Table 4:

Technological Ratings

Rating	Elements of Civilization
2	Tools are unknown; fire has not been harnessed.
3	Simple stone tools and weapons; campfires.
4	Complex stone tools, some soft metal tools and weapons (copper); domesticated animals; simple agriculture; ovens; pottery.
5	Soft metal tools and weapons (copper and bronze); arithmetic; complex agriculture and irrigation; hieroglyphic writing; boats; cities; sundials and water clocks; coins.
6	Hard metal tools and weapons (iron); small ships; alphabetic writing; small land vehicles; simple locks; siege machines.
7	Water mills; furnaces; cast iron; large oared ships; advanced mathematics and philosophy.
8	Civil engineering; roads; blown glass; wagons; medicine.
9	Compass; windmills; universities; surgery.
10–12	Steel tools and weapons; coal mining; trade and craft guilds; small, slow sailing ships, feudal governments; extensive trade.
13	Cannons; ocean-going sailing ships; mechanical clocks; national governments.
14	Firearms; printing; intercontinental trade.
15	Steam engines; blast furnaces; mechanical calculating machines.
16	Internal combustion engines; light aircraft; steamships; railroads; labor unions.
17	Nuclear power; civil and military aircraft; electronic computers.
18	Fusion power; commercial spacecraft; laser weapons; genetic engineering; intercontinental governments.
19	Sentient robots and computers; solar power; portable nuclear power.
20	Faster-than-light space travel; matter transmission; matter replication; interplanetary governments.

Technological Notes

Sample items appear on the table when they become affordable or are in common use. Some items may be present, but very rare, on worlds with technological ratings too low to support their widespread use. For example, some brilliant thinker might be busy inventing algebra on a T5 world, but she might be the only one who understands it. Likewise, items on the table are not necessarily household items. For example, not everyone on a T17 world owns a jet airliner, but they are common enough to be in general use.

Technological devices cannot be carried freely between worlds. Devices from low-technology worlds function normally when carried to worlds with higher technology ratings. Devices carried from high-technology worlds to low-technology worlds do not operate if they have moving parts, electronic circuitry, or depend on chemical reactions. Even simple devices suffer somewhat. For example, a flashlight (T16) carried to a T8 world becomes inert. A stainless steel hand ax (also T16) carried to a T8 world still functions as an ax, but it loses its extra hardness and resistance to rust. A club (T2) remains a club no matter where it is.

Sufficiently advanced technology, however, works just like magic. If an item’s technological rating exceeds the local technology rating it still works if it also exceeds the local magical rating by at least five. For example, steam engines require a local technology rating of T15 or higher or a magical rating of M10 or lower. A steam engine would not work on a world with a magical rating of M11 or more and a technological rating of T14 or less.

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