Notes on Using GURPS Ultra-Tech (4e) in TS: Chapter 1

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

* EMP: Not canon in TS; possibly feasible, and of course very handy for use against cybershells (although most military types will have some level of shielding) - but the setting's relatively poor rapid-release energy storage technology once again provides an excuse to keep these out or reduce the effects.

An EMP warhead seems to be TL 8. Interestingly, the way we make EMP warheads provides a method of pulsed power for our lasers while simultaneously explaining why no-one wants to carry the dang things. Basically, to get the very high power electrical pulse needed to drive the microwave antenna to get the EMP, you use a detonating high explosive to do work by shorting out an electromagnet. The same principle could be applied to powering lasers and other goodies - take a length of det cord, coat in in copper, and put it inside a solenoid. To fire the laser, first drive a current through the solenoid, then detonate the det cord. This gives you your surge of electric current to power your beam weapon. Each such cartridge is good for one shot, and is (obviously) non-rechargeable. Now - do you really want to be setting off high explosives like this right next to you in order to fire your nifty laser gun?

Luke

[Shrale]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters
* Nanotracers: Plausible for TS (though they could do with some slightly more detailed duration rules and radio signal ranges). Would probably be rare (who has a legal use for them, really?)

Originally Posted by DryaUnda

Anyone who wants to track an escaped convict.

I'd come up with a scenario where a group of kidnappers had insisted on payment by gems and the < setting equivalent of the FBI > had used a microbot swarm/nanotracer on the bag which contained payment, when they placed it at the drop site.

The kidnappers end up having a cybershell place the bag inside a shielded box, however it could drop it in a jury-rigged, portable microwave to clean it. Saw a neat show on TV where a bankrobber carried a heavy cooler with him and he'd submerge his ill-gotten gains inside water to kill any RF (last decade tech). Not sure if something that tiny would submerge without careful execution.

[Shrale]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

An EMP warhead seems to be TL 8. Interestingly, the way we make EMP warheads provides a method of pulsed power for our lasers while simultaneously explaining why no-one wants to carry the dang things. Basically, to get the very high power electrical pulse needed to drive the microwave antenna to get the EMP, you use a detonating high explosive to do work by shorting out an electromagnet. The same principle could be applied to powering lasers and other goodies - take a length of det cord, coat in in copper, and put it inside a solenoid. To fire the laser, first drive a current through the solenoid, then detonate the det cord. This gives you your surge of electric current to power your beam weapon. Each such cartridge is good for one shot, and is (obviously) non-rechargeable. Now - do you really want to be setting off high explosives like this right next to you in order to fire your nifty laser gun?

Luke

I did come across this, if you're interested. They were discussing EMP over in the CotI Traveller site and someone posted this.

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/a...pp/apjemp.html

[Phil Masters]

[With further apologies for the slow progress of this process. Life, conventions, et cetera.]

Chapter Seven

Another important chapter - perhaps even more important than the one before, given that even the most pacifistic PCs may want protection, against less pacifistic NPCs or hostile environments (or non-pacifistic PCs, for that matter).

In general, I think that the broad assumptions about these technologies are quite compatible between TS and this book; however, detail assumptions about cost and weight per point of DR, various other factors, and exactly what's incorporated into various suits and such as standard, and what represents an optional extra, likely generate a lot of detail clashes and potential for confusion. One could use this stuff in place of the gear in the TS main book without breaking the setting at all, but I'd strongly recommend using either TS-books armour or UT armour, not trying to mix and match. (You'll need to convert Legality Class ratings to the 4e standard, of course.)

Overall, I think that Ultra-Tech usually makes a given amount of DR of any given type somewhat heavier and more expensive. But there are certainly exceptions to that, and there may be subtleties and complexities involved.

* Smart Bioplastic: I'm not sure that TS actually features this as such, at least as an armour material, although it certainly features some kinds of "smart matter". It might be imported, possibly at substantially increased prices - the self-healing capability is not to be sniffed at. Though I'd certainly make it less able to heal certain types of damage (if it's destroyed by, say, extreme temperatures, it can't just knit back together), and maybe susceptible to disruption by radiation effects. The text does hint at the former in places.

Body Armor and Protective Gear

* Ballistic Armor: This is fairly closely akin to the Arachnoweave and Nanoweave featured in the TS core book. Reflex uses different buzzwords to the old notes on Arachnoweave - the idea of imitating spider silk is de-emphasised in favour of a mention of "shear thickening fluid", a concept that I don't think was available when TS was written. However, if one invokes the "Tailoring Armor" rules (see below) and treats Arachnoweave as a Light version of Reflex, the numbers come close. Nanoweave is much as before, if one treats the UT gear as equivalent to Medium TS Nanoweave - except that it now has split DR, and is apparently cheaper and lighter.

