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Best rule for technology is to not allow it, there are plenty of steampunk or modern RPG games out there if you want it.
:)
Note the smiley face. Was an attempt at humor.
Well, with a hint of truth to it. There really are game systems totally designed to support technology. PF may have "hooks" and mention some races, but beyond the misbegotten "gunslinger" class, there's not much there for technological based role playing.
But hey! If you want to do it, I wish you the best.
It's easiest to just use magic items to emulate technology.
A gun that fires electricity could be a wand of lightning bolts, mechanically.
A car can have the same rules as a carriage made of metal with no horses.
Lights could be everburning torches.
Etc.
It's easiest to just use magic items to emulate technology.
A gun that fires electricity could be a wand of lightning bolts, mechanically.
A car can have the same rules as a carriage made of metal with no horses.
Lights could be everburning torches.
Etc.
I agree with this, take magic items and skin them as technology. Its easiest and takes less time to do.
There are rules for making clockwork constructs and robot constructs, so that works in that regard.
Adapting magic items to be tech is an alright way to do it, and works with the rules.
It might be good to look up d20 star wars and d20 modern to see how they handle technology, as they are pretty much 3rd edition D&D set in different settings.
Personally:
I would include the skill Profession: Technician, which would serve as Use Magic Device for technological things. Create a series of 'technological items' using the magic item rules, but make them more powerful than normal and include that they aren't affected by anti-magic spells, but add what element (probably water or electricity) can disrupt them. Using these technological items if you don't have the NPC class "Engineer" or whatever the people they meet will be requires a Profession: Technician roll. That way when players arrive they have the option to learn how to activate the new technology, but they have to lean it slowly over time.
Then if you want to have fun, use something like the Machinesmith to represent the local tech-savy combatants.
That would be my take on it.
Also you could check out the Iron Kingdoms rules are update/tweek them. Paizo sells the PDF's on their website.
My solution for high tech armors, since I am thinking about this for a Dragonstar campaign, is to retain the AC of comparable fantasy equivalents. Does the riot armor look like full plate, then treat it like full plate. The differences are the materials. Modern/Future armors (I will playtest this) I am giving DR, for a ballistic quality. That is because the Pathfinder standard for firearms is to hit the touch AC, so DR makes sense. Ablative armors (and I know that I am not using the absolute correct definition, but eh) actually still give their AC to firearms attacks. Armor Piercing bullets ignore DR. This could get tweaked as I get closer to running the game, and if it doesn't work in the game.
As for the regular tech, making an item that functions mechanically like magic is the best way to maintain the compatibility. It will also help you to gauge CR for encounters. If it behaves in a familiar way, it is easier to adapt to for the players. Avoid making new rules. Not remixing rules like my ideas, but creating systems that don't already exist. For example, to balance Robots, I am thinking of constructing them the same basic way that eidilons are constructed.
I might be the only person who thinks this, but I don't think guns should just get touch attacks for free. Ya they have penetrating power, but so does literally every other kind of slashing or piercing weapon. If they didn't they wouldn't be used as actual weapons. Crossbow bolts can pierce plate just as easily as a bullet. I think its fair that if the technology advances enough and you can get anti-armor rounds then sure, touch all the AC you want, but otherwise it just never made sense to me.
I might be the only person who thinks this, but I don't think guns should just get touch attacks for free. Ya they have penetrating power, but so does literally every other kind of slashing or piercing weapon. If they didn't they wouldn't be used as actual weapons. Crossbow bolts can pierce plate just as easily as a bullet. I think its fair that if the technology advances enough and you can get anti-armor rounds then sure, touch all the AC you want, but otherwise it just never made sense to me.
For the more primitive firearms, you ar correct. That is why conquistidors wore breastplates. Because the guns of the time didn't have the oomf they would later get. By the time flintlocks came around, armor was, pretty useless, unless it was really thick. Getting the touch attack does make sense, then. If you get into energy eapons, then it is best to model them after spell effects, which implies touch AC attacks.
As I mentioned in the necrotech topic the other day, I use d20 Cyberscape for cybernetics-like magic items in my homebrew setting.
I have also done a one-shot playtest of a modern version of that setting and have my playtest rules floating around a flash drive somewhere. I may upload them at some point and have the forums tear them apart. I used d20 Modern/Future rules as inspiration and adapted Pathfinder.
The summary of the theme of my playets was thus: The Gnomish nation and the nations occupying an ancient technologically advanced empire eventually engineered technology that made magic easy to access to the masses. Give it a few centuries, two world wars, one plague that kills all Halflings,and an ongoing Abyssal invasion: add to blender and hit frappe.