One aspect of the “standard” fantasy setting that hits my BTDT Threshold is the way that the world is generally frozen in time, with progress and development at a standstill, or, to put it less politely… stagnant. From an accessibility stance, this does make sense, anyone familiar with the genre conventions can jump into, write, or run any game or story that uses those same conventions. And since no one owns these specifics (somewhat miraculously, given how indebted they are to a mere handful of authors), they can be used freely regardless of format. We can assume a certain level of technology, systems of government, and forms of cultural works. But this “one-size fits all” approach is a major driver of my BTDT feeling. And so, rather than demand everyone abandon their favorite fantasy settings and systems, we thought we would spend a few posts talking about ways to “unfreeze” their respective clocks. Not only might it help with an audience’s BTDT threshold, but this approach can help to make an imaginary world more unique and personal. And so, in our new “Fantasy Forward” series, we thought we’d start with one of the most obvious “frozen” societal factors: technology.
- B
B: This is one area that’s always fascinating to me because most fantasy settings already feature an odd mix of technologies from our own history. Whenever ships are involved, for instance, industry seems to be a few centuries ahead of everywhere else - swashbuckling is a lot more fun with fast-moving ships, cannons, and pistols, after all! But, even aside from the already-controversial element of gunpowder (for which some D&D editions provide a backstory) all of these require a fairly advanced system of craftsmanship and material science, from metallurgy and casting to carpentry and forest management. So one approach is to take what’s already there and extrapolate where and how these elements show up. Coastal cities might have advanced shipyards, but they have to get their lumber (and a lot of it, for that matter) from somewhere. So there has to be a logistics chain going backwards from shipyard out to forest. As one approaches the cities, craftspeople will have more and more complex techniques, training, and tools, and they’ll provide services to every industry imaginable: agriculture, transport, medicine, and, yes, adventuring.
Andy, how do you think technology can develop in a fantasy setting, and what are some ways this can be portrayed to an audience or players?
A: My particular Been There, Done That Threshold seems to be much higher than Bugsy’s when it comes to fantasy, but I think part of that comes from looking to see how far we can stretch the limits of a game like Dungeons and Dragons before we break it with something like "fighting vampire Hitler with laser guns." Technology can develop in your fantasy worlds in a number of ways, but Bugsy has hit upon the main driving force of it: that necessity is the mother of invention. We want to include seafaring, therefore shipyards will need lots of wood. The need for wood drives those things like carpentry. That need drives an increase in available working population, driving up the need for better farming, and so on. As Bugsy mentioned, though, the way it plays out doesn't have to mirror our own history. Perhaps a demon in your fantasy world wants to increase its followers. To accomplish that, the demon teaches them how to make a new kind of weapon, or a new medicine to heal their wounds. The important thing is to finding the want and the need, and the rest comes from extrapolation. Wants and needs may come from the players as well. An example of this can be found spanning Critical Role’s campaigns, with player Talisen Jaffe wanting to explore the idea of being the inventor of firearms. This included the need for black powder merchants, and resulted in the appearance of a rival. That idea then expanded throughout the realm during the second campaign, with a gnome city experimenting with gunpowder technologies and weapons, themselves. How should we decide what to include, though?
Other than looking to the wants of your players, NPCs and yourself as GM, you might find yourself at a loss for what to bring in. A good starting point for you might be Arthur C. Clarke’s third law: "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." You can take technology from today and recreate it with magic in your games. A television might be a cross between the sending spell and an illusion spell both enchanted into a stone. A lighter might be a hunk of metal with produce flame cast upon it, or a special trinket a gnome developed. Once you find your technology, no matter where the want and need come from, it's important to figure out that impact that makes. There's a chance that television device might catch on, and what will that cause in your world?
Including technology advancements in your games is certainly something to strive for if you find things feeling a bit stagnant. You can introduce advancements as godly or fiendish boons, a natural development mirroring our own world or items born of a mad wizard’s fever dreams. Make sure that, whatever you include in your game, it's wanted and/or needed by someone - by yourself, by NPCs or by players. Before providing your in-game comparisons (or advertisements), consider how these technologies might change your fantasy world as a whole. Please join us for our next post in the series as we look at different ways to push Fantasy Forward. Until then... get out there and break some dice!
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