Author Topic: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]  (Read 14412 times)

Offline sirpercival

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #20 on: December 29, 2012, 11:23:45 PM »
I'll respond to the rest tomorrow (I feel like crap and need to go to bed), but the request thread is here.
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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #21 on: December 30, 2012, 10:53:58 AM »
Blueprint: Geoccultism Omni-Map
Principles Necessary: HEUR 101, HEUR 266, YGGD 101, YGGD 241, IMCH 101, IMCH 295
Prestige Classes: Dreamason [Rabbit Hole] & Transcholar [Dual Specialization]
Explaination: A Cartographer's job in the world of Gramaire is never finished. How could it? In a world where you have men and women performing acts that can very well change an entire layout of a map in mere hours, any map's worth can easily become short lived... So the GEO (Global Environment Organization) developed a unique tool that allows for a traveler to safely travel the world unopposed by work of Biomes that seemingly crop up over night.

  • The first part of this map is getting a frame. Most Omni-maps come in the form of maps. The Gramarist creating this first needs to designate two Semi-Spaces that are then connected to each other resulting in a portal to a location that is too small to travel through.
  • Then you travel to the designated location and set up an illusion of an object (a blade of grass is fine) and set it to adapt to it's environment and then link that illusion back to the map and connect to to that section of the map causing it to project an image of whatever the object is (for example, grassland would have a blade of grass and snowland would be... snow... >_>)
  • Upon opening the map, it details the environment of the map for the selected location.
This is really cool, I think it works perfectly.

Quote
Lol.  I figured.  I can construct a solar system for you.  :D  Do note, though, that with ELDK spaceships, migration habitats, and biomes, colonization of the rest of the solar system is likely.  We'd have to figure out a communication system for the planets, though it might be as simple as a silverOut of Sending, or as slow as inter-system messenger drones.

I was thinking of using ARCD Satellites that are powered by the Sun (a golden transformer) and a few rocks. Even with Magisterial Principles alone, you can create a Spacefaring Empire, with potentially infinite power :D I've well thought out and planned for Interplanetary interaction :) If I may add, instead of Pseudonatural abominations, from beyond the Stars can we have it so that they are extra races that we can't exactly fit in (like Goblins and Mindflayers and Demons and Devils and Angels and anything else you can think of that just "doesn't make sense interacting with Humanoids") I don't want any of these creatures (excluding Demons and Devils) to exhibit there normal (KILL THE PC) tendencies. For all purposes assume that a creature is True Neutral unless it has an Alignment subtype. Make one planet where Demons and Devils interact and are effectively two warring sides of the same planet (and that is the blood wars ladies and gentlemen!) and have Mindflayer's and other inhabitants of the Far Realm and Astral Plane live on the rings of a Saturn like planet :D (Yes, I am starting to drool...) UGH! This is just soooo awesome! Countless ideas! Endless possibilities! SCIENCE!
What if we remove Planes from the cosmology entirely, and replace them with planets?  Then a Planejumping engine is instead a spacefaring engine?  (Or is this what you were just suggesting?)

Quote
Well, I dunno.  If Kellus wants to add invocations to the Gramarist, he's welcome to do so -- I don't really want to mess with it.  I was talking about the characters that aren't gramarists.  I have a few invokers, Garryl as a few more, etc.  We should probably come up with a consistent set of base classes for the setting, including invokers and non-invokers, as well as expanding on the Dragonmark mechanics... maybe an invoking class derives directly from power of Dragonmarks?  I dunno, just spitballing here.

Well on the world of Jeral there is a special effect created by it's Two Moons. The effects that allow certain subjects to exhibit certain abilities such as the ability to read minds or move things with their minds (Psionics) or creates a Tattoo like symbol to appear along the body of a subject that allows them the use of certain mystical abilities (I basically described the Crystal Moon and the Moons of Eberron using just 2 moons... AND I DIDN'T EVEN REFERENCE DRAGONMARKS ONCE!)

