 The picture of the City Builder left was created by Lisa Free and (RWRPG Creatures Book, p30). In the background you can see onr of the many floating City Builder metropolises. Tragically, most of these floating castles came crashing to the Ringworld floor at the Fall of Cities (about 1733AD, UN calender, the narrative in the Ringworld novels is at about 2870AD). No many people knows that the Fall of Cities was actually precipitated by the Puppeteers when they introduced a superconductor virus that attacked most of the superconductors in Ringworld civilisation. This plot is only known to the Puppeteers, Louis Wu, Chmee (a Kzin explorer) and a handful of hominids that Louis and Chmee met. Not all the buildings were affected, some were isolated enough not to be affected and the superconductor grid embedded in the Ringworld floor escaped the attack of the virus.
KNOWN SPACE TECHNOLOGY
Force Cuffs - by Adrian Sayle
Sports 'Rang - By Adrian Sayle
Seaglide - by Karl David Brown
Nanodoc - by Joseph Covert
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Force Cuffs (by Adrian Sayle)
Many different suppliers (Main Police or ilk agencies)
WEIGHT: 315g
VOLUME: large stick -- 10cm x 10cm x 7cm
RANGE: N/A
DAMAGE DONE: None - restraint device (STR rating of 30)
ENERGY USED: 1/im - 10 per start
POWER SUPPLY: rechargeable battery 15/500/45g R
ARMOR: 10 points
HIT POINTS: 15
APPLICABLE SKILL: N/A
COST: 175 stars - restricted item - Black Market cost of 550 credits.
Use to secure the hands of a prisoner without causing harm or stunning them. The bands consist of two metal cuffs with snap around the wrists and can be tightened to match hand/wrist size (They will also go around ankles without any trouble) - they are not joined to each other except for their magnetic charging. When activate by remote or by code selection on the top the cuffs they are magnetically drawn together by a STR30 power. It is possible for a nimble long-fingered person knowing the code to deactivate the cuffs - also, by someone who has fine enough control of their tongue or a stick in their mouth.
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Sports 'Rang (by Adrian Sayle)
BOOMERANG, SPORTS (Red Rock Sports, Earth)
WEIGHT: 175g
VOLUME: large stick -- 3cm x 18cm x 5mm
RANGE: short 30m, medium 60m (no long range)
DAMAGE DONE: 1d6+2 (1d6+4 if used by skill >70%)
ENERGY USED: N/A
POWER SUPPLY: N/A
ARMOR: 4 points
HIT POINTS: 15
APPLICABLE SKILL: Missile, A (projectile)
COST: 100 stars common sports device in Ringworld era.
A popular sport that is played mainly in Australia (can be seen often being played by the children living near the Outback space base) is the Astro Boomerang. A light metal bent stick (at about 30 degrees) that when thrown returns to the thrower - with skill and luck it can be used to clip a target and then return to the thrower. This is one of the few archaic type weapons that are still used (abet for sports and skill only) and is regularly competed in Australia.
Being computer designed it is easy to get the 'Rang to return when it doesn't hit anything (skill above 20) but to get it to return after a hit requires the roll to pass by 20% than needed to hit with. Otherwise... it falls to the ground beside the target (who might then pick it up and try to break it or throw it back).
Various types can exist for this sports item, soft and hard foam being one change. Other extra's are available, with hip holster and throwing gloves (to protect the hand when catching).
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SEAGLIDE (by Karl David Brown - Canberra, Australia)
MASS: (26 000kg)
VOLUME: 5x15x5m distorted rectangular prism (wedge).
SPEED: Maximum-600kph at one atmosphere, 85kph on the surface of the water or 25kph when submerged. Cruising- 400kph at one atmosphere, 25kph on the surface of the water and 15kph underwater. As well as thruster powered movement once at depth the Seaglide can ‘glide’ upwards unpowered steered by its short wings at 10khp, climbing with a gradient of at least 1 in 20.
MAXIMUM ACCELERATION: 3kph/im
ENERGY USED: 4000/im or unpowered 25/im for passive sensors, life support and steering. When travelling unpowered the craft's very good insulation keeps the EM signature down to that produced by a 2/im device. As well as being a safety feature, unpowered gliding is less threatening to sea life and provides tourists and biologists alike with a view of elusive creatures of the deep, creatures that avoid the cacophony of sonic and electromagnetic signals that emanate from powered craft.
