Sufficiently Advanced Technology 6
Scientific Scrolling
As I’ve touched on previously, the classification of tech items into the traditional magic item categories is either irrelevant, if tech items are hand-placed in crashed spaceships and the like, or necessary, if in a more gonzo or kitchen-sink setting where such things have circulated and have a chance to be present in any given hoard. One can also imagine, say, a scenario where the presence of technology items, due to a crashed ship or planar portal, is a relatively recent phenomenon, with such items circulating in the present, and use a standard set of tables for ancient treasure while using tables that have a chance of tech items for the spoils of fresh encounters.
Tech items for most categories can be imagined easily enough. Obviously weapons such as plasma swords and ray guns can be considered as swords or miscellaneous weapons, though ray guns that aren’t obviously a weapon to someone not familiar with the design might instead be miscellaneous items. Armor is armor or, if it appears to be mere clothing, a miscellaneous item. Liquid consumables are potions or oil. Anything could be a ring, if in such a form factor, and similarly anything shaped like a stick is potentially an implement. Scrolls are something of an odd man out.
Per the Judge’s Journal, scrolls are “sheets of papyrus or parchment imbued with enchanted writing.” There’s some variations on this beyond the typical spell scroll, such as Scrolls of Warding, which can be used by any literate character to produce a narrow band of effects; the Scroll of Mapping, which assists the user in drawing a map on it; or even the Scroll of Pledges (TT p. 95), whose effect can continue until the scroll itself is destroyed. Non-consumable items, or items that are not cast as a spell, would not properly be scrolls, but would still be placed in Scroll treasure tables, similar to certain ersatz potions or implements.
What kind of tech items fit the form factor of a scroll? Forget for a minute the precise material- instead of parchment it could be laminated plastic; a thin, flexible computer; or a peelable film. These all feel more scroll-like, as a thing that might be found in a scroll tube or similar container, than an inflexible rod-shaped object that fits in the same space.
