Idea for a device?

[mike wightman]

How about the good old Apocalypse Box?
"An Apocalypse Box is an object with mysterious origins and purpose, though it is known to posses a personality and can divulge information dating back thousands of years. There are said to be six Apocalypse Boxes and that the previous owners of all but one have ended up murdered."

Link to Babylon 5 wiki http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Apocalypse_Box

 

[Ex_Pendable]

Alien Medicine Chest

Constructed by an ancient space-faring race of merchants, the medicine chest is actually a small scale medicine fabrication machine that can produce several different varieties of drugs tied to skills.

However, it is important to note the translation programs sometimes do not provide an accurate description of the drug.

One customer, wishing to lose weight, was issued a slave pill.

One customer, wishing that they'd never get lost, received a pill intended for a race of telepaths, which acts as an internal inertial tracker, giving the user an immediate and accurate idea of where they are.

One customer selected the Captain pill, and gained an immediate and indepth knowledge in the workings of the alien spaceships used by that race.

This same customer also received a Prophet pill - people now listen, hanging onto his every word. It can also, it is rumored, allow one to perform miracles.

And finally there is the Eraser pill, which finds all the RNA from the other pills and removes it from the taker's system.

 

[Grav_Moped]

A box, about the size and shape of a household refrigerator, with a perfectly reflective and impenetrable exterior surface; it cannot be damaged by any known machinery or weaponry. There is a small area of its surface (about 2x30cm) with a not-quite-so-reflective (but still impenetrable) set of changing glyphs, which research will determine are numbers in something resembling the Droyne language, counting down at a constant rate. Based on the size of the "display" area, it has been counting down since the era of the Ancients. It will reach zero in a matter of months from when the PCs encounter it.

The question is, do you want to be in control of it at that time, or as far away from it as possible?

 

[Ulsyus]

An Ancients artifact? If it was highly valued, it could be one of their Happiness Devices: an icosahedron that when viewed by multiple Ancients can give them a feeling of contentment and relaxation, and when held by one a feeling of calm happiness. Calibrated to a single owner reduces the intensity of the feelings induced in other Ancients.

Humaniti not being Ancients, it doesn't quite work that way - it amplifies some feelings and not others, with intensity varying with proximity. Knowledge of it can increase the intensity, and a feedback loop can occur.

From a distance, if not known of, nothing is felt. If known of, an odd feeling of moving towards it is felt.

Closer in the odd feeling occurs if it's unknown, or a distinct impression one should move in its direction if it's known about. And so on and so forth.

When held by one of Humaniti it induces contentment, but has an addictive quality not felt by Ancients. Until it's held, it amplifies desire (generally for it). Once people are on its track, they continue to seek it. The more they want it, then the more they want it. Only a willingness to give it up breaks the cycle, but getting to that point is the tricky bit.

 

[kilemall]

Actually that does bring up a point- Ancients were manipulative critters, so they likely had devices to control their 'managed' races which could still work, and possibly backdoor coding to mods like the Vargr.

 

[kilemall]

A box, about the size and shape of a household refrigerator, with a perfectly reflective and impenetrable exterior surface; it cannot be damaged by any known machinery or weaponry. There is a small area of its surface (about 2x30cm) with a not-quite-so-reflective (but still impenetrable) set of changing glyphs, which research will determine are numbers in something resembling the Droyne language, counting down at a constant rate. Based on the size of the "display" area, it has been counting down since the era of the Ancients. It will reach zero in a matter of months from when the PCs encounter it.

The question is, do you want to be in control of it at that time, or as far away from it as possible?

Wicked!

 

[DickNervous]

Okay, so I have been binge watching Stargate SG-1 and am a big fan of Killjoys, The Expanse, and Dark Matter (RIP) so please forgive the influence of those shows on the following ideas...

