Traveller in my case, but I'm not worried about stats.  My thinking is there's all kinds of stuff I don't necessarily want to put on the standard equipment list and have everyone be carrying one of from the first session, but that would still make for a good game to have in the hands of a player from time to time.  So items cool enough to work as loot/treasure/reward/one-offs for sale, but still appropriate to a science fiction game.

I'll start, with a few things I posted elsewhere, apropos of something else.

• tunable electromagnet, bulky but powerful
• high tech grapple gun with line and integral heavy duty motor
• bag of large synthetic gems suitable for industrial applications - possibly valuable on truly uncontacted worlds, but anything reachable by standard Jump isn't going to fall for it
• high tech, ship-strength cable, shape and movement controllable from a pad on one end, but frustratingly difficult to control without the Remote Ops skill
• an entertainment unit pre-loaded with Beethoven's symphonies and hours of whale song, one or both of which are known to please 90% of all sapient races that can perceive the sound
• cheap knockoff grav belts, bulky and prone to burning out after repeated use
• telescoping staff the size of a thick coin when retracted, practically unbreakable extended
• Rocket boots.  Yes, grav belts are better in almost every way, but hey, rocket boots.

More like this?

9. Enslaver P.I.R. (Pleasure Inducing Ray) 30 feet range target must be in line of sight, target is pacified immediately, more advanced, potent and variable versions exist.
10. Personal Stasis field, when activated the wearer is surrounded by a stasis field that will protect him/her from anything short of a black hole.
11. Excavator ray, rifle looking implement that emits a ray that nulifies the charge of the atoms producing a mono atomic dust while excavating thru any material (excavating time depends on the strength of the bond between atoms)
12. Programmable pheromone bomb range 30 feet will be affected by air currents, will disrupt communication among species that use pheromones to this end, or send species into a reproductive frenzy if pheromones have that effect on them.
13. Solar flare, a grenade that emits a light so intense as to blind the opponents or give them sunburn if susceptible and close enough to the detonation, range 20 feet.
14. Mono filament sword, when extended the filament gets surrounded by a stasis field, allowing the sword to cut thru anything, for instance Plasteel is like butter against a hot knife.
15. Chameleon coat, enables wearer to blend with surroundings, almost invisible while not moving, 1d4 chances of being seen while moving slowly.
16. Holo decoy, 3d image and sound pre recorded can be projected to trick/distract opponents for 2d6 minutes.

Quote from: Dave R;1101860Traveller in my case, but I'm not worried about stats.  My thinking is there's all kinds of stuff I don't necessarily want to put on the standard equipment list and have everyone be carrying one of from the first session, but that would still make for a good game to have in the hands of a player from time to time.  So items cool enough to work as loot/treasure/reward/one-offs for sale, but still appropriate to a science fiction game.

I'll start, with a few things I posted elsewhere, apropos of something else.

• tunable electromagnet, bulky but powerful
• high tech grapple gun with line and integral heavy duty motor
• bag of large synthetic gems suitable for industrial applications - possibly valuable on truly uncontacted worlds, but anything reachable by standard Jump isn't going to fall for it
• high tech, ship-strength cable, shape and movement controllable from a pad on one end, but frustratingly difficult to control without the Remote Ops skill
• an entertainment unit pre-loaded with Beethoven's symphonies and hours of whale song, one or both of which are known to please 90% of all sapient races that can perceive the sound
• cheap knockoff grav belts, bulky and prone to burning out after repeated use
• telescoping staff the size of a thick coin when retracted, practically unbreakable extended
• Rocket boots.  Yes, grav belts are better in almost every way, but hey, rocket boots.

More like this?

Are you looking for plausible and practical? Or just "rule of cool" stuff that breaks suspension of disbelief?

Quote from: GeekyBugle;11018659. Enslaver P.I.R. (Pleasure Inducing Ray) 30 feet range target must be in line of sight, target is pacified immediately, more advanced, potent and variable versions exist.
10. Personal Stasis field, when activated the wearer is surrounded by a stasis field that will protect him/her from anything short of a black hole.
11. Excavator ray, rifle looking implement that emits a ray that nulifies the charge of the atoms producing a mono atomic dust while excavating thru any material (excavating time depends on the strength of the bond between atoms)
12. Programmable pheromone bomb range 30 feet will be affected by air currents, will disrupt communication among species that use pheromones to this end, or send species into a reproductive frenzy if pheromones have that effect on them.
13. Solar flare, a grenade that emits a light so intense as to blind the opponents or give them sunburn if susceptible and close enough to the detonation, range 20 feet.
14. Mono filament sword, when extended the filament gets surrounded by a stasis field, allowing the sword to cut thru anything, for instance Plasteel is like butter against a hot knife.
15. Chameleon coat, enables wearer to blend with surroundings, almost invisible while not moving, 1d4 chances of being seen while moving slowly.
16. Holo decoy, 3d image and sound pre recorded can be projected to trick/distract opponents for 2d6 minutes.

