Are there any TRPG settings where technology is one of the primary determinants of power and strength in the setting?
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Are there any TRPG settings where technology is one of the primary determinants of power and strength in the setting?
Traveller
Yes. Yes. Jesus yes. Players are always like "how do I level up my guy?" It's like dude, think about your ship, think about the missions you want to do, think about what kit makes that easier. Think about the bad guys you face. Think about encryption, think about hacking. Think about information. Tech plays into all of this.
Any setting.
Most settings aren't like that.
Any setting can be. Are you a fricking infant that needs a setting specifically crafted for your exact autism because you're incapable of making basic modifications?
Many settings are inherently incompatible with this idea.
Name 5
Warhammer (40k and fantasy), Exalted, D&D, Pathfinder, and World of Darkness
Now name five good ones.
>warhammer
>not tech
>implying
It's certainly not the primary path to power.
It simply hasn't been used as that, and only for a given definition of a given path.
The overall theme of the settings kinda isn't about power cheesing.
No, he's right. Having better tech does not necessarily help you in 40k. Nearly all the most technologically advanced factions (all but Necrons) got wiped out by other forces, some of which didn't care about your tech, some of which would happily use your tech against you.
The only other really advanced tech faction in 40k are the Tau, who are new on the scene enough to have not run into some of the nastier parts of the galaxy.
All of them are technological including warp based, Eldar and Orks literally were artificially made in that ancient war which in itself fricked things up, and Tyranids are just one big research factory, Imperials keep looking for STCs, Dark Eldar run on ancient remnants and Orks literally believe in their tech.
Ork tech is LITERALLY MAGIC. STCs are remnants of technology from mankind's past when they were technologically superior to their current state, but were curbstomped despite it because they didn't understand warp bullshit. Tech priests literally don't understand most of the tech they use, can't make more of it, and are for the most part barely keep the lights on and the starships running.
Eldar are in better shape, but they understand that technology by itself is no use against warp bullshit.
*barely able to keep
accidentally a couple words there
Warp is literally technology in the most literal ways.
>pre-existing cosmic force that responds to thought and creates monsters and does not obey scientific laws like causality or conservation of energy and such
>"it's technology"
I see, the other anon is onto something: Your definition of "technology" is moronic.
>utterly unwilling to learn how cosmic forces work
Learning how this cosmic force is necessary for survival, but that doesn't turn it into technology.
It rather does, seeing as it didn't always exist, much like the universe and many other things.
Warhammer's warp existed since the dawn of time. It's changed in various ways, but it was always there.
Time has as many dawns as it needs. You seem to not see that structures of this scale operate on their own complex metrics.
Eternity is just a construct.
Do you even understand what maintains causality or thermodynamic laws?
Not magic, Deepak Chopra. Take your quantum woo-woo and stuff it.
Your lack of comprehension of what magic is aside, what particular flavor your metaphysical pre- or in-conception of reality has? Some convenient it always was? Some gnostic drool?
>Warhammer (40k and fantasy)
Nearly every society in 40k either survives off of high tech or their ability to emulate high tech
>Exalted
The inquisition is a major problem for exalted and iirc they primarily operate on military might (i.e. tech)
>D&D
There are very few threats in D&D that can't be beaten with sufficient application of tech, and if you count magic as a science and thus a form of tech then basically the whole setting is a tech conflict.
>Pathfinder
idk about pathfinder's setting
>World of Darkness
in nWoD tech is a YUUUUUUUUUUGE factor in one's viability. Vampires get hard countered by a lot of tech, mages get HARD countered by tech that exposes them to paradox (such as cameras) unless they prep in advance, Wolves get ultra fricked by tech, and iirc tech is part of the reason why fae are dying. Similar shit in oWoD but idk about oWoD well enough to argue it.
>Nearly every society in 40k either survives off of high tech or their ability to emulate high tech
Not true, the Imperium survives mostly off of sheer numbers, the Orcs survive off of a combination of numbers, raw strength, and psychic might, and the Tyrannids survive off of biological adaptability
>The inquisition is a major problem for exalted and iirc they primarily operate on military might (i.e. tech)
Pretty much everything dangerous in exalted relies on the magic of the setting to work known as essence.
>There are very few threats in D&D that can't be beaten with sufficient application of tech
Only one of the classes in D&D (artificer) is known for using advanced tech and even then they need magic to really make it work, the rest rely on comparatively primitive tools.
>in nWoD tech is a YUUUUUUUUUUGE factor in one's viability
If technology is such a big factor then why are mages still so OP and basically the illuminati of the setting running everything behind the scenes?
>the Imperium survives mostly off of sheer numbers,
As opposed to technology? You're fricking delusional.
The Imperium has so many people it can afford to drown the enemy in a human wave armed with nothing but knives
Cool, but that doesn't somehow mean they're not kept aloft by technology. Without technology (i.e. The Golden Throne, at minimum) the Imperium would collapse. We're literally witnessing the numbers of the Imperium fail in the Imperium Nihilus without, you guessed it, technology. You're talking out of your ass about something you're not knowledgeable about, so why don't you just go back to R eddit where you'll fit right in?
That sounds like answering a different question from what I think OP's asking. The fact there's some tech humming away in the background somewhere to keep you from being eaten by demons or something doesn't really enter into it.
How do you, as an individual, get ahead of others? Is it by acquiring better tech, or by improving yourself in some way? D&D is all about the latter, and a lot of RPGs follow suit. Better gear might help, but it's not the focus.