Regardless, I believe that these in addition to Invocations will make for a mega performance in the campaign. :D
This needs to be fleshed out, and I have the beginnings of a coherent system of SLAs -- my suggestion is that rather than giving out specific spells with the Dragonmarks, the Least Dragonmark gives you access to one Least invocation, Lesser -> Lesser, Greater -> Greater, and Siberys -> Dark (or whatever the equivalent is).  The actual invoking classes are simply those who have unlocked the full range of their abilities, and if you have Dark equiv invocations, you count as having a Siberys equiv mark.  Then we have each House correspond to a particular class invocation list (one for Warlocks, one for DFAs, one for Nullblades, etc.

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Offline Arcanist

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #22 on: December 30, 2012, 10:24:40 PM »
This is really cool, I think it works perfectly.

Today I took a walk into the city and tried to grasp the magnitude of how much it takes to create a city... Needless to say I was overwhelmed by how much actually went into it. I examined the buildings architecture and saw Heuristic Circuits interacting with Flux Elevators... I saw the city public transportation and thought of Eldrikinetic engines pushing Frames connected into Semi-Spaces that were moved into other Semi-Spaces across the city... So many thoughts... So beautiful :love

What if we remove Planes from the cosmology entirely, and replace them with planets?  Then a Planejumping engine is instead a spacefaring engine?  (Or is this what you were just suggesting?)

That is precisely what I was suggesting :)

This needs to be fleshed out, and I have the beginnings of a coherent system of SLAs -- my suggestion is that rather than giving out specific spells with the Dragonmarks, the Least Dragonmark gives you access to one Least invocation, Lesser -> Lesser, Greater -> Greater, and Siberys -> Dark (or whatever the equivalent is).  The actual invoking classes are simply those who have unlocked the full range of their abilities, and if you have Dark equiv invocations, you count as having a Siberys equiv mark.  Then we have each House correspond to a particular class invocation list (one for Warlocks, one for DFAs, one for Nullblades, etc.

This actually works perfectly. I must confess that I am diehard on the idea of using Psionics (and Tome of Battle, but that isn't exactly as die hard...) for this campaign.

Offline Amechra

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #23 on: December 31, 2012, 02:17:40 AM »
Alright, if you want wonders, give me a bit and I'll write them up (I have a few... interesting objects in the game that I'm going to run; a pillar 1089ft tall (I'm pedantic like that) that can move an area of 25 cubic miles through space is just one of them...)

Anyway, you wanted those gods? Because there is one for each aspect of Grammarie (look, they're actually avatars, so...)

But a very basic blueprint for all you snappy people is this one:

Blueprint: Quick-Seal Door
Principles Necessary: ELDK 101, ALCH 101 (to taste), HEUR 101
Explanation: Sometimes, you need your lab closed the hell up. Like if you just made something nasty and it's mad at you. Anyway, this blueprint is pretty damn simple to implement.

First, you need a massive piece of metal. You can turn up the weight if you want, but the important part is that it's heavy.

Second, build your doorway. It should be a normal doorway in most respects, except that you need to hollow out a space that's exactly the right size for your slab to fit in nicely. Before building the wall back up around the slab, build in a number of ballistic engines that are powerful enough to shove the slab over. Do this to both sides of the doorway.

Finally, set up the heuristic net, and have the "panic button" close enough that you can slap it as a standard action at any point that you choose.

Summary: Scary thing happens, you run out of lab and push button. Bam, your lab is sealed behind a thick slab of metal. If you have access to more powerful grammaristic options, you can beef up security by replacing the hollowed out wall with a Incongruous Pathway (so the scary thing can't just bust through the wall), coating the slab with Cursed Lead (nullifying any magic that tries to get through), and even just converting the slab to biostructure (fast healing can slow down whatever's on the other side.)