You've read a lot of Larry Niven.

Quote from: jeff37923;1101868You've read a lot of Larry Niven.

Guilty as charged.

Back in the day, white dwarf had a bunch of cool TL16 devices left over by the ancients - the warper (basically open a stargate to somewhere) and the wiper - destroy a person's personality on a shooting hit (set the target's Int and Edu to 1, no save, no way to "reboot" the person. Nasty.)

Quote from: jeff37923;1101868Are you looking for plausible and practical? Or just "rule of cool" stuff that breaks suspension of disbelief?

I'll take either, for this thread.  I lean towards the first personally, but high tech and Ancients tech gives a lot of room for stuff that's not true hard sci fi.

17. Mentalloy helmet, protects the wearer from any psionic attack to his/her brain.
18. 3d6 capsules of Psionium (orally ingested) grants psionic powers of up to the 3rd level (roll 1d3) for 2d6 minutes.
19. 2 meld crowns, allow for sexual encounters at a distance of up to 300 feet.
20. 1d6 dosis of immunoboost, each grants +2 to CON for 1d3 days, effects not accumulable. Overdose has a 1d2 chance of causing an anaphilactic shock.
21. Meld drone, requires meld crown, you see/hear/control the drone at a distance of up to 300 feet.
22. Energy cell detonator, allows to fully discharge any energy cell in one millisecond, creating an energy explosion of 3x the cell capacity in radius.
23. Restraining grenade covers 20 feet with an expanding and fast curing foam of plasteel.
24. Duralloy gloves +2 to unarmed damage

Edited to add: We need 76 more to have a d100 table.

25.  "x-ray" glasses.  Actually multispectrum scanners including x-rays, thermal imaging, acoustic imaging and others, all integrated into an idiot-proof UI that can toggle between computer-generated layers.  Theoretically a technical and medical diagnostic tool, mainly used as... x-ray glasses.
26.  portable force field projector.  Only projects a flat screen, tunable for size and shape.  Advanced versions can be set to be passable in one direction.
27.  Omnivore dust.  A small bag full of nanites that can be set to devour/disassemble any single element, metal or alloy when a sample is fed to them.  Highly regulated versions are braked to cease operation after a set volume.  Creation or use of unbraked versions are a capital crime dealt with by overwhelming military force rather than the judicial system.
28.  Jack Seed.  A cargo bay-sized organic artifact that, over a period of years, is capable of extruding a tether suitable for a space elevator from the surface of a planet.  Massive local land disruption, roots that double as mining extractors.
29.  One Book.  A nearly indestructible book with programmable pages, contains a record of every book known to the culture that created it 1000 years ago.  Indexing is poor, and practically you need to know what you're looking for to be sure of finding it.

Grab the pack in module for Star Frontiers. It has a table for stuff found searching the cargo bay.

This included things like battery packs for laser rifles, a med kit, dehydrated food.
But also mundane things like... a crate of hand axes, a box of ball bearings, vrusk body wax, dralasite steam bath perfumes, yazirian punching bags, a holographic fireworks projector, bolts of silk, high fashion human dresses, etc.

Overall think about the place the PCs are searching and what might be there based on what you as the DM know of the site.

