Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide


Gears Equipment / Three Innovations

Steam-Powered Technology

Source Guns & Gears pg. 61 2.0
Steam technology is also an extremely recent invention, making it far less known than clockwork but still more accessible than Stasian technology, since it doesn't require the use of the heavily limited Stasian coils. Many regarded the idea to use steam for power as particularly novel simply because the world of Golarion contained so many other power sources that seemed more obvious or useful than the energy generated by the transition from water to steam. Most steam engines currently in use include a magical component used to heat the steam; for instance, a fire elemental generates a steady supply of heat on its own, though prior inventors would have used that energy directly rather than through the creation of steam. Nonetheless, several small proof-of-concept steam engines have successfully run safely and stably without the use of magic, through the use of a furnace to heat the water. Purely technological steam power will remain mostly a curiosity, though, as long as it continues to be less effective and convenient than steam power sourced through magical means.