12 Random Doo-Dads from the wall of a Spaceship

I always hate how cool Sci-Fi art, video game levels, assets, etc. always skip over the granular detail of the worlds they live in. With Faster-Then-Light travel and highly advanced spaceships, the art and description of these always seem to show this extremely detailed and textureful spaceship interiors, with lots of buttons, screens, weird pipes, and other do-hickeys hanging and built into the walls of your highly advanced spacecraft. But they never actually go into detail of what they do, or even more rarely do you ever get a chance to interact with them. I love these little gribbles, but what are you supposed to say if a player or reader randomly wants to interact with one of them? What will they find?

Roll on this list to find out! Conveniently; if you don't like psychic stuff in your sci-fi, you can just roll a d10 instead.

12 Spaceship Wall Doo-Dads
[1] Moisture Condensers. Black tubes feed your breath and shed skin oils back into the ship's recycler for water and nitrogen content. Everyone knows where the organic mass for your food replicator comes from, you still don't talk about it.

[2] Wall Capacitor. Usually a slightly raised panel with a bunch of buttons on it. Critical ship systems require a constant and uninterrupted flow of power; these act as extra energy batteries all across the ship. You can press the buttons to cut off or redirect the power held in this unit to somewhere else, especially useful for emergency situations.

[3] Gravity Shocks. These are shock absorbers, which look like long metal tubes or sticks along the side of a ship. Filled with compressive rubber cubes or discs. Whenever the ship hits a powerful g-force or gravity distortion, these absorb most of the shock so it doesn't crush the crew or anything else inside the ship. You can get away with a lot less of these then most people have, but it makes the ride more "turbulent". 

[4] Ship Patch Slot. Very thin door or material strip is pulled aside to reveal a tall but thin hole leading much deeper into the hull then you'd think. Only wide enough to put a hand inside. Within are several long, very thin plastic sheets used to patch small holes in the ship- the sheet is placed over the breach and a simple utility laser or low-powered energy weapon can melt the plastic to the wall to make it stick. Used until you can get real repair back in a stardock.

[5] Life Support Unit. Station dedicated to life support systems; oxygen and an appropriate temperature radiate from these to the rest of the room or area in the ship. Thermostat style controls including all breathable gasses, humidity levels, and PH balance. Ship Captains are notoriously strict about other people messing with THEIR preferred life-support settings. "I don't care how much methane your species needs to breathe, do you have any idea how much that's going to increase the fuel cost!?"

[6] Manual Lightswitch. Controls all the little LEDs that go up and down the hallways and flash red when the emergency systems are on. Sounds really dumb but people are used to hundreds of years of automatic doors and the AI dimming and changing the lights for them whenever they enter or leave so this seems like a really primitive, hands-on kind of failsafe.

[7] Charging Cabinet. Gentle, "hands off" method of recharging various atomic batteries and small appliances. Replacing the fuel cell on whatever gadget or tool you have is much faster, but you can use these cabinets as a way to store and also charge up whatever object. Charges about 1% of the items' battery per day, so really slow, but these mean whenever you bring out some ancient gadget or special tool it won't be out of energy from just sitting in a closet somewhere for multiple years.

[8] Hologram Anchor. Filled with mirrored discs and little pendulums to know which way is up- really important piece of equipment to stabilize and act as a reference point for any holograms or visual projections you beam inside the ship. If you don't have one of these the holograms will just be like clipping through the floor and their voices will sound like they're coming from the wrong room because the computer doesn't know where to put them otherwise.

[9] Binding Crank. Most ships use a semi-flexible membrane lattice and rubberized supports to let the vessel have some sway and ability to bend so it is not to brittle. These cranks let you tighten or loosen these supports. Despite clearing being made to be used by the crew- the torque required to turn one of these is so ridiculous that you basically can only get a robot to do it.

[10] Computer Junk-Data Sinks. Thin plastic bars with built in handles shoved into consoles along the wall; these are where routine computer check-sums, unrecoverable RAM, quarantined viruses and glitches are all stored. Often neglected because of how little it effects the overall ship AI's performance and because cleaning them is easy; you just run water on them in the sink. Everyone who got to the future by cryogenic freezing is extremely confused.