30. Pocket fusion camp stove. weight .5 Kg with fuel. Will provide three heated meals a day for 365 days before refueling is necessary.
31. Individual Water Purification system. weight 1 Kg. Will remove any bacterial, chemical, nanite, or biological contaminants from H2O.
32. Swiss Army Knife. Useful for opening cans and boxes, breaking & entering, cutting, fishing, hunting, and tool making.
33. Handheld rebreather, allows for fully submerged swimming and diving for up to four hours by pulling oxygen directly out of water.
34. Long range communicator badge. Like a long range communicator, only wearable, styled, and attractive.
35. Ground Perimeter Sensor Kit. weight 4 Kg. Seven small deployable poles, with a remote control/alarm that emit multi-spectrum wideband signals that are received by the other poles. If anything passes between any pair of active poles, the remote control will register the tripped perimeter sensor, and can sound an audible or vibration alarm as needed. Also comes in a slight larger version that creates a sensor dome. Can cover an area up to approximately 1,000 M square.
36. Fusion Lighter. Because everyone needs to start fires from time-to-time.
37. Neuralyzer. handheld device that emits a red light that wipes the last 15-30 minutes of memory of any individual. The user requires special Ray-Ban shielded sun glasses to avoid having their memory wiped while using the device.

Quote from: GameDaddy;110198630. Pocket fusion camp stove. weight .5 Kg with fuel. Will provide three heated meals a day for 365 days before refueling is necessary.
31. Individual Water Purification system. weight 1 Kg. Will remove any bacterial, chemical, nanite, or biological contaminants from H2O.
32. Swiss Army Knife. Useful for opening cans and boxes, breaking & entering, cutting, fishing, hunting, and tool making.
33. Handheld rebreather, allows for fully submerged swimming and diving for up to four hours by pulling oxygen directly out of water.
34. Long range communicator badge. Like a long range communicator, only wearable, styled, and attractive.
35. Ground Perimeter Sensor Kit. weight 4 Kg. Seven small deployable poles, with a remote control/alarm that emit multi-spectrum wideband signals that are received by the other poles. If anything passes between any pair of active poles, the remote control will register the tripped perimeter sensor, and can sound an audible or vibration alarm as needed. Also comes in a slight larger version that creates a sensor dome. Can cover an area up to approximately 1,000 M square.
36. Fusion Lighter. Because everyone needs to start fires from time-to-time.
37. Neuralyzer. handheld device that emits a red light that wipes the last 15-30 minutes of memory of any individual. The user requires special Ray-Ban shielded sun glasses to avoid having their memory wiped while using the device.

37. (my take) Portable Mnemolyzer handheld device that emits a stron pulse of psionic energy capable of erasing the last 15-30 minutes of memory of an individual. The user requires a Mentalloy helmet to avoid having their memory wiped while using the device.
38. Mnemolyzer a tube where the subject is placed and emits a strong series of psionic energy capable of erasing and rewriting the subjects last 15-30 minutes of memory. The operator needs no especial protection.

39. Tool - A blob of nanites which reforms itself to the instructions given it by the person holding it. It can become anything of the same mass as the nanite blob. Emphasis on the anything. It is semi-sentient, but has no free will.

40. Aeroboard. Maglev or Gravlev board with either jet or rocket propulsion, capacity one person + 50 kilos (~100 pounds), max speed 120 kms/h, max height 300 meters, range 3 hours before recharge.
41. Rare quartz disc with 100,000 20th century (or earlier) songs along with the portable player.
42. Bottle of 20th century liquor 750 ml (roll on the table)

Here's the .pdf so far

43. Beige Man Unit. A shipping container sized machine that is able to produce and recycle Beige Man artificial workers. The Beige Men are extruded from one end, and fed into an intake like a wood chipper's at the other end.

Beige Men are recyclable, polymerized artificial workers. (The Beige Man literature is careful to avoid use of the term "lifeform"). They look like a blocky six foot tall humanoid formed out of beige putty, a bit like a gingerbread man. Their only features are depressions where the mouth, eyes and ears would be on a human. They move slowly, and have the approximate strength of a healthy human. The internals of a Beige Man are seemingly more of the same.

Beige men do not eat or breathe. They are capable of operating in vacuum. They have a one day operational span, at the end of which they must be run through the Beige Man Unit and recycled. They will recycle themselves if they are left unattended.

Beige men have an intellect that contains a wealth of practical know-how, and a dire lack of the following:

- Personality: They exude a dull cheerfulness at all times. "Hello!"

- Initiative: they have to be told to do something. Otherwise, they will just stand there. The exception is recycling themselves when their operational span is up: that they'll do automatically and cheerfully.

- Judgement: Beige Men are terrible at prioritizing, or applying any other type of judgement. If you point a beige man at a burning saiboat and just tell them "fix it" they will start by polishing the prow. It is best to give them fairly specific orders: "Put out the fire then fix the damage."

- Self-preservation: if you tell them to march into a blast furnace, they will.