Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-29-2010, 04:04 PM   #21
Ulzgoroth
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Default Re: GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality

It seems like the types of things included in this are:
-Technically workable stuff that was actually built or at least proposed up to TL4, but never made it big.
-Stuff that represents myths, both historical and modern. Specifically, myths about supposedly non-magical things. Like alchemy, ethnic cool weapons, stirrups, plate armor weighing hundreds of pounds, impenetrable cloth...

I don't think anything in the book isn't one of the two. So in particular there's nothing that takes a myth and then extrapolates what might have developed from it if it were real.
__________________
I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident.
Ulzgoroth is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-29-2010, 04:05 PM   #22
Edges
 
Edges's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: GMT-5
Default Re: GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality

Quote:
Originally Posted by lexington View Post
I think the argument would be that those are ceramic, not really just aluminum that's transparent.
Alon, yes. X-ray bombarded aluminum, no. I'm not saying the book is wrong. I'm just saying there's more to it than "fake invention" for those interested.

I'll say no more if fear of thread derailment. : )
Edges is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-29-2010, 04:08 PM   #23
Edges
 
Edges's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: GMT-5
Default Re: GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality

Quote:
Originally Posted by ehrbar View Post
By Brady's Materials Handbook, it was discovered in 1727. Other sources place it later, with isolation not happening until the 19th Century.




Napoleon III's crown jewels were apparently displayed or stored alongside bars of pure aluminum; there are also claims that a special set of aluminum flatware was used to honor guests at his table above the gold that other guests used. The Washington Monument was capped with aluminum when it was still expensive. Reasonably cheap production of aluminum (through electrolytic refining) didn't happen until 1885.
Thanks. That sounds right. I must have been mistaken. 'Just wanted to double check.
Edges is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-29-2010, 05:47 PM   #24
Kromm
GURPS Line Editor
 
Kromm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
Default Re: GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edges View Post

It also says that transparent aluminum is fictional. See ALON for a non-fictional "transparent aluminum."
AlON is a ceramic that contains aluminum, not aluminum metal, and more like a glass or a spinel. You can make these things will all kinds of funky properties; that was a major research goal at my undergraduate school. But I wouldn't call it "transparent aluminum" any more than I'd call a crystal of table salt "translucent sodium." When you use the name of a metal without qualifying what it's compounded with, it's assumed you mean the elemental metal.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edges View Post

And soft x-rays can make ordinary aluminum transparent over small time intervals.
For definitions of "small" that include "femtoseconds" and "transparent" that mean "to hard UV," yeah. Check out the energy requirement, too. :)
__________________
Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com>
GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games
My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News]
Kromm is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 07-29-2010, 06:09 PM   #25
Turhan's Bey Company
Aluminated
 
Turhan's Bey Company's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: East of the moon, west of the stars, close to buses and shopping
Default Re: GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Marsh View Post
Yes, the steam cat continues to amuse me far more than a grown man should be amused. Each time I stumble across the image I giggle some more.
It's a bit embarrassing that the best illustration in the book doesn't actually have any stats or even a specific item associated with it. So:

Treat steam cat as a modified Di Giorgio tank; the cutting blades are disguised as steam cat's shining teeth. Lwt. increases to 1.9, while load drops to 0.3. The weight difference is the result of a top-mounted portable steam cannon. Steam cat typically carries enough wood to keep the cannon at temperature for two hours and carries 40 rounds of shot. $12,000.
__________________
I've been making pointlessly shiny things, and I've got some gaming-related stuff as well as 3d printing designs.

Buy my Warehouse 23 stuff, dammit!
Turhan's Bey Company is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-29-2010, 06:15 PM   #26
sir_pudding
Wielder of Smart Pants
 
sir_pudding's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
Default Re: GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
AlON is a ceramic that contains aluminum, not aluminum metal, and more like a glass or a spinel. You can make these things will all kinds of funky properties; that was a major research goal at my undergraduate school. But I wouldn't call it "transparent aluminum" any more than I'd call a crystal of table salt "translucent sodium." When you use the name of a metal without qualifying what it's compounded with, it's assumed you mean the elemental metal.
When it was first announced it was hyped as "transparent aluminum", but that probably has more to do with Star Trek IV than it does with chemistry.
sir_pudding is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-29-2010, 06:17 PM   #27
Turhan's Bey Company
Aluminated
 
Turhan's Bey Company's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: East of the moon, west of the stars, close to buses and shopping
Default Re: GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
It seems like the types of things included in this are:
-Technically workable stuff that was actually built or at least proposed up to TL4, but never made it big.
-Stuff that represents myths, both historical and modern. Specifically, myths about supposedly non-magical things. Like alchemy, ethnic cool weapons, stirrups, plate armor weighing hundreds of pounds, impenetrable cloth...
Exactly right. It's very specifically a catalog of historical imaginings. Up to a point, history's short on extrapolation and working out the consequences, so there's essentially none of that.
__________________
I've been making pointlessly shiny things, and I've got some gaming-related stuff as well as 3d printing designs.

Buy my Warehouse 23 stuff, dammit!
Turhan's Bey Company is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-29-2010, 06:41 PM   #28
Kromm
GURPS Line Editor
 
Kromm's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
Default Re: GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality

Quote:
Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post

When it was first announced it was hyped as "transparent aluminum", but that probably has more to do with Star Trek IV than it does with chemistry.
Yeah, I recall the hype . . . another case of marketing triumphing over reason, I guess. :P
__________________
Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com>
GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games
My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News]
Kromm is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 07-29-2010, 09:03 PM   #29
malloyd
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
For definitions of "small" that include "femtoseconds" and "transparent" that mean "to hard UV," yeah. Check out the energy requirement, too. :)
In a lot of ways that looks more like "vaporized, but only in a local metastable sense", more than "transparent". What's the absorption spectrum of aluminum vapor look like anyway?
__________________
--
MA Lloyd
malloyd is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 07-29-2010, 10:06 PM   #30
Gurps Fan
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Japan
Default Re: GURPS Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality

I came, I saw, I bought!
__________________
Gurps Fan,
a rules lawyer from the mysterious country of ninja, samurai, and magical girls,
the inventor of M.U.N.C.H.K.I.N.
Gurps Fan is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
cabaret chicks on ice, low-tech

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:56 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.