Even though Steamworks‘ release is only about a week away, we just couldn’t keep it to ourselves any longer. That’s why we’ve released a 1 page PDF showing off the Clockwork Steed, which is just one cool device among more than 160 you’ll find in Steamworks.

Download the free Steamworks: Clockwork Steed PDF today for a taste of things to come. Be prepared to give your fantasy campaign a shot of adrenaline (item number 33, incidentally)!

In celebration of our first new release under the Silven Crossroads brand, we’re offering a 10% discount when pre-ordering Steamworks.

If you’ve been living in a cave, or at least haven’t been following our website, Steamworks is a comprehensive guide for introducing elements of technology into traditional fantasy campaigns. And when we say comprehensive, we mean it! Weighing in at more than 160 pages, Steamworks introduces two new classes, more than three dozen feats, several dozen unique devices, new spells and powers, and much more. We think Steamworks offers all the building blocks a GM or player needs to incorporate as much, or as little, technology into a fantasy campaign as wanted. Whether you want to play an absent-minded inventor or let your player characters explore the ruins of a long-dead civilization for strange and wonderful artifacts, Steamworks is your ultimate guide.

When released, Steamworks will be available for $15.50. By pre-ordering now, you can download the Steamworks PDF on the day it’s released and only pay $13.95. This pre-order offer is available exclusively through our store, Midnight Cellar.

As you hopefully remember, we’ve been writing about Steamworks since December. If not, Steamworks is our first new title under the Silven Crossroads fantasy brand, and it’s a doozy! This 150+ page fantasy supplement for the d20 system is a complete guidebook to introducing technology to your fantasy setting. Whether you want to introduce strange, clockwork artifacts in the tomb of a long-dead race, or play as an adventuring inventor, Steamworks is your comprehensive guide.

To give you a small taste of what is to come, here is just one of the cool gadgets found in Chapter 8: Technological Items.

Goggles of Echolocation: This pair of goggles has dark lenses, with a conical attachment on either side. While wearing these goggles, the wearer has blindsight to a distance of 20 feet. These goggles do not function in areas affected by magical silence.

Faint energy; SL 5th; Build General Item; Price 18,000 gp; Weight 1 lb.

Be on the lookout for more sneak peeks, including items and artwork, in the coming days. Also be on the lookout for a contest announcement, coming soon!

So far, I’ve talked about how technology affects the party, and some of the mechanics regarding technological characters; this week, I’m going to talk more about how technology affects your campaign setting.

Integration of technology into a setting is a big deal, and isn’t something to be done lightly. Just as with psionics or any of the other myriad different magic systems in d20, the impact of technology should be deeply considered before you begin using it. If you’re designing a fresh new setting with technology in mind, great - but chances are that you already have an established setting, and technology will be a newcomer. SteamWorks goes over a few different methods you can use to ease technology into your game.

In SteamWorks, three primary ways of introduction are discussed, those being ancient technology, gradual technology, and rapid technology. All three models allow you at least a degree of control over the proliferation of technology, as well as the types of technology available.

Ancient technology is the idea that some ancient culture had technology at its disposal, and is just beginning to be uncovered; this allows you to limit technological supplies and knowledge, making it a rather limited resource - at least until someone figures out how to replicate the technology. The section on ancient technology introduces the archaeologist prestige class, a class with a smattering of technological knowledge mixed with various dungeon-delving abilities.

Gradual technology is the concept that technology has begun to sprung up, but the various peoples of the setting are slow on the uptake - adoption of technology is slow, or it is not taken seriously by the majority of the population just yet. In this model, technology is something brand new, but seen only as a curiosity. Gradual technology allows you to control the kinds of technology and the pace at which it is introduced, but provides a solid enough background for technological classes to be reasonable choices. This section also introduces the researcher prestige class, essentially a precursor to the technological base classes: the researcher gains a handful of devices, all with fewer charges and higher malfunction rates - indications that technology is still in its infancy.

Rapid technology takes the route that, somewhere in the world, there is either an individual or a small group that is making frenzied progress in the field of technology. While the technology that person or group constructs becomes rapidly more complex and intriguing over a rather short period of time, the impact on the setting can be controlled, based upon how easily the lone inventor or group can distribute their work. This framework allows you to use the full extent of technology without changing the entire face of your setting: technology becomes an exotic, eccentric option.

There are also other campaign options detailed, such as how arcane magic and psionics interact with technology. In addition to these, the nature of technology developed by the various humanoid races - including orcs, kobolds, and goblins - is discussed. While these descriptions may not fit all settings, they at least provide a springboard for thinking about how the various races regard and interact with technology. The integration of technology, as discussed in SteamWorks, is not meant to be comprehensive, but instead it is meant to act as a starting point, to give you at least an idea of how to begin dealing with the complex task of integrating technology into your setting.

Last time, I talked about how technology’s feel compares to the flavor of other similar classes. This week, I’m going to focus more on mechanics, and how a technological character works from the perspective of a player.

Balancing technology is tricky work. On the one hand, it doesn’t have to be a limited resource like magic: in the real world, we use technology all the time, and its power is seemingly unlimited. This is a far cry from the wizard who begins his career being able to throw magic missile two or three times a day. However, allowing technology this sort of free reign would rapidly throw the balance of the game out of whack.

Fortunately, there was a rather simple solution. Technology as presented in SteamWorks is not ubiquitous - it is either relatively new or recently rediscovered. As such, only the knowledgeable can make use of technology, and even then, the devices the technological character makes use of are not always guaranteed to work. Even if technology in your setting is everywhere, the small chance of failure for technology makes sense: not everything works perfectly every time.

To use their devices, technological characters must ready them; a readied device has a set number of charges, which can be used freely. Each time a device is used, it has a chance to fail; a malfunctioned device must be repaired before it can be used again (even if it has charges remaining), while a device that functions has a slightly higher chance to malfunction the next time it is used. The resources a technological character uses to ready devices are also used to repair and recharge them, leading to a bit of a balancing act on the part of the player in the event of an extended adventure: repairing and recharging devices means that you have less available firepower for that day.

The resources to use their devices that a technological character uses are usable only once a day, much like a wizard’s preparation of spells. Like a wizard, not all of the character’s resources have to be spent in one go, meaning that you can hold resources in reserve to repair or recharge devices after a major fight.

In playtesting, the technologist (one of the technological classes presented in SteamWorks) has proven to be quite useful, effectively able to replace a wizard but with a feel of its own, throwing grenades instead of magic missiles.

Technology as per SteamWorks takes a little getting used to, not only in terms of feel, but also in terms of game mechanics. However, the end result is a mechanical system for technology that reinforces the idea that it is not magic, while retaining balance with existing "caster" classes.