History SchizoTech / TabletopGames

** The Beastmen are likewise very primitive, due to a religious hatred for all trappings of civilization - they at least have ironworking, but refuse to build anything but the crudest tools, and all else they steal from their victims.
** Bretonnia is very firmly Late Medieval - gunpowder weapons are specifically outlawed within it (aside from siege bombards and ships, because the latter [[LoopholeAbuse aren't technically IN Bretonnia]]) -- and for the most part restricts itself to swords, polearms, and lances. They get by mainly because they have the setting's two "good" great powers on their eastern (Empire) and western (Ulthuan) borders, shielding them from the largest threats.
** The Wood Elves of Athel Loren (Asrai) are to their High Elven cousins as Bretonnia is to the Empire. They're barely more advanced than the Beastmen, being a semi-nomadic society (they do have some truly permanent settlements - often built into trees) whose soldiers wear little more than cloth and wield bows, iron spears, and swords. Their social advancement is similarly primitive as they're only loosely organized into hundreds of tiny chiefdoms ("kinbands") that form tribal confederations of various levels of unity. They're also part of a deeply magical forest realm that fights alongside them, giving them access to things like teleporters, [[UniversalPoison magical poison]], sorcerers, [[BeastsOfBattle great eagles]], and legions of {{Treants}} to supplement their forces. Despite this they still know that they're severely outmatched by most other factions (partly because of technology, partly because they're not very numerous), hence maintaining an alliance with the much larger Bretonnia to use it as a meat shield and emphasizing irregular warfare. The less magical Wood Elves of Laurelorn Forest (Eonir) aren't as severe an example, being halfway between the Asrai and High Elves: they have relatively advanced metalworking (enough to make plate armor), marble architecture, a feudalist monarchy, a high literacy rate, and [[LandOfOneCity a significant city]].
** The Empire is at a 16th to 17th century level with a {{Steampunk}} bent, fielding reliable if somewhat primitive handguns (matchlocks and wheellocks being standard with flintlocks also semi-common), large unwieldy cannons,[[note]]On par with 15th-16th century designs, and inferior to more portable and accurate 18th-19th century ones.[[/note]] volley guns,[[note]]Around since the 15th century in our world, but found to be AwesomeYetImpractical compared to grapeshot to the point they dropped out of widespread use by the end of the 16th century.[[/note]] and inaccurate and unreliable (but powerful) rocket batteries, mixed with pike and halberd infantry and lance cavalry. These mundane early modern forces are complemented with a handful of steam-powered tanks and "clockwork" horses. Their civilian technology mostly averages out to around the 16th-17th centuries as well, but the Altdorf-Nuln corridor is a notable exception, possessing tech more on par with the late 18th century such as primitive steam engines, air compressors, and power looms. Also, despite having had gunpowder for hundreds of years, even simple guns are unusually rare in the Empire's army - it's noted in the RPG sourcebooks (such as 2e's "Armoury of the Old World") that a strong majority of Empire troops still don't use gunpowder weapons, while in our history, 50% of Western European troops were using firearms by the end of the 16th century, and near-100% were by the end of the 17th.

** The Skaven, infamously, feature "fantasy" versions of a sniper rifle, a [[GatlingGood ratling gun]], a flamethrower, a laser cannon, a hamster wheel of death, chemical warfare and what what appears to be three separate types of nuclear bombs - including a Davy Crockett Personal Nuclear Missile Launcher (all of which may fail with destructively hilarious results). Yet these rarely show up and 90% of Skaven troops have little more than rags and rusty blades, with another 9% having decent 16th-17th century equipment similar to what the Empire uses. Those armed with high-tech {{Steampunk}} gear comprise less than 1% of their forces, and the rarity of their deployment is handwaved by the fact that [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns their weapons are as likely to kill them as the enemy]] due to the Skavens' notorious lack of [[NoOSHACompliance quality control]].

%%* ''TabletopGame/Space1889'' is all about this trope, although most of the weapons described in it are either historically-accurate late 19th century weaponry or very rare SteamPunk inventions. Martians use rather primitive weapons but they are, all in all, a completely different civilization.%%So how is it an example?

