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Rules Index | GM Screen
GameMastery Guide / Creating a World

Technology

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 160
One of the most important factors in building a world is its level of technological advancement. Technology affects every aspect of the game, from what gear PCs carry to what kinds of adventures a GM can run. Though many fantasy games presume a level of technology based on medieval Europe, this is far from the only option—even leaving aside those subgenres that might qualify as science fiction, fantasy can still run the gamut from steampunk and magic-infused technocracy to the hardscrabble world of primitive barbarian tribes. So how do you decide what’s right for your world? CONTENTIOUS TECHNOLOGY

Contentious Technology

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 160
Many fantasy RPGs assume a medieval or Renaissance baseline, a level of technology in which castles, swords, and armor are at their peak. Yet if your world follows the same trends as Earth’s history, several technological revolutions are just around the corner, and you should give some thought to how they interact with your setting, if at all.

Airships: Various historical accounts claim that the first winged gliders appeared in the medieval period or even earlier—albeit with minor success and massive injuries—and the technology behind hot air balloons potentially predated them by several centuries. In a world where creatures as large as dragons soar through the skies, it only makes sense that mankind might seek to do the same. Yet airships, while exotic and useful for transporting PCs, carry their own set of complications. Are a castle’s walls still useful when the enemy can drop bombs from a thousand feet up? How rare are airships, and who has access to them?

Firearms: Of all the technology that can be introduced to a campaign setting, none has so polarizing an effect as gunpowder. Some GMs view the thought of a fighter with a pistol as heresy, while others happily dive into the world of primitive flintlocks and blunderbusses, and still others would love nothing more than a barbarian with a sword in one hand and an assault rifle in the other. Beyond simply the flavor aspect, guns can present a tricky game balance issue, as it’s important that the addition of firearms doesn’t make existing player characters obsolete. If you choose to include guns in your world, be sure to consider the natural evolution of the technology and draw your lines accordingly—large-scale cannons and simple bombs are easier to design than handheld firearms, and even once gunsmithing has been refined to incorporate muzzle-loading pistols and muskets, there’s still a long way to go before the invention of cartridges and other advancements that allow guns to be reloaded quickly. Until those late-stage inventions come to bear, the musketeer that misses with his first shot may find himself peppered with arrows while he searches for powder and wadding.

Medicine: Throughout history, medical advances have come at different times in different locations. Middle Eastern cultures were the first to develop hospitals (an idea taken back to Europe during the crusades), South Asian dentists were drilling teeth over 9,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians recorded the first medical texts, and Greek surgeons experimented with daring manipulations that we’re only now perfecting. While magical healing and the Heal skill may cover all your bases in-game, it’s good to know what level of medical technology exists in your world. If a PC gets sick, do the local villagers soothe his fevered brow or beat him with sticks to drive the demons out, while simultaneously draining his blood? Your PCs may know everything about slaying dragons, but do they understand germs and why they shouldn’t drink downstream from the battlefield? How common are plagues in your world? Do its people understand drugs and antiseptics?

Printing Press: Printing presses spread literacy and help people organize and disseminate information, yet they can cause distinct problems for GMs (not to mention those feudal lords who depend on keeping their serfs ignorant and isolated). If you introduce the printing press to your world, who has access to it and what sorts of things does it print? Does it get used for religious texts or revolutionary pamphlets? Can it print magical texts like spellbooks and scrolls, and if so, how do you keep suddenly cheap magic from destroying the economy?

Sanitation: The real medieval world was a disgusting place, rife with filth and disease. While those GMs seeking authenticity might have everyone in the city emptying their chamber pots into the streets, privies, aqueducts, and other such sanitation aren’t actually anachronistic, depending on the culture. (And what wizard capable of traveling the planes wants to constantly worry about stepping in human waste?)

Steam Power: Entire genres—especially steampunk— have been built around steam power and the idea of “industrial revolution fantasy.” Steamboats, steam trains, mechanized factories—the advancement a simple steam engine can bring to a world is immense, and in such a setting, it’s easy for steam power to become the focus. Steam-powered vehicles streamline transportation of troops, civilians, and goods, making it easier to build vast empires. Steam-powered factories turn out perfect machined goods at a rate far above traditional cottage industry. Steam-powered war machines might even make appearances on the battlefield. Next to firearms, steam power has the most potential to change the flavor of your campaign setting, for good or ill. Use it carefully.

Multiple Levels of Technology

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 161
One of the best things about creating an entire setting is giving yourself several different regions with wildly different societies, and that includes regions with differing levels of technology. While some GMs argue that such variances break a game, a glance at Earth shows that it’s possible to have neighboring nations operating under extremely different conditions, and the farther apart the societies lie, the less likely there is to be crossover. Hence, it’s entirely possible to have both guns and swords in your world, or a futuristic race with inventions too advanced for the primitive barbarians next door to replicate on their own. While less fortunate cultures likely lust after such innovations, it’s not hard to stem the flow of technology, especially if the only people capable of constructing the wonders keep the secrets to themselves and sell their wares at incredibly inflated rates.

This brings up another important issue: futuristic technology. Though it can be argued that, to a caveman, a sword constitutes future technology, most people think of futuristic science in terms of ray guns and laser swords, the treasures of invading aliens, or the post-apocalyptic remnants of lost civilizations. Such items are often persona non grata in a fantasy setting, but the question remains: in a world where a wizard can make his wishes reality, is there any functional difference between a ray gun that shoots fire and a wand of scorching ray?

Magic and Technology

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 161
The question of how magic and science interact in your world is worth asking. Not just in terms of the laws and logic that each follows—though that helps—but how each is viewed and utilized by society. In a world with magic, is there any need for conventional science? If so, what factors determine which scholars pursue which? Which one is cheaper for the average peasant with a problem, and which is more reliable? How do the various churches view science? Do scientists and arcanists get along, or do they see each other as rivals? If they coexist, do the same individuals study both, and how do the different fields inform each other? Why bother with expensive, dangerous scientific experiments when you can cast a divination spell and have a deity personally verify or disprove your hypothesis?

In the end, neither magic nor science can truly replace the other, for every archer needs a basic understanding of physics, and the doctor who cures disease with moldy bread is every bit a magician to the uninitiated onlooker. By figuring out how the two interact and balance out, you can flesh out your cultures and be prepared when a player decides he wants to foster a scientific revolution in-game.

Anachronisms

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 161
Anachronisms, meaning things that seem out of place in a given time period, are always an issue in fantasy. Any time you try to draw from the past, your base assumptions as a resident of the present make it easy to accidentally introduce modern conventions. Every GM should be prepared to deal with players calling him on anachronisms she hadn’t noticed (or worse, on things like eyeglasses and clocks which feel anachronistic but in fact far predate the medieval period). So how should you deal with anachronisms?

Simple: don’t bother.

The first thing to remember in designing a campaign setting is that it’s your world, not Earth. Random chance plays a major role in science, and the fact that a given Earth culture didn’t make a specific discovery until a certain date doesn’t mean your culture has to follow the same timeline, so long as the progression is internally consistent. On Earth, different cultures advanced in different fields at different rates—the Chinese had cannons, flamethrowers, and land mines before Europe discovered gunpowder. Don’t let history tie the hands of your imagination.