[11] Psychic Decoy. Electronic devices that look a bit like a clump of tinfoil. They emit false delta and theta brain signals to make it hard to track how many people are inside the ship and what they are thinking about. However, any psychic worth their crystal are going to notice a bunch of comatose people stacked up along the walls of the ship many times over any reasonable ship of that size would have. It was a bit of a fad back in the day, any old beater or "hand me down" spaceship is probably going to have a bunch of these.

[12] Anomaly Sensor. Looks like a plastic medal hanging on a lanyard. Experienced ship captains hoard these things and hang them everywhere like magic talismans. This is because these sensors have the almost miraculous ability to detect when things are just slightly "off" from normal, letting out a shrill electric beep and flashing a small light with its color based on the danger level- green for benign, yellow for caution, and red for danger. From time distortions, memory-voids, invisible energy viruses infecting your systems, or space madness- all things a computer or robot can't help you with. Nobody really knows how they work, but if you break one open and study its core you'll find a tiny amount of human neural tissue locked inside its circuits.

40 Minute Settings- Bombed Empire

On the distant planet of Wagan, the ships are bombing the surface. It's been going on for about two years. If you're here, that means you weren't able to get off the planet in time. Now you're kind of stuck. The royal blockade has kept everyone here. You stay alive off humanitarian aid and scavenging through the ruins; but some co-opt farms and underground grub farms work well enough.

The war all began when the last emperor gave up the planet. Now, four species fight over it. The clever Tulari, the militaristic Zimt, the repugnant Olgun, and the conniving Jess'et.

These four alien races are just small smattering of the ones that inhabit the galaxy. Wagan was a very cosmopolitanism place. But after the human emperor gave up the planet, moved the capital back to Earth after four hundred years of tradition keeping it here, the planet became a real hell hole. Humans, Tulari, Zimt, Olgun, Jess'et, other species too- the little people are stuck down here in the ruins.

Every day bombs fall over head, trying to knock out important power connections and religious or cultural sites. Every day anti-bomb defense bombs try to blow up the first bombs. It's hard for the people of the planet to do much about it, mostly because they're all up in space in cruisers and battleships. These ships send down small armies of elite troops, mechanized infantry and drones to try and capture locations, while other factions try to bomb the shit out of them at the same time. At this point it's probably just laughable.

It's easy enough to avoid getting rubbled for the most part; staying indoors is a good start because most of the buildings here are made of zirconian elements, pioneered by the Tulari, which are essentially compression and explosive proof. Still, the damage takes its toll. You can see inner-city markets spring up in neighborhoods that were attacked two, maybe three days ago. The smoke still rises but it's cleared up enough that you can move in for a time. Usually any place that gets destroyed stays clear for up to a week before the ships overhead move back into position to fight for the next useful speck.

Wars on the Ground

The soldiers in the sky aren't just interested in each other though; there are factions on the ground too. People down here are willing to sell their knowledge; secret tunnels, bomb shelters, and lead troops into ambushes against their enemies. Everybody down here wants somebody to win this war for their own benefit, if they're interested at all in Wagan politics. The Jess'et are promising to make the planet an anthropological paradise for all of the deep-space remnants of old cultural importance for many resources who, frankly, can't afford to keep them on planets anymore. Space is at a premium on planets when compared to the vast empty. But the Zimt are famous for well-planned central economies that keep people working and hearty pensions for veterans; of which civilians who aid them will be recommended for by the Zimt ground captains, naturally.

The players could take the role of minor leaders. They could be landed nobles from a quickly dissolving feudal land-ownership system, gang and rebel squad strongmen, or military commanders in way over their head. You lead squads of men into the rubble to rescue civilians, capture territory, or hold important objectives. You need to keep a good schedule of the ships above and where they'll be over next, and down here short hyper-wave transmitter scanners are as common as microwaves. Everybody, civilians and soldiers alike, listens to the Wagan Renegade- the hyperwave transmitter AI that gives coordinates and estimated time of payload hits, calculating wind resistance and gravity acceleration in real time to give the most accurate reports. Nobody is quite sure who set up this AI, but whoever did has saved far more lives then they would know.