* ''TabletopGame/RuneQuest'' is set in the Bronze Age, but the dwarves (a.k.a Mostali) are a HigherTechSpecies and have muskets and crude bombs in a world where the composite bow is the height of technology for everyone else.

* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' is also rife with this sort of thing. The {{mecha}} all run on highly compact and portable fusion engines and have guns and missiles with great range and hideous damage, but due to the rubbished industrial base apparently nobody can build decent fire control or air-conditioning systems, so most fighting takes place at close range (under 1 kilometer!) and most mechwarriors fight in what amounts to underwear. Admittedly, the short ranges are both to keep map sizes reasonable for gameplay purposes and because the designers ''were'' shooting for a classic in-your-face mecha combat aesthetic in preference to more logical but boring long-range sniping contests.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' is about as close to the franchise gets to a StandardSciFiSetting, and the mechanics of spelljammer helms mean that just about anything can get into space while gunpowder weapons are considered a bad idea. Ships in the setting range from "Roman galley with a spelljammer helms strapped to it" and "armored warship with lasers," and one prominent faction equips some members with spring-loaded dart guns and others with lightning cannons.
* In keeping with the surreal NewWeird nature of the setting, ''TabletopGame/ElectricBastionland'' portrays a world where technology resembles that of the early 20th Century where electrical technology has been implemented pretty much everywhere, but if a player can imagine something from the modern world, it'll almost certainly be available somewhere in Bastion, coated in an old-fashioned veneer.

** It's most noticeable with the Cities of Sigmar, due to the Sigmarite empire having descendants of all the human, elf, and dwarf factions living together with very similar aesthetics and equipment to their ancestors in the old world. The bulk of the Sigmarite troops, especially the Freeguilds, are armed with spears, axes, swords, bows, crossbows, and black powder firearms and cannons roughly on par with 16th century designs (the standard handgun of the Freeguild Handgunner regiments is explicitly stated to be a smoothbore wheellock). Yet, thanks to most of the Free Cities having at least one Ironweld Arsenal guild, they also possess the same helicopters, steam tanks, trains, and more advanced firearms (percussion caps, repeater handguns, organ guns, etc.) in much greater numbers than the old world factions ever did. Not to mention magitek [[https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cogfort walking fortresses]] capable of disseminating prefabricated buildings. And they produce all these things in [[https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/4/45/Ironweld_Arsenal_Factory_01.jpg assembly line factories]] rather than by hand. The aforementioned helicopters and tanks are still weak and rare enough to not overturn the melee-centric formation fighting that makes up the bread and butter of the setting's combat, but it's not clear why the Free Cities haven't used their demonstrated mass production to arm all their troops with rifled caplocks by now.

*** As a straighter example, the Imperium of Man has floating bio-mechanical skulls called servo-skulls, basically a cybernetic computer that can hover. They put candles on them when they need some extra light. Likewise, the miles-long spaceships of the Imperial Navy [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture still use hordes of gang-pressed workers to manually load their weapons]].
*** The Imperial Guard can sometimes be a good source of this. Example: the Leman Russ Executioner battle tank. It looks boxy and crude, the engine's designed to run on anything you can burn up to ''coal and wood'', and the heavy stubber on top is pretty much a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2_Browning M2 Browning]] in all but name, but it packs a huge tank-melting plasma cannon for the main gun. An Imperial Guard force is probably the only place where you'll find motorcycle troops and horse cavalry fighting alongside [[HumongousMecha Sentinels and Warhound Titans]].
*** Despite popular belief, the Astra Militarum has no "official" loadout enforced across all regiments; individual regiments are largely responsible for providing their own equipment and training. The image of Guardsmen all wearing green, angular armour comes from many regiments [[SincerestFormOfFlattery copying the famed Cadians]]. Since planets in the Imperial Guard vary wildly in technology levels, you get a lot of this when regiments are folded into each other or co-operate: you may get professional troopers from a Forge World equipped with plasma weapons and utilising cameleoline cloaking and cybernetic augmentations, fighting alongside Feral World primitives who like draping themselves with noxious body paint and the bones of dead comrades, and prefer tomahawks and longbows over their lasguns. It sounds crazy but this is a necessity for an interstellar empire that is so profoundly large, ancient and thinly-spread that it doesn't even really know how many planets it controls. To stop Guardsmen from a planet with technology level around the 16th century from using their muskets over the far more effective lasgun, the latter was modified to make a "bang" sound when fired.