POWER SUPPLY: Fusion 5 generator
APPLICABLE SKILL: Aquatic vehicle, atmospheric vehicle.
COST: 12000 stars, 8000 used
ARMOR: Most 25, windshield 15 points, searchlight and sensors are unarmored
HIT POINTS: 260
Location 1D20 Armor/HP
Sensors/searchlight 01 0/8 (0.03)
Fore life section* 02-08 15/52 (0.2)
Aft life section* 09-14 15/52 (0.2)
Thrusters and generator 15-17 25/104 (0.4)
Wings** 18-20 25/65 (0.25)
*Make Luck rolls to see if crew is hit. In some models the two sections are combined into a single deck (hit on 02-14 with 104HP).
**Destruction of wings during unpowered movement causes the craft to ‘plummet’ upwards out of control.
The Seaglide is a private recreational vehicle of a type common on the tourist water world of Silvereyes. The Seaglide is a streamlined wedge with two pairs of short ‘wings’. Most of the upper surface is a single clear plasteel windshield punctured only by two airlocks and the rung ladders to reach them in emergencies. Shown is a demonstration model with fittings for a number of species including a larger airlock and water filled compartment for cetaceans, as well a fore section with human, kdatlyno and trinoc chairs. To date no trinoc fitted vehicles have been sold.
At great depths low light/passive sonar composite images are projected onto the windshield and if scaring off the fauna is not a concern then the powerful fore-mounted spotlight can be used. Readouts from the vehicle instruments are also projected onto the windshield. The seaglide is rated to 400atm of pressure in water or other non-corrosive liquids. Though equipped with thrusters and pressurised the Seaglide is of little use as a spacecraft as it is not insulated against extreme heat or radiation, has no cabin gravity, and could not withstand micro meteor impacts. The vehicle can serve as a (large) air car.
In mixed species models clear barriers separate compartments. For cetacean models verbal commands cause the commode and food dispensers to emerge from the floor. For other species the rooms to port and starboard are a bathroom/commode and kitchenette/first aid station respectively. The facilities aboard are not designed for extensive use providing no sleeping arrangements, in an emergency the Seaglide can provide food water and air for four for 20days, if submerged in water the craft can supply potable water indefinitely.
The Seaglide is the latest in a long line of winged submersibles that had their genesis as early as the 1990s (see www.deepflight.com).
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Nanodoc
Equipment: Medical
Contributor: Joseph Covert, JosephCovert@juno.com
Date: 11/04/03
Category: Equipment: Medical
Name: NanoDoc
Source: Crashlander by Larry Niven
Description: This is a modified and much improved autodoc designed and
built by the genius artist/explorer/inventor Carlos Wu. This oversized
'doc utilizes nanotechnology, and is capable of repairing damage up to
and including beheading. This item uses nanobots to rapidly clone and
grow organs, tissue, fluids and even whole bodies in an amazingly short
amount of time. In a classified example, a notorious criminal was
beheaded. His partner placed his severed head into the 'doc and stuffed
a dead body into the organic matter intake hopper. The criminal was
rebuilt according to his DNA. Unfortunately, the mass of the dead body
was less than the criminal's original body, so he came out alive and
whole but a foot shorter. This is the ultimate (for the moment) medical
unit, and is restricted in use to the ARM and to certain very highly
placed (and wealthy) movers and shakers. Nessus had a puppeteer version
of this on the first trip.
Stats: MAS 50, VOLUME 8mx4mx3m, HIT POINTS 30, POWER SUPPLY ship's
generator, solar collectors, plus emergency battery, ENERGY DRAW 360/hour
(0.1/im), EMERGENCY OPERATING TIME 40 hour battery (14,400/5/14.4/R),
SPEED OF TREATMENT hit point damage in hours, can heal up to full normal
hit points, heals all locations simultaneously, can heal even the loss of
a body. As long as the "dead" character is placed in the unit within ten
minutes of death, they can be saved.
Designer Notes: Although an integral part of the "Ghost" storyline in
Crashlander, and the reason ARM was searching so desperately for Beowulf,
this amazing leap forward in Known Space technology dropped out of sight.
I thought it might be nice to have this little deus ex machina available
to your player characters, especially if they're travelling to the
Ringworld as an ARM exploratory mission. Hard to get PC replacements
that far away, eh?
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