TheRPGSite

Pen & Paper Roleplaying Central => Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Discussion => Topic started by: Dave 2 on September 02, 2019, 12:22:27 AM

Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: Dave 2 on September 02, 2019, 12:22:27 AM
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.

More like this?
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: GeekyBugle on September 02, 2019, 02:36:40 AM
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.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: jeff37923 on September 02, 2019, 03:17:57 AM
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.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: GeekyBugle on September 02, 2019, 03:32:53 AM
Quote from: jeff37923;1101868You've read a lot of Larry Niven.

Guilty as charged.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: spon on September 02, 2019, 07:06:40 AM
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.)
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: Dave 2 on September 02, 2019, 12:36:02 PM
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.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: GeekyBugle on September 02, 2019, 02:51:09 PM
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.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: Dave 2 on September 02, 2019, 03:56:15 PM
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: Omega on September 02, 2019, 04:18:26 PM
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.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: GameDaddy on September 02, 2019, 11:37:54 PM
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.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: GeekyBugle on September 03, 2019, 12:11:01 AM
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.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: jeff37923 on September 03, 2019, 02:01:53 AM
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.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: GeekyBugle on September 03, 2019, 06:28:27 AM
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)
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: GeekyBugle on September 03, 2019, 04:29:57 PM
Here's the .pdf so far
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: Lurkndog on September 03, 2019, 04:41:45 PM
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.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: GeekyBugle on September 03, 2019, 05:06:40 PM
44. Jovianite Sword. Jovianite is a jewel only formed in Super Jovian planets, it's harder than diamonds and almost unbreakable, it responds and amplifies to the Psions telekinesis. The Adub disciples are capable of making it attack without touching it and receive a +2 to hit when wielding it. It's rumored that another Psion temple exists and that it's disciple's powers rival those of the Disciples of Adub.

The more powerful Psions can make the blade glow and act for all intents and purposes as a plasma sword, capable to cut through any material known in the galaxies except a Jovianite weapon wielded by an equally powerful Psion.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: Lurkndog on September 03, 2019, 05:34:58 PM
45 Diver Down. An autoinjector filled with a drug that triggers the mammalian diving reflex in most common races. When a crew member is catastrophically injured, you inject them with Diver Down to put them into medical stasis, then pack them in ice. This gives you time to get the injured crew member to an advanced medical facility.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: GeekyBugle on September 03, 2019, 06:33:56 PM
46. 2d6 Emergency ration packs.
47. 1d6 Electrogel energy cells.
48. 1d4 Frag grenades.
49. Stimpack.
50. Emergency Medpack.
51. Handheld Medscanner.
52. Plasma Blaster
53. Hyperspace communicator.
54. Stellar map with the location of planet X
55. Ebionite Chess board and pieces
56. Thermal Cloak.
57. Restraining binders.
58. Handheld railgun.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: GeekyBugle on September 03, 2019, 06:58:35 PM
59. Utility belt.
60. 1d4 Stun grenades.
61. Bandolier.
62. Improved Ground Perimeter Sensor Kit. weight 4 Kg. Seven small deployable poles, with a remote control/alarm that creates an electro-force barrier between two active poles. If anything attempts to pass 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 dome. Can cover an area up to approximately 1,000 M square.
63. Photon Blaster.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: GeekyBugle on September 03, 2019, 07:15:27 PM
64. 1d4 Plasma grenades.
65. 1 Pack of Medium Strength Medigel.
66. Vibrodagger.
67. Inflatable emergency shelter for two.
68. 1d4 Photon Grenades.
69. Electro scanner binoculars.
70. Plasma magnetic mine.
71. 1Kg Emergency repair fast curing resin.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: jeff37923 on September 04, 2019, 08:07:12 AM
I almost forgot, the Familie Spofalum Catalog!

And Ditzie!

(Attached as a PDF.)

A bit of background..... (http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Ditzie)

Quote from: Traveller WikiBack around 1997, when Fire, Fusion, and Steel 2 was being readied for production, many members of the Traveller Mailing List tested the system out by designing equipment and ships. One notable designer, Ian Whitchurch, crafted truly amazing things, under the guise of a Milieu 0 company (created by Roderick Darroch Elliott and shared by other TML members) named Famille Spofulam, or FS for short.

Ian, seeing too much power in Fusion Plus, used FS in general, and Ditzie as particular, as a platform for editorializing on an error that saw its way to print.

Unfortunately, Ditzie became a popular celebrity due to her audacity, and the whole point about the abusability of FFS2 was largely ignored.

[ATTACH]3801[/ATTACH]
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: nope on September 04, 2019, 04:00:01 PM
72. Disposable Kinetic Damper. 5 lbs. Appears as a small reinforced metal pod attached to a belt or harness with a single blinking light to denote its charge. Will automatically negate any single fall, crash, or other shock strong enough to cause damage to the user once before burning out (as soon as it detects a violent change in acceleration).

73. Nano MRE. 1 lb. A sealed pack containing a mixture of nanites and a questionable brick of unknown substances. Once activated with the pull tab, the nanites construct the brick of dehydrated food paste into a fully-formed, recognizable and appetizing meal such as a steak or burger with fries before deactivating. Also provide ideal nutrition with enough calories for a full day, regardless of the dispensed meal.

74. Mag boots. 10 lbs. They're exactly what they sound like, and support up to 300 lbs. at 1G even hanging from the ceiling. Operate for 1 hour of continuous use before needing a fresh charge.

75. "Recall" booster. Negligible weight. A disposable hypo which, once injected, allow the user to instantly recall any memory with perfect clarity and down to the smallest surrounding detail for up to 1d6 x 10 seconds (for example, it could be used to "search" a room for openly visible elements such as individual words on a document across the room). Repeated uses within a week of each other require an endurance check or similar; failure results in 1d6+1 intelligence damage, which is cumulative and recovers by 1/day.

76. Vibro socks. Negligible weight. Completely negate the sound of the wearer's footsteps (and only their footsteps) for 10 minutes. They are powered by a small internal battery and cannot be recharged.

77. Sonic lance. 10 lbs. An odd-looking scepter attached to a small backpack via cable. Useful for making repairs or cutting through hulls where open flame would be an explosion hazard, and requires no fuel beyond the power pack; utterly useless in vacuum, extremely dangerous to try using underwater (roll 1d6; on a 1 or 2, the lance explodes violently causing the same amount of damage the lance would inflict as a weapon). The lance can be temporarily nullified via an active Vibro Sock draped or tied over the end of the wand...
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: Thornhammer on September 04, 2019, 08:45:45 PM
The nano MRE would be a little more amusing if, despite the amazingly advanced technology, it still could only make the same shitty MRE food the armed forces know and love.

Except it makes a positively life-changing jalapeño cheese spread.
Title: equipment as treasure for a sci fi game
Post by: nope on September 05, 2019, 03:54:50 PM
Quote from: Thornhammer;1102431Except it makes a positively life-changing jalapeño cheese spread.
Ah yes, the famously desired and exceptionally rare Nanopeño Poppers!