Interesting Things and Oddities IYTU

[Spinward Scout]

Hi Everybody!

I was wondering today about interesting Things IMTU. Stuff that could provide background fluff or just that little magical touch to make the universe seem different than real life (other than starships and energy weapons). I was looking through the SORAG book this morning and found the entry for NarcoLethe. The entry says that it's the finest liquor known - and doesn't produce hangovers. Neat (especially after going out drinking last night hehehe). Anyways, to get to the point, what have you come up with to provide a little "flavor" in the form of a neat trinket or non-Ancient wonder for your Universe? Here's a few ideas I have:

Dust Rose - very rare natural formation
Holo-Bard - Entertainer and Information Retrieval System
Galaxy Glu - Traveller SuperGlue

Later,

Scout

 

[RainOfSteel]

Originally posted by Dameon Toth Detached Scout:
Hi Everybody!

<snip>

what have you come up with to provide a little "flavor" in the form of a neat trinket or non-Ancient wonder for your Universe? Here's a few ideas I have:

Dust Rose - very rare natural formation
Holo-Bard - Entertainer and Information Retrieval System
Galaxy Glu - Traveller SuperGlue

Later,

Scout

IMTU . . .

I have created an old and extinct race that lived in the Vanguard reaches about 25,000 years before the modern time, 1100 IC. I call them the Nithosians. They are not the ancients. They grew up into a civilization that spanned some twenty sectors spinward of the Great Rift. After about three thousand years, their civilization fell into a long decline of stagnation and decay, until they disappared about 15,000 years ago (though most of their high-tech items date, at the youngest, to 22,000 years ago). The reason behind their long decline and disappearance is unknown, and provides an extra non-Ancients mystery for me to have floating around the campaign. Because of the antiquity of the race, numerous individuals have mistaken Nithosian remnants for Ancients sites and materials, and vice-versa, adding confusion to the fray.

Several of the people who might run in my upcoming campaign have expressed interest in a variety of gear which is not normally found in a TU, like beam sabers, etc. (and one is an Outlaw Star fan, and so lightshields and casters, too). I invented the Nithosians to bridge the tech gap between modern nations at max TL-15 and the super high-tech Ancients at TL-20+. This extinct civilization is MTU's handwave for introducing these things.

Nithosian artifiacts are a little more common than Ancients artifacts, but are only TL-17 (or 18 at best). Because they are more common than Ancients artifacts, significant samples have already fallen into most government and private hands, so it is not as lethal to own them; and unlike Ancients artificats, the Imperium has passed no mandatory turn-in laws over them. Overall, the presence of these devices in the hands of researchers will provide the Aslan, Zhodane, and Imperial societies the opportunity to advance into TL-16 and then 17, IMTU, over the next century or so, through about 1200 IC. K'Kree, Hiver, and Vargr elements have also used agents to aquire examples of the technology (as have a variety of smaller spinward nations), but they are behind the Aslan, Zhodane, and Imperial researchers in turning their discoveries into useful new knowledge.

The artifacts themselves are expensive (money drain from the PCs), and unreliable (they're not as self-repairing as the Ancients works), as their artifacts are 22,000 years or more old. They serve something special to spark PC interest/provide rewards beyond the standards.