***

There, the fast and cheap way to build a door that can be sealed in panic mode.
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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #24 on: December 31, 2012, 07:55:58 AM »
This is really cool, I think it works perfectly.

Today I took a walk into the city and tried to grasp the magnitude of how much it takes to create a city... Needless to say I was overwhelmed by how much actually went into it. I examined the buildings architecture and saw Heuristic Circuits interacting with Flux Elevators... I saw the city public transportation and thought of Eldrikinetic engines pushing Frames connected into Semi-Spaces that were moved into other Semi-Spaces across the city... So many thoughts... So beautiful :love
This sounds like a scene from Neuromancer :D

Quote
What if we remove Planes from the cosmology entirely, and replace them with planets?  Then a Planejumping engine is instead a spacefaring engine?  (Or is this what you were just suggesting?)

That is precisely what I was suggesting :)
Well, then, derp.  lol.

Quote
This needs to be fleshed out, and I have the beginnings of a coherent system of SLAs -- my suggestion is that rather than giving out specific spells with the Dragonmarks, the Least Dragonmark gives you access to one Least invocation, Lesser -> Lesser, Greater -> Greater, and Siberys -> Dark (or whatever the equivalent is).  The actual invoking classes are simply those who have unlocked the full range of their abilities, and if you have Dark equiv invocations, you count as having a Siberys equiv mark.  Then we have each House correspond to a particular class invocation list (one for Warlocks, one for DFAs, one for Nullblades, etc.

This actually works perfectly. I must confess that I am diehard on the idea of using Psionics (and Tome of Battle, but that isn't exactly as die hard...) for this campaign.
Do you want to leave psi as-is?  Because it's much more similar to traditional spellcasting than invocations, and has many fo the same problems...  If you're willing to tweak, though, then Garryl has a psi-invoking soulknife and a psionic warblade (like an arcane swordsage).

And agreed on ToB, I love it and have homebrewed many initiators.
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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #25 on: December 31, 2012, 08:00:08 AM »
Alright, if you want wonders, give me a bit and I'll write them up (I have a few... interesting objects in the game that I'm going to run; a pillar 1089ft tall (I'm pedantic like that) that can move an area of 25 cubic miles through space is just one of them...)

Anyway, you wanted those gods? Because there is one for each aspect of Grammarie (look, they're actually avatars, so...)

But a very basic blueprint for all you snappy people is this one:

Blueprint: Quick-Seal Door
Principles Necessary: ELDK 101, ALCH 101 (to taste), HEUR 101
Explanation: Sometimes, you need your lab closed the hell up. Like if you just made something nasty and it's mad at you. Anyway, this blueprint is pretty damn simple to implement.

First, you need a massive piece of metal. You can turn up the weight if you want, but the important part is that it's heavy.

Second, build your doorway. It should be a normal doorway in most respects, except that you need to hollow out a space that's exactly the right size for your slab to fit in nicely. Before building the wall back up around the slab, build in a number of ballistic engines that are powerful enough to shove the slab over. Do this to both sides of the doorway.

Finally, set up the heuristic net, and have the "panic button" close enough that you can slap it as a standard action at any point that you choose.

Summary: Scary thing happens, you run out of lab and push button. Bam, your lab is sealed behind a thick slab of metal. If you have access to more powerful grammaristic options, you can beef up security by replacing the hollowed out wall with a Incongruous Pathway (so the scary thing can't just bust through the wall), coating the slab with Cursed Lead (nullifying any magic that tries to get through), and even just converting the slab to biostructure (fast healing can slow down whatever's on the other side.)

***

There, the fast and cheap way to build a door that can be sealed in panic mode.

Nice!  And you can add in KALD filters too, for more protection.

My only problem with it is that metal is easier to bypass than some other things... though I like your upgrade suggestions, the Cursed Lead is a good idea.
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Offline Amechra

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #26 on: December 31, 2012, 02:43:34 PM »
It doesn't have to be metal; as I said, converting it into Biostructure at the end is a pretty damn good idea.

