[ItV] Spelljamming and Technology - article

This is my "Spelljamming and Technology" article for "Into the
Void" #1.

It has been proof read, and spellchecked using a UK spellchecker,
the one in Star Office 6, but it's still possible I've missed a
few things.

Please tell me if there are any problems, or you think this is
not suitable.


Spelljamming and Technology #1

Why should anyone want to consider technology in a Spelljamming
setting?  Some DMs have enough problems with the Giff and their
smokepowder weapons, without considering anything more advanced,
and if there is a desire for technology, there is always the
Tinker Gnomes.  But, there is technology already in a
Spelljamming setting, in the forms of ships, wind and water
mills, and weapons and armour made of iron, a metal rarely found
in nature.

One of the most interesting things in Spelljamming can be meeting
new cultures, and interacting with them.  Maybe initially in ways
that risk hostility, but in the longer term for trade.  Without
allowing higher tech civilisations than the standard Spelljamming
setting (and this includes ultra high power magical civilisations
as well) this rules out a whole load of possible scenarios.

There is evidence from our Earth history, that when a more
advanced culture meets a more primitive one, the primitive one
comes off worst.  There are at least massive changes, and a lot
of the more interesting parts of the culture can be lost.  DMs in
Spelljamming campaigns will likely not want this to happen to
their general Spelljamming culture.  Or, at least, will only want
it to happen if they intend it to.

There are a number of ways to control the interaction, starting
with secret trading, and working up to incompatible laws of
reality.  Secret trading with a high tech world, which only has
groundlings, is very risky.  Typically, communications are far
better on such a world, and the authorities are likely to be
curious where these strange objects, or even unusual sources of
raw materials, are coming from.  And, it is likely that they can
bring to bear forces to ensure that they will find out.  When
they do, it is likely the full power, and possible paranoia, of a
high tech civilisation will come to bear on the Spelljammers.
Messy.

More practical might be a non-magic (or very low magic) high tech
crystal sphere.  If this had for example space travel, that had
reached their crystal sphere, they might have a great deal of
trouble getting through.  Even if they found a natural portal, or
managed to create one, they might have no idea what to do on the
other side.  If their technology was such that it didn't work in
the phlogiston, or in most crystal spheres (it relies on subtly
different physical constants, for example), then it is not likely
they would get very far.  But, they could trade through the
portals, and raw materials from other spheres, exchanged for high
tech materials, or processed goods, might make an interesting
trade.  They might also send representatives, who might be a bit
lost without their high tech, but might have some interesting
perspectives, as PCs or NPCs.

Even if the high tech society is confined in some way, either to
their world or their crystal sphere, the DM may want to think
very carefully about what can go in or out.  In the longer term,
even ideas might be dangerous, and cause a lot of upset.  Even if
the Spelljamming culture is restricted to just communication, and
no physical trade, then ideas like the Scientific Method, or
experimental practice, or the Null Hypothesis, could really shake
up the Spelljamming philosophical establishments.  And in due
course their societies.  DMs might try and say that they don't
work in the same way, in a Spelljamming setting, but they will
have to work very hard at this, if they want their campaign to be
consistent.  And, if they are faced by players of a scientific
bent who ask awkward questions. "There's so much latent magical
talent around that things don't behave consistently, so you can't
use the scientific method", might be their get-out clause.  But,
this might lead to peoples with little magical talent (orcs?
dwarves?) being the ones who pick up on the scientific approach.

If objects can get in and out, you have some basis for trade.
Just high tech clothes-making techniques could have a lot of
impact, even if the cloth (or raw materials) has to be imported,
worked, then re-exported.  This is assuming there might be
problems with high tech materials keeping their properties, in a
Spelljamming setting.  If high tech dyes, or methods which lead
to alchemists being able to make modern-style brilliant colour
long-lasting dyes, can be exported, this will likely affect the
cloth and clothing trade across the whole Spelljamming setting.
This ignores ideas about ways of getting materials out of ores,
more efficiently, which might lead to the tailings of 'exhausted'
mines taking a trip through the high tech world for processing.
It really depends on people's ingenuity...

Of course, your campaign might not run like this.  Characters may
be far more involved in day-to-day survival, with an occasional
break where they try and do a bit of tactical planning.  A grand
strategic view, which might mean they consider their actions
could change the whole Spelljamming meta culture, is something
they would never consider.  DMs might choose to say that without
widespread literacy, and the wide-scale distribution of the
products of the printing press, any changes that occur from
contact with a high tech civilisation will be small scale.  They
will tend to disappear over time, only known about, a generation
on, in some fading bardic tales, or by consulting a sage.  This
has certainly been the case in a number of campaigns that I have
seen, rather like brief ripples on a pond.  In these cases,
Spelljamming civilisation has proved stable and resistant to such
changes, possibly because high tech civilisations have been
contacted in the past, proven to be unstable, and over time been
forgotten about.  Of course, you might get some PCs who make
their aim and purpose the 'improvement' of the Spelljamming meta
culture using ideas from a high tech civilisation.

If DMs consider that the history of spelljamming goes back
thousands or tens of thousands of years, and even further if you
talk to the elves or dragons, they may wish to ask why it has
been reasonably stable.  They may care to say that, just as in
the 'real world', all sorts of discoveries have been made over
the ages.  These would include the inventions of ancient Greece,
or China, or Arabia.  However, the right combination of
circumstances never quite arose so these gave rise to a
technological civilisation.  And, that the situation is the same
in the Spelljamming setting.  Or, they may want there to be some
sort of stabilising force, which works secretly, behind the
scenes, gradually smoothing out any disruptions, that would cause
radical changes to the Spelljamming meta-culture.  If so, then
any contact with a high tech civilisation might be the trigger
for this stabilising force to go into action.  Possibly foiling,
if not completely resisting, any attempts by PCs or others to
'upgrade' the Spelljamming meta-culture with high tech.

So, there are many possibilities for making some use of
technology in a Spelljamming setting, and it can provide a DM
with scenario possibilities difficult to conceive of from any
other source.


(c) Dreamer Publications, 1980 - December 2004
    Permission granted to use for non-profit making purposes

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Dreamer
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