Of course, urban combat in such a chaotic environment is brutal. Half of warfare is about setting up hardpoints and using technology from the various races to augment your own forces, or make it hard for the enemy to catch up. The Zimt are experts in energy field manipulation, and while their ships and brigades sent from above are the best at it, most races can hack together some energetic fields that displace blaster fire or make force fields that cannot be passed except by those with the right keys. The Olgun are a special example as they partially terraform entire city blocs; pulsating moss growing on every surface fast enough that you can see it, turning interior spaces into gas-spore infested condemned buildings. Their race is adapted to breathe it with their air gills, you probably aren't.

There are wars in the Sky too. The ships above are in constant stalemate. The large carriers and cruisers holding the weapons refuse to cross over the horizon line close enough to see another ship; going too far over the curve of the planet means laser weapons can annihilate you at the speed of light. Instead, they play a careful game of posturing and delayed bombing. For the second half of the second year, kinetic rods were all that has been used since traditional ammunition has seem to run out. But if the council is anything to go by, new shipments of payload is coming in to replace the old. As such, some rebel civilian groups have even banded together to stop it from arriving. But how to get out into orbit and stop transports carrying military weapons with just our own scrap, planet-locked forces? That's the tough part.

War in the Council

Meanwhile, near the heart of Wagan is the Council building. The huge, laser-protected dome is one of the few megastructures not yet bombed to shit by the above cruisers. The garden terraces around the building can always be seen from below and above; a jealous look of cultural elegance that is anything but. Just about as much violence is inside the building as around it.

In truth, the Council is just about as cutthroat as anywhere else. Racial diplomats at the end of their rope; assassins hired among the staff are constantly stalking the halls. Young privates and custodians with no experience are quickly promoted to official liaisons, even generals, as the body count keeps growing. The Jess'et are pretty close to wining this war just through attrition; their RNA unsequencer poisons placed in cloth fabrics and ventilation shafts kill quick and clean.

Pointless debates over if cyber-bounce grenades should be banned by military troops who don't follow the guidelines in the first place rage on as slimy arms dealers try to undercut the expensive imported military goods from space, since the space elevators were cut at stratosphere height ages ago, by using cheap local manufacturing. Some of the most well off people on Wagan are those who put shell casings together by hand in what used to be a preschool.

Hyperinflation is the bane of most fiat economies- in Wagan? It's another form of attack. By getting the mints to mass duplicate credit codes, you can destabilize and cause hyper inflation in your opponents army. Of course in a month when things change and you're now reliant on the codes to supply your own side you'll do anything to shut down the computer farms that duplicate the digital currency; like bomb them from space. Now you can see the problem.

The Goodness tucked Away

All over the planet; people are just trying to get by. While some sectors seem almost well cleaned after the constant destruction, some don't even look inhabited. Young people get along as well as they can in education, requiring digital uplinks and learning from archaic methods, like reading books or watching videos, as opposed to full VR education exercises. Holographic imaging technology requires a lot of infrastructure a lot of people here just don't have anymore; theaters do plays in person with costumes and everything. It's a time of great cultural expansion; the people of the planet looking inward when a galaxy who has forgotten about them keeps turning the great wheel of productivity.

Wagan was once a planet of nothing but gray sludge formed into building shells and maximum utility centers of industry. Almost all of its natural resources were stripped a long time ago; a great desolation occurred hundreds of years ago when the humans settled here. It seems now, with their leaving and the jealous war over the aliens who are descended from their imperial ambitions, life untethered is making a come back. Species who were intentionally made extinct by city planners during the great urbanization have been seen in rumors around mossy-covered parks. Escaped Olgun specimens and mold-children have actually somewhat melded with the common ecosystem. Underground birds have begun to reappear, the lack of skyscrapers coating every inch of inhabitable ground means that the air currents that they navigate by with their eyeless little faces are opened up to them. In some ways, life has made a combat only through mass destruction. Perhaps it is just a temporary change as the result of a great, mostly pointless conflict. Or perhaps it is a change here to stay.