So is kaleidomantics.

The whole idea was "what is the cheapest way to secure a doorway that can be built?" Because not everyone will have the cash to grab a Magisterial level Grammarist.

Also, let's talk currency. I know, I know, our friends the Grammarists can't create money-grade gold/silver, but why risk it? After all, you can doctor the gold/silver, and, hell, grammaric gold and silver are probably more valuable pound-by-pound than their non-grammaric counterparts (they're easier to get your hands on, it probably has been modified in other ways...)

Also, you can "Fool's Gold" it up, using Imachination to make fucking pebbles into gold bricks.

So, I'm reminded of a trilogy by the British SpecFic writer Peter F. Hamilton; the Night's Dawn trilogy. In it, the dead are coming back by possessing the living, and as an incidental consequence of that whole "thing", can basically generate really, really high level Imachination illusions at will. One of the issues that comes up in the second book (wherein Al Capone comes back, and starts an interplanetary/interstellar empire consisting of a combination of the dead and the living, an accomplishment since the dead are afraid of the sky (and the dark, and space in general. It reminds them of the awful, awful afterlife). It is a series you pretty much need to read at some point.) is that, in a culture where people can, you know, create an unlimited amount of any material substance (pretty much, or near enough, at least), you can't use physical currency.

And so, they use entirely electronic banking.

But what to base it on, in this case, since physical substances can't be trusted? How about hours labored?

One way that this could be handled is having three "tiers" of monetary value, with a varying exchange rate set by a central bank in each culture.

You'd have the "base" hour, which would be the cost for one Baccalaureate principle preparation or an hour of common labor.
You'd then have the next step up, which would the cost for one Magisterial principle preparation or an hour of skilled labor.
The final step would be the equivalent of a single preparation of a Doctorate level principle; I can't think of a mundane equivalent.

The idea is that your amount of money under this system is closer to "I can exchange this much money for this much grammaristic stuff."

Alright, now how would you keep track of said money using Grammarie? There isn't a single method of storing cash that would be foolproof; well, there is one, but you'd need a 10th level Dreamason to do it (it involves overlapping a Zeitgeist, a Heuristic Net that covers an entire city, and personal Nets around everyone, and also requires that the nets can "talk" to each-other), and that's... infeasible, unless...

For this setting, what's the level range? You said that we're basing this off of Eberron, which would imply low-level stuff.

AAANNNND I just read up the thread a bit. So that method is completely infeasible.

Damn, I can only think of using Cursed Lead as a physical currency if you can't set up a network, since you can just have a very basic modification to, say, water (raise the freezing point to room temperature, and keep shop-rooms chilled).

Then, have the "coins" be little hollow cubes of Cursed Lead, with a grille on one side, and a "lid" on the other. This is pretty fine workmanship, anyway, so it would be pretty much the purview of the Gov.

To test it, drop your chunk of modified ice into the coin, and close the lid; this fills the compartment with an Antimagic field, thus causing the ice to slowly start melting; when you see ice on the other side of the grille, you know that it's a legitimate piece of "coinage."

Sure, you could con this with heated pieces of lead, but those wouldn't freeze again on the other side of the grille...

You'd have to heat the lead each time, to get all the water off, and then just let your water freeze back into a little chunk, and bam. An almost certifiable way to have currency in a world with unethical grammarists.
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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #27 on: December 31, 2012, 03:12:37 PM »
The problem is that Cursed Lead can be produced by Gramarie as well.  What you really want is something that can't be reproduced by any high-level Gramarist with authority issues... and I'm not sure what that would be.
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Offline Amechra

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #28 on: December 31, 2012, 03:41:41 PM »
Well, it's a slap-dash, work-a-day solution.

Of course, if you want me to apply my amateur knowledge of cryptography to the whole thing...

