What would an steampunk'd Tippyverse be like?

[Sintanan]

Just a crazy sleep-deprivation-plus-painkillers induced idea, but talking with a couple peers I started wondering what a Tippyverse turned to Steampunk would look like.

Not even dealing with what would have to be done to do something like this mechanically, I was wondering how would a Tippyverse naturally progress to a Steampunk state. What would such a steampunk setting look like? Weapons? Gadgets? Why steam and not magic? Would monsters be around?

This might be something worth tossing around, just for the sole purpose of why the hell not.

I'll add more to this after a touch of sleep since the keyboard and screen are starting to blur, but what would all my fellow Playgrounder think a steampunk'd tippyverse look like?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I'm actually in the process of creating a new game system whose default setting is pretty much this.

Basically, you had a Typpyverse, then disgruntled people found Steampunk-era Tech and used it to rebel.

So you had clockwork mecha firing off LRM's and autocannon facing off against Golems and full casters.

The net result was the destruction of most of the countryside. Both countries were forced into a Cease Fire by the combined clergy of ALL deities, yes even the evil ones. Backed up with threat of Avatars coming down to take personal exception to violators of said cease fire.

The full casters mostly died out. They were primary targets. So while your arcane classes are powerful, they are no more or less powerful than any other class.

[HunterOfJello]

1. Make it magical steam. Someone figures out that if you grab a bunch of dragonshards, smash em to pieces and burn them, then they create powerful magical effects that can be efficiently harvested or something.

2. Magitech is easier to implement than steampunk. Magitech would look identical to steampunk, but would be magic based off of some type of rare material. The Eberron setting uses items called dragonshards that fall from the sky (the planet has a funky halo full of the stuff) or are found deep within the earth.

Magitech + a lower magic level creates a very steampunk-like setting. You fall back into Tippyverses once you have high level spellcasting.

3. Low cost magic could also be an option for magitch/steampunk items. If its extremely low cost to create a magical auto-reloading hand crossbow that shoots out bolts with different enchantments on it, then the deadliness of non-wizards could increase by quite a bit.

4. Steampunk settings often mix in Wild West type environments. If you want to set something like that up, you could do it in the lands in between the Magical Tippyverse Metropolises. Think Firefly.

[Darrin]

I'm having trouble thinking of how the steampunk would develop in the first place. The first steam engines were mining pumps designed to pump water out of coal mines, and the first train engines were to move mining carts (full of coal again) from the mines to industrial centers.

Tippyverse has absolutely no need for coal. Indoor/outdoor lighting is easily handled with everburning torches, permanent duration light spells, or old magic weapons with the "light" feature. Magic items or clothing with permanent "endure element" features would also be trivially easy.

Ok, I guess you could have steampunk outside the city walls. There would be lots of creatures out there without access to teleportation circles or create food traps. Ignore them long enough, and sure, they might start mucking around with gunpowder, steam engines, etc. The wizards in the cities would be all, "Oh, that's so cute! You have all these metal tubes that smell bad and make lots of noise. Ok, bored now, going to a Shapechange Party, see you in a few decades." Make the wizards decadent and complacent enough, and I guess I could see a lance of battlemechs cracking open a city with a barrage of LRMs.

[Sintanan]

1. Make it magical steam. Someone figures out that if you grab a bunch of dragonshards, smash em to pieces and burn them, then they create powerful magical effects that can be efficiently harvested or something.

2. Magitech is easier to implement than steampunk. Magitech would look identical to steampunk, but would be magic based off of some type of rare material. The Eberron setting uses items called dragonshards that fall from the sky (the planet has a funky halo full of the stuff) or are found deep within the earth.

Magitech + a lower magic level creates a very steampunk-like setting. You fall back into Tippyverses once you have high level spellcasting.

3. Low cost magic could also be an option for magitch/steampunk items. If its extremely low cost to create a magical auto-reloading hand crossbow that shoots out bolts with different enchantments on it, then the deadliness of non-wizards could increase by quite a bit.

4. Steampunk settings often mix in Wild West type environments. If you want to set something like that up, you could do it in the lands in between the Magical Tippyverse Metropolises. Think Firefly.

