Looking to refine my world's magitech and associated social systems.

[Roxxy]

The unifying concept for my setting is the industrialization of magic, and the main genres are Magitek and New Old West. It ranks more on the optimistic than pessimistic side of the scale. The rule system is Pathfinder. Like Eberron, this setting uses Arcane magic as technology. Cars and trains run off of alchemist's fire or liquid lightning, magic tablets that let you talk to anyone over any distance use liquid lightning batteries, golems do a lot of the factory work, cosmetic magic is readily available (law enforcement just loves that), and so on. Arcane magic is basically mainstream, and is almost a science. Yet there are also darker forms of magic, called Psychic magic, that are more dangerous than the Arcane, and which scare people because they involve dealing with spirits and let people summon demons and walking corpses. People also don't understand it like they understand Arcane magic. Psychic magic is the Occult Adventures Psychic casters, with the addition of Witches and Shamans. Divine spellcasting classes do not exist. Then there are the monsters that slip in through the veil between the materiel world and the fey realm, which haunt people's dreams. And steal children. That too. The players are the government agents who deal with those monsters, and intervene when Psychic mages start doing evil crap like demon summoning. Then we have all the New Old West stuff about how industrialization, mass communication, and centralization have crushed the myth of the freedom of the frontier, and about how modern society isn't quite so enlightened as people like to think. Political and economic corruption, wealth inequality, the drug trade, racism against Native Americans, racism against Indian immigrants, bigotry against elves and asimaar, and even worse bigotry against tieflings are all problems (Tieflings still get lynched over really flimsy stuff every now and then. The demon blood freaks people out.).

Now, what I really need ideas for is things that modern technology doesn't provide. I have magitek equivalents of cars and smart phones, and I want firearms to be the primary weapons, so I need some ideas for stuff that isn't just a magic version of something modern, so that the setting isn't just a modern tech setting but with wizards. The alchemist is by far the dominant magic user among NPC alchemists, and alchemists can craft magic items as if their extracts were spells. In order for a magic item to function, it has to have an alchemical battery to provide power. Typically, this battery uses a substance called liquid lightning, which is useful in that it can either power magic items or provide an electric charge, and instead of recharging the battery you dump out the used fluid (after liquid lightning is used, it reverts to water) and pour in fresh fluid.

I do need to emphasize that I don't typically run games above 12th level, so 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells don't come up at all, and 6th level spells aren't common. I also don't have teleportation magic, and that fact mortals have no ability to travel to other planes of existance is important enough a detail to the setting (a mortal can open up a portal and use it to conjure stuff, but if a mortal tried to move through a portal, it would be fatal).

[Roxxy]

To start off, here's what I've decided on cosmetic magic and security procedures:

Using magic for small cosmetic changes is very common. Widening or narrowing a nose, changing eye color, reversing hair loss, making hair straight, curly, or wavy, changing hair color, making lips fuller or thinner, getting or removing tattoos, and such are not difficult changes to make using magic, and they aren't prohibitively expensive for most people. Hair or eye color changes cost the equivalent of, like, 20 to 30 bucks, while facial tweaks can go for a few hundred. More involved changes like height changes, racial changes (switching from human to elf and stuff like that), weight loss, and so on are more difficult, and are much more expensive. Taking off weight or changing someone's height is at least a couple thousand dollars, getting more expensive as the patient gets heavier or the height change gets bigger, and changing race or gender costs somewhere in the tens of thousands (Public healthcare [Think Britain's NHS] usually won't pay for gender reassignment for transgender individuals, but there is a movement to change this.). Of course, this is a boon to criminals, which is why IDs are required and records are kept of who got what for anything more involved than a color change. For high intensity procedures like race changes, the police have to be sent a notification, do to the chance that somebody might be trying to avoid detection. It is also considered necessary that the police be able to know what somebody's facial structure currently looks like and used too look like, both for hunting fugitives and for trying to locate missing persons who could be in danger. It is very illegal to change somebody's fingerprints. There are of course illegal cosmetic magicians who will modify your facial structure and fingerprints with no questions asked (this can cost you a lot of money, naturally), so this is certainly not a completely effective system. Still, it's surprising how many criminals get caught because they weren't smart enough to get their cosmetics done off the grid. As an aside, it is somewhat common for minorities (think Amerindians, Mestizos, Africans, and South Asians, also Elves) to get facial tweaks to get some features of the majorities (think Caucasians and East Asians). Tieflings sometimes try, but if you cut off their horns, recovery hurts a lot and they grow back.