[Class] Quake-Machinist

Quake-Machinist

HD- d4

Maximum AC- 12 / Minimum Starting Hit-Points- 2

You are a scholar and experimenter. Due to an unknown but simple property of machines, it is possible to create a machine with relatively few parts and low level of technology that has devastating powers of vibration; causing earthquakes and shuddering buildings to pieces. You aren't Nikolai Tesla; you decided to actually keep this machine and use it for your own ends.

You can use the Quake Machine. It is a special piece of equipment only you can use; requiring daily maintenance. If yours is destroyed, change your character to a Tinkerer/Rogue of one level beneath your current level. If you must have a hard limit on the number of uses the machine has, consider your level x 2 as the absolute max uses per day.

At 3^rd, 6^th, and 9^th level you advance as a Thief when tinkering with machines and lockpicks.

At 1^st level, the Quake Machine can be charged to shatter class or pottery, or anything similarly brittle. You can also strike someone with the prod of the machine to deal 1d4 damage. Against golems, this deals 2d6 damage instead.

At 2^nd level, you gain the ability to vibrate uncontrollably, which creates either a huge amount of noise or sinks you to the bottom of a pile of sand or grain very fast.

At 4^th level, increase your prod damage to 1d6 and gain the power to shatter wooden objects like doors, which can create deadly shrapnel to whoever is inside. Your vibration ability also now reduces enemy chance to hit by -2; essentially bouncing projectiles and blades away from your skin.

At 5^th level, you can create a single earth-quake shockwave by pounding the device into the ground. Everyone not within a 5ft radius of you must make a save or be knocked prone. Also knocks objects off shelves, throws down bookcases, widens cracks in the floor, etc.

At 7^th level, you can tune your quake machine to counteract sounds. This can cancel out a single noise in the area, acting essentially as a Silence spell to who or whatever it is tuned. This requires a full combat round to turn the dials and knobs, and if an enemy spellcaster began chanting a spell you must beat an initiative tie to block out their voice. Additionally, your shattering move works against old bones, disintegrating skeletal undead, certain types of rocks, and bricks, letting you knock holes in walls with a well placed vibrating strike of your prod. You now deal 3d6 damage against golems.

At 8^th level, you can create a full fledged, limited time Earthquake. Everything beyond 5ft of you in the local area experiences shaking and uncontrollable vibrations. Bridges can collapse and buildings cast off dangerous debris. It should also be noted here that you are only safe from this because you hold the machine; if you are knocked away from it you will be knocked to the ground same as everyone else, but get +2 to saves against your own quakes. You now deal 4d6 damage against golems.

At 10^th level, you have become a Quake Maker. You can now set up Earthquakes to be “buried” in the ground, and go off and up to 2 Seasons in the future, lying in wait. You can also your skills to research to resonance frequency of any material; such as human flesh. This allows you to deal damage to it equivalent to your damage to golems/artificial constructs, and you must study a sample of the material for 1d6 Seasons to find the right frequency. Note that this only works on something specific; so human flesh would count for all humans, but not Elves or Dwarves, despite similarities.

Additionally, you are joined by three amateur (1^st level) Quake Machinists who wish to find the right way to tune their forks and devices to their full destructive power. They have discovered the secrets to creating their own quake machines, but each one works a little differently, so you cannot simply steal or retrofit their machines yourself.

50 Custom Blasters

All Ray Guns found deal 1d6 damage for “blasting mode” and use universal energy cells. They can be refueled with magic, being heated by a fire, or struck by lightning in a fantasy world, but other then that recharging them will be very unlikely.