** The Skaven have doubled down on their ''Fantasy'' tech and expanded it, so still have armies brought to the front by trains and supported by machine guns and sniper rifles still consisting 90%+ of troops wearing rags and armed with little more than rusty knives and spears.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'' is far worse about this than ''Fantasy''. It's most noticeable with the Cities of Sigmar, due to the Sigmarite empire having descendants of all the human, elf, and dwarf factions living together with very similar aesthetics and equipment to their ancestors in the old world. The bulk of the Sigmarite troops, especially the Freeguilds, are armed with spears, axes, swords, bows, crossbows, and black powder firearms and cannons roughly on par with 16th century designs (the standard handgun of the Freeguild Handgunner regiments is explicitly stated to be a smoothbore wheellock). Yet, thanks to most of the Free Cities having at least one Ironweld Arsenal guild, they also possess the same helicopters, steam tanks, trains, and more advanced firearms (percussion caps, repeater handguns, organ guns, etc.) in much greater numbers than the old world factions ever did. Not to mention magitek [[https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cogfort walking fortresses]] capable of diseeminating prefabricated buildings. And they produce all these things in [[https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/4/45/Ironweld_Arsenal_Factory_01.jpg assembly line factories]] rather than by hand. It's not clear why they haven't at least produced produced rifled caplocks for all their troops guns by now.
** This is just one faction, albeit probably the most diverse one. Comparing between factions makes the difference even starker. For example the Kharadron Overlords are an entire faction of dwarf [[SkyPirate Sky Pirates]] whose aesthetic and tech mostly resembles the early Victorian era with a steampunk bent (their standard Arkanauts being equipped with axes/cutlasses and caplock pistols) but who via MagicPoweredPseudoscience also have things like power armor, robots, jetpacks, and airships. They often come into conflict with Orruks and Beastmen, which are mostly still at an Iron Age level like they were in ''Fantasy''.

* Naturally, ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' picks up this ball and runs with it. Even disregarding the CyberPunk-meets-magic setting, there are weapons like [[KatanasAreJustBetter katanas]], [[{{BFS}} claymores]] and [[VibroWeapon "vibro-swords"]] to go with their assault rifles and grenades.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerOfSigmar'' is far worse about this than ''Fantasy''. It's most noticeable with the Cities of Sigmar, due to the Sigmarite empire having descendants of all the human, elf, and dwarf factions living together with very similar aesthetics and equipment to their ancestors in the old world. The bulk of the Sigmarite troops, especially the Freeguilds, are armed with spears, axes, swords, bows, crossbows, and black powder firearms and cannons roughly on par with 16th century designs (the standard handgun of the Freeguild Handgunner regiments is explicitly stated to be a smoothbore wheellock). Yet, thanks to most of the Free Cities having at least one Ironweld Arsenal guild, they also possess the same helicopters, steam tanks, trains, and more advanced firearms (percussion caps, repeater handguns, organ guns, etc.) in much greater numbers than the old world factions ever did. Not to mention magitek [[https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cogfort walking fortresses]] capable of diseeminating prefabricated buildings. And they produce all these things in [[https://ageofsigmar.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/4/45/Ironweld_Arsenal_Factory_01.jpg assembly line factories]] rather than by hand. It's not clear why they haven't at least produced produced rifled caplocks for all their troops guns by now.

** The Dwarfs have more advanced technology than the Empire, including better guns and cannons (the average gun seems to be a flintlock, with some caplocks also in use), as well as organ guns, flamethrowers, trains, ironclads, helicopters armed with steam cannons, larger helicopters armed with bombs, and battle-capable air balloons. Yet, the bulk of their troops wouldn't look out of place in the High Middle Ages, still wearing mail armor and armed with axes, war picks, or crossbows. They even still use ballistae and trebuchets alongside their cannons. This is explained in-universe as the Dwarfs being particularly resistant to change, with most of their soldiery swearing by old methods in spite of their obvious inefficiencies.