>If technology is such a big factor then why are mages still so OP and basically the illuminati of the setting running everything behind the scenes?
I don't know about oWoD but in nWoD the secret societies that exist are manned by all kinds of creature. Mages have secret socities, vamps have them, and humans have them. The mages that do shady behind-the-scenes shit do so because they know how to stay the frick away from tech, but likewise the regular humans that exist know how to counter mages when they see them but also to generally stay the frick away.
Think about it like this: A set of cameras blasting your image live to times square is going to blow up a mage so hard with paradox that they might as well already be dead, but in the same vein if that mage knows what you're up to he'll just kill you yesterday and deliver your eulogy live rather than play your game. It's down to who gets the drop on who first and what safeguards you have in place to ensure you don't get fricked on.
Keep in mind that there is tech that is far and beyond anything the mages can comprehend. The God Machine is a part-clockwork, part-tech, part-biological-amalgam, part-magic-dispenser that operates as some unfathomable machine. It's not a creature or a monster in any sense of the word, but it is some kind of machine and it is well and above the weight class of any mage that isn't ascended and even the ascended don't touch that fricking thing.
Doesn't Exalted literally have giant mechs in the form of warstriders?
Yes but they're powered basically entirely by magic and are only able to be used by the most magical people of the setting.
>Warhammer 40k
A setting where they fry entire planets in big ass space ships, piloted by space knights whose weakest weapon is a pistol-sized grenade launcher. Then when they launch an amphibious invasion, they have sky scraper sized mech warriors that can level entire mountain ranges, supported by infantrymen armed with guns capable of shredding an M1 Abrams (and it's the WEAKEST weapon). Are you moronic?
>Warhammer Fantasy
A setting where human technology has been forced to rapidly advance in the face of numerous threats from both inside and out of the imperial borders with the strongest faction being technology obsessed ratmen that literally nuke the world. Are you fricking moronic?
>Exalted
Alchemical exalts are literal terminator gods. Frick off.
>Pathfinder
Paizo threw in so much transhuman troony tiefling/warforged/freakshit crap you have robots fighting dinosaurs for no fricking reason.
>World of Darkness
Hunters use APCs to go Werewolf hunting. You're fricking moronic.
>A setting where they fry entire planets in big ass space ships, piloted by space knights whose weakest weapon is a pistol-sized grenade launcher. Then when they launch an amphibious invasion, they have sky scraper sized mech warriors that can level entire mountain ranges, supported by infantrymen armed with guns capable of shredding an M1 Abrams (and it's the WEAKEST weapon).
And yet it is not their tech that wins them the day, but sheer numbers and faith. Indeed, the technology literally needs faith to work, is imbued with "machine spirits", and their primary advantage is not their tech but the immense amount of people they have.
>A setting where human technology has been forced to rapidly advance in the face of numerous threats from both inside and out of the imperial borders with the strongest faction being technology obsessed ratmen that literally nuke the world.
And yet literal stone-age lizards are capable of going toe-to-toe with the advanced ratmen and beating them on the battlefield.
>Alchemical exalts are literal terminator gods
Powered by magic. All the technology of the setting is magitech, and it doesn't help much most of the time.
>Hunters use APCs to go Werewolf hunting
And yet it doesn't help them much of the time.
No, Imperials need as many advantages as they can get just to stay alive.
Take anything and they will have a far harder time accomplishing anything.
All settings have tech in them, barring those settings where you play as someone or something without any creation or application of tech phenomena.
All settings have tech in them, most settings don't have technology being the primary determinant of power and strength.
A man with a sword has advantage over one without one. This determination is determined situationally, so yes, it's always a primary determinant unless specified, which would be other type of technology barring even more specification.
>A man with a sword has advantage over one without one.
Depends on the setting.
Yes, which merely means it's other types technology.
Only if you count stuff that isn't technology as technology.
Everything is technology, barring very few things.
So now you're just using a very moronic definition of technology.
No, the original one in as much accumulated knowledge allows, or barring that one can extrapolate what existing one is ultimately at its core, which just ends up being the same as the original one.
Technology is just the systematic application of knowledge. In a setting where magic is real, why wouldn't you incorporate magic into your approach? The only common exception is straight up superhero shit. Think harder, anon
It actually isn't an exception, it's exactly the same, albeit it happens without any intent on agents barring those that create their own power or make choices that lead to getting powers.
Post one.
Traveller
Traveller
Mine.
Cyberpunk 2020. A world where you start with a 3d printed plastic pistol and a kevlar t-shirt, but end with DEATH SATELLITES and HYPER-NANO-WEAVE POWER ARMOR WITH BUILT IN JACCUZZI AND FAX MACHINE
Any setting where the practical application of a field of natural study predominantly determines power and strength, as opposed to thr use of a supernatural or unnatural force.
Shadowrun 5e is pretty Tech/Gunplay/Hacking reliant and pretty much will fill your needs. There is magic tho and it can be pretty gay sometimes but eh you are the DM balance how you want
No, thank goodness.
Imagine playing a game where what eggheads craft over decades while girls ignore them is the sole determinant of success or failure. It sounds fricking miserable and whoever plays them ought to be shot in the head
>equalizing creativity to eggheads
Amazing.
>it's creative to use something (that I didn't make) for its intended purpose so you beat less equipped enemies who can't
My character takes your characters gun away and beats you to death with a rock, then I leave your shit group to play shit games with themselves while I play something that has some depth