I'm going to be joining a game set in a fantasy world, dragons, mages, monsters, etc... i decided i wanted to be an inventor of gizmos and tech.
However i KNOW how Veeky Forums views inventors in games. and I'm not trying to be that guy, I'm not trying to invent flying cars and institute modern inventions into a fantasy setting like some kind of fucking tard.
so I'm hoping to get some ideas or suggestions on how to ensure i don't ruin the game and still manage to invent things on some kind of basis.
Currently i have 2 guns, pistols, unmodified. and the ability to fly through magic. thats it.
also, theres no electricity yet, no coal based engines, and I'm unsure IF or HOW zeppelins exist in this setting, the GM hasn't gotten back to me. so there might be hot air balloons.
one more thing, id rather not have my inventions just be magic gun, it shoots faster because i magic'd it. i want to actually have my character improve upon it somewhat reasonably without just saying MAGIC cause then whats the point of being an inventor
Xavier Scott
Double gun.
Anthony Ward
Invent things that could logically have existed in the time frame given the current magic/technology avalible out of what resources you have at hand. The most common thing most inventors invent in these games that isn't some type of weapon tends to be the bicycle.
I blame Dragonlance and Warcraft copying that particular portion of DL for the flying cars and robot plague. Hell, Warcraft isn't even a medieval world, and it never was beyond the first game that nobody played.
Jordan Parker
Aeopile the hell outta that. Maybe use a water and coal fueled aeopile bike or something, it's hot, it spits smoke and steam, but it'll get you where you're going.
Robert Brooks
self bump
Asher Sullivan
> I'm not trying to invent flying cars
No shit, you wanna build one of these fuckers.
Make prototypes of some of Da Vinci's more out there inventions and shit. The party can use them just fine with your help and on-the-go tweaking. Mass producing them is a bigger problem you'll be too saving the world to solve. Or look at ibn Al-Jazari's robots. Your guy could build some water-powered siege automaton or something. Have him build a giant catapult on some island cliff that can destroy enemy ships. Fuck, build something that uses the antikythera mechanism as inspiration.
I don't understand why autists try to recreate the modern era, when there are so many cool archaic technological wonders and myths that won't break the setting.
Bentley Cooper
A lot of really useful inventions that don't break the setting are creature comforts. Conveniences done to drastically reduce the effort and manpower to maintain things like a house, a farm, horses, dragons, etc. or drastically increase the effective working lifespan of people with glasses or mass-produced nightlights.
But most tabletop games already handwave most of those for adventuring parties, because that stuff is too boring(and why adventuring parties weren't really a thing).
A bomb that releases an opaque gas. Launch it in the air and blot out the sun for your enemies so they can't see.
Armor for your mounts. That stuff got really technical because it needed to be form-fitting and you need to make sure the animal won't take it off.
Bentley Nguyen
Huge mechanisms like this dockside crane. This thing is very important for maritime trade.
Tyler Nguyen
Printing Press.
And then, MOVABLE TYPE!
Cooper Scott
What is this witchcraft?
Brandon Young
Story time, a few years back an old friend of mine tried his hand at DMing D&D for his magic crowd and wanted to do a lower magic 4E game.
So he asks me, what would a paranoid king keep locked up in a secure and secret warehouse he was going to use as a dungeon crawl. I told him the king might keep something dangerous to his rule, a printing press.
I waited with certain interest in how his players would respond, and they did. They ventured into the dungeon and found the sitting treasure which the King feared.
And they thought it was stupid. A printing press wasn't something dangerous or interesting.
Dumbass motherfuckers, just...dumb ass motherfuckers.
what do you think of these possible invention ideas?
Phonograph Printing Press Cotton Gen & Spinning Jenny Latex or rubber Sewing Machine Fire extinguisher Calculating Machine Pressure Cooker
Jackson Cox
How could a hot air balloon not be possible? Take big bit of fabric, hang basket and apply heat.
Landon Edwards
Invent Primitive telephone with really underground long brass pipes and gnomes paid to stand inside and relay messages
Jack Gonzalez
If you: >KNOW how Veeky Forums views inventors in games... Then why would you revisit this topic? The fact of the matter is when Veeky Forums reaches any kind of consensus on something, in this case "inventors in medieval fantasy games are RAGEworthy," it is because that thing is objectively "good" or in this case objectively BAD. In this case it's a bad thing because you are infringing on the GM's role by introducing objects/rules/technologies and other things into their world, forcing them to adjust it not to accommodate what your character does but what your character wants to do which essentially doubles their workload. This isn't bad because it cuts into your poor GMs busy fapping schedule but because it means they have less time to devote to the adventure/campaign as a whole which will ultimately make actually playing the game less fun for you and for the other players as a whole. I shouldn't have to state the obvious here but that is a BAD THING for everyone. In addition to the above, the fact is that there are plenty of game systems and settings which have a framework of rules already in place specifically to enable this type of play/character and there are plenty of groups out there that run these systems. Instead though you want to be special, you want to be the guy bringing a gun to a wand-fight and making buttloads of gold modernizing a medieval fantasy setting while everyone else just wants to go adventuring and have fun. In the end no amount of "advice" can prevent the concept you're trying to force into this game from skullfucking it right off the rails and ruining everyone's day regardless of whether or not that's your intention.