A variation on a one-way cipher like PGP would allow for banks to know whether or not currency is real, in a pretty much can't-be-faked manner. Only problem is that for this cipher to be invented in the first place, you'd need a good deal of background mathematical knowledge. I mean, it's a pretty simple concept, but getting to, say, the unique factorization of large primes, and then noting that you can use it to encrypt stuff is not something that I'd expect out of your average D&D world.

Of course, this isn't an average D&D setting, and having a nice trend of mathematicians would actually help make the world more believable (Grammarie, in some places, implies knowledge of advanced geometry, which supplies a nice gateway to more advanced mathematical concepts.)

But to clarify my earlier comment about Dreamasons supplying a foolproof method of catching counterfeit money, you have to remember that Zeitgeists automatically know the legal status of anyone inside their Telepathy range (unless you put up some method of deception); a more well-to-do shopkeeper could , theoretically (I mean, they are fantastically rare at the moment, but they could be convinced), hire a specialist in Geoccultism to set up a small Biome with a Zeitgeist (you are allowed to fill less space than the maximum, which allows you to just fill your entire shop). The shop-owner could then set up laws for that Biome (let's say "No stealing" and "No using counterfeit money"), and then just ask the Zeitgeist to check each customer. It's clumsy, but it'd do. Theoretically.

But, yeah, besides encryption problems, what do you think about my ideas of scaling the currency off of paying for levels of Grammarie?
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Offline sirpercival

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #29 on: December 31, 2012, 04:11:08 PM »
I like it -- I think it very believable.

The Zeitgeist thing is perfect, and almost certainly ubiquitous.  In terms of actual exchange of value, though, it seems like the most straightforward system is some sort of enlightened barter.  Or, trading in cubic feet of raw planetary metal.
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Offline Amechra

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #30 on: December 31, 2012, 04:24:19 PM »
Barter would probably be what it boils down to...

Wait.

I just figured out the one thing that can't be duplicated by Grammarie.

Fruit and vegetables. Sure, you can grow trees in a Biome, or create food (create food specifically states it creates a kind of gruel, if i remember correctly) with SilverOuts, but there's no way to quickly make, say, strawberries.

I'm reminded of Terry Pratchet's Dark Side of the Sun, where caviar is a common food on one particular world (due to it being really common), while apples are expensive as hell.

I'm now picturing strawberries and celery being solemnly exchanged in Cursed Lead-lined chambers, and stored on Carmot plates in vaults. It's a hilarious mental image.
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Offline Arcanist

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #31 on: December 31, 2012, 05:04:43 PM »
This sounds like a scene from Neuromancer :D

Is it a bad thing that I have the entire Sprawl trilogy on my Kindle? :blush

Well, then, derp.  lol.

Now you are an awkward eyed pony :)

Do you want to leave psi as-is?  Because it's much more similar to traditional spellcasting than invocations, and has many fo the same problems...  If you're willing to tweak, though, then Garryl has a psi-invoking soulknife and a psionic warblade (like an arcane swordsage).

And agreed on ToB, I love it and have homebrewed many initiators.

Oh hell no, the players interested in the game are already talking about mindraping people into willingly consenting to give up XP for wish generating SilverOuts  :p

Nerf it down to PsyWar progression if you have anything that uses the Psion/Wilder list and does that :D I'd love to see any Psionic classes and Invocation classes you would personally recommend :)

Also, let's talk currency. I know, I know, our friends the Grammarists can't create money-grade gold/silver, but why risk it? After all, you can doctor the gold/silver, and, hell, grammaric gold and silver are probably more valuable pound-by-pound than their non-grammaric counterparts (they're easier to get your hands on, it probably has been modified in other ways...)

The currency problem is something that I keep coming back too, with mixed results. More or less anything I come up to use for currency using Gramarie can be created just as well (if not better), by another Gramarist with the exact same principle as them. I really like your idea with using Cursed Lead, but the problem would be that any Gramarist can do exactly the same thing once they attain Doctorate level Principles and bam, "lol infinite muneh!". It's nerve wracking really... I was thinking of using Sunmetal to contradict myself a little bit...

