|
|
Equipment
AV pillar
The primary means of accessing audio or video media. AV pillars can create holograms and fill the area with sound, but most often they direct images to a viewer's eyes with laser beams that track on eyes pointed in the correct direction. Sound is directed as well. AV pillars can be small, about five centimeters tall by one centimeter wide, which are meant to serve one person. They can also be at least 5 meters tall by one wide, and serve a crowd of hundreds. AV pillars usually have a maximum resolution range of three meters for personal pillars, or a hundred meters for larger ones. Anyone targeted by a pillar can simply choose to look away, which cancels the automated tracking.One-person: $200. 10-person: $1,000. 50-person: $7,500.
Communications Block
In essence, an extremely powerful antennae attached to a processor block with the latest protocols, cryptography tools, signal discriminators and full communications suites. These are often used to extend one's datavise range to satellites or the nearest node, but can also be employed for an extra level of security or to attempt to capture and decrypt communications. They are primarily used for radio and microwave communications, but can also transmit laser signals. The effective range of the average communications block is in hundreds of kilometers, and on most modern worlds this is more than enough to reach any communications hub. Using this block can add +3 to rolls to intercept or decode encrypted communications -- although many cutting-edge encryption techniques can negate this bonus.
Communications block: $125.
Medical Nanonics
Nanotechnology's greatest impact has been in the field of medicine. Programmable bio-neutral nanonic robots can be used in a variety of ways, from performing minimally-invasive surgery to supplementing immune systems to sealing large-scale wounds. The nanonic packs found in hospitals are extremely delicate and require constant maintenance from an AI and a trained doctor. These top-grade medical nanonics are even used to treat cancers and to repair tissues damaged by disease.
Medical packs can used in emergency situations, including battlefields, are meant to deal with massive trauma but are less effective when dealing with tricky medical problems. They have several preset programs, including dealing with exposure to toxins, big holes punched into people, or severe burns. These treatments rarely completely heal a person, but can stabilize the patient and even allow him to act normally until he can return to real medical facilities. Medical packs are smart, but someone with medical training can input specific commands to improve the healing benefit of the packs.
Medical facility nanonics can quadruple normal healing rates (so that a normal human gains 4 Life Points per Constitution level every day) and guarantee lack of scars or lingering effects from most wounds. They may add +6 to any Doctor roll involving more complex problems, such as cancers or deadly diseases.
Emergency packs work exactly like the "I Think I'm Okay" Drama Point expenditure -- allowing the patient to heal half the Life Points (round up) of damage he has suffered so far. This takes at least five minutes for the basic wound healing and painkillers to take effect. The emergency packs can only perform this healing once per day; multiple use of packs do not give this benefit. However, each pack provides a bonus of +3 to any Doctor rolls performed in the field.
Hospital-grade medical nanonics: $5,000 per pack. Emergency medical nanonic packs: $1,000 per pack.
Nanonic toolkit
A large handle filled with about a liter of programmable nanonic devices, and computer interface. The engineer may designate the nanonics to perform any of a thousand functions, from unscrewing bolts to laying new wires on a circuit panel. The toolkit's power supply lasts for six hours of continuous use, or 24 hours of intermittent use. It can be recharged easily, although the supply of nanonics eventually dwindles as the toolkit is used. The toolkit must be "refreshed" with new nanonics about once every twenty times the toolkit is recharged.
The toolkit adds +5 to any Engineering rolls.
Toolkit: $4,500. "Refresh" nanonics: $900 per charge.
Processor Block
The evolution of personal computing. Processor blocks were ubiquitous until the introduction of neural nanonics, and are still quite popular among those who cannot afford or don't wish to undergo nanonic implantation. They are made of superconducting fibers, synthetic diamond chips, and bubble memories held in high-impact polymers.
Blocks which perform minor record-keeping, storage and navigation functions can be as small as a cubic millimeter, although these are usually incorporated in larger and easier-to-handle devices. Most blocks are about five cubic centimeters and can handle all computing needs such as net browsing, average-quality games, and monitoring programs. Blocks can be devoted to specific tasks such as high-quality immersive games (complete with persona AV pillars), controlling a space vessel or aiding medical treatments.