Anthony Richardson
> not inventing guns for the whole party > not gearing everyone up in iron man suits and flamethrowers
What kind of lame ass inventors do you have in your games where they only make their toys for themselves
John Flores
Sorry I should clarify. was not meant to instigate a fight, I'm just trying to say its possible for an inventor to be not a selfish cunt and derail the game, instead they want to improve everyone around them.
of course easily this can go too far when they want to "invent" electricity and sewing machines to revolutionize the world and become insta famous. because of their shitty meta knowledge.
and of course their favorite fucking argument is "but davinci did it, he was ahead of his time"
Adrian Martin
Crack open the legend of zelda wiki and look at all of the gadgets Link makes use of over the course of the games.
I don't know what the fuck these other anons are suggesting. Cranes? Farming implements? He's an adventurer in a fantasy world, make fantastical shit for adventuring. Every unrealistic item needing to be magical is the logical equivalent of every 20th level Fighter needs to have the physical capability of what some lardass "designer" thinks a guy who works out occasionally can do.
Sebastian Barnes
Are the rules suited to technological advancement? Or are you just going to be cranking out items with numeric bonuses as you advance the general level of technology?
Charles Nelson
>and I'm unsure IF or HOW zeppelins exist in this setting Is there a gas less dense than air in your setting, enough to make a heavy structure float when filled with it? Because there's your airship.
Also, instead of thinking about what real-world tech to put in, remember "necessity is the mother of invention". Think about what devices would fill a useful purpose in this world, what function to they perform that is more practical than whatever magical alternatives people may already have. One good way to practice this is to think about what types of traps would work well on the monsters that inhabit it, based on their behavior/characteristics, then see if the mechanisms in those traps can be applied to other uses as well.
Or, see how people in this world are doing some sort of activity in a way that you can improve upon. The kingdom's main cash crop requires huge amounts of effort to harvest? Invent something the farmers can use to make it easier. That kind of thing.
Gavin Gonzalez
its GURPS, cinematic
Thomas Lewis
This user here
No need to apologize. I'm certainly not going to claim that it's impossible to play an inventor without derailing the game. But as the saying goes "power tends to corrupt, absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely." If two or three people want to play inventors in the party or have higher technology than the rules provide for... then you should consider running a system that's built to handle inventors and higher technology. If, on the other hand, one guy wants to invent (break) the rules to accommodate their character concept then its likely that they'll continue to do so, intentionally or unintentionally because on a fundamental level the rules already do not apply to their character. On a deeper level there's also the consideration that if, as in the case of OP you want to invent things and the rest of the party wants to go on quests you're already creating division at the table before you even sit down at it. IMO no matter how you parse this, as posted it's a bad idea and the OP is better off playing within the rules instead of expecting the GM to make up special provisions etc for him. Although depending on what game system the character is being run in I might reconsider my opinion but based on:
>fantasy world, dragons, mages, monsters etc. and >there's no electricity, yet no coal based engines, and I'm unsure IF or HOW zepplins exist in this setting
I can't think of a system that would convince me this is ok.
Adam Campbell
Oohhh, an inventor player who understands how technological advancemente works?
OF COURSE I have sugestions! Well-rsearched anachronism is my thing. They assume you aren't limited to self-improvement, and your fantasy world is european-like.
It would seem you know what you're talking about, not OP but would love some tips myself on how to ease my GMs mind on this.
He's pretty hesitant to allow any invention that's over 200 years away
Asher Ortiz
Wouldn't a phonograph be useless without anything to play on it? And electricity?
I'm sure you could get makeshift paddle power, but no records?
Noah Turner
Another question, same guy as before.
Fire extinguishers how? And latex?
Owen Long
If you're magical enough to fly can you also write runes? If so, invent a rune printing press for stock printing magical scrolls
Caleb Russell
>He's pretty hesitant to allow any invention that's over 200 years away Away from what? What's the mark here?
Some of this requires serious money. Like Da Vinci, you might seek audience with the ownders of said money. Or adventure because your father had his ideas stolen by his patron without any credit, and you want recognition + vengeance.
Some of these things may be proposed, and their projects sold, granting you money but not affecting the party's combat power. Their implementation might then be badly executed, but your hirer is going to blame you anyways.
Some of this might affect the local economy and society, change the status quo etc. Setting up aerial ropeways over what was impassable before makes the older, +80 km long way useless. An entire 2000-strong town based around a caravanserai crumbles, and the inventor turns into a target.
Anyway, this wouldn't play like making gadgets all the time, it's more like projects to solve this or that, after some serious thinking and scrounging of resources and manpower.
TL;DR - Ocasional, big projects with ups and downs instead of casually making clockwork rifles to increase damage.
Gavin Parker
Well, off the top of my head: >Money-forging portable smelting kit Makes decent-but-imperfect copies of coin denominations. Needs a decent knowledge check to see through, so don't go trying to put that shit in the bank, stick to low-mid level trading
>Fukken magnets Maybe if they are somehow magically activated super-strong ones you can throw at enemies and make their weapons/armour stick together
>Flashbang powder Use it to coat throwing daggers, arrows etc
That's all that comes to mind immediately
Jace Roberts
D&D's framework is more flexible than you think, having began as a wargame after all. Rules exist for just about everything a self-proclaimed "inventor" could come up with and arguably the entire point behind supplements like d20 modern which are hideous to play on their own is to give rules for things such as telephones if they were for some reason to come up into the game.
But then again, I've never had to deal with an inventor, just the occasional guy asking for a pistol or something to make him slightly more on-par with the wizard. Now wizards, I've had at least two examples of those guys trying to break the game without having to invent a thing.
