Alien Artifacts

[manley_t]

I've been thinking about D&D3E craft skills, magic items, high-tech items, and Clarke's Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.").

With that in mind I've been 'tinkering' with creating technological items that have D&D magical properties, but are themselves alien artifacts.

With just a tiny bit of modification, the rules exist to create a large number of devices.

what do you guys think?

 

[Merchant Reaper]

I know that Miller said in T4 that tech level 20 would be called magic by most people. Maybe we have it all wrong, "magical" worlds are the future and technology is the archaic past. Hmmm. There is a campaign idea in there somewhere.

Bob

 

[Rahnd]

Psionics could easily be confused as magic as well. i prefer more of a si fi game, but with the right mix, bluring the lines between supernatural and science could very well be fun.

 

[Stormraven]

Originally posted by Rahnd:
Psionics could easily be confused as magic as well. i prefer more of a si fi game, but with the right mix, bluring the lines between supernatural and science could very well be fun.

Sure. Just look at the Mageworlds series. Although the skills the Mages and Adepts possess are in all respects no different than any Psionic, everyone tends to view them as magical.

 

[Rahnd]

Yep, i kind of like the look at magic from the view of it being a interpritation of psionics. Then I dont see nutballs saying magic and machine are oposite forces.

 

[Glee]

I agree with the other citizens in that high tech levels would be considered magic by lower tech levels the flying carpet of the Arabian Nights becomes the Cessna or Piper aircraft of today. If magic is defined as the channeling of the forces of nature to enforce the will of the wizard, then psionics enters the picture. I see psionics as the magic system used in the fantasy games. Happy gaming.

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by Merchant Reaper:
I know that Miller said in T4 that tech level 20 would be called magic by most people. Maybe we have it all wrong, "magical" worlds are the future and technology is the archaic past. Hmmm. There is a campaign idea in there somewhere.

Bob

Oh yeah. Jack Vance's Dying Earth works, Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" and related novels, Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique stories for reading material.

There's a Dying Earth rpg , and a Gurps book for Book of the New Sun. The New Sun book has some interesting ideas for magic in a hi-tech world. Dying Earth is just amazing.

Casey