(TFT) Re: TFT Digest V3 #468

[Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu>]

rsmith,

>	Yes there would be an adventure there if
>a trade family didn't have their own gates.
>But competition pretty much FORCES everyone to
>use the most efficient form of travel, which is
>gates.
>
>	I just think that mules, overland caravans
>and building and hiring ships is more interesting
>than calculating the price of having a wizard
>standing by with a bunch of apprentices and X
>points of ST batteries, etc.

Well, so do I, in general. My campaign right now revolves around an effort
to establish a Gate link between two kingdoms.

I think it's the GM's responsibility to either

a) Figure out what the world looks like once laced with "Industrial Magic"

-OR-

b) Figure out reasons (could be social as well as "technological" or
"financial") WHY the industrial magic won't become widespread.

Examples:
	In my gate connection campaign, neither kingdom would allow a gate
right into their capitol. Invasions would become too easy. So they had to
work out an intermediate point, with observers with Gate-Locks, etc.
	Then other neighboring kingdoms got wind of the schemes, and hated
it because it would be too likely to lead to a firm alliance between the
two linked kingdoms. And so on.

	Maybe "Light" items at each street corner are sabotaged by the
local Thieves' Guild faster than they can be put up.

-OR-

c) change the rules in some way to make magic (industrial or not) less
attractive.
	I have to comment here that there's some basis for this in the TFT
system. AW claims (pg. 3) that only 1 in 300 persons on Cidri will be
Wizards. That sure doesn't match the ratio in any party I've ever seen.
	On the other hand, I tend to follow the sound of the cannon pretty
closely in my campaigns, so I'm not much in favor of this.

	Whatever choice is made, I don't think the GM should allow a party
to profit enormously from an innovation that any NPC could have made - but
some profit from opening the local franchise might be acceptable.

					- Mark
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