** The Skaven, infamously, feature "fantasy" versions of a sniper rifle, a [[GatlingGood ratling gun]], a flamethrower, a laser cannon, a hamster wheel of death, chemical warfare and what what appears to be three separate types of nuclear bombs - including a Davy Crockett Personal Nuclear Missile Launcher (all of which may fail with destructively hilarious results). Yet these rarely show up and 90% of Skaven troops have little more than rags and rusty blades, with another 9% having decent 16th-17th century equipment similar to what the Empire uses. Those armed with high-tech {{Steampunk}} gear comprise less than 1% of their forces, and the rarity of their deployment is handwaved by the fact that [[ReliableUnreliableGuns their weapons are as likely to kill them as the enemy]] due to the Skavens' notorious lack of [[NoOSHACompliance quality control]].

** While the Orcs' technology level is largely dependent on what they can steal from other people, the Savage Orcs are still deep in the Stone Age -- their weapons are made of roughly carved stone, wood and bone, their society limited to primitive tribes and their armor made of crude leather and bones or just warpaint. The Beastmen are likewise very primitive, due to a religious hatred for all trappings of civilization -- they refuse to build anything but the crudest tools, and all else they steal from their victims.
** Bretonnia is very firmly medieval -- gunpowder weapons are specifically outlawed within it -- and for the most part restricts itself to swords, cavalry and trebuchets.
** The Empire is at a Napoleonic level with a {{Steampunk}} bent, having access to reliable if somewhat primitive handguns, cannons, volley guns and rocket batteries, alongside steam-powered tanks and "clockwork" horses, all still mixed with pike and sword infantry and cavalry.
** The Dwarfs have more advanced technology than the Empire, including better guns and cannons, as well as organ guns, huge cannon-like flamethrowers, helicopters armed with steam cannons, larger helicopters armed with bombs and battle-capable airships.
** The Skaven, infamously, feature "fantasy" versions of a sniper rifle, a [[GatlingGood ratling gun]], a flamethrower, a laser cannon, a hamster wheel of death, chemical warfare and what what appears to be three separate types of nuclear bombs -- including a Davy Crockett Personal Nuclear Missile Launcher (all of which may fail with destructively hilarious results).

** Most races actually manage to avoid this trope fairly well, with Eldar, Necrons, Tau and Tyranids having reasonably consistent technology levels (the Eldar and Dark Eldar mostly have a problem of being unable to use present psychic technology too much for fear of losing their souls to the Dark God a vast majority of their race created in their fall, incidentally causing the Age of Strife, the Necrons are only just waking up after their 60 million year long stasis following the War in Heaven, the Tau only became prominent within the last few thousand years and haven't faced the true horros of the galaxy yet and the Tyranids are a hive mind of intergalactic HordeofAlienLocusts who have biological technology). Orks, on the other hand, really don't. Primitive axes, clubs and boar-riding cavalry are regularly seen alongside laser guns and HumongousMecha. Individual vehicles also exhibit this, as the Orks freely adorn their contraptions with whatever they're able to steal or build that they think will make them work better or go faster; consequently, it's entirely possible to find a trukk propelled by jet engines scavenged from a fighter plane and giant squig-powered hamster wheels. The in-universe explanation is that their technology works by the RuleOfCool -- if Orks believe something they've built will work, it will (in combination with the fact that they are the devolved descendants of a LivingWeapon species used during the aforementioned War in Heaven and have technological knowledge imprinted in their genes and backed by their gestalt psychic field).

