Technology
Source GM Core pg. 142
Throughout history, a major driver of world culture has been the continuous advancement of technology in warfare, agriculture, and industry. The following categories roughly approximate real-world technological levels, but progress might vary on your world. What heights of technology have been achieved? Have any groups fallen behind or leaped ahead?
Primeval: Weapons and tools in this early era are crafted primarily from bone, wood, or stone. Knowledge of stonecutting allows early civilizations to raise stone walls and buildings. If visited frequently by those with other technology, they might salvage pieces of sturdier materials to use as tools. If resistant to advanced technology, they might even develop magic and tools that are extra effective against technology.
Antiquities: Advancements in mining and metallurgy lead to weapons and tools made from bronze and later iron. Crop rotation and storage ensure greater resilience to famine, leading to the development of complex irrigation and large militaries that can consolidate and conquer city-states into major empires. The economy is dominated by river and sea trade between coastal settlements aided by oar- and sail-powered galleys. Alien technology is often readily incorporated, as wars are often won during this relatively rapid advance in technology.
Early Industrial: Warfare in this era is defined by iron armor until the development of black powder firearms. Larger ships permit ocean crossings and long-range trade to distant shores. The printing press increases literacy and speeds up the dissemination of new ideas, and the development of early steam engines rapidly shifts societies' focus to engineering and science. Dirigible airships and observation balloons make it more likely for locals to recognize devices like spaceships as technology rather than magic, and a desire to replicate the technology makes any kind of first contact more dramatic than ever before.
Late Industrial: Heavy machinery and a race for diminishing resources define this period of technological development. Famine and plagues are likely confined to less industrialized nations exploited for their natural and human resources. Consolidated power in countries with the most advanced technology, coupled with the knowledge that an actual war between the nations could have nigh-apocalyptic side effects, means a need to reform social traditions, especially once major developments like atomic energy and telecommunications bring about subsequent technological revolutions. Cultural exchange and leisure time would permit the development of games and stories to inspire future technology, lending itself to greater acceptance of more advanced technology regardless of its source.
Tech Renaissance: This civilization teems with advanced technology and magitech, including but not limited to cybernetic augmentations and artificial intelligence. While technology has made conventional warfare too dangerous, nations and corporations openly engage in hacking and sabotage for economic control of ideas in lieu of direct control over land. Globalization, communication technology, and the intermingling of cultures have made national and ethnic identity secondary to stark individuality. Outside of the glittering cities of skyscrapers, you're less and less likely to find any but the most stringent luddites, as most farms would be automated while nations allow nature to reclaim rural communities for the sake of a balanced ecosystem. Visitors with more advanced technology would be hesitant to visit these worlds without a disguise, knowing how much alien tech would be worth to factions struggling to get an edge in a cutthroat market of ideas.
Spacefaring: Journeying to the final frontier opens countless paths for technological and social progress, including openly intermingling with alien technology, establishing new governments independent from any on a civilization's home world, and the necessity of tools needed to survive the harsh conditions of space that are developed and improved independent of an astronaut's home world. As space colonists from post-scarcity societies struggle to survive, they can find their technology lagging behind their predecessors, potentially reaching a state resembling a post-apocalyptic level of technology for centuries before explorers from their long-forgotten home world rediscover them.
Post-Scarcity: At this level of technological progress, there's no longer a need for mortal species to compete for resources. All needs and basic desires are met, resulting in an opportunity for social and artistic progress unhampered by the inequalities of the past. Oftentimes, this level of technology betrays a darker truth, as the society is propped up by those who could only dream of the false utopia. Other times, the civilization's military or explorative tech is no more advanced than a tech renaissance or even late industrial civilization, as some watershed moment in the civilization's history pushed them to focus their efforts on energy, food, technology, and resource allocation. Such a utopia might be accepting and curious of outsiders, or it might fear that the inclusion of outside technology might damage their hard-won harmony.
Transcendent: The members of this civilization have gone beyond their physical bodies to become something more. Whether they're ascended beings of pure energy, digital consciousnesses existing in a virtual reality, or a merged hyper-consciousness spanning dozens of worlds, the preservation of their consciousness has become the primary concern of this civilization. Any other advanced technology exists only as vestigial artifacts left behind in their now empty cities. Sometimes these civilizations can attempt to forcefully integrate others into their trans-mortal hive minds, or else eradicate their targets out of fear of other life-forms developing a way to erase them from existence. Other times they are above reproach and feel compelled to protect other species from even greater cosmic threats. Civilizations that attempt this level of technology can carry on as once-mortal robots, feral mutants, or paranoid undead, the fear of death having driven them to become inhuman facsimiles of their former selves.
Post-Apocalyptic: Oftentimes a civilization finds itself progressing backward in the tech tree due to fear of rapid advancement, a cataclysmic war, or even divine intervention. They could be left with vestiges of their former glory, perhaps having vague notions of how to use these ancient devices while treating even the most mundane tech as though it were magic. They might outright reject and hunt down advanced technology, blaming it for their daily struggles to survive in a world decimated by radiation or rampant biotechnology.