1. A Stargate (duh!), but without any instructions.
2. A weather control device that can within minutes change the weather on an entire planet. But it needs to be calibrated for each planet. And once used, removing it will cause havoc.
3. A sample of the Proto-molecule from The Expanse.
4. The "sarcophagus" from Stargate. Can pretty much raise the dead, but also messes with the persons soul/personality every time they use it. Can extend human life to several hundred years.
5. "Tree of Life" that has a sap that essentially makes you immortal, gives rapid healing, and bumps all physical attributes. However, it is actually a parasitic organism that makes you part of a hive mind. (this is what my Travellercon adventure is built upon).
6. Extremely high TL power source, for instance a power plant that is 1% the size of what it should be for the amount of power it generates. Oh, and it requires no fuel. Unfortunately it also has no instructions. ​

But all the ideas in this thread are awesome! I will have to use some of them.

 

[kilemall]

Gravitic Globe

A device of about 25 dton, the GG was originally a backup environmental/maneuver module for a space city. Fragments of Ancients texts mention a precursor race that preferred such habitation.

The globe envelops the station/ship and reduces any size object to a relative mass of 1 gram. The object can then be pushed with a reaction thruster poked through the field and fired. Gravitic drives cannot be used for this purpose, the GG interferes or negates their effect.

The net effect is that absolutely huge ships or stations can be kept on station indefinitely with very little fuel or maneuver engine.

Conversely, they can also be greatly accelerated, but the GG does not provide any inertial correction so actual acceleration is limited to whatever limits already exist for conventional maneuver. But it does mean a ship might have a 6-G plus capability for a lot less space required.

There is also a gravitic barrier effect akin to repulsion that protects against incoming objects. The more mass to contact the GG the more diffraction or repulsion will occur. It is not a perfect barrier like a Black Globe but it will lessen weapons effect and throw off incoming fire. Take -3 to hit off missiles and plasma/fusion weapons, -2 for PA/Meson weapons, and -1 for lasers.

The final effect is that a GG object will be virtually invisible to mass detector sensors, and densitometers will not work in or out.

Operating the GG is problematic. Since the precursor race is not the Ancients, the control and power interfaces are not known or understood and previous artifacts have been filed in 'to be looked at every 100 years' artifact warehouses with only guesses as to what it does.

However, the latest of these GGs discovered was at an Ancients R&D facility, there are Ancient-devised power converter couplers connected. Ancients' power feeds ARE understood by specialists and can act as engineering Rosetta stones.

Most are broken or dysfunctional but one WILL feed the GG and while it will not fully power the device, may yield a template to give the ability to duplicate and do so for all 4 inputs.

Unbeknownst to all but the Ancients, the precursors had an engineering philosophy of having the power feeds also be the control system. So decoding or at least trying the 'commands' stored in the Ancients' control system will be necessary to turn the GG on.

So ironically the most valuable find isn't the GG itself, it's the Ancients' power/control system.

Power requirement at ref's discretion, should be scaled to what effect is desired for the game.

 

[Major B]

An Ancients artifact? If it was highly valued, it could be one of their Happiness Devices: an icosahedron that when viewed by multiple Ancients can give them a feeling of contentment and relaxation, and when held by one a feeling of calm happiness. Calibrated to a single owner reduces the intensity of the feelings induced in other Ancients.

Humaniti not being Ancients, it doesn't quite work that way - it amplifies some feelings and not others, with intensity varying with proximity. Knowledge of it can increase the intensity, and a feedback loop can occur.

From a distance, if not known of, nothing is felt. If known of, an odd feeling of moving towards it is felt.

Closer in the odd feeling occurs if it's unknown, or a distinct impression one should move in its direction if it's known about. And so on and so forth.

When held by one of Humaniti it induces contentment, but has an addictive quality not felt by Ancients. Until it's held, it amplifies desire (generally for it). Once people are on its track, they continue to seek it. The more they want it, then the more they want it. Only a willingness to give it up breaks the cycle, but getting to that point is the tricky bit.

Make it a ring... my precious!