*** Despite popular belief, the Astra Militarum has no "official" loadout enforced across all regiments; individual regiments are largely responsible for providing their own equipment and training. The image of Guardsmen all wearing green, angular armour comes from many regiments [[SincerestFormOfFlattery copying the famed Cadians]]. Since planets in the Imperial Guard vary wildly in technology levels, you get a lot of this when regiments are folded into each other or co-operate: you may get professional troopers from a Forge World equipped with plasma weapons and utilising cameleoline cloaking and cybernetic augmentations, fighting alongside Feral World primitives who like draping themselves with noxious body paint and the bones of dead comrades, and prefer tomahawks and longbows over their lasguns. It sounds crazy but this is a necessity for an interstellar empire that is so profoundly large, ancient and thinly-spread that it doesn't even really know how many planets it controls. To stop Guardsmen from a planet with technology level around the 16th century from using their muskets over the far more effective lasgun, the later was modified to make a "bang" sound when fired.

** Due to a bit of "lost tech" going on, the Imperium's technology is controlled by a religious cult/autonomous government called the Adeptus Mechanicus that doesn't believe in researching new technology or trying to understand the technology they currently have out of paranoia regarding daemonic corruption. Instead, they worship whatever old technology they can find from before the Age of Strife. Some planets have degraded to iron age or stone age levels of technology. This is due to a combination of a catastrophic AI rebellion bringing the old human government to its and FTL travel collapsing for almost five thousand years for any appreciably long distance in the Age of Strife. Although the Great Crusade reunited a large amount of surviving lost colonies, the ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' and, in its aftermath, ten thousand years of near constant war to survive caused further technological loss.

** Due to a bit of "lost tech" going on, the Imperium's technology is controlled by a religious cult called the Adeptus Mechanicus that doesn't believe in researching new technology or trying to understand the technology they currently have. Instead, they worship whatever old technology they can find from before the Age of Strife.

** Most races actually manage to avoid this trope fairly well, with Eldar, Necrons, Tau and Tyranids having reasonably consistent technology levels. Orks, on the other hand, really don't. Primitive axes, clubs and boar-riding cavalry are regularly seen alongside laser guns and HumongousMecha. Individual vehicles also exhibit this, as the Orks freely adorn their contraptions with whatever they're able to steal or build that they think will make them work better or go faster; consequently, it's entirely possible to find a trukk propelled by jet engines scavenged from a fighter plane and giant squig-powered hamster wheels. The in-universe explanation is that their technology works by the RuleOfCool -- if Orks believe something they've built will work, it will.
** Exodite Eldar intentionally invoke this. Their Dragon Knight warriors ride dinosaur-like creatures, and they have laser lances (much like the Shining Spears aspect warriors but more primitive) and laser carbines (much like Imperial lasguns except they don't suck). Exodites limit their technology in such a way to give themselves hard lives to stop their culture from falling into decadence and depravity; otherwise, they have almost exactly the same technology as their craftworld cousins.

** The Empire is at a Renaissance level with a {{Steampunk}} bent, having access to reliable if somewhat primitive handguns, cannons, volley guns and rocket batteries, alongside steam-powered tanks and "clockwork" horses, all still mixed with pike and sword infantry and cavalry.

* All over the place in ''TabletopGame/RocketAge''. The humans use conventional 1930s technology alongside spaceships and RAY guns and the Martians used to use a mixture of medieval and high tech technology and are currently in the desperate process of modernization. Then on Jupiter we have the use of zeppelins and compressed air dart rifles, to ensure that things don't go up in smoke.

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Space 1889}}'' RPG was all about this trope. Though most of the weapons described in it are either historically-accurate late 19th century weaponry or very rare SteamPunk inventions. Martians use rather primitive weapons but they are, all in all completely different civilization.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', particularly in later editions, tends to have wildly different technology levels between factions in order to evoke specific aesthetics. This in a world where a powerful human kingdom still think knights and longbows are cutting-edge, and there's at least one major faction that's entirely Stone Age. Fan reactions have been mixed, although some earlier editions featured actual plasma guns and laser pistols, so modern players get off lightly really. The schizo tech contraptions tend to go haywire in the most spectacular ways imaginable at the moment least desired. But even then they are fun to play -- if not, just for laughs.