A Shop owner, prior to making a sale places all of the Currency into a LeadIn (which directs into a WoodOut, want not waste not and all) and pumps the Currency full of Puissance causing it to explode and generating radiomantic energy... Or we could just use Starmetal which can't be created by ALCH, but varifying Starmetal is a problem since it is VERY similar to Adamantine (which incidentally, also cannot be reproduced by Gramarie... Hmmm?). This might be crazy of me to suggest, but why not use materials that a Gramarist cannot replicate? They can have the exact same value on these worlds as the almighty Platinum, Gold, Silver and Copper piece, but for all statistically purposes are exactly as Adamantine or something?

Also, you can "Fool's Gold" it up, using Imachination to make fucking pebbles into gold bricks.

This is where I like the idea of Cursed Lead to clear the away an IMCH created illusion :)

So, I'm reminded of a trilogy by the British SpecFic writer Peter F. Hamilton; the Night's Dawn trilogy. In it, the dead are coming back by possessing the living, and as an incidental consequence of that whole "thing", can basically generate really, really high level Imachination illusions at will. One of the issues that comes up in the second book (wherein Al Capone comes back, and starts an interplanetary/interstellar empire consisting of a combination of the dead and the living, an accomplishment since the dead are afraid of the sky (and the dark, and space in general. It reminds them of the awful, awful afterlife). It is a series you pretty much need to read at some point.) is that, in a culture where people can, you know, create an unlimited amount of any material substance (pretty much, or near enough, at least), you can't use physical currency.

And so, they use entirely electronic banking.

But what to base it on, in this case, since physical substances can't be trusted? How about hours labored?

One way that this could be handled is having three "tiers" of monetary value, with a varying exchange rate set by a central bank in each culture.

You'd have the "base" hour, which would be the cost for one Baccalaureate principle preparation or an hour of common labor.
You'd then have the next step up, which would the cost for one Magisterial principle preparation or an hour of skilled labor.
The final step would be the equivalent of a single preparation of a Doctorate level principle; I can't think of a mundane equivalent.

The idea is that your amount of money under this system is closer to "I can exchange this much money for this much grammaristic stuff."

Hmm... using labor as a form of currency? Doesn't that put the Gramarist a sort of unfair advantage because they can simply use Spectroconstruction to create whatever they'd need? Physical material only can't be trusted if it can be easily created by someone with an agenda. If that material CANNOT be created, then it can be trusted as a form of currency (maybe...)

Alright, now how would you keep track of said money using Grammarie? There isn't a single method of storing cash that would be foolproof; well, there is one, but you'd need a 10th level Dreamason to do it (it involves overlapping a Zeitgeist, a Heuristic Net that covers an entire city, and personal Nets around everyone, and also requires that the nets can "talk" to each-other), and that's... infeasible, unless...

We're trying to keep track of the currency being used in the world? Hmm... that is a seriously tough thing to solve without creating a serious issue... I mean if you have a radar that tells you where everyone with at least one Starmetal Sovereign is, they you create a hell of a problem in that Big Brother is always watching... I might use that... maybe...

For this setting, what's the level range? You said that we're basing this off of Eberron, which would imply low-level stuff.

15th is the highest level ever attained in this world. Anything beyond this is simply... Amazing :) (Or an Ancient Gramarist from the Empire of Faelorian Empire)

I just read up the thread a bit. So that method is completely infeasible.

Thinking back, I can't honestly see a reason to not allow GEOC 374. It allows a Gramarical Empire to set up an entire city in just a few days (which should be happening anyhow). I've edited the list to allow for it. (I recall the previous idea being the use of Deadsnow... I think it was your Blueprint that inspired such fear :blush

You'd have to heat the lead each time, to get all the water off, and then just let your water freeze back into a little chunk, and bam. An almost certifiable way to have currency in a world with unethical grammarists.

