Re: (TFT) Story - industrial staticism

[ErolB1@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/11/2008 1:09:09 PM Central Standard Time, 
selfinflicted_wounds@boardermail.com writes:


> First, by considering ways in which a Player may attempt to create such 
> "things" a GM can design the Campaign in such a way as to block thoses type 
> projects.
> A simpel method of acomplishing this is to set the Population of the region 
> at a minimum level for sustance.
> No work force, no Mega-project.
> Look what the Egyptians did with no Magic or Tech, just one hella-large 
> workforce.


Yes, considering these things allows a GM to design his campaign in such a 
way as to block these types of projects. However, I am very skeptical about the 
idea of blocking such projects by setting the population low. The population 
has to be set *really* low in order to make this work. Consider how a 
sparsely-populated Britian managed to build Stonehenge. 

Setting the population low enough to block undesired projects also tends to 
block the desired stuff as well. IMO it's even more effective at blocking the 
desired stuff. A lot of the "industiral" projects are labor-saving projects, 
clever ways of doing things that substitute magic for a workforce. Suppressing 
this by reducing the population of the game world requires taking things to the 
point where ordinary PCs dissappear in a puff of logic. 

Better to tweak the rules so that industial-style magic either isn't cost 
effective or isn't possible. Either: "No, Gates don't work that way in this 
campaign." Or "Yes, magic can be used to build a pyramid, or a cathedral, or a 
stonehenge, or to take an enemy castle. But it's cheaper to hire a bunch of 
mundane laborers or mercenaries to do the task." Or better yet, a combination of the 
two. 




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