Primeval: Weapons and tools in this early era are crafted primarily from bone, wood, or stone. Knowledge of stonecutting allows early civilizations to raise stone walls and buildings. If visited frequently by those with other technology, they might salvage pieces of sturdier materials to use as tools. If resistant to advanced technology, they might even develop magic and tools that are extra effective against technology.
Antiquities: Advancements in mining and metallurgy lead to weapons and tools made from bronze and later iron. Crop rotation and storage ensure greater resilience to famine, leading to the development of complex irrigation and large militaries that can consolidate and conquer city-states into major empires. The economy is dominated by river and sea trade between coastal settlements aided by oar- and sail-powered galleys. Alien technology is often readily incorporated, as wars are often won during this relatively rapid advance in technology.
Early Industrial: Warfare in this era is defined by iron armor until the development of black powder firearms. Larger ships permit ocean crossings and long-range trade to distant shores. The printing press increases literacy and speeds up the dissemination of new ideas, and the development of early steam engines rapidly shifts societies' focus to engineering and science. Dirigible airships and observation balloons make it more likely for locals to recognize devices like spaceships as technology rather than magic, and a desire to replicate the technology makes any kind of first contact more dramatic than ever before.
Late Industrial: Heavy machinery and a race for diminishing resources define this period of technological development. Famine and plagues are likely confined to less industrialized nations exploited for their natural and human resources. Consolidated power in countries with the most advanced technology, coupled with the knowledge that an actual war between the nations could have nigh-apocalyptic side effects, means a need to reform social traditions, especially once major developments like atomic energy and telecommunications bring about subsequent technological revolutions. Cultural exchange and leisure time would permit the development of games and stories to inspire future technology, lending itself to greater acceptance of more advanced technology regardless of its source.
Tech Renaissance: This civilization teems with advanced technology and magitech, including but not limited to cybernetic augmentations and artificial intelligence. While technology has made conventional warfare too dangerous, nations and corporations openly engage in hacking and sabotage for economic control of ideas in lieu of direct control over land. Globalization, communication technology, and the intermingling of cultures have made national and ethnic identity secondary to stark individuality. Outside of the glittering cities of skyscrapers, you're less and less likely to find any but the most stringent luddites, as most farms would be automated while nations allow nature to reclaim rural communities for the sake of a balanced ecosystem. Visitors with more advanced technology would be hesitant to visit these worlds without a disguise, knowing how much alien tech would be worth to factions struggling to get an edge in a cutthroat market of ideas.
Spacefaring: Journeying to the final frontier opens countless paths for technological and social progress, including openly intermingling with alien technology, establishing new governments independent from any on a civilization's home world, and the necessity of tools needed to survive the harsh conditions of space that are developed and improved independent of an astronaut's home world. As space colonists from post-scarcity societies struggle to survive, they can find their technology lagging behind their predecessors, potentially reaching a state resembling a post-apocalyptic level of technology for centuries before explorers from their long-forgotten home world rediscover them.
Post-Scarcity: At this level of technological progress, there's no longer a need for mortal species to compete for resources. All needs and basic desires are met, resulting in an opportunity for social and artistic progress unhampered by the inequalities of the past. Oftentimes, this level of technology betrays a darker truth, as the society is propped up by those who could only dream of the false utopia. Other times, the civilization's military or explorative tech is no more advanced than a tech renaissance or even late industrial civilization, as some watershed moment in the civilization's history pushed them to focus their efforts on energy, food, technology, and resource allocation. Such a utopia might be accepting and curious of outsiders, or it might fear that the inclusion of outside technology might damage their hard-won harmony.
Transcendent: The members of this civilization have gone beyond their physical bodies to become something more. Whether they're ascended beings of pure energy, digital consciousnesses existing in a virtual reality, or a merged hyper-consciousness spanning dozens of worlds, the preservation of their consciousness has become the primary concern of this civilization. Any other advanced technology exists only as vestigial artifacts left behind in their now empty cities. Sometimes these civilizations can attempt to forcefully integrate others into their trans-mortal hive minds, or else eradicate their targets out of fear of other life-forms developing a way to erase them from existence. Other times they are above reproach and feel compelled to protect other species from even greater cosmic threats. Civilizations that attempt this level of technology can carry on as once-mortal robots, feral mutants, or paranoid undead, the fear of death having driven them to become inhuman facsimiles of their former selves.
Post-Apocalyptic: Oftentimes a civilization finds itself progressing backward in the tech tree due to fear of rapid advancement, a cataclysmic war, or even divine intervention. They could be left with vestiges of their former glory, perhaps having vague notions of how to use these ancient devices while treating even the most mundane tech as though it were magic. They might outright reject and hunt down advanced technology, blaming it for their daily struggles to survive in a world decimated by radiation or rampant biotechnology.