My original idea was using heated Ice with an altered heat durability to be able to withstand the heat of the Sun, until I realized "Oh... you can do this at level 7...)

I like it -- I think it very believable.

I concur. In fact, using a Zeitgeist as a police force would prove more effective then anything else  :cool

Barter would probably be what it boils down to...

WELL! Bartering rules are fairly awesome and the RP~ the beautiful, beautiful RP~ :D

Wait.

:???

I just figured out the one thing that can't be duplicated by Grammarie.

Fruit and vegetables. Sure, you can grow trees in a Biome, or create food (create food specifically states it creates a kind of gruel, if i remember correctly) with SilverOuts, but there's no way to quickly make, say, strawberries.

I can imagine scenes where a shopkeeper would shout "There is NO WAY! I AM TRADING ALL MY APPLES FOR THAT HAT!"

I'm reminded of Terry Pratchet's Dark Side of the Sun, where caviar is a common food on one particular world (due to it being really common), while apples are expensive as hell.

I'm now picturing strawberries and celery being solemnly exchanged in Cursed Lead-lined chambers, and stored on Carmot plates in vaults. It's a hilarious mental image.

I like the way you think :cool

Offline veekie

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #32 on: January 29, 2013, 05:33:06 AM »
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Hmm... using labor as a form of currency? Doesn't that put the Gramarist a sort of unfair advantage because they can simply use Spectroconstruction to create whatever they'd need? Physical material only can't be trusted if it can be easily created by someone with an agenda. If that material CANNOT be created, then it can be trusted as a form of currency (maybe...)
Well, currency, especially in a setting where just about any good can be manufactured(automatically, and in bulk to boot) is naturally going to favor those that create.

Currency also doesn't care much about fairness, it's about the ability to enforce and generate value. In this case, the gramarists can quite effectively achieve economic buyout, but with the value of the specifics they can manufacture falling as supply outpaces consumption. Presuming gramarists are human in thinking, Gramatic resource production would then be licensed and regulated, particularly for mineral materials(certifying quality of, and applications for such) and food(certifying quality and nutrition).

This means an overseer organization(or coalition of organizations, much like real-life OPEC), which licensed gramarists are members of, which would retain their services, paid for with a monthly quota of whatever they can produce, and deals with the logistics of getting the goods to market, being the sole legal source of bulk gramatic products. In exchange, members can requisition gramatic resources through the network, which would have little difficulty coming up with a large excess(since total production capacity is going to massively exceed the world's ability to consume resources), and the network furnishes support crews, land and security for their production facilities. Members move in rank in the organization via gramatic skill, plus adjustment factors for any innovations and ongoing services(e.g. non-gramarists can be members too, by managing the logistics) which they offer to the network. The biggest gain of being a member is of course, being able to focus on their own research, and other activities, their engines would do work on their own, and the organization as a whole would likely deal with much of the training of new gramarists.

This in turn means currency is fiat based, the actual tokens would have to be made of more valuable material than their face value(again, manufactured with the large excess mentioned above), and counterfeiting dealt with by dint of being the single wealthiest organization, with enough muscle to crush any systematic efforts.

Non-gramarists meanwhile, would need to work with whatever services Gramarie cannot easily provide in bulk(specifically things which would be either impossible to create, or requires the active work of a gramarist to manufacture). Value is established by the usual means, time expended and rarity of the worker's traits(skills mainly, but also social contacts, and the like, allowing nobility to continue to exist, as they have lifelong training in administration skills and wide reaching social networks), adjusted for the demand.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Omnicrat

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #33 on: February 04, 2013, 06:38:47 PM »
On currency:  black metal, red metal, blue metal, white metal.  Call them whatever you want, but have them be magically inert.  Not magic cancelling, just impossible for any form of magic to replicate or created or modify them.  Also, make them bad for use in structure or armour and weapons.  Hardness of 1 with low hit points or something.  Otherwise, it works just like standard currency.

