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jseah
2013-05-18, 10:13 AM
I have read and heard alot about magical technology settings and well, to be frank, many of them fail to explore the applications of technological magic to daily life. Apart from war, that gets alot of focus.

So here I am, trying to think of various applications of magic that have NOTHING to do with war... suggestions welcome.

Fundamental technologies:
These don't have any immediate applications without further engineering
- Electrical batteries that never run out
-> Can power hybrid tech like walkie talkies and radios

- Magical flywheel that keeps spinning
-> Basis of the magical industrial revolution
->> Also compatible with railways
-> Animated objects can do the menial jobs remaining in a production line

- Telekinetic propulsion
-> Directly moving objects with reactionless force can drive ships across water, cars across land and airships through the sky
-> It can also negates weight if you need to use this to do it; aka. very very tall buildings

- Vacuum line
-> Magic evacuates air constantly and this generates a vacuum that has all sorts of uses (not least being the quintessential carpet cleaner)

Appliances
Simple: These run off obvious principles and don't require any sort of complex math

- Umbrella
-> A low power deflection field makes raindrops miss you. Can go through walls so you can squeeze through small spaces and it doesn't block your vision; small and portable

- Ever-warm clothing

- Climate control unit (essentially a radiator that is hot or ice cold depending on environment)
- Fan
- Portable cloud
-> Essentially a giant shade that diffuses sunlight to make it less hot but still bright enough to do things

- Constantly glowing objects used as torches

- Convenience store ready meals with single-use heat/cool packs that cook your food or freeze your ice cream when opened

- Fire dampener
-> can work by making inert gas, sucking away heat or just a chemical suppressant

- Food preserving pot
-> Death magic kills everything inside the pot, stuff inside does not decompose despite not being refrigerated; opening lid turns it off

- Portable skateboard
-> Four balls that "grow" a board between them made of magic, rolls in the direction you lean in (all 4 directions)

- Perimeter fence that pushes off things that try to climb them

- Applying pressure to the inside of the body to stop internal bleeding
- Massage clots or bowels to make them move away from critical areas
- Keep airways open by force and without intubation
- Non-invasive scalpel that cuts at specific depth and orientation

Advanced: these need some math and knowledge of stuff
- Ultrasound source and receivers can be placed inside the body non-invasively

So far, I have made my magic very tame. The setting I am building this for has magic not able to do anything it isn't strictly told to do. There are no such things as scrying spells, detect X, find X, summoning, healing, ressurection, anything that involves magic understanding language... that which cannot be exactly described cannot be done by magic.

Magic does not think in this setting.

Feel free to write about those though, I might not find a use for them for my current setting but other people might.


In any case, most of my ideas are not very interesting apart from (if I may say so), the instant heat/cold ready meals, non-refrigerator food preservation and the magic skateboard.

zorenathres
2013-05-18, 11:22 AM
I have read and heard alot about magical technology settings and well, to be frank, many of them fail to explore the applications of technological magic to daily life. Apart from war, that gets alot of focus.

Well, war gets focused on, because history shows that many advances in technology result from warfare itself. Also, that's where the money is, where the research is, where the lords are choosing to invest their fortunes & thus the most returns come from.

To try & think about your other question, the standard D&D settings don't really address a setting where magic is widespread & common enough to be used as walkie talkies & floating cars (we have the tippyverse for that).

Gavinfoxx
2013-05-18, 11:47 AM
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aG4P3dU6WP3pq8mW9l1qztFeNfqQHyI22oJe09i8KWw/edit

If you want a D&D 3.5e rules-specific handbook, along with links to several other D&D 3.5e rules-specific handbooks.

LimeSkeleton
2013-05-18, 12:04 PM
Well if you don't mind something more fantastic, gigantic floating cities (A la Bioshock Infinite) with rocket-elevators providing the means of reaching them from the ground could be interesting.
Maybe richer individuals could have windows made of force which could be tinted at will to provide privacy and are nigh-impenetrable?

jseah
2013-05-18, 08:40 PM
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aG4P3dU6WP3pq8mW9l1qztFeNfqQHyI22oJe09i8KWw/edit

If you want a D&D 3.5e rules-specific handbook, along with links to several other D&D 3.5e rules-specific handbooks.
The thing is, my problem with that sort of setting is that your classical magitech setting has magic-powered railways, magic-powered cars, magic-powered elevators, magic-powered airships...

As well as teleportation circles, super tall towers, floating islands and a few other quirks.