Processor blocks can be used to hold Databases (without skill programs), or add +3 to Computer or Knowledge rolls.
Mini-processor block: $50. Normal block: $150. High-quality block: $400. Top-quality block: $900. "Devoted blocks" are usually high- or top-quality with additional features, and add +$250 dollars.
SII Vacsuit
Recognized as the most durable vacuum suit on the market, although it is hardly the best-looking or has the most high-tech features. The Lunar State Industrial Institute product was designed for those who live and work in low-pressure or hard-vacuum environments. The inner layer allows for evaporation of sweat and selective retention of heat. The middle layer provides protection from decompression but allows dynamic body motion. The outer layer is very similar to the external coating of space vessels: Tough, tear-resistant, and capable of reflecting 96% of all normal levels radiation. Optional high-radiation shrouds can be placed over the suit for higher-risk areas (such as working in direct sunlight for when not in a magnetosphere). Air and waste recycling pods are extremely efficient, allowing the suit's wearer to breathe for 72 hours straight. Food and water pods can be added with additional air tanks to permit a week of continuous use.
EVM (extra-vehicular maneuvering) modules can be added to the vacsuit to allow the worker to move around the exterior of vessels and stations. These use ionized gasses for thrust, and can provide up to 2 gees of constant acceleration. They can be used continuously for an hour before running out of fuel, or for about six hours of intermittent use.
There are reports that SII are working with nanonics to create an even better form of their vacsuit, but most old-time spacers are more than willing to trust their lives to the current models.
Vacsuits provide 5 Armor against Bashing-type attacks, 9 Armor against Slashing/stabbing or Bullet-type attacks, and 8 Armor against Energy or Fire attacks. Radiation shrouds add +7 Armor against Energy or Fire attacks.
Vacsuit: $13,000. Radiation shroud: $5,000. Extra food, water or air pods: $2,500 each. EVM module: $6,000.
Smartgoggles
Very common among those who do not use neural nanonics. "Smartgoggles" is an retro-cool name for eyepieces which display data from a processor block. These are typically darkened to add contrast to the visual display, but can be clear eyeglasses or goggles. The display is not quite as fast or high-quality as that in neural nanonics, but most users of smartgoggles swear by them. Virtual depth can allow for visual "illusions," although no computer-savvy user would mistake these generated images for the real thing.
Most smartgoggles are stylish, small and breakable, but military, police and industrial workers will use larger, more durable items. Military-grade hardware has 2 armor to Bashing-style attacks, 1 Armor to all other forms of attacks. They have 10 Damage Capacity; normal smartgoggles have 4.
Normal smartgoggles: $80-$200. Military-grade: $180-$300.
Smart paper
Thin sheets of plastic filled with electroreactive inks, with control strips at one end. Quite common on vessels and in offices, these can display flat or offset-printed-3d images and text. A typical sheet of smart paper can store about a five hundred pages of text and images, or about ten minutes of video. These sheets can be rolled or folded along preset lines for easy carrying. Thicker and more durable smart paper products are easily found -- "office-quality" sheets can be rolled but not folded, and can hold about fifteen hundred pages of text and images or twenty minutes of video. "Military-quality" sheets can also be rolled, but usually are not, are highly resistant to damage (2 levels of Armor against Slashing/stabbing-style attacks) and can hold about five thousand pages of text or thirty minutes of video. Smart books are about the size of two palms side by side but which can store up to fifty thousands pages of text and images and which can automatically turn "pages" based on the motions of the reader's eye.
All forms of smart paper may be networked with processor bocks to provide basically-endless display streams, although rendering quality is affected by paper quality.
Smart paper can be used to hold Databases (without skill programs) or add +1 to Knowledge rolls.
Normal smart paper: $25 per sheet. Office-quality: $50 per sheet. Military-quality: $100. Smart books: $75.
|
The Night's Dawn Trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God) are all Copyright Peter F. Hamilton. Game concepts herein are based on the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game and Angel: The Roleplaying Game, Copyright Eden Studios. No use of terms from the Night's Dawn Trilogy or from any Eden Studios game is a claim of ownership over these properties. Please don't sue me. |