1) Do we still have a sub forum and where is it?

2) Any volunteers for compiling all of what was discussed in the champaign thread and putting it here since minmax went down?

3) I don't think my asertion that it makes the most sense for the CoN to be compulsory with cultural exemptions for the necrocracy was ever addressed.  Do people agree with me?  Am I off-base?

Offline veekie

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #34 on: February 04, 2013, 11:44:13 PM »
Seems to me that you could just use any fiat currency and approach forgery from the enforcement end rather than the physics end. RL does it, technically speaking if you can afford the initial outlay and get your hands on the production templates there is nothing stopping you from printing your own, except when the investigators show up at your door.

With divinations that'd be a pretty quick thing.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Arcanist

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #35 on: February 06, 2013, 11:19:49 PM »
Seems to me that you could just use any fiat currency and approach forgery from the enforcement end rather than the physics end. RL does it, technically speaking if you can afford the initial outlay and get your hands on the production templates there is nothing stopping you from printing your own, except when the investigators show up at your door.

With divinations that'd be a pretty quick thing.

The current idea for currency is using materials that would be impossible to replicate via Gramarie, like Electrum, Adamantine and Starmetal. Of course Forgery is always an option. In such a campaign where everything from Gold production to computer hacking is possible there is no definitive method of creating a foolproof method to avoid forgery from taking place.

I mean everything from Bartering to Digital Banking is completely untrustworthy as a form of measuring currency. So what do we turn to? We turn to using Commodity Money since at this point it is really the only form that you can trust (short of Kellus taking a dump on my chest and making rules for creating every single material in D&D with ALCH).

Divination is a nice alternative, another nice alternative would be using a Cursed Lead Box to put the money into. If it vanishes or turns into it's base element (not sure how that works) then we know it's fake.

Offline Omnicrat

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #36 on: February 07, 2013, 02:51:43 AM »
Seems to me that you could just use any fiat currency and approach forgery from the enforcement end rather than the physics end. RL does it, technically speaking if you can afford the initial outlay and get your hands on the production templates there is nothing stopping you from printing your own, except when the investigators show up at your door.

With divinations that'd be a pretty quick thing.

The current idea for currency is using materials that would be impossible to replicate via Gramarie, like Electrum, Adamantine and Starmetal. Of course Forgery is always an option. In such a campaign where everything from Gold production to computer hacking is possible there is no definitive method of creating a foolproof method to avoid forgery from taking place.

I mean everything from Bartering to Digital Banking is completely untrustworthy as a form of measuring currency. So what do we turn to? We turn to using Commodity Money since at this point it is really the only form that you can trust (short of Kellus taking a dump on my chest and making rules for creating every single material in D&D with ALCH).

Divination is a nice alternative, another nice alternative would be using a Cursed Lead Box to put the money into. If it vanishes or turns into it's base element (not sure how that works) then we know it's fake.

Instead of electrum, adamintine, and star metal (melt down adamaintine with oxidized copper?), how about my easily broken magicless metals idea?

Offline Gazzien

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #37 on: February 12, 2013, 12:08:12 PM »
Are we still in need of blueprints for everything in Modern life/ has anything been already claimed?

Offline Arcanist

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #38 on: February 12, 2013, 07:55:03 PM »
Are we still in need of blueprints for everything in Modern life/ has anything been already claimed?

Please feel free to make whatever you can see.

Offline Gazzien

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Re: Gramarie Campaign setting [A feat for the impossible] [WIP]
« Reply #39 on: February 13, 2013, 10:57:12 AM »
Are we still in need of blueprints for everything in Modern life/ has anything been already claimed?

Please feel free to make whatever you can see.
Ah, okay~ I'll try to get some stuff up tonight, if I can find out... I'm looking and I don't have nearly the level of intensity you guys seem to have about this (I still have to cross-reference how the 100-principles work .__.")