Good idea bad idea?

[whiteLimestone]

I have an Ancestor character that I'm tempted to play here. Trouble is, she's from a pre-Empire, pre-hemospectrum, and more importantly pre-industrial era. There is the rare clever mechanical contraption, but that's it as far as complex technology gets.

Should I bother trying to figure it out or is it a lost cause? Normally I'd just go with lost cause but Sburb is, well, Sburb. It could probably run on a calculator without much fuss.

[stanzicApparati]

Hrm. If I recall GG's guide correctly, SBURB will run on even an ancient computer but it does need some kind of computer.

However! The pre-industrial era did have some proto-computers - basically, giant calculators that ran on steam and clockwork. Presumably, someone with mad skills could've programmed in some games if they wanted to, but the Victorians didn't go in much for that kind of thing.

Upside, you've got something to work with. Downside, these things were huge. Small ones took up whole rooms, and they were very much a really expensive novelty. IRL, some of the more impressive ones never even got made because of how expensive they were (also because no one saw the point, and the inventor was kind of bad with people skills). They also didn't have monitors and used punch-card programming. Computers, as a personal thing? Kinda didn't come around 'till the mid-to-late eighties (if I'm remembering right, anyways); they were too big and expensive, before that, to really be considered anything but a business tool.

So to get something that's workable, you might need to have some serious shenanigans. Possibly steampunk computers?

Your second pitfall is that pre-industrial is going to lack any kind of internet, and that didn't come about 'till after personal computers. (The first computer game came about a couple years after, once they let the students have access to the computers.) So you're going to need to get both computers and internet and computer games, all in an environment where none of this would have been introduced before.

You may need at least one of the players to have Sollux-level mad skills at computer programming. You're definitely going to need one of them to be Equius-levels of good at building stuff.

[whiteLimestone]

Expense isn't a problem because this character just takes anything she wants. Being a warlord kinda helps with that. Likewise, she could probably go up to the most well-known and praised inventor and say "Hey, build me something fun and your village is safe for three years :D."

Do you think I could get away with pulling a thing like having some of the players be in the future? It'd have to be a scratched world, but I don't mind that.

Using telegrams or semaphore towers would be just silly, wouldn't it?

[toxicHistorian]

I think you should absolutely go for it, and I'm curious to see what sort of workarounds you have in mind!

I think if Sburb decides it wants to get played by a bunch of pre-industrial people, it will. The most important part actually, I think, is the Sylladex, given its relationship to punchcard alchemy. Additionally, the phernalia machines of the entry and alchemy process: you need some way to percieve what is going on at a distant location, and interact with it. And the fact that such a thing is going on, should always seem a little bit fantastic, I think.

[disasterAverted]

There's always the so-easy-it's-pracitcally-cheating option: Have one (or more) of the meteors carry a computer capable of playing the game. A computer on the apparent-tech-level of, say, the ectobiology lab. It'd probably also come with a note taped to it from either future-her or future-whoever-has-cloning-duties on how to do the basic game-entry with it it (ie "press letter buttons to make words appear, touch this thing to move that arrow"), complete with an unsettling level of cheeriness and familiarity given where she found that note.

Obviously if she's a capable roving warlord it doesn't have to land in her backyard, though it could if it wanted to.

[ventricularPipefitter]

The fantastic technology found inside and sometimes even growing-from Skaian Meteors sounds absolutely like something people might fight over as a valuable resource, actually.

They're known to fall throughout space and time, after all, and they carry information and tools necessary to seed the game's entry.

[whiteLimestone]

That is the most awesome idea ever and I'm totally gonna steal it from you guys. The note would probably be from her future self and be loaded with references to events no one but her horde should know about, just so she doesn't immediately disregard it. She'd probably think it was run on witchcraft, too, but wouldn't care because witchcraft is fun if it's on her side.

One of her subordinates would probably try to set it on fire, though.