* All over the place in ''TabletopGame/RocketAge''. The humans use conventional 1930s technology alongside spaceships and RAY guns and the Martians used to use a mixture of medieval and high tech technology and are currently in the desperate process of modernization. Then on Jupiter we have the use of zeppelins and compressed air dart rifles, to ensure that things don't go up in smoke.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', particularly in later editions, tends to have wildly different technology levels between factions in order to evoke specific aesthetics. This in a world where a powerful human kingdom still think knights and longbows are cutting-edge, and there's at least one major faction that's entirely Stone Age. Fan reactions have been mixed, although some earlier editions featured actual plasma guns and laser pistols, so modern players get off lightly really. The schizo tech contraptions tend to go haywire in the most spectacular ways imaginable at the moment least desired. But even then they are fun to play -- if not, just for laughs.
** While the Orcs' technology level is largely dependent on what they can steal from other people, the Savage Orcs are still deep in the Stone Age -- their weapons are made of roughly carved stone, wood and bone, their society limited to primitive tribes and their armor made of crude leather and bones or just warpaint. The Beastmen are likewise very primitive, due to a religious hatred for all trappings of civilization -- they refuse to build anything but the crudest tools, and all else they steal from their victims.
** Bretonnia is very firmly medieval -- gunpowder weapons are specifically outlawed within it -- and for the most part restricts itself to swords, cavalry and trebuchets.
** The Empire is at a Renaissance level with a {{Steampunk}} bent, having access to reliable if somewhat primitive handguns, cannons, volley guns and rocket batteries, alongside steam-powered tanks and "clockwork" horses, all still mixed with pike and sword infantry and cavalry.
** The Dwarfs have more advanced technology than the Empire, including better guns and cannons, as well as organ guns, huge cannon-like flamethrowers, helicopters armed with steam cannons, larger helicopters armed with bombs and battle-capable airships.
** The Skaven, infamously, feature "fantasy" versions of a sniper rifle, a [[GatlingGood ratling gun]], a flamethrower, a laser cannon, a hamster wheel of death, chemical warfare and what what appears to be three separate types of nuclear bombs -- including a Davy Crockett Personal Nuclear Missile Launcher (all of which may fail with destructively hilarious results).
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** Due to a bit of "lost tech" going on, the Imperium's technology is controlled by a religious cult called the Adeptus Mechanicus that doesn't believe in researching new technology or trying to understand the technology they currently have. Instead, they worship whatever old technology they can find from before the Age of Strife.
*** As a straighter example, the Imperium of Man has floating bio-mechanical skulls called servo-skulls, basically a cybernetic computer that can hover. They put candles on them when they need some extra light. Likewise, the miles-long spaceships of the Imperial Navy [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture still use hordes of gang-pressed workers to manually load their weapons]].
*** The Imperial Guard can sometimes be a good source of this. Example: the Leman Russ Executioner battle tank. It looks boxy and crude, the engine's designed to run on anything you can burn up to ''coal and wood'', and the heavy stubber on top is pretty much a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2_Browning M2 Browning]] in all but name, but it packs a huge tank-melting plasma cannon for the main gun. An Imperial Guard force is probably the only place where you'll find motorcycle troops and horse cavalry fighting alongside [[HumongousMecha Sentinels and Warhound Titans]].
*** Despite popular belief, the Astra Militarum has no "official" loadout enforced across all regiments; individual regiments are largely responsible for providing their own equipment and training. The image of Guardsmen all wearing green, angular armour comes from many regiments [[SincerestFormOfFlattery copying the famed Cadians]]. Since planets in the Imperial Guard vary wildly in technology levels, you get a lot of this when regiments are folded into each other or co-operate: you may get professional troopers from a Forge World equipped with plasma weapons and utilising cameleoline cloaking and cybernetic augmentations, fighting alongside Feral World primitives who like draping themselves with noxious body paint and the bones of dead comrades, and prefer tomahawks and longbows over their lasguns. It sounds crazy but this is a necessity for an interstellar empire that is so profoundly large, ancient and thinly-spread that it doesn't even really know how many planets it controls. To stop Guardsmen from a planet with technology level around the 16th century from using their muskets over the far more effective lasgun, the later was modified to make a "bang" sound when fired.
** Also very noticeable in spaceships which make extensive use of [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture manual labor]]. So you have a multi-kilometer long spaceship powered by an advanced plasma reactor where the multi-story tall shells for the guns are loaded by hand using ropes and pulleys (and whips).
** The Mechanicus and its love of cybernetics is an exercise in this all on its own. One example given in the first Skitari rulebook is that a common soldier could easily have upgraded lungs that filter out all toxins and let him operate in any environment, while the guy next to him got "upgraded" lungs that are literally just a set of leather bellows (and still work somehow).
** Most races actually manage to avoid this trope fairly well, with Eldar, Necrons, Tau and Tyranids having reasonably consistent technology levels. Orks, on the other hand, really don't. Primitive axes, clubs and boar-riding cavalry are regularly seen alongside laser guns and HumongousMecha. Individual vehicles also exhibit this, as the Orks freely adorn their contraptions with whatever they're able to steal or build that they think will make them work better or go faster; consequently, it's entirely possible to find a trukk propelled by jet engines scavenged from a fighter plane and giant squig-powered hamster wheels. The in-universe explanation is that their technology works by the RuleOfCool -- if Orks believe something they've built will work, it will.
** Exodite Eldar intentionally invoke this. Their Dragon Knight warriors ride dinosaur-like creatures, and they have laser lances (much like the Shining Spears aspect warriors but more primitive) and laser carbines (much like Imperial lasguns except they don't suck). Exodites limit their technology in such a way to give themselves hard lives to stop their culture from falling into decadence and depravity; otherwise, they have almost exactly the same technology as their craftworld cousins.
** While the Tau avoid this trope like the plague, their Kroot allies do this [[SpaceAmish intentionally]]. They keep tech for the most part very simple (they can absorb the DNA from other species), but still have space travel and their otherwise primitive guns fire incredibly advanced munitions given to them by the Tau.
** The Tau Farsight Enclaves' tech is somewhat dated compared to the Tau Empire's tech. They do occasionally get some shiny new toys thanks to spycraft, theft, and/or sympathizers within the Empire. Farsight himself still uses the same old battlesuit he wore when he first left the Empire.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}''
** Being set ''After'' AfterTheEnd, the game has a lot of this. Many wilderness villages may not have running water and only a few electrical generators, but ''will'' have laser rifles capable of blowing a sedan in half with one shot. And let's not get into magic.
** [[TheEmpire The Coalition States]] uses this to their advantage to peacefully assimilate human communities.[[note]]They generally assimilate non-human communities by flattening them and claiming the smoking crater as their territory.[[/note]] They offer to help LowCultureHighTech towns to perform repair and upkeep on their technology, and use that to make the town more and more dependent on the Coalition, until they quietly absorb the community into their empire.