Some Ray Guns are two handed. These gain +2 to hit and +1 damage, but require two hands to use and are not as quick to take out from the holster and harder to use in a enclosed space, etc. Feel free to increase the die size of them by one if you think they should be more powerful and therefore increase the disintegration beam damage to d10 for a two-handed blaster instead of the d8.

Each firing mode of the guns and a short description of each are listed below. Each firing mode uses up some battery, extended use of a mode over an exploration turn should drain the battery by an extensive amount or completely.

Firing Modes

Blasting- Fires an energy projectile, deals 1d6 or base weapon damage. Standard mode.

Heat- Soft wide-ray that slowly heats up whatever its pointed out. Melts ice, dries out fabrics, and solidifies mud. Can be focused to start fires, melt your way through a bulkhead, or boil water.

Stun- Intense blast of energy that shorts out the nervous system of most creatures for a moment. Good non-lethal option, but is less effective on larger creatures. Small creatures may have their heart stopped by it. Criminals in space prison get stunned so often they build up resistance.

Sound- Directional speaker- focused down a narrow path. Can play music, amplify your voice, or just be so shrill to hurt you or break glass.

Light- Flashlight, projector, can be made wide angle. Some get so strong they can shoot a beam that can be seem from space, useful for SOS signals. Maybe can shoot a flare.

Radio/Signal- Self explanatory. Useful for planetary communication, doesn't travel faster then the speed of light unless you hook it up to a Hyperwave reactor.

Plasma- Fires out super-heated gas like a flamethrower. Damage is variable on how much it could reasonably do to a target, short range but ignites many materials.

Hologram Projector- Produces 3d images at a distance, but will flicker and look pretty shitty. Real issue is what you can project, you'd have to program anything you'd want to project.

Levitron- Point this at something to make it levitate, be pulled towards or away from you. Has a clear weight limit and doesn't work as well against moving targets.

Transfer Beam- Firing this very weak beam lets it specifically seek out and recharge other power cores you point it at. You can use your gun like a battery pack for your other gear.

Detection- Uses a form of energy to detect objects, metal detector, amplifies incoming sound, sonar or radar pings, etc.

Wave- Builds up a powerful single blast of sound, wind, or pressure. The shockwave will break glass and knock back nearby creatures. Probably the best way to defend yourself underwater.

Disintegration- Fires a constant stream of energy that breaks objects down into tiny cubes of their most base elements. Pretty useful industrial applications, but against biological beings it can really fuck you up. Increase damage to d8, but its a battery sucker.

Scrambler- Direct hit disrupts technology. Stuns robots, causes cloaking devices and personal protective shields to stop working. Many unsecured doors can be forced to open by blasting them with this ability. Causes cybernetic implants to be useless hunks of metal for a short time.

50 Custom Blasters

[1] The St. Benard – One Handed

Modes- Blasting, Heat, Detection

Used by mountain rangers on snowy planets; can defend self as well as locate and rescue those caught in avalanches. The detection mode features a heartbeat amplifier with a wide angle, much more accurate then most other models.

[2] Bug Burster v99 – Two Handed

Modes- Blasting, Heavy Plasma

Specially designed blaster, has a wide nozzle for the plasma. Plasma deals increased damage and fires at a wider angle, as well as taking up even more battery power to operate. Used to totally destroy biological infestations.

[3] Executioner – One Handed

Modes- Stun, Modified Stun

This black-painted ray gun only has a stun setting to stop struggling prisoners who are assigned to execution. The second setting is fired directly at the head for 5 seconds, if the target is totally still and has a human-level of neurological activity, then their nervous system will be totally fried and permanently destroyed, causing death that can overcome even cybernetic or genetic modifications that allow for self-resuscitation or consciousness-cloning from active brain matter.

[4] Snack-Attack – One Handed

Modes- Heat, Stun, Projector

This gun was used in an interstellar market by a small business owner operating a small stand. The alien wasn't allowed to use a lethal self defense weapon, as most shoplifters were on the market's payroll. It's a general purpose tool, preprogrammed with several loud blaring advertisement holograms, heat modes for various food items, and the stun setting.

