GURPS Red Vixen Adventures: Technologies
Just attempting to codify some of the worldbuilding I've done over the years, starting with the tech.
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Tech Level: In general the G:RVA tech level is TL9-11, following the Safe-Tech path (p. UT10), with some gravity related superscience additions.
Power: Fusion reactors are the most common large scale power generators. Large ground vehicles, ocean going ships, or anti-gravity skimmers use the Semi-Portable Fusion Reactor (p. UT20) for power. Smaller or slower vehicles use battery power or hydrogen fuel cells. Almost every home is hooked into the local fusion power grid, with supplemental solar cells on the roof for backup.
Computers: The most common computer PC’s will use is the “palm comp” a Small, Complexity 5 computer the size of a modern smartphone. Commonly it comes with a holographic projection system that can project a man sized moving image that users can interact with to a limited degree, though the resolution is not high enough to usually fool observers that an image is a solid object (+2 to Perception checks).
True creative AI’s do not exist in this universe, but most computers can simulate a personality for interactive purposes, though it won’t stand up to an extended conversation.
Virtual Reality: Use of virtual reality in both gaming and business is common. As neural interfaces are extremely uncommon, VR is usually implemented using a helmet and sensor gloves, or more rarely full body VR suits. “Sensies” are unknown.
Robots: Industrial robots and automated vehicles are common. Most households are equipped with a variety of labor saving bots, but humanoid bots are rare. Combat robots such as airborne drones and tanks can be found, but humanoid combat robots are usually restricted to automated sparring partners for hand to hand combat. The main reason is an understandable discomfort with automated machines equipped with weapons killing sentients without supervision. Most combat units are required to have sentient being give a go/nogo signal to fire before beginning combat. “Swarm” robots are unknown in this setting.
Ironically there’s less automation in rich foxen Noble houses. Having living servitors is a sign of prestige for both the Noble, and often their Commoners, who might have been serving the same family for several centuries.
Personal Goods: All the clothing options except Swarmwear and Clothing Belts in p. UT38-40 are available, though Buzz Fabric is the most common. Suitspray is impractical with species such as foxen or kinis, since the spray usually spreads unevenly and unpleasantly over their fur. Cybervoxes and Electronic Ecstasy are available, though the latter is highly illegal on most civilized planets.
Communications: All normal options through TL9 are available. In addition superscience TL11 FTL Radios are available, offering real time, if very expensive, communication. Pricing is generally $1 per five hundred words (one page) of text or static images, $1 per minute for voice communications, and $1 every five seconds for full audio and visual transmission.
Sensors: All sensors except Ultrascanners are available.
Nanotech and Genetech: Nanotech is limited to some medical functions and construction of small objects, due to realistic heat dissipation limitations. In general genetech is used for practical functions, like boosting immune systems, preventing diseases, and adapting plants and animals to survive on other worlds. For most medical procedures it is included in the TL bonus of medical equipment. Nanostatis is available, but works in a significantly different manner than it does in UT.
Stasis Boxes: Cost = $10,000 per square foot of storage space. Boxes weigh one pound per square foot of internal space.
Objects placed inside will be completely frozen in place and will not rot or decay. However, it will stop respiratory functions and kill any plant or animal inside it, they just won’t decompose. This is often used in hauling exotic food delicacies to other worlds.
Nanostasis: Cost = $100,000 per pound of subject’s mass, minimum $1,000,000.
This technique can stop a living being’s life functions and then allow them to be restarted. Usually. It’s required for perform Cellular Regeneration on a subject. Roll against Electronics Operation (Medical) at -2 to skill to successfully restart a subject’s life functions.
Cellular Regeneration: Cost = $10,000,000 per pound of subject’s mass, minimum $100,000,000.
This advanced medical procedure freezes a subject’s cellular structure, shutting down all organs and preventing them from decaying by constructing a nanotech support lattice for each individual cell. Once this is done, a fleet of nanobots moves in to repair all damage at the microscopic level, healing bones, repairing organs, and in extreme cases restoring destroyed limbs. All hit points are restored, players may buy back any physical disadvantages, all HT lost for any reason will be returned to it’s original value, and the PC’s physical age will be reset to the age of legal adulthood in their society.
