This is a rough scale to measure relative levels of technology. It's based on the one described in the GURPS® system created by Steve Jackson Games, with some modifications specific to the Outsider universe.
| Tech Level | | | General Earth Historical Comparison |
| 0 | | | Stone Age (prior to 3000 BCE): stone tools, pottery, archery, fire, lever, language, animal husbandry, calendar |
| 1 | | | Bronze Age (3000-600 BCE): copper and bronze working, wheel, writing, agriculture, masonry, sailing, currency |
| 2 | | | Iron Age (601 BCE-600 CE): iron working, mathematics, keystone arch, concrete, siege engines |
| 3 | | | Medieval (601-1450): steel tools, optics (telescope), chemistry |
| 4 | | | Renaissance/Colonial (1450-1800): gunpowder, printing, global navigation, accurate timekeeping |
| 5 | | | Industrial Revolution (1801-1900): mass production, steam power, railroad, rifling, electricity, telegraph, photography |
| 6 | | | World Wars (1901-1950): combustion engine, automobiles, airplanes, rockets, radio, radar, atomic weapons |
| 7 | | | Information Age (1951-2000): television, jet engine, satellites, guided missiles, nuclear energy, computers, lasers, helicopters |
| 8 | | | Spacefaring (2001-2100): stealth, ion drive, interplanetary travel, fusion power, cybernetics, railguns, bioengineering, 3D printing |
| 9 | | | Starfaring: (2100-2150): jump drive, interstellar travel, inertial dampers, cold plasma thrusters, longevity, solid-state batteries |
| 10 | | | Antimatter: (2151-?): taimat power, particle beam weapons, electromagnetic screens, floater drive |
| 11 | | | Force: plasma focus, plastron field, wave-loom device, force screens, tractor beams |
| 12 | | | Spacetime Mastery: reactionless drive, ansible, hyperspace metrics, virtual consciousness |
| 13 | | | Worldbuilding: jetpacks, personal force screens, unrestricted manipulation of planetary environment |
| 14 | | | Dysonian: smart materials, replicators, construction of planets, dyson spheres, ringworlds and other megastructures |
| 15 | | | Superscience: matter transmission, black hole generators |
| 16+ | | | A Sufficiently Advanced Technology: as you wish... |
How do the various races in Outsider rank on this scale?
Humanity is TL9, at
the cusp of TL10, having just developed blasters. The Loroi and