[5] Glass Monkey – One Handed

Modes- Heavy Blaster, Light, Scrambler

This is the name for a custom gun used by a high profile cyberpunk-city gangster and assassin. It has several tubes and custom lights. The blaster setting on this weapon is heavy and more powerful then most, dealing 1d8 damage and having enough kinetic force to break bones or punch through weak cover. The light feature as a small laser can also be turned on in tandem with the other modes as to act as a laser-sight, and the scrambler is used to reach rooftops and other escape routes.

[6] Crazy Dragon – Two Handed

Modes- Heat + Wave, Blaster, Transfer-Beam

This weapon is painted bright red. It has a combined heat + wave function, meaning whenever it charges a blast of pressure or force it also uses the heat setting along with it, creating a wave of vibrating particles that set things on fire in the same dispersal arc. It also has a standard Blaster mode and a Transfer-Beam to recharge other devices.

[7] Grim Harmonica – One Handed

Modes- Blaster, Modified Sound + Wave

Name of a gray, metallic blaster that often traded hands in prisons. The weapon can create thrumming beats that damage the tissues of creatures subjected to it night after night; used by prisoners through the walls to next-door cells specifically for the purpose of killing or injuring rival gangs or high profile targets. It can also create shrill noise that makes it impossible to speak over or hear intercom messages; useful for disrupting guards over a prison riot.

[8] Busted Lip – One Handed

Modes- Weak Blaster, Heavy Wave

Hot pink, tiny weapon that looks like it could fit on the end of a keychain. This weapon seemed to belong to a cyber prostitute. It has both a standard blaster option that only deals 1d4 damage due to the weapon's constrained size and energy usage, but has a powerful wave function that knocks back targets and can disarm small weapons from people's hands if aimed correctly.

[9] Gryax Corp. Multitool – One Handed

Modes- Heat, Light, Hologram, Levitron, Transfer Beam, Disintegration, Scrambler

Highly developed and useful multi-tool with a touchscreen display and a safety lock mechanism. The gun does not operate until the user speaks the passcode, in which case it is permanently unlocked for that user. Anyone carrying the gun around for 3d6 days eventually has it unlock for them with a beep after they make a strange noise like a stifled sneeze or slur their words after a night of drinking that just so happens to be the passcode in the alien language.

[10] PvT Blasting Tool – Two Handed

Modes- Advanced Blaster, Advanced Disintegration, Advanced Wave

This tool is used for a specialized crew of miners. All tools are advanced meaning that several values can be adjusted and are generally enhanced, treat as +1 for damage rolls using these modes. The advanced blaster cuts with angled bolts of energy, the advanced disintegration beam similarly cores out rock and soil samples as per the standard disintegration but with a more accurate and battery-conserving beam, and the advanced wave can be so gentle as to blow off dust or so hard as to crack stone sheets for mining. Of course, if applied to living things these tools become much more powerful.

[11] Ping-Boy – One Handed

Modes- Blaster, Advanced Detector

This gun was used in subterranean dwellings to catch oversized pests and runaway pets; the detector setting can detect movements by feeling tiny changes in air pressure.

[12] Innovation Prototype – One Handed

Modes- Advanced Scrambler

This technological marvel was supposed to be a powerful and useful tool to interface with technology, be an all-in-one tool for programming and communicating with machines, and be used to even control starships in motion in one handy tool. The result was a terrible never got off the ground prototype that jumbles up any technology used into it; randomly deleting and replacing vital data with instructions to make sweats in a replicator and so on. Coincidentally it actually works better then devices intentionally designed to scramble technology- its effects last for a minimum of 1 exploration turn or until a hard reboot is used.

[13] Trusty's Blaster – One Handed

Modes- Blaster, Projection, Modified Detection

“Trusty” is known for being a great trick shot, mostly because of this gun. It's projection and detection modules can be used to create 3d maps of areas; and the targeting computer in the gun greatly aides in shooting stationary targets, such as bottles put up along a fence. If you get a round to scan the targets up to 30 paces, and the targets don't move, you can shoot with a +4 to hit on the next round as the targeting computer aids. While not so good against living things, this can be used to chain together several difficult trick shots; like shooting out all the lights in an area so you can slip away in the dark.

