. (Although the longbow and the crossbow went a long way to making it obsolete, too.) But in a fantasy world, you don't have just armed opponents to deal with. You have owlbears with big claws and ropers with strength-draining tendrils. You want to keep your armor on to protect you from their attacks. So, as long as you've got to keep it on, you might as well use magic, ingenuity, and supernatural craftsmanship to help overcome the laws of physics that make armor obsolete.

Integrating Technological and Fantasy Aspects

This is something that's important to me. For example, in my game, technology = law. The ultimate lawful Prustan deity (Prustans, remember, are the humans that eventually started the Tarsisian Empire with the help of the Grailwarden dwarves) is Teun, the Mother of all Machines. She is even older than the official deity of the Empire, Lothian. Likewise, the dwarves and the Prust worshipped the Iron God as well. From their point of view, technology came from the gods, as the ultimate expression of order.

However, that does not mean (as some might assume) that magic is the ultimate expression of chaos. Not the case. In fact, the Prust and the Tarsisian Empire that came after them had no problem with merging their machines and magic: magical bullets and guns, magical clocks, etc. Wizardly magic could also be expressed as the harnessing of the order of the natural world.

Here are some of the common tech items found in Ptolus:

Firearms

* Special
** Damage inflicted in a 5-foot radius.

Dragon Pistol: The pistol requires one action to reload.
Sting: This pistol requires one action to reload, but is small and concealable.
Double Pistol: This pistol has two barrels and can fire two shots before needing a reload (one action for each barrel).
Dragon Rifle: The rifle requires one action to reload.
Bomb: This gunpowder explosive has a blast radius of 5 feet.
Smoke Bomb: This non-damaging explosive creates a cloud of smoke in a 20 foot radius that persists in still conditions for 1d3+6 rounds and in windy conditions for 1d3 rounds. Visibility within the smoke is limited to 2 feet. Everything within the cloud has total concealment (50% miss chance).

Miscellaneous Equipment

Clock: Suitable for the mantle.
Pocketwatch: Comes with a chain.
Printed Book: Any subject. Price varies by size, subject, and rarity.
Compass: Adds +4 competency bonus to Direction Sense checks.
Spyglass: As PH, but price is reduced.
Magnifying Glass: As PH, but price is reduced.

Tech and Chaositech
The real reason I integrated a higher level of technology into Ptolus (other than it's just cool) is to pit law and chaos against each other in a very blatant sort of way. Law versus chaos is tech versus chaositech. Chaositech is the opposite of machines based on law. It is machines based on chaos. These devices are extremely ancient, from a dark time in the world's history, whereas the normal tech is relatively new. Chaositech can do strange things that no one can logically understand -- it's not based on the laws of nature, or of predictability.

Chaos is reasserting itself in the world, and law is on the decline. This trend becomes clear in the fact that the Tarsisian Empire is falling apart, but also in that technology levels are decreasing, not increasing. Innovation is stymied, because the culture that fostered it is shattering. The Chaositech from an earlier age is reappearing from the depths below Ptolus. Something long sleeping is beginning to awaken, and Chaositech is the harbinger of this dread sleeper.

Next: Some of the stuff I promised last time (I didn't know I would go on so long about tech), like an overview of the city itself.