But these are just modern day ideas with "magic-powered" stuck in front. Its very very rare to meet a truly new magic-powered idea. That is what I was looking for.
(the examples I gave include a one-use self-heating ready meal)


Fantastic and large stuff are good, but I wanted something more on the personal level. I want the setting to live and breathe magic, not just be "high-tech but with MAAAGIC". That means the people must have all sorts of quirky useful magical devices.

(eg. if you allow locate X, you have a device called a key/sock/pen-finder, which will no doubt come in very good use, =P)

Craft (Cheese)
2013-05-18, 11:36 PM
But these are just modern day ideas with "magic-powered" stuck in front. Its very very rare to meet a truly new magic-powered idea. That is what I was looking for.

It's very, very rare to meet a truly new anything. For example, single-use self-heating meals actually exist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-heating_food_packaging), though I hear they taste like crap.

The best method for generating magitech, I've found, is to take a piece of modern technology, think about what we use it for, then come up with some alternate means of meeting that need, using magic to make the impractical parts work. We use cars because we want to be able to get from place to place quickly, and freely. Instead of everyone driving a car in this setting, we could have cloaks that can morph into a pair of wings the user can use to quickly fly around.

jseah
2013-05-19, 02:43 AM
The self-heating ready meals was just a random thing I thought of. I did not expect it to be truly original, just that it is something I have never seen magitech settings have.
The internet was a new idea when it arrived. The social network websites are a new phenomenon. Something on that scale and uniqueness is also what I am looking for.

A completely mundane, quality-of-life thing that doesn't change the world, doesn't save millions of lives/manhours/animals, isn't a new and interesting way to kill someone. It is just a simple device that smooths out one of the everyday annoyances.
It might not have much effect on a story or game, but its little things like this that make the setting live and breathe magic. Instead of feeling like magic was just tacked on.

Perhaps your method could work too. How about we start by listing every single mildly annoying thing you had to do each day/week/month?
Washing, Drying, Ironing, Folding clothing
Washing pans & utensils
Washing the floor / scrubbing the toilets
Taking out the trash

Flavoured food and drink
Finding the light switch in the dark
Packaging food neatly for storage
Removing packaging and getting rid of it

Writing hand blocking light reaching where you are writing
Reading in the dark without disturbing other people sleeping nearby
Noise pollution (I don't want to hear my neighbours and don't want to disturb them)
Pathfinding to nearest convenience store in an unfamiliar city
Putting on shoes without destroying the heel and without having to redo laces
Preserving neckties neatly without undoing the knot
Need to cross reference multiple pages without destroying the book; need to cross reference more paper than I have space to lay them out on

Showering / personal hygiene
Nail clippers, shaving, dandruff, cosmetics
Remembering to take long term medicines

Straybow
2013-05-22, 02:07 AM
Well, it isn't "magic tech" but the good old permanent unseen servant. It can only do what it is instructed to do, but just that is massively helpful.

Surfnerd
2013-05-22, 07:53 AM
About a city, small region or whole world, really your call, A successful money lender has begun setting up small chests anchored in stone. He sells storage space in his warehouse in the large city and costumers get a key that when used on the small chests about the area creates a gateway between their strongbox in the warehouse and the chest the key is used on. Allowing them to access gold, important documents or anything that could fit in the chest anywhere a remote access point is located. Great for the adventurer or traveler that doesn't like to carry large amounts of gold on their person.

I agree that you just need to look at the needs being met with our modern conveniences and think of a magic based solution for them. Magic powered this or that is lazy and uninspired. Live by the immortal words of Bigweld, See a Need Fill a need!

Calinar
2013-05-22, 05:43 PM
The Eberron setting has a quite a few things that are rather small and helpful, its a high magic setting, but at a lower power scale, that uses magic instead of technology. It has things like barrels of preserving, everbright lanterns, refrigerated caravans, magically marked documents that can't be forged, mage craftsmen called magewright who use spells to help them craft better and faster, a blacksmith's furnace could likely be heated by an elemental bound into it so he wouldn't have to work the billows. A look through that setting could give you some ideas on magical technology.

The Rose Dragon
2013-05-24, 05:07 AM
I think the basic problem with coming up with exclusively magical ideas is that unless magic creates needs we do not have, we are unlikely to come up with solutions for them. We do not create technology based on tools and components we have (largely - I'm sure it has been done before, just not commonly), we create technology based on our needs and wants. And our needs tend to be fairly simple: sustenance, shelter, comfort, companionship, self-actualization, etc.. Even the internet and social networking came out of our need to socialize and communicate with each other.

So, when trying to come up with technology that isn't directly inspired by the real world, don't try to work on individual magical effects. That will feel artificial and tacky. Instead, try to find a need you feel is insufficiently met, and figure out how you can solve that problem with magic.