[14] Black Hill's Backup – Two Handed

Modes- Modified Blaster, Sound

Has a highly accurate blaster which has a +1 to hit and doesn't cause as much burning on the entry point, making it easier to gather the pelt for hunters, as this weapon was designed for hunting aliens on natural and untamed worlds. The sound function also works, usually to act as a lure, and is preprogrammed with ten thousand very strange animal mating calls.

[15] Worker Droid-Arm – Two Handed

Modes- Heat, Advanced Levitron

This gun is literally the arm of a worker-droid turn off, and repurposed with a trigger to send a signal up the innate wiring to fire the mechanisms inherit in the robot's arms. It has a more powerful version of a levitron mode, letting it lift heavier objects. Additionally, its heat beam is used for welding but can also be used as a weapon if focused on a single target for a period of time. Beyond this it's pretty simple, but the robotic exoskeleton on the arm means its very durable and gets +1 to saves to avoid being broken or melted by other weapons.

[16] Remoee – One Handed

Modes- Radio/Signal, Advanced Transfer Beam

Cute pet name for the AI once installed on this thing. After many years running on emergency power, the AI had to delete almost all of its memories and personality files to keep active. It's a remote control that can interface with and activate most non encrypted technology. It's transfer beam has a larger range and even uses quantum entanglement; once connected to an object by transferring a beam of energy the Remoee can be moved and brought away and it can continue the transfer even through solid lead or rock by using hyperwave particles. This stops if the Remoee loses all its charge or switches targets.

[17] Family's Gone – One Handed

Modes- Disintegration, Plasma, Modified Wave

This weapon is so named for its rather bleak inscription, scratched on the side of the handle. The weapon has a powerful disintegration beam and plasma thrower, but has a special modified wave function. The wave function can be switched on to automatically activate when the trigger is released, meaning the weapon blasts forth all the plasma it had just fired in a puff of superheated gas or scatters all the pieces of whatever it has just disintegrated to the wind.

[18] Gap – Two Handed

Modes- Modified Blaster

This weapon can only fire once every other round, but gets a bonus +2 to hit. It's remarkable durable, and has paint scratched off one side, as though it laid on a sniper platform getting the paint peeled off by cosmic dust winds for many years.

[19] Macabre – One Handed

Modes- Stun, Levitron, Modified Transfer-Beam

This black-painted pistol has a little alien skull drawn on the sides; clearly not made or used by a human. It has mostly defensive functions, but with proper tuning with its control panel its energy beams and highly focused electrical shocks can make dead bodies perform certain actions. This is used by grave-keepers to help bend corpses into more convenient to carry and bury shapes, usually before rigor mortis sets in.

[20] Hard Dropper – One Handed

Modes- Blaster, Levitron, Timed Blaster

Has a small screen with a few thick and clunky buttons between. Beyond having a typical blaster and levitron setting, also has a unique blaster mode that fires faster then normal, but on a timer that allows just enough time to swap targets on the fly- you can shoot twice per round with this but cannot turn the gun off instantly, meaning you could accidentally shoot the wall or anything that jumps in front of you, friend or foe. Also, it has Tetris installed on its computer.

[21] Vanisher – Two Handed

Modes- Modified Disintegration, Sound

Creates a powerful energy beam that destroys matter- unlike other disintegration beams, this one leaves no dust or material cubes behind, simply dismissing the target into energy. The core constantly juggles its antimatter charge- by switching modes the gun can undampen the core and a loud shrill noise that can destroy glass or deafen creatures with sensitive hearing emits.

[22] Squint's Rifle – Two Handed

Modes- Modified Light, Advanced Light

This rifle is specifically designed to find and mark ranges, and then fire highly energized photons into the eyes of its targets. The weapon causes blindness, not death. At closer ranges and if hooked up to a computer, the onboard laser can perform some simply brain and nerve surgery, using the eyes of your opponents as gateways to burn its radiance into their nervous system.