* The ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' trading card game world is full of this, possibly because nobody's ever bothered to explain any of it. We are talking about a world where [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/DR04-EN242 a medieval knight]] can do battle with [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/DR04-EN241 a low-orbit ion cannon]] and win. That same ion cannon also greatly fears [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/SRL-EN064 duct tape.]]

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'':
** The world Golarion is [[FantasyKitchenSink deliberately]] all over the place. The Inner Sea Region contains every conceivable level of technology, from simple tribal cultures with axes and spears, to the standard fantasy kingdoms policed by knights on horseback, to a nation where the wreckage and technology of a fallen city-sized spaceship litters the land of savage barbarians. To top it all off, a steampunk city with black powder firearms is wedged into a magical wasteland between two nations dominated by wizards. The designers actually acknowledge the trope in one book, citing TruthInTelevision: not every nation develops at the same rate or obtains new technologies in the same order.
** One adventure path, ''Reign of Winter,'' specifically enforces this as a [[RuleOfCool point in artwork and theme.]] The adventure eventually brings you elsewhere in the universe at the modern day of the game: [[spoiler: Earth, around 1912 C.E., where the adventurers encounter Great War-era Russians. The game states that while the sudden appearance of armored knights and robed, flying elves may be unusual, the Russians had seen far worse threats during the war as they level their machine guns toward the new threats.]]
* ''TabletopGame/SpiritOfTheCentury'' plays with this, as it's set in the 1920s but uses pulp Science! to allow more futuristic technology, and even full on mad science inventions that we still haven't made. The book does a good job of cataloguing what inventions are just around the corner to give you some idea what the state of the art inventions you could get prototypes to, or make, are.