What all this cosmetics business can't do is change somebody's DNA. Even if you change your race, you will have the same genes you used to have before (So, if a human becomes an elf, then has a child with another elf, the child will be a half-elf, not a full elf). Only a spell like Alter Self and Polymorph can mimic DNA, and those spells don't last very long (12 level is typically the highest level game I'll run, and those spells are 1 min/level in duration). As a result, public attitudes on police DNA collection are much looser. When you get a photo ID or driver's license, DNA is collected and stored, and your ID has a DNA marker on it (along with arcane glyphs that function as watermarks, and others that identify the government office the ID originates from, the employee who created it, and when it was created). Police can legally take a DNA swab if they pull you over in a car or otherwise have cause to verify your identity, and they compare that sample to your ID and the national database. Thanks to divination magic, DNA analysis takes seconds. You see it done at security checkpoints all the time, too. Another common security method is tattooing. Alter Self only reproduces the subject's tattoos if the caster knows about those tattoos, and magic means tattoos can be changed or removed. It is quite common for people with security clearances to have secret tattoos that change shape and location frequently (sometimes even weekly or daily for really high security stuff), and only reveal the tattoos to security personnel or coworkers. That way, if somebody is acting suspicious, they can be asked to show their tattoos. If the proper tattoo isn't present, it is a gigantic red flag. For stuff like guarding the president, you may even have to show your tattoos (which change daily) every single time you get secure access to something. It isn't a flawlesss or impossible to subvert system, because Alter Self could allow you to mimic somebody else long enough to clear a checkpoint or traffic stop, and it isn't unheard of for corrupt government employees to falsify IDs and DNA records or skilled mages to "hack" the system, but the system certainly isn't ineffective, either. Also, the existence of Alter Self means that criminal trials don't always consider DNA evidence a smoking gun.

The existence of mind control magic means that anyone who works with secure information is taught to be very paranoid about any sort of strange or unusual behavior from coworkers. Security tends to be extremely quick to detain people and examine them for mind control magic (a simple detect magic isn't enough, because almost everybody pings when you scan them with that), and codephrases are very common (like, you don't say the right morning greeting to someone, you get detained and questioned). Getting detained often is pretty much part of having a security clearance, as it happens to everybody. In fact, not having been detained in a long time is often cause to be detained. When people can take the form of other people without too much effort, facial modifications aren't hard to get, and mind control is a thing that exists and isn't horribly difficult, you need to have constant suspicion of everybody with a security clearance. This is one area where paranoia is a good thing.

There is also invisibility magic. Expect to see a guard wearing heat vision goggles if people sneaking around invisible is considered a security concern, and don't be surprised to see heat vision cameras. Heat vision goggles are also kept in almost every police cruiser. In fact heat vision is so effective and so readily available that invisibility actually isn't considered to be anywhere near the security threat that Charm Person is.

There is no teleportation magic at all in this setting, so that isn't something that needs consideration.

I should also mention that I tend to view this setting as more on the optimistic side than the pessimistic side. I won't say the government isn't involved in really shady stuff, because at times it is, but at the same time the courts do take people's legal rights seriously, and the average income and economy in general is relatively comparable to Great Britain (So, there is definately poverty and there are low income working class people, and the economy isn't without problems, but standard of living is pretty high and this is considered quite a wealthy country.). I do not have or want an Orwellian police state, but at the same time DNA checks are very necessary when people change their appearances so much (though the police systems do not keep records of DNA checks that are run unless security clearances are involved, do to questions of how much ability to track the average civilian should exist), and things like Alter Self and Charm Person have to be taken into account. This country has equivalents to America's 4th and 5th Amendments (1st, too, in fact), and the courts tend to be rather careful about broadening search power, but storing everyone's DNA and using it to check identity whenever the police stop somebody isn't considered unreasonable. What the police won't do is disappear you, or line you up against the wall and shoot you, or torture you to make you confess, or bust into your house without a warrant, or any of that stuff. Police certainly aren't allowed to beat people, and if a cop gets caught on camera doing it there will be a public outcry, but like the real world it can often fly under the radar if it isn't caught on camera, and excessive force can be difficult to prove in court. Not to say that most cops will beat you if you make them angry, because that is not at all the case, but if it does happen, don't be surprised if the cops get away with it.

