[PF] Victorian Technology in an E6 World

[BigKahuna]

I'm currently DMing an E6 game that takes place in a custom world very loosely set in the victorian era. While the setting I've created is perfectly adequate for my game, the problem is that I'm not much of an engineer or scientist so I can't come up with any cool new technology to exist in my world. Currently I'm mainly using technology that would have been available in the victorian era along with some magical innovations (For example, one nation has come to heavily rely on constructs that are built in factories by other constructs for the purpose of working in factories). So I've turned to the playground for suggestions of innovative technologies which could exist in this setting and ways which E6 Magic (3rd level spells) could have enhanced or changed the progress of technology in this world.

[Ravens_cry]

A cleric could animate dead. Always a fun source of perpetual power.
You could have semaphores towers that use dancing lights at night. Sure, it's a significant outlay, but the saving and less risk of fire makes it more than worth it if you can get the capital.
Decanters of endless water not only provide power on their own, but provide endless water supply for steam engines, the second (the first being fuel, of course) restriction of their range. This also allows them to be much lighter, perhaps even practical as a prime mover for controlled flight.

[Pandoras Folly]

Bound fire elemental plus endless decanter equals perpetual motion.

Adamantium would allow for RIDICULOUSLY high steam pressures I mean really really high. Like tiny ones would have a power density greater than the power plants of tanks and jet aircraft

gas lanterns are actually really easy to do all u have to do is heat and process coal and/or sewage to collect the gas

In Most magic worlds magic items dont wear out or down, so magic lighting can become common over the years as it doesnt burn out. Even if it is relatively expensive to make, its operating costs are nill over the decade. Progressive and civic minded organizations or goverments would buy them gradually over the centuries.

Same thing could be said about constructs.

Also in the more evil aligned areas undead could be put to task ar repetitive, dirty, dangerous, boring jobs. Mining, animal power, turnjng bolts, folding steel a billion times, etc. actually the undead metal smiths were a source of an artifact in a game I played, someone left the zombie sword smiths unattended for a couple centuries and they made an infinity-1 folded blade.

Blinkdog halfling/goblin cavalry, weird animal cavalry in general.

How armys fight will based on two things are firearms present in some form and how common war magic is. guns in fantasy (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/23183325/?pg=last) good discussion on the topic

[BigKahuna]

How armys fight will based on two things are firearms present in some form and how common war magic is. guns in fantasy (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/23183325/?pg=last) good discussion on the topic

Guns are very common (using the Commonplace Pathfinder Rules) and magic in warfare is also common.

[Gnome Alone]

Wow, I love the idea of a Victorian-style E6 world. Way to go.

As a Level 2 Bootblack, how much pittance must I save up for a +1 Rag of Shinery? Some daigh owl be the steamiest of punks, aah will.

[Ashtagon]

Go get hold of GURPS Steampunk and GURPS Steam-Tech nao. They are for the older edition, but you want them for the amazing invention fluff, not the rules crunch.

[avr]

Burrow (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/b/burrow) vis this spell or a monster ability makes underground construction much faster and easier than in RL. This in turn makes hydroelectric plants (if your victorian age has reached that point) easier to set up as well as the obvious advantages in mining.

Similarly, water breathing, the air bubble spell or aquatic hires make it easier to build bridges, dams etc.

Track ship (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/t/track-ship) makes planning a breeze for would-be rulers of the waves. You could use the same spell to broadcast information or orders, i.e. one ship moves about your home harbour in pre-coded ways and your remote magicians cast this spell to pick up the movements, then compare those movements to their code books.

[Ravens_cry]

Burrow (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/b/burrow) vis this spell or a monster ability makes underground construction much faster and easier than in RL. This in turn makes hydroelectric plants (if your victorian age has reached that point) easier to set up as well as the obvious advantages in mining.

Even if not hydroelectric, water power was the first prime mover of the industrial revolution.
Burrow would also be very useful for mining.

[Pandoras Folly]

Guns are very common (using the Commonplace Pathfinder Rules) and magic in warfare is also common.

Exactly, once you let the gun genie out of its barrel, they're everywhere and they are easy enough to learn to use a retarded orc could shoot them. They quickly overtake other weapons as weapons of war except maybe pike and Halberd. For example it takes about 7 years to master an English longbow, we can turn out master snipers in well under a year, grunts in 8 Weeks.

Not to mention COST armies are expensive an I imagine even small units of specilty monsters like griffons, war trolls,etc not even really exotic things like war golemns would be prohibitive. Especially with volleys of muskets, one out of twenty shots will crit and one out of 400 will confirm. Stupid units of peasants taking down fortunes in war beasts.

Frankly set piece army battles would quickly become a thing of the past. You would see small group infiltrators,spys,assassins, and operators kidnapping blackmailing and assassinating. Of course most of the "armed forces" would really be counter Intel, abjurists, bodyguards, and hidden summonable killbots. Would make a Whole lot more sense from an economic and military standpoint.


So victorianish world with few standing armies but lots of double secret police, antininjas, no magic zones, abjuration, and law enforcement continually battling ninjas, ghost assassins, bombs, terrorists, Indiana Jones, and wizards

[BigKahuna]

Exactly, once you let the gun genie out of its barrel, they're everywhere and they are easy enough to learn to use a retarded orc could shoot them. They quickly overtake other weapons as weapons of war except maybe pike and Halberd. For example it takes about 7 years to master an English longbow, we can turn out master snipers in well under a year, grunts in 8 Weeks.

I wouldn't say that other weapons are entirely out of the game (one nation's military is mainly made out of sword magi) but they certainly replace a lot of weapons. The commonplace gun rules also model firearms quite well at low levels. At these levels it means that only characters with martial weapon proficiency can use them properly without a feat. This means that the average commoner may have a gun (my players are in a more western part of the setting at the moment), his -4 to hit with it for not being proficient makes him much more likely to miss.

I've also been toying with making magically enhanced armour which can add to touch AC (probably through mage armour, which I'm houseruling to give touch AC) to negate the powerful effects of guns and make other weapons more viable.

[Pandoras Folly]

Yea its always a balancing act once you introduce firearms of any type. There is a good reason why no one fought with melee weapons primarily after the 1600ish. You can build a crap tons of cheap guns, give em to conscrpts, add a few Weeks of training, mass them, and point at enemy. The most difficult thing to teach is not breaking under fire and how to revolve thru the various formations.

I take it magic and charactrr lvls are pretty common in your world. This could easily balance out technology and its advantages.

I've actually helped make several magepunk, victorianesque, and Edwardian style magical settings. it can a be balanced out, just start from where you want to end up, sounds like you already have that part, then think thru logical underpinnings of it.

The tendency away ftom large armed conflicts is pretty much s constant with high magic dnd style environments if nothing elsr because you spend so much on internal security and anti magic. For an excellent demonstration of a middle magic environment for politics play the video game Dishonored, with only a handfull of powers and weapons you can go anywhere do anything.