* ''TabletopGame/CrimsonSkies'' is an AlternateUniverse setting where the [[DividedStatesOfAmerica United States of America broke up]] and the successor states are plagued by [[SkyPirate air pirates]]. It regularly features propeller driven aircraft armed with magnetic rockets in addition to zeppelins armed with remote controlled gun turrets and rocket launchers. The Xbox adaption, ''High Road To Revenge,'' features a [[ANaziByAnyOtherName German fascist group]] called [[StupidJetpackHitler Die Spinne]] who have Tesla weapons and a weather control device. This series is set in the 1930's.
* The ''TabletopGame/{{Space 1889}}'' RPG was all about this trope. Though most of the weapons described in it are either historically-accurate late 19th century weaponry or very rare SteamPunk inventions. Martians use rather primitive weapons but they are, all in all completely different civilization.
* Naturally, ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' picks up this ball and runs with it. Even disregarding the CyberPunk-meets-magic setting, there are weapons like [[KatanasAreJustBetter katanas]], [[{{BFS}} claymores]] and [[VibroWeapon "vibro-swords"]] to go with their assault rifles and grenades.
* As per ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', in ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} 2020'' you can find along firearms and even more advanced stuff [[KatanasAreJustBetter katanas]] [[VibroWeapon "vibro-swords"]], bows, and crossbows.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'': There is a lot of space in, well, space and some stuff never gets to some planets. Also there have been a large number of disasters in the Traveller history. And even those from high tech cultures like to [[GoodOldWays go retro]] on occasions, like using swords when they fight a DuelToTheDeath.
* ''TabletopGame/NewHorizon'' was colonized by humans with advanced technology... and low resources. Thus, while every town has touches of modern inventions--a few computers, a [[HollywoodCyborg Promethean or two]], the ever present [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Wafans]]--the setting as a whole generally features more frontier-level technology, like flintlocks and rifles.
* In ''TabletopGame/FadingSuns'' most advanced technology is prohibited or restricted by the Church following the fall of the Second Republic, though it's not always enforced, particularly weapons tech. For example, a militia man on a backworld may have a laser, while his wife still cleans the shirts on the rocks by the stream.
* The technology in ''TabletopGame/TheSplinter'' covers everything from early medieval weapons to impossibly advanced, essentially magical devices. The core rulebook includes repeating crossbows, monofillament razor-wire launchers, steam-punk Gatling guns, automatic shotguns, advanced underwater laser pistols, heavy insanity rays, blade-wands, disintegrator pistols, directional nukes, and about fifty types of old-fashioned medieval slaughtering tools.
* All over the place in ''TabletopGame/RocketAge''. The humans use conventional 1930s technology alongside spaceships and RAY guns and the Martians used to use a mixture of medieval and high tech technology and are currently in the desperate process of modernization. Then on Jupiter we have the use of zeppelins and compressed air dart rifles, to ensure that things don't go up in smoke.

** The Empire is at a Napoleonic level with a {{Steampunk}} bent, having access to reliable if somewhat primitive handguns, cannons, volley guns and rocket batteries, alongside steam-powered tanks and "clockwork" horses, all still mixed with pike and sword infantry and cavalry.

* Most civilization themed board games have a tech tree that prevents science from becoming too schizo. One exception is Jamey Stegmaier's ''Tapestry'', which has four separate research tracks and a deck of technology cards that can be traversed more or less independently, leading to some ''extremely'' SchizoTech. For example, it's possible to research interstellar travel before astronomy. Or this scenario: "What technology should I unlock this turn: gunpowder, nuclear fission, or... the nail?"

** While the Orcs' technology level is largely dependent on what they can steal from other people, the Savage Orcs are still deep in the Stone Age -- their weapons are made of roughly carved stone, wood and bone, their society limited to primitive tribes and their armor made of crude leather and bones or just warpaint.