CAMPAIGN VIGNETTES: TECHNOLOGY ZONES

The technology zones campaign lets the GM and players both play with higher-tech items without having them run rampant throughout the campaign world. Essentially, different areas of the campaign have differing maximum levels of technology, and powerful magic from the gods keeps it that way. Most games may take place in a middle-zone that follows traditional tech guidelines, but for a change of pace, players may have adventures with clockwork robots, primitive stone spears, or even plasma rifles.

Thus in the primitive jungles of evil humanoids, nothing more advanced than Stone Age technology functions. Steel weapons simply cannot be brought in (striking an impenetrable barrier and just staying behind if someone teleports there), and advanced weapons don’t function. The humanoids’ deities wish their worshipers to grow stronger by pitting themselves against the environment with little aid. The primitive humanoids aren’t much of a threat to more advanced kingdoms (though they may make occasional raids), but more advanced nations are unwilling to march into the jungles without their technology to aid them, keeping the humanoids safe.

Most lands are stuck at the default fantasy medieval tech level, though the god of one land may allow steam engines while another encourages clockworks. Yet if these things are taken to lower-technology lands, they simply stop working. Dwarves have mountain kingdoms with extremely advanced clockwork and steam technologies, but cannot progress beyond this level of tech, leading perhaps to crude tanks and robots that can’t leave the dwarven homelands. Races living in the subterranean kingdoms may have access to psionic technologies that don’t work elsewhere, as well as biotech based on breeding specialized creatures to serve as weapons (acid-spitting slugs and living knives), armor, and appliances — but only at certain depths.

Adventures in this world often include foes who have a home-turf advantage. PCs become experts at dealing without their own tech and getting their hands on local devices quickly. The PCs may even be exceptions to these rules. They could be the chosen of the gods, allowed to carry any tech anywhere; or they might get hold of minor artifacts, such as a flintlock rifle that works in all technology zones.