From publisher blurb:
The Tech Issue
The Highway of Time
A highway runs across, or along, or between Time. Yearposts dot the roadside, along with truck stops, diners, and the inevitable roadside attractions. (“SEE the World’s Largest Pyramid of Skulls! Only 28 years ahead, at Exit 1402!”) The rate at which years and miles correspond varies along the way, with years spread out in historically congested areas and bunched together in the long, desert stretch back to the Cretaceous. There are off-ramps at 1588 and 1776 and 1861 and 1940 and so forth, each one of which might lead to a town, or a city, or another road elsewhen. Where the road forks, so does history – if enough people use one fork, it becomes the main highway. If enough people avoid an exit, it degrades into a dirt road, and then disappears entirely. (I steal this whole idea cheerfully, and openly, from Roger Zelazny’s novel Roadmarks.) Wildcat civilization engineers may grade, pave, and sign new roads (and put in more gas stations) in the hopes of attracting traffic to a new continuum – and devotees of the old history tend to oppose them violently.
Text: Kenneth Hite, Art: Lukas Thelin
Technology Level & Gadgets
Technology is a fundamental part of human existence. Whilst the word is associated with modern or futuristic gadgets and gizmos, even the most primitive of stone tools are examples of technology, replicable items used to control aspects of the environment.
Of course when players think of technology they immediately imagine settings along the lines of James Bond spies, superheroes like Iron Man, or best of all, far-future science fiction games like Traveller or Star Wars. But there are many issues which need to be considered when deciding which technological level the game is set and what gadgets to give to characters. Nothing is quite as fascinating as a good mystery, let alone solving one. So it is no surprise that the key elements of investigation have become an inseparable part of the roleplaying game hobby.
Text: Pete Nash, Art: Reine Rosenberg
