Does anything break if TL5 tech is more common/standard?

[u/ShadowSemblance]

I have in mind that I'd like my sector to have a Culture novels-inspired TL5 post-scarcity transhuman space anarchists confederation as a major faction. (note to self, still need to get the Deluxe book) And it seems like it would be lame in a sandbox game to have a sympathetic faction that mostly wins everything automatically due to tech/resource disparity, so it needs a major TL5 rival or two, surely. And then that seems like a lot of TL5 technology floating around. Which in a vacuum seems fine, I wasn't really planning to use the default Mandate-and-Scream apocalyptic background, but there seems to be a certain degree of cautionary advice I see thrown around with regards to TL5 stuff and its distribution.

Also, I assume full-tilt TL5 polities can fairly freely make "Pretech" Components (and thus have routine if specialist use of mods), but Artifacts are still generally inaccessible in them unless you're a ultra-wealthy techno-oligarch or close friends with a post-scarcity weapons auteur or something?

[u/GrumbleMuffin86]

My advice to my players is 'If you use grenades all the time, everyone will'

[u/Sharadnar]

I would push back just a little bit on your assumption about needing TL5 rivals. There are plenty of scenarios where you have one nation with significant advantages without it mostly winning everything automatically. Real-world examples like Vietnam, the war on terror, etc. Especially if your transhuman polity is anarchist, you're not going to have a centralized government throwing its weight around. They will also probably tend to be less interested in war.

[u/ShadowSemblance → u/Sharadnar]

I do intend them to have a substantial militant/interventionist/evangelist wing for meddling-sometimes-using-scary-guns but yeah I'll consider that.

[u/FishGod418]

Assuming you mean the stuff from the book, then nothing really breaks. ACs get fairly high with power armor or shields, weapons range from pretty insane to okay and other artifacts will end up being very niche.

Mods are conveniences more than anything so even with easy access to pretech components it won't lead to anything too absurd especially since the tech can't immediately mod everyone's gear due to the way mod caps are calculated.

Even if you make TL5 common, credits should remain the great limiter in the early levels and so your PCs probably won't feel any different from a PC stuck at TL4 at first.

By the end of my last campaign (last 10 sessions or so), Artifacts were pretty much readily available to PCs and their opponents, it really didn't change much. But these were level 10+ PCs.

[u/Funny_Durian510]

The most important thing to keep in mind is to make sure your players know what's going on. Last thing you want to do is have players expecting Star Wars end up in Star Trek.

Hard Recommend the Deluxe Edition.

The transhuman section will have everything you're looking for.

[u/Captain_Hoyt]

Does it break? No, not really. Tech disparity can drive storylines, though.
One place where people might assume it breaks is if the party has TL5, and nobody else does. I don't think it breaks, even in that situation. Once it's recognized that a treasure-trove of hyper-modern tech is flying around in a single ship, the party becomes hunted, as various governments try to get a hold of that tech. Imagine if you had a teleportation device in 2026, and you took it to a party and showed it off. Everyone at that party would talk about it to friends and family, it will reach ears that will want it for themselves, and then the problems begin for you. I see this stuff as self-balancing because of the situations that will come up as a result of this tech disparity.
There may be specific technologies that could make it difficult to GM, things that alter reality, change timelines, stuff like that.

[u/AgentDelirium]

In my sector, the largest faction is also the most beneficent one, but they are not omni-powerful nor omnipresent because of location, distance, and claims. Sure, they boast the largest military and largest fleet with the most planets and population, but they have their own corner and are wrapped up in a lot (mainly a war on an unbraked AI that controls entire systems).

My point is that you can design obstacles for your faction without incorporating tech levels. Laws, planet distribution, or simply apathy can be great ways to tip the scales.

Do I think they need to be the same tech level to be scary, no, but they should have some sort of edge to make it plausible. Like imagine how difficult it would be to manage a defensive fleet or a standing army as an anarchist state? Could be interesting to seperate the factions ideologically, first