[23] Gixess- Personal – One Handed

Modes- Light, Advanced Light

Given out to explorers and settlers on a dark planet, the lifeforms there evolved to be especially sensitive to light. This device is the “personal” edition, granting protection from the planet's most common pests, but not strong enough to deal with the strongest beings there. The light feature here can project many textures, colors, and flashes or strobes of light. The advanced light allows for enhanced brightness, or a fully animate projection that can be put on a surface.

[24] Plymoss Carbine – Two Handed

Modes- Blaster, Signal, Self-Destruct

This weapon is given to soldiers fighting for a powerful consortium in space. The weapon is well made and has a long battery charge; it is a reliable blaster and can both send and receive field reports or orders. It has a final special feature, the self-destruct feature that lets the gun expunge all its energy in a fiery blast that deals 1d10 damage and kills its holder. Plymoss conscripts low in the pecking order were told to self detonate to thin the enemy ranks. When they just detonated their guns and threw them like grenades instead, they were court martial'd for wasting military resources.

[25] Lion Child – One Handed

Modes- Blaster, Modified Heat

Designed to burn the fur off big game hunts, but not a primary weapon for hunting. Seems designed to be carried as a sidearm or by an assistant to finish off and prepare a wounded animal; heat mode useful to burn fur off a corpse.

[26] Crikaa-Core Repeater – One Handed

Modes- Blaster, Projection, Advanced Projector

This standard issue battle-pistol is given to soldiers at the core of an interstellar empire. It has a projection feature that lets it set up targets for soldiers to shoot at for target practice. These targets can even be programmed with smart AI and run tests and building-clearing exercises with fake hostages and gunmen in simple wireframe holograms with fake blasters of their own. Any use of the weapon this wide in scope will require several of the repeaters to be linked up. If the weapon is damaged or the core removed it can still function to create these simple training AI; projecting its light like a lamp instead of out the end of the barrel.

[27] Dog Box – Two Handed

Modes- Blaster, Modified Detector

The Dog Box is so named because of its heavy and bulky shape, and the grating at the front of the gun that can be slid open to let the gun “smell” scent particles in the air, which it can track. The gun tracks extremely well, letting you follow trace scents for hours on end; it is very hard to avoid once you get the trail.

[28] Paperback – One Handed

Modes- Blaster

This gun is made of partially fibrous material and can be easily rolled up or stored in a flat or confined state. The flat, flexible battery with this unit is much shorter in lifespan then a proper hard and rigid battery, which would have to be smuggled in separately.

[29] Corvyern – One Handed

Modes- Sound Beam, Projector

This weapon fires a focused beam of sound, only those in the beam can hear it. The sound is a high pitched squeal mixed with a warning and command to surrender in several alien languages. Due to how focused and loud it is, the beam has a 1 in 6 chance to save or cause your head to explode the first time it strikes you, your specific cranial makeup contributed to the explosion. The weapon can also put up a bright white projection of a square, which makes shooting the gun's user difficult and provides a cover bonus of +2 AC.

[30] Magic Doo – Two Handed

Modes- Accurate Blaster, Levitron

This weapon obviously isn't magic, but has a sparkly effect after being fired, and has energy bolts that home in slightly on their targets. Additionally, it has a levitation device to push away enemies or pull in ammunition.

[31] Open Concept – One Handed

Modes- Blaster, Transfer-Beam

Pistol shaped design with bright yellow barrel. Very minimalist with a comfortable grip. Designed to be easily interfaced with other technologies, new blaster modes can be snapped on in seconds if you find the modules, requiring no crafting time or extra resources to set up the connectors.

[32] Ringtone – One Handed

Modes- Sound, Modified Sound, Modified Signal

This weapon fires invisible waves that interface with devices. Tends to cause phones and computers to send out their alarms or ringtones, hence the name. It can also produce sounds from a very large internