Technology

Technology defines a setting as much as culture does. (And, for that matter, the rules used to play the game in that culture.) If gunpowder is available, the world changes. Suddenly, a commoner with a rifle is a serious threat to an armored soldier, and high castle walls are no longer proof against invasion, which makes people, in turn, less elitist and isolationist.

Games set in Dungeons and Dragons usually have technologies comparable to the Iron Age or medieval periods of history⁠—but a DM may opt to use different technologies for different cultures in a particular setting.

Extremely Low Tech

A campaign set in a Bronze Age world where weapons are more crude and armor is less advanced, or even an Ice Age/Stone Age world where metal is barely available (if at all), can be very interesting. In such a campaign, survival often becomes a central focus, since finding food and keeping warm are suddenly much more difficult. There might not be shops from which to obtain goods (particularly in an Ice Age/Stone Age campaign) or even safe places to spend the night. Killing a huge beast means not only victory, it also means meat to eat, fur or skin to wear, and bones to fashion into weapons and tools.

Stone Age: Attacks with weapons made of bone or stone have a –⁠2 penalty on attack and damage rolls (with a minimum damage of 1). Stone Age cultures don’t make bone or stone chainmail⁠—they use leather, padded, wood, or bone armor. Historically, only a few exceptions to this rule exist, and those forms of armor are all made of bronze.

Bone has hardness 6 and 10 hit points per inch of thickness.

Stone has hardness 8 and 15 hit points per inch of thickness.

Bronze Age: Weapons of bronze, while clearly inferior to steel items, are not nearly as bad as stone or bone weapons. Attacks with weapons made of bronze have a –⁠1 penalty on attack and damage rolls (with a minimum damage of 1). Bronze shields have the same protective value as steel shields, and their cost and weight are the same. A bronze shield has hardness 9 (compared to iron’s 10), however. A small bronze shield has 7 hit points, and a large bronze shield has 14 hit points. While the relative softness of bronze diminishes its usefulness in weapons, it allows elaborately sculpted bronze breastplates. A bronze breastplate’s armor bonus is 1 lower than a steel breastplate’s (+4), but its maximum Dexterity bonus is 1 higher (also +4).

Bronze has hardness 9 and 20 hit points per inch of thickness.

Advancing the Technology Level

Conversely, a DM could advance the pseudohistorical basis for the game a few hundred years and set his campaign in a Renaissance-style setting. Doing this would allow him to incorporate weapons and maybe a few more bits of equipment from a little later in history. Clocks, hot air balloons, printing presses, and even crude steam engines might be available. Most important to PCs, however, would be the new weapons (see the Renaissance Weapons table).

Renaissance Firearms: Firearms should be treated like other ranged projectile weapons. Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms) gains a creature proficiency with all firearms; otherwise, a –⁠4 penalty is assessed on all attack rolls.

Gunpowder: While gunpowder burns (1 ounce consumes itself in 1 round and illuminates like a sunrod) or even explodes in the right conditions, it is chiefly used to propel a bullet out of the barrel of a pistol or a rifle, or it is formed into a bomb (see below). An ounce of gunpowder is needed to propel a bullet. Gunpowder is sold in small kegs (15-pound capacity, 20 pounds total weight, 250 gp each) and in water-resistant powder horns (2-pound capacity and total weight, 35 gp for a full powder horn). If gunpowder gets wet, it cannot be used to fire a bullet.

Bullets: These large, round, lead projectiles are sold in bags of 10 for 3 gp. A bag of bullets weighs 2 pounds.

Pistol: This firearm holds a single shot and requires a standard action to reload.

Musket: The musket holds a single shot and requires a standard action to reload.

Renaissance Explosive Weapons: These explosives require no proficiency to use. Scoring a hit with one of these weapons requires a successful ranged touch attack aimed at a square. A direct hit with an explosive weapon means that the weapon has hit the creature it was aimed at and everyone within the blast radius, including that creature, takes the indicated damage.

If the explosive misses, it still lands somewhere. Roll 1d8 to determine the misdirection of the throw, with 1 indicating the direction back toward the thrower and 2 through 8 counting clockwise around the target square. (See the diagram on page 158 of the Player’s Handbook.) Then, count 1 square away from the target square for every two range increments of the attack.

Bomb: This round gunpowder bomb must be lit before it is thrown. Lighting a bomb is a move action. The explosive deals 2d6 points of fire damage. Anyone caught within the blast radius can make a DC 15 Reflex save to take half damage.

Smoke Bomb: This cylindrical bomb must be lit before it is thrown. Lighting it is a move action. Two rounds after it is lit, this nondamaging explosive emits a cloud of smoke (as a fog cloud spell) in a 20-foot radius. A moderate wind (11+ mph) disperses the smoke in 4 rounds; a strong wind (21+ mph) disperses the fog in 1 round.

The following tables are not all-inclusive. Other weapons certainly existed during Earth’s own Renaissance period; each DM is welcome to expand upon this table.

Modern and Future Technology

You could create a setting with high technology. Perhaps a starship from a much more highly advanced civilization landed or crashed in the campaign world. The crash might have happened long ago, so that now the starship is a mysterious, specialized dungeon setting in its own right, with a special sort of magic (advanced technology) and monsters (aliens and robots that survived the crash). Or perhaps the advanced civilization was native to the campaign world but is now long gone, leaving behind remnants of its ancient cities filled with strange secrets, which now form sites for adventures. In such a campaign, you could decide that many of the strange creatures found in the world result from ancient genetic engineering. Finally, perhaps members of some advanced civilization have come to the campaign world with their advanced science and now serve as patrons or overlords. They dole out their technology in small doses to those who serve them well.

No matter what rationale you use to place high-tech items in your game, they should always be like very rare magic items or artifacts⁠—difficult or impossible to reproduce. Treating them as artifacts (see page 277) is most appropriate. They shouldn’t dominate the game, but should serve as an occasional diversion. It’s fun for some players when their characters occasionally use a big gun against a dragon rather than a sword, and it’s an interesting diversion to run into a warbot in a dungeon rather than a band of trolls. But in a fantasy game, most players don’t want to do that every day.

Some advanced technological weapons are detailed below. These weapons have no costs provided, because they cannot be manufactured. They can only be found as artifacts.

These weapon statistics also show how to rate something in your game that you might not know how to handle. Since you probably have a good idea what a pistol is like, or a laser, you can deal with such situations on firmer ground. For example, you might want to develop a trap that fires large needles rapidly. You could use the statistics for an automatic rifle or extrapolate from them to get what you want. When explaining the trap, you could even describe it to the players as resembling a machine gun to help them understand it.

The d20 MODERN® Roleplaying Game, a D&D-compatible roleplaying game for present-day adventures, contains a much more extensive treatment of firearms and other high-tech gear. (If, of course, a copy can still be found.)

Modern Era Firearms: Firearms should be treated like other ranged projectile weapons. The Exotic Weapon Proficiency (firearms) feat gives a creature proficiency with all firearms; otherwise, a –⁠4 penalty is assessed on all attack rolls.

Ammunition: Modern era firearms use bullets essentially similar to those used in Remaissance firearms. Ten bullets weigh 1 pound, and a magazine that holds bullets for an automatic weapon weighs ½ pound.

The new weapons on the Modern Era Weapons table are detailed below.

Pistol, Automatic: An automatic pistol can fire fifteen times before reloading and can be used to attack more than once per round if the user has the ability to make multiple attacks. Releasing an empty magazine and inserting a new one is a move action.

Pistol, Revolver: A revolver can fire six times before it needs reloading (which requires a full-round action).

Rifle, Hunting: A hunting rifle can fire five times before it needs reloading (which requires a full-round action).

Rifle, Automatic: An automatic rifle can fire thirty times before it needs reloading. Releasing an empty magazine and inserting a new one is a move action. As an attack, an automatic rifle can instead spray a space 10 feet across with ten bullets. If the attacker succeeds on an attack roll against AC 10, everyone in that space must make a DC 15 Reflex save or take the weapon’s damage.

Shotgun: A shotgun is most effective at close range; on any successful attack, a –⁠1 penalty is applied to the damage roll for each range increment of the attack. It can fire six times before it needs reloading (which requires a full-round action). The weapon uses shotgun shells, cylindrical cartridges that have a built-in firing cap at their base. They are packed with a mixture of gunpowder and small lead pellets.

Grenade Launcher: A grenade launcher can fire fragmentation or smoke grenades using its range increment, but must be reloaded each time it fires, requiring a standard action. A grenade launcher is a tube set on a metal tripod and equipped with a sighting mechanism. A single smoke grenade or fragmentation grenade easily slips into the tube.

Modern Era Explosive Weapons: These explosive grenadelike weapons work just like Renaissance grenadelike weapons (see above). for determining how attacks are made and what happens if the weapon misses its target.

Dynamite: This short, thin cylinder of explosive material has a fuse that must be lit before it is thrown or set. Lighting a stick of dynamite is a move action, and the dynamite goes off in the same round or up to several minutes later (depending on how long the fuse is). The explosive has a blast radius of 5 feet and deals 2d6 points of bludgeoning damage. Anyone caught within the blast radius can make a DC 15 Reflex save to take half damage.

It’s possible to bind together several sticks of dynamite so they ignite and explode at the same time. Each additional stick increases the damage by 1d6 (maximum damage 10d6) and the burst radius by 5 feet (maximum burst radius 20 feet).

Grenade, Fragmentation: A fragmentation grenade looks like a large egg, sometimes mounted on a 1-foot-long stick with small fins. If thrown, it uses its range increment, but if launched from a grenade launcher, it uses that weapon’s range increment. Fragmentation grenades are advanced antipersonnel explosives that deal slashing damage in a 20-foot radius. Anyone caught within the blast radius can make a DC 15 Reflex save to take half damage.

Grenade, Smoke: A smoke grenade looks like a squat cylinder, sometimes mounted on a 1-foot-long stick with small fins. If thrown, it uses its range increment, but if launched from a grenade launcher, it uses that weapon’s range increment. One round after it lands or hits its target, this nondamaging explosive emits a cloud of smoke (as the fog cloud spell) in a 20-foot radius. A moderate wind (11+ mph) disperses the smoke in 4 rounds; a strong wind (21+ mph) disperses the fog in 1 round.

Futuristic Weapons: Futuristic weapons are like other ranged projectile weapons, though the type of damage they deal is special. The Exotic Weapon Proficiency (futuristic) feat gives a creature proficiency with all futuristic weapons; otherwise, a –⁠4 penalty is assessed on all attack rolls.

The new weapons on the Futuristic Weapons table are detailed below.

Laser Pistol: A laser pistol fires fifty times before a new energy cell (weight 1 pound) needs to be reloaded and has a rate of fire equal to the attacker’s number of attacks. Reloading the weapon is a move action.

Antimatter Rifle: An antimatter rifle is a devastating short-range attack weapon that can be fired once per round. It holds an energy cell (weight 1 pound) that is depleted after two shots. Reloading the weapon is a move action.

Laser Rifle: A laser rifle fires thirty times before a new energy cell (weight 1 pound) needs to be reloaded and has a rate of fire equal to the attacker’s number of attacks. Reloading the weapon is a move action.

Flamer: A flamer can be fired once per round. Unlike other ranged weapons, it deals damage to every square in a 5-foot-wide stream extending out to the flamer’s maximum range (200 feet). It contains a fuel pack with enough concentrated flamer fuel for ten shots. Installing a new fuel pack requires a full-round action.