Dr. Emily FriedmanQuery: is there a #ttrpg set prior to 1800 that actually tries to think through the implications of magic on the history of technology?
(I personally live a happy life without that level of crunch but am curious about the wider space)
Steve Schulz@friede Before 1800 is a pretty difficult find. Most are set in the Victorian period, as far as eurocentric works go. So I don't really know of any. And a lot come with colonialism baggage. But it should be possible to adapt something for earlier. Easy enough to replace the development of trains with something magic. Something, say, steampunk, in the grain of Arcanum, if you're familiar with that game (which was a video game, not a TTRPG, unfortunately), etc.
@SteveSchulz Steampunk was definitely on my mind as a confounding factor once you get into 19th century analogues -- I found myself in a discussion today where "pre-industrial" came up, & I found myself thinking, "but does INDUSTRY happen in a world with magic? What does that term mean?"
@friede I think there's a lot of analogs you could use, as well as factors. Who controls the teaching and access to magics and technologies? What economic factors are there? It's like who would choose to drive to/from the SF Bay Area and LA vs flying to/from LAX and taxiing/Ubering to where they want to go? Why is the bullet train between LA/SF stalled? That translates similarly to use of early rail lines vs, say, teleportation.