Aside from the enormous cost, the downsides are manifold. Once the procedure is finished the patient must undergo several weeks of physical therapy to regain their strength and recover lost muscle memory of how to walk and even eat. Worse, they will suffer from Total Amnesia and their IQ is at -10! Each week they may make an IQ roll (remember that a 3 is an automatic success) to recover an IQ point. Once all IQ points are recovered they may make an IQ roll once a month to remove one level of Amnesia. However, should a natural 18 be rolled at any time during the IQ recovery, the patient’s IQ is permanently fixed at their current level. In addition, a normal critical failure during the Amnesia recovery will also fix the Amnesia at its current level. Both may be bought off with experience points, but trying to gain XP with an IQ 3 will probably be extremely difficult.
Manufacturing: Robofacs are common, and almost every middle class home has an in-house fabricator for convenience. “Wet” nanofacs on the industrial level are still the stuff of science fiction, and the technique is extremely expensive as Cellular Regeneration demonstrates.
Covert Ops and Stealth: Almost every non-superscience item is available, and also Dynamic Holotech and Gravity Webs. “Spoofer Cloaks” operate as Invisibility Cloaks (p. UT100).
Security and Surveillance: All TL10 non-superscience options are available except for swarms.
Enforcement and Coercion: Verifier Software is available, but usually is superseded by Crediline. It’s often used by Foxen authorities however, since no reliable interrogation drugs exist that are compatible with Foxen physiology. Foxen injected with Crediline must roll against HT-6 or suffer an immediate Heart Attack.
Cufftape and Electronic Cuffs are the most common restraints. In addition there are also Tractor Cuffs, which use a built-in tractor/pressor beams instead of chains to allow a variety of restraint levels.
Tractor Cuffs (TL11) ST 30 and DR 5 $500 1 lbs B/1 wk. LC4.
Interrogation, Brainwashing, and Animal Control: Only Message Bombs exist in this setting, though they’re usually confined to fiction.
Weapons: Lasers are available in all forms, up to X-Ray Lasers. Particle Accelerators (called “Plasma Blasters” in this setting) are also available and commonly used by military forces. In addition all Neural weapons except Mindrippers are available, though only with the Unconsciousness or Paralysis settings. Conventional or Electromagnetic weapons are also available, but less common.
All non-superscience melee weapons up to TL10 are available.
Armor: All armor options up to TL10 are available. Battlesuits are commonly used by soldiers, mercenaries, and pirates during boarding actions.
Defense Systems: All TL10 options except Reactive Armor Paste are available.
Force Fields: Barrier Screens are available, but only as Heavy Force Screens, limiting them to ground installations or large vehicles. They’re required for FTL spacecraft since they completely block the deadly radiation found in hyperspace.
Medical Equipment: All TL9 equipment except brainscanners is readily available. Nanostatsis is available as detailed under Nanotech and Genemods. Typical First Aid kits include an interactive help screen that is included in the First Aid skill bonus.
Drugs: All TL9-10 drugs are available except Memory-Beta.
Cybernetics: While cybernetic replacement of lost limbs or other organs is common, in general “elective” installation of cybernetics is rarely done, even for covert operations agents. The exception seems to Smart Tattoos (p. UT211), which are popular among body modification enthusiasts. Furred species like the foxen or kinis use something similar which replaces the hairs of their pelts with fiber optic strands.
Cybernetic uplift of animals is illegal and considered animal cruelty on most civilized worlds.
Transportation
Planetary:
Contragravity transport is available and relatively cheap. Though ground cars are still common, there are an equal number of “Skimmers” on the road, family sized ground vehicles that hover a few inches off the ground. Grav tanks are in use by the military, but fortunately thanks to interstellar distances discouraging war, the average Alliance citizen will rarely see them in use.
Long range planetary transport usually revolves around ballistic liners or near-vacuum transcontinental tunnels, though luxury liners in both the air and sea are always available for those who enjoy the journey, not the destination.
Orbital:
Transport to and from orbit relies on contra grav shuttlecraft. More prosperous worlds often have one or more space elevators to handle bulk traffic where efficiency is valued over speed.
Space: Normal spaceflight depends on reactionless thrusters (see GURPS Space) which provide unlimited acceleration without a need for fuel, though the power cost can be signifigant.
FTL “Superluminal” drives operate as Hyperdrives, as detailed in GURPS Space. When a ship transitions to superluminal, distances are reduced a thousandfold, rendering trips that would take years or centuries to mere days or weeks. Ships travelling well established routes depend on navigation beacons to avoid hazards, which transmit guidance data via FTL coms. Exploration vessels rely on blind jumps, which require careful calculation to make sure transitioning out of superluminal doesn’t result in trying to occupy the same space as a star or an asteroid.