* Tactical Vests: This TL8 concept obviously provides a handy additional option for fighters if it shows up in TS games.

* Laser-Resistant Body Armor: With few military laser sidearms around, there'll be little incentive to develop this sort of stuff in the TS world. Ablative would probably be possible, but as Reflec is flagged as cinematic anyway, it's probably best ignored.

* Bioplas Armor: See my comments on smart bioplastic above. This could be an interesting option is slightly specialised applications - perhaps more for civilians than military types.

* Tailoring Armor: These very handy rules are probably worth borrowing even if a campaign is using the standard TS armour types and capabilities; they provide a lot of options. (I suggest using Medium as the baseline standard for Nanoweave armour in that case.) For example, using TS-standard base values, a pair of skimpy high-fashion nanoweave briefs provide DR 10, weigh 2 oz., and cost $375 - or 1 oz. and $187.50 for a functionally backless thong.

* Rigid body Armor: Again, the numbers are comparable but not identical between the two sources. Treating the armored shades from these tables as the basis for a Wearable Virtual Interface is going to raise the template cost a bit - and don't forget to add a Perk, "Protects Wearer's Eyes with own DR".

* Environmental Gear and Suits: Yet more similar-not-identical stuff. The Ultra-Tech versions have DR listed, which makes sense.

Powered Suits

Here, the assumptions implicit in the original TS material do diverge significantly from those of Ultra-Tech. I'd suggest following the former, to preserve the feel of the setting, but GMs are of course welcome to do otherwise.

Basically, although TS has powered battlesuits, they really aren't as good as the TL10 models in this chapter. (See also Changing Times for 4e versions of the old book's designs.) This can be explained in terms of the previously-discussed conservative treatment of battery technology, combined with less interest from the arms manufacturers; frontline combat in TS is often handled by cybershells, not goons in suits - the suits are mostly for occasional specialists (including various kinds of special forces) and nervous officers.

Defense Systems

Some of these options which aren't already covered by the TS material might be borrowed, even by GMs who favour the old books over this one, though obviously some of these things are more appropriate than others. For example, the "Armor Without Faceplates" rule does make for stylishly slightly crazy faceless goons, while the Electromagnetic Armor option might be fitted to some heavier battlesuits in TS, if the GM wishes.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

"shear thickening fluid", a concept that I don't think was available when TS was written.

Silly-Putty™. Or coupling fluid in a torque converter. Or a mixture of cornstarch and water. The old term for these things is 'non-Newtonian fluids', or specifically 'dilatant fluids'.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Silly-Putty™. Or coupling fluid in a torque converter. Or a mixture of cornstarch and water. The old term for these things is 'non-Newtonian fluids', or specifically 'dilatant fluids'.

Okay, the concept was known to some fluid mechanicists. I still think that the idea of using this stuff in armour first appeared in the last couple of years or so.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Okay, the concept was known to some fluid mechanicists.

Also to anyone who subscribed to Scientific American. I learned about non-Newtonian fluids from the 'Amateur Scientist' column in Sci. Am..

I still think that the idea of using this stuff in armour first appeared in the last couple of years or so.

I should have published when I thought of it, then.

[Phil Masters]

First announcements of actual implementation of the "liquid armour" concept appear to go back to 2004:

http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2004/armor052404.html

The claim is that the academic working on this started in the mid '90s, and linked up with the US army labs in 2000:

http://www.nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=2976

The developers seem to be saying that they should be marketing this stuff commercially by the end of 2007:

http://www.ccm.udel.edu/STF/PubLinks...ne_Oct2006.pdf

This stuff is being pitched as much more stab-proof than standard kevlar - which helps sell it to, for example, prison guards, who are more likely to get stabbed than shot. In game terms, I guess that this might justify giving the armour full DR against impaling as well as piercing and cutting.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

This stuff is being pitched as much more stab-proof than standard kevlar

I was thinking of in more in terms of spreading out blunt-force trauma. Earliest I can date mentioning it was October or November 1989.

[t@nya]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Chapter Three

* Teaching and Learning Aids: Another handy discussion of what might be possible. However, I'd consider the Dream Teacher probably to be superscience; messing about with people's dream states and hoping to convey useful training thereby strikes me as dubious. It doesn't seem to be canon in TS, and I could see PCs abusing it, so I'd tend to leave it out.

What about lucid dreams? There are people who can control their dreams and practice skills when they're sleeping. Why can't the Dream Teacher incorporate its lesson material into this type of dream: the person becomes lucid and accesses the lesson. The person would, of course, need training on how to become lucid in his or her dreams.