OOC - Rules Discussion

[Graybeard]

As they say, "+1", V-S. My main concern right now is to get more people involved. If more formality would help with that, then let's do it, but I rather suspect that the opposite is the case.

[Imp-Chan]

Quick, someone tell me what sort of bribes Impy takes!

Hmm... I'm partial to chocolate, money, gifts from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, more money*...

^-^'

*Just because I'm willing to accept generous gifts doesn't mean I'm going to acknowledge or accept any attached expectations...

[Sareth]

Quick, someone tell me what sort of bribes Impy takes!

Hmm... I'm partial to chocolate, money, gifts from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, more money*...

^-^'

Duly noted. I'm broke, but I can find chocolate! I take it from babies.

[LordofNightmares]

I can make Dark Chocolate Truffles

[Xelphias]

Forgive me, I'm new, and henceforth a bit... well... green, to this particular RP, but as I've wandered the varying posts and topics concerning this RP, I've noticed something. While the magical aspect of the spectrum is well covered (even in the comic itself, (points to Poe and Impy for making that awesome) the more technological spectrum is mostly limited to the handful of gun I've seen noted (i.e. pistols, six-shooters, shotguns and the scoped rifle) but nothing else in the capacity of a more mechanical nature. I'm just wondering where technology falls. Is it more "wild-west-ish" in which there are a number of machined goods, but things are mostly limited to gun-tech and a few interesting toys, or are we talking a fully blown industrial revolution going on somewhere, like in Arcanum (if you've never heard of the game, you should definetly check it out, BTW) where there are all kinds of freaky clockwork gizmos, like the ever popular Automaton?

Thankee for actually taking the time to answer if'n you do ^_^

[Sareth]

I don't know that that has ever quite been addressed. Perhaps somewhere in the Vault there's something on it, in which case Graybeard would likely be able to answer. But one thing to keep in mind, the comic shows Jon's weapons with quite a bit of detail, and they closely resemble popular repeating weapons from the 1860-1890s. The 1860-1890s period was firmly entrenched in the Industrial Revolution. They just lacked manufacturing capability in the west because it was too underpopulated and too newly occupied to have developed the infrastructure. So likely places like Tsuirakushite have a strong and capable industrial capability banging away right along side the magical development, as do the more heavily developed parts of Veracia and the like. Other, less developed and organized places like the Northern Confederacy likely do not have the infrastructure, but are likely heavy importers of certain key items like firearms (which would reflect the relationship between places like England and South America in the 1860-1890 period.)

That's how I've been treating it personally. In fact, Jamie's guns are modeled off of Model 1851 Navy Colts modified for cartridges (a reasonably common conversion done in the 1870s), and her rifle is modeled off of the Henry. Both of those were manufactured heavily back east, and shipped to the west.

EDIT:

Steampunk elements, like in Wild Wild West, haven't quite shown up. But we've had some golums that come close. The big ugly nasty that was just defeated in the Centurial thread, for example, fills a lot of the same rolls as a giant steam driven war spider bot thingy...

So I'm guessing there's room for that sort of concept.

Are you thinking about joining our jolly band of miscreants?

[Graybeard]

Forgive me, I'm new, and henceforth a bit... well... green, to this particular RP, but as I've wandered the varying posts and topics concerning this RP, I've noticed something. While the magical aspect of the spectrum is well covered (even in the comic itself, (points to Poe and Impy for making that awesome) the more technological spectrum is mostly limited to the handful of gun I've seen noted (i.e. pistols, six-shooters, shotguns and the scoped rifle) but nothing else in the capacity of a more mechanical nature. I'm just wondering where technology falls. Is it more "wild-west-ish" in which there are a number of machined goods, but things are mostly limited to gun-tech and a few interesting toys, or are we talking a fully blown industrial revolution going on somewhere, like in Arcanum (if you've never heard of the game, you should definetly check it out, BTW) where there are all kinds of freaky clockwork gizmos, like the ever popular Automaton?

Thankee for actually taking the time to answer if'n you do ^_^

First things first: Welcome, thanks for the interest, and if you have any desire to start a character in this thing, we'd be glad to have you. For some ideas on how to introduce him/her/it, private-message me if interested.

You make a thought-provoking point, and I think the answer to your questions lies somewhere in the nature of the game, and of the Poe-verse (or, if you will, the Errant Road-verse). First, remember that technology (or magic) is only going to get described if it's relevant to what's going on. Farrel may be absolutely world-class at building steam-powered washing machines or bulldozers, but until the story line requires a washing machine or bulldozer, we'd never know about it. For swashbuckling feats of derring-do, tantalizing mysteries, etc. -- not to mention slapstick and other humor -- weaponry, communications and transportation are going to be more important to the story line than more pedestrian technology. And in those areas, technology beyond firearms does exist, and has been invoked -- bombs operated on mechanical timers, elevators, airships (with and without magical enhancements), advanced ships including (dwarven) hydrofoils, there was even a mention of an abandoned railroad line at one point. They're there; they just may not be so obvious.

Second, and also relevant to Errant Story itself, the availability of cheap and easy magical ways to do certain things may reduce the social pressure to do those things technologically. As somebody remarked earlier in a forum discussion (can't remember whether the old one or this one), the imperative to develop heavy artillery is reduced if you can just schlep a couple of high-powered battlemages around in a wagon and have them rain magical death at a distance on an enemy. Telephones in this world have been pretty well outflanked by communications crystal balls; why bother developing something that runs off hard-to-make electricity, requires messy and ugly overhead lines, etc.? And so on.

Third, remember that to some extent, this world is post-technological. The dwarves manufactured technologies that completely baffle people of the current world. Remember the sequence in the Temple of the Divine Dwarf, that included things like toasters, one-armed bandits, and flush toilets? Those just haven't been re-discovered yet.

Finally, there's no reason why other technologies can't be introduced in the game; they simply require a character with the desire, opportunity, and capability to introduce them. At the moment we're more or less dominated by mages and non-magical gunslingers, with the odd troll and wandering student thrown in for a change of pace. An engineer in the crowd might devise entirely different ways of solving the problems that come up, but other than Sasha (the student) to a limited extent, we simply don't have one.

Does that answer your questions? Thanks for asking; you raise some interesting lines of thinking here.

[Xelphias]

Thank you for answering my question, though. I do appreciate the response. I was writing this up as you replied, hehe, but it still does serve a purpose. (I hope) I'm a big fan of the comic (it's in my top three) and I would like to see the world from a more eye-level perspective. I like the development of the overall world, especially the concept of the Tsuiraken "techmagic". I've always been a fan of Steampunk Magic, and I see a lot of potential there. To be honest, I was wondering if the rules had been set down for airships, as I've always wanted one, but with the lines on technology so vague, I'm wondering what the limit is. I can understand the idea of the good ole-fasioned blimp, but it seems so generic and overdone. I was hoping to sneak something a bit more... Da Vinci-ish. Like the classic airscrew, powered by a steamworks and armed with a few cannons and repeater rifles. For protection. Yup. Totally for protection. No pillaging here, folks.

And about the Northern Confederacy, is it really a more of a poor-underdeveloped nation, or might it be more of an industrialized superpower? The origin of guns appears to be linked directly to this mysterious nation, along with a number of other purely technological devices, and while they may have gotten the idea from the dwarves (another unsubstantiated but hinted at rumor) it would still take a number of rather intellegent minds to back-engineer something like that, and who's to say they aren't keeping something else more complex. But that's just me, hehe. But yeah, definetly gona join, but I just wanna know the baselines, if only to help me make a better-than-crappy character, ya know?

[Graybeard]

And about the Northern Confederacy, is it really a more of a poor-underdeveloped nation, or might it be more of an industrialized superpower? The origin of guns appears to be linked directly to this mysterious nation, along with a number of other purely technological devices, and while they may have gotten the idea from the dwarves (another unsubstantiated but hinted at rumor) it would still take a number of rather intellegent minds to back-engineer something like that, and who's to say they aren't keeping something else more complex. But that's just me, hehe. But yeah, definetly gona join, but I just wanna know the baselines, if only to help me make a better-than-crappy character, ya know?

Poe said at one point that there's a lot more to the Northern Confederacy than meets the eye. The specific comment was something to the effect that there was weaponry up there that put repeating rifles, etc., to shame. Possibly we'll be finding more out about that in the current chapter (Chapter 39) of Errant Story. It sounds like the merry crew got ported up there somewhere. Note too that Errant Road includes a "southern continent" that, as far as we know, is NOT present in the Poe-verse. That has been developed as a magical version of sub-Saharan Africa circa 1900, with Veracian missionaries, jungle full of human-sacrificing tribes and possible weird beasties, and so on.

[Viking-Sensei]

The rule of the day in Errant Road is to not directly contradict the events, rules, and overall world set out by Poe in the established Errant Story canon... that's why our story takes place before the bulk of ES, and is dwelling much more with "secret organizations" and "hidden conspiracies"... because minor but important events that only a handfull of people might've seen or experienced are much easlier to weave around solid fact than large, massive, obvious things that everyone in the world would know about.

As to some of our additional geography... it was added because, honestly, we were running out of places to stick in the "from" category of previously unseen technology, magic, and races... we've already tread heavily on the Anuban Colonies and the Nothern Confederacy, as well as (though not seen yet) all the rest of the north that's *not* part of the Confederacy, like that giant landmass due north of Tsuiraku... the idea of a southern landmass that is... well... not overly pleasant to visit is at least plausible.