“Technology Level” as a concept was first introduced to me in GURPS, a wonderful Do-it-yourself game system. In GURPS, the items and skills available to the players and NPCs are governed by the technology level of the campaign setting. This typically ranges from stone age to nanotechnology.
This prevents obvious things like not having a caveman who has knowledge of computers. As GURPS is a system that is intended to be adapted to a huge number of settings, these guidelines can be quite broad (e.g. TL4 includes antiquity all the way to the renaissance).
In my experience, some periods, fantasy or otherwise, require a closer examination of technology levels and their impact on the world.
Throughout this article, I’ll be using the word “anachronism” or “anachronistic” to describe elements that are technologically out of place, despite the fact that I’ll be using a medieval fantasy setting as the example. Obviously I don’t mean that I’m using real-world history to define the fantasy world, but it does contain familiar elements to our own world and how its technology has developed.
The Basics
The in-game world of Legends of Lang’Kor is designed to be as medieval as possible, without being an exact carbon copy of our own history. But with that said, the “medieval” era is a huge span of time which saw a lot of technological development.
To decide where to place it, as in, which century was technologically equivalent, I decided on which technologies I either wanted to feature or those that I didn’t want to have.
Guidelines
Steel Weapons
Plate armour is still rare and expensive
A strong merchant class
Windmills/Watermills are common
Naval travel is possible, but is restricted to the coasts (no ocean-wide travel)
As any history buff will probably recognize, there are a few anachronistic elements to this list, which don’t quite line up to a specific historical period. The closest approximation I found was 14th century Europe with a few splashes of renaissance. Obviously, most of my decisions were based on the aesthetic I wanted for the game world.
Connecting Everything
To be able to confidently put together a world’s technology, especially one so limited as the medieval ages, we can use our preferred technologies (as above) to fill in the gaps. Using our chosen time period as a baseline helps.
For example, if ocean-wide naval travel is not possible, what does this mean for local economies and availability of products? What did it mean for European cities before the age of sail?
Another example would be the way we want armour to be used. If plate armour is not common, firearms would likely not be in use.
Inserting Fantasy Elements
The very nature of fantasy (or advanced technological) elements are that they deviate from our known reality. This can complicate things in unforeseen ways.
For example, I wanted there to be an Alchemical tradition in the world, which was more about creating medicine and potions than trying to convert lead into gold. This created a few precedents, a) this could clash with a medieval view of medical science, b) this would likely require glass fabrication techniques to be far more advanced than what was present in the 14th century.
Addressing these concerns could be as simple as assuming that advanced glass fabrication would mean that glassware was more commonplace in this world than in history. That’s easy to swallow. For a role-playing game, being able to drink a potion and feel better is almost a staple, so it fits what gamers expect from medieval fantasy. But it also means that these potions are available to the general public (if they can afford it).
This would mean that life expectancy would probably be increased, which is also easy to accept. We don’t necessarily romanticize the middle ages because of the increased death toll.
In summary, whichever fantasy elements you decide to insert into your world, consider the ramifications that come with them.
Why it Matters
As a Game Master, I want to provide an experience that feels authentic within itself. If I made an entire session or adventure around walking all across the continent when the party could have hired a boat to take them across an ocean, the setup would probably feel contrived.
The bottom line is, if you don’t define the boundaries of what can be done, the only boundary is everyone’s assumption of what they can do. This can lead to mismatched expectations about character creation and interaction with the game world.
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