And what I've decided about cars:

We have wheeled cars and motorcycles. Automobiles can run off of either alchemist's fire or liquid lightning, with liquid lightning cars being very much the newer style (it used to be that all cars used alchemist's fire). Liquid lightning cars are the more numerous vehicles. This is because liquid lightning vehicles are a good bit cheaper than alchemist's fire cars, accelerate quicker and more smoothly, are much quieter, and are more comfortable. Not everybody who lives in the city needs a car, but those who do will typically purchase liquid lightning vehicles. Alchemist's fire vehicles have their advantages, too. They have much more horsepower than liquid lightning vehicles, making them the superior vehicles for off-roading or moving heavy loads, they are more durable, and they are much easier to repair and maintain. This makes alchemist's fire vehicles very common in rural areas, as the extra horsepower is often useful and the ability for somebody who isn't a mechanic to learn how to maintain their vehicles themself is well appreciated. Alchemist's fire is used for the vast majority of work vehicles that need a lot of heavy lifting or off road ability, and for almost any vehicle the military sends into a combat zone. Police cruisers are more likely to use liquid lightning unless they are built for rural police departments or highway patrol (both of whom prefer alchemist's fire), because the superior acceleration of liquid lightning vehicles can make it difficult for alchemist's fire vehicles to chase them down in an urban environment (on a wide open road or rough terrain, however, the superior horsepower of alchemist's fire should eventually win out). There are some who feel like liquid lightning vehicles just aren't impressive. Alchemist's fire vehicles go vroom (sometimes really loudly) and vibrate when the engine is working hard, while liquid lightning vehicles whoosh quietly and don't vibrate much at all. Some people just can't get past that, and feel like a car needs to make a lot of noise to be a real car. These people will buy alchemist's fire vehicles even if liquid lightning would be much more practical for their needs.

We do have airplanes, all of which use propellors and alchemist's fire. We don't have jets. We do have helicopters.

[GiantOctopodes]

Some basics:

- Replicator style food producers, either guarded and with fees for use, or in wealthy cities set out where anyone can get food from them, even if it isn't the most tasty sustenance in the world, it's still food. Cafes might specialize in taking your free food product and making it more palatable.

- Minor conjuration stations, creating basic tools or items (ladders, hammers, whatever) which have a set duration, likely 24 hrs. Thus someone who needs something rarely or had their existing permanent one go missing or whatever can basically "rent" a magically produced item to fit their needs.

- Sports and entertainment centered around magic items or effects, such as cliff diving, but without the water below, where the challenge is to wait as long as possible before activating your feather fall effect. Spectators would be enthralled by the death defying stunts, and morbidly curious to see if anyone would cut it too close and splatter on the rocks below.

- Flip Belts, which upon command reverse the direction of gravity. Used heavily by acrobats in aerial shows, and also by construction workers and others who use them to rapidly ascend to the tops of the scaffolding, to do repair and decorative work on roofing and also to protect themselves should they fall. Much, much more rare and heavily sought after would be belts that let you choose any direction as "down". By all accounts, these belts are notoriously difficult to master and use safely.

- Street sweepers who use Gust of Wind at an appointed hour (maybe a couple of hours before dawn) to blow away any litter or other refuse left laying in the streets.

Just some thoughts to help get you started. Good luck!

[The Tyler]

I've toyed with the idea of a heavily magitech setting several times, usually get overwhelmed, stop considering it, and then eventually come back to it. It's been a cycle for me.

Your approach is a different from mine, but I like what you have so far. My approach was to look at the existing spells and figure out how they'd be useful as a limited use and/or permanent magic item.

As previously mentioned, replicator-style food, drink, and/or item creator using any of the various conjuration spells.
Firearms based off spells, like a literally raygun that uses ray of frost, or a rife that uses magic missile.
Bazooka that uses fireball.
I know I had some others, but I can't find my notes at the moment.

What I liked about this approach was that I could use the magic item creation rules to set a base value for these items, even if I changed the actual number later. Of course, it's also a lot more work.

And now I want to start working on mine again.