Introduction
Though the focus of Totte is on fantasy settings, this does not exclude technology.
After all, according the Arthur C. Clarke's third law any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
The word 'technology' is rather modern, but the phenomenon is as old is mankind itself.
Humans are tool users; tools, even the most basic flint axe, are technology.
So the question is not whether to include technology in a fantasy setting, but how much.
An easy way is to assign the game world a technology level.
This is a rough level that specifies the general advancement of technology across all possible fields.
This level need not be absolute.
Some regions of the world may be more advanced than others; technology from ancient or alien civilizations may linger around; a few geniuses may be ahead of their time.
Totte offers a guideline with 11 levels:
| Level | Materials | Energy | Transport | Communication | Inventions | Food | Industry | Trade | Military | Politics | Religion | Science | |
| 0 | Animal | food | walking | primitive speech | hunting, gathering | ||||||||
| 1 | Neolithic | stone, bone, wood | fire | sledge, raft | spoken language | sewing needle, weapons | hunting with traps and weapons, slash & burn agriculture, husbandry | handcraft | barter | hand weapons | tribe | animism | |
| 2 | Ancient | pottery, copper, bronze, iron, paper, glass | animals, watermill | wheel, canoe, galley | writing, homing pigeon | house | irrigation, manuring | workshops, mass labor | currency, marketplace | body armor, cavalry, fortifications and sieges | theocracy, monarchy, city-state, republic | polytheism | philosophy, academy |
| 3 | Medieval | steel | windmill | rotation build, heavy plough | bank | feudalism | monotheism | university | |||||
| 4 | Renaissance | oceangoing ship | printing press | mechanical clock, telescope, microscope, logarithms | crop rotation | paper money, trade company | gunpowder, explosives | empirical science | |||||
| 5 | Industrial | concrete, rubber | steam, electricity | balloon, railroad | telegraph, typewriter, photography, microphone, gramophone, telephone | gyroscope, pasteurization | factory | stock exchange | rifling, machine gun | nationalism, socialism, democracy | |||
| 6 | Mechanized | aluminum, plastics | combustion | automobile, airplane | radio | electronics, vacuum tube, flashlight, antibiotics, quartz watch | farming machines, vegetable greenhouse, herbicides and pesticides | assembly line | semiautomatic rifle, tank, battleship, submarine, fighter, bomber, chemical weapons, bio-weapons | emancipation | |||
| 7 | Nuclear | composites | nuclear fission | jumbo jet, helicopter | television | artificial organs, computers, laser, LCD, MRI scanner, superconductors | high-yield cereals, chemical fertilizers | robot | electronic money | mechanized infantry, jet fighter, guided and ballistic missiles, nuclear bomb, radar | |||
| 8 | Microtechnological | intelligent materials | nuclear fusion | maglev, spacefaring | internet, satellite network, neuro interface | artificial intelligence, cloning | biotechnology | deep sea mining | bitcoins | stealth, sonic gun, laser gun, combat suit | group mind | ||
| 9 | Nanotechnological | molecular transformation | graviton generator | stasis chamber | eco systems, terraforming | micromachines | microweapons | Gaia entity | |||||
| 10 | Quantum | atomic transformation | antimatter | warp field | weather control | nanomachines | matter transformers | ||||||
Technology, skills and feats
Advancing technology has an increasing impact on the game world and the actions of characters in it. Roughly four stages can be discerned:
- Low-level Technology can enhance a character's ability. For example a traditional cook who is handed a blender can create sauces much more rapidly than with a knife, increasing the speed with which he can prepare meals, though not their flavor. In such cases the GM may grant bonuses to feat ability. The opposite is also possible, for example when the cook is forced to cut vegetables with a stone knife instead of a sharp steel one. Despite the bonuses or penalties, skill is still the decisive factor.
- In some feats technology is so important that it ranks equal to talent and skill when determining feat ability. An example is combat, where weapons and armor are at least as important as physical talents or fighting skills. In these cases bonuses and penalties can still be assigned, depending on equipment sophistication and quality. For example a well forged steel sword is much harder than a primitive iron one and has a significantly better chance of penetrating armor.
- When playing in a technology-rich world, operating and manipulating technology become skills in themselves. Prime examples are technology craft skills like mechanics, electronics and piloting. Here some feats determine the quality of technological equipment, while others use it.
- Things really start to change from technology level 8 onward, for some feats even earlier. At high levels technology starts to become 'automatic', meaning that it can operate with little or no human guidance. For example a 21st century tank cannon (technology level 7) can keep itself aligned towards its target even while the tank is fast rolling forward and making evasive maneuvers. Its human gunner only needs to to select targets, check ammunition and press the fire button. At technology level 9 most machines act and react to their environment as if they were alive. If you order an advanced robot to perform a task it will seldom need more instruction than 'what' to do. The 'how' it can figure out itself. So at this level technology no longer supplements human skill practitioners, but replaces them, or biology merges with technology.