Following that train of thought, Eberron also has magical locations, like the air magic saturation that allows for Sharn. Something along the lines of rampant magical use has created a need for these Tippyverse cities to be located on these magic sites, the areas between these magic sites are wild magic or dead magic locales.



Ok, I guess you could have steampunk outside the city walls. There would be lots of creatures out there without access to teleportation circles or create food traps. Ignore them long enough, and sure, they might start mucking around with gunpowder, steam engines, etc. The wizards in the cities would be all, "Oh, that's so cute! You have all these metal tubes that smell bad and make lots of noise. Ok, bored now, going to a Shapechange Party, see you in a few decades." Make the wizards decadent and complacent enough, and I guess I could see a lance of battlemechs cracking open a city with a barrage of LRMs.

Running with the above idea, you would still see rampant use of magic in things as mundane as clothes in the cities. Outside of cities would have a real Western feel to it; roughing it while you know the high class are living it up in cities outside the wilds.

But, outside handwaving, what would be the reason to adventure? If magic is funky outside cities, then either magical toys everyone is so used to stop functioning, leading to an overpriced 'mundane' version which sorta goes against the whole concept of steampunk design makes life easier.

Although, that is kinda neat... Magitech is so easy to create and available it is common, and steampunk is the complex necessity when stepping beyond city walls.

But, still, it comes back to if you're in a magic city, you're safe from basically anything non-magic, so where does the magic come from to counter your magical defenses?

[Ravens_cry]

If there is some dead magic zones with significant resources, it could be an incentive to invent more mundane technology, and gold and other precious metals as well as gems are still likely cheaper to mine than to cast the eighth level spell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/spells/trueCreation.htm)(that is only available to some clerics of some gods and other people with the creation domain) that is required to make them by magic.

[MesiDoomstalker]

If there is some dead magic zones with significant resources, it could be an incentive to invent more mundane technology, and gold and other precious metals as well as gems are still likely cheaper to mine than to cast the eighth level spell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/spells/trueCreation.htm)(that is only available to some clerics of some gods and other people with the creation domain) that is required to make them by magic.

Now I want to calculate how much diamond said cleric could create per day, assuming minimum caster level and only casting once per day. Which is completely useless, as we don't know how much a cubic foot of diamond is worth.

[Ravens_cry]

Now I want to calculate how much diamond said cleric could create per day, assuming minimum caster level and only casting once per day. Which is completely useless, as we don't know how much a cubic foot of diamond is worth.
UP to one cubic foot per level; one could still create diamonds of a specific value, but only one casting at a time, and it would cost XP.

[Sintanan]

Diamonds have a density of 3.52 grams per milliliter.
There are 28,300 milliliters per cubic foot.

So, a cubic foot of diamonds is 99,616 grams; or 498,080 carats.

Now to just figure out the exchange rate of carat of diamond to gp.

[Gnorman]

Running with the above idea, you would still see rampant use of magic in things as mundane as clothes in the cities. Outside of cities would have a real Western feel to it; roughing it while you know the high class are living it up in cities outside the wilds.

So... fantasy Firefly?

[MesiDoomstalker]

Diamonds have a density of 3.52 grams per milliliter.
There are 28,300 milliliters per cubic foot.

So, a cubic foot of diamonds is 99,616 grams; or 498,080 carats.

Now to just figure out the exchange rate of carat of diamond to gp.

You, sir, get an internet.


UP to one cubic foot per level; one could still create diamonds of a specific value, but only one casting at a time, and it would cost XP.

I know what the spell can produce in volume. The important part is how much said volume weighs, as that be the main factor in determining costs. Sintanan was gracious enough to do the maths, though we still lack a weight to currency conversion, so the point is somewhat mute.

[Chess435]

Wow, diamonds are heavy. :smalleek:

[Malroth]

Cheap steel was a big factor in the beginning of the industrial revolution. The Bessemer process cut the price of steel by 90% within 5 years of its adoption and discovery of a similar process would greatly increase the need for the accompaning steam/coal technologies especially if there are parts of the world impossible to teleport into thus negating the need for golem defended supercities to protect against invading armies arriving via teleportation circle.