Time travel

[lunasson]

I’m running a game with a trio of characters from ancient history. A pre Rome Celt, an Aztec warrior, and an ancient Egyptian. I’m looking for flavor descriptions for common objects and events that we in the present take for granted. For example, how would you describe a semi truck barreling down the highway to someone with absolutely no knowledge of that?

[Zhorn]

Chariot of the Gods?

[LordEntrails]

A fire breathing smoke belching roaring dragon...

[Kaptin Keen]

Funny thing is, I'm pretty certain there's a basic 'manufactured' quality that's obvious to pretty much anyone, from pretty much any age. Sure, any technology to a culture sufficiently primitive will be indistinguishable from magic - but I'm still pretty sure, even if they call it 'magic', they'll still know it's built .. by men, or creatures (gods, maybe) who are like men.

[Spore]

For example, how would you describe a semi truck barreling down the highway to someone with absolutely no knowledge of that?

Iron caravan, fire chariot, and any reaction between "what the flip was that?" and "huh, neat, the future really is very practical". People often forget it is literally in our nature to adapt quickly and to process new information. (That, and persistence hunting).

Personally I think you would just describe the physical properties of said item and its "powers" (say a smartphone which is probably a tablet whose art moves and can 'summon' items and people) along with them horribly butchering its name. "Fon", "Fone", "Fonn"

[Anonymouswizard]

Funny thing is, I'm pretty certain there's a basic 'manufactured' quality that's obvious to pretty much anyone, from pretty much any age. Sure, any technology to a culture sufficiently primitive will be indistinguishable from magic - but I'm still pretty sure, even if they call it 'magic', they'll still know it's built .. by men, or creatures (gods, maybe) who are like men.

This. Really the hardest thing for somebody to wrap their heads around is electronic computers. They're counting devices, which only use ones and zeros, and are mainly used to look at silly pictures of cats and people shouting at games? What mighty gods these men must be to use machines that render entire villages worth of people unemployed in order to simulate being a cat.

Pretty much everything else is a, potentially rather distant, descendant of something a time traveller likely knew about. Giant factory robots are distant descendants of windmills, motor vehicles are just a new source of energy to turn the wheels, and so on.

[Spore]

This. Really the hardest thing for somebody to wrap their heads around is electronic computers. They're counting devices, which only use ones and zeros, and are mainly used to look at silly pictures of cats and people shouting at games? What mighty gods these men must be to use machines that render entire villages worth of people unemployed in order to simulate being a cat.

Pretty much everything else is a, potentially rather distant, descendant of something a time traveller likely knew about. Giant factory robots are distant descendants of windmills, motor vehicles are just a new source of energy to turn the wheels, and so on.

You just assume it is "basically magic". Works for everything I cannot comprehend in modern times. I had sciences in school, I even had a side course in physics in BOTH of my (failed) college degrees, and yet i simply cannot grasp how electricity works. The simple fact that moving electrons power almost everything nowadays is mind boggling to begin with. If I were to question everything I don't know about basic AC electriconics and how computing works (particularly the black box between ones and zeros and actually programming languages) I wouldn't be done if I had a doctor in information technology.

[Vogie]

Funny thing is, I'm pretty certain there's a basic 'manufactured' quality that's obvious to pretty much anyone, from pretty much any age. Sure, any technology to a culture sufficiently primitive will be indistinguishable from magic - but I'm still pretty sure, even if they call it 'magic', they'll still know it's built .. by men, or creatures (gods, maybe) who are like men.

Not necessarily.
See the Cargo Cults that took over the American island bases after WWII, who attempted to create their own air strips, warehouses, radio towers out of wood and vines, and airplane replicas out of straw in an attempt for the sky gods to send cargo via parachute

[Tinkerer]

Not necessarily.
See the Cargo Cults that took over the American island bases after WWII, who attempted to create their own air strips, warehouses, radio towers out of wood and vines, and airplane replicas out of straw in an attempt for the sky gods to send cargo via parachute

Yep, on the flip side there were other tribes which took one look at at modern technology and figured it out almost instantly. I seem to recall one member of those tribes actually created one of the larger shipping companies in the region despite their first interaction with the outside world not happening until this member was around 40 years old. When the communication barrier was overcome and they were asked why this tribe took aircraft so casually they responded (essentially):

"It's basically just a boat that travels in the sky. We have boats so sky boats aren't really that impressive. You can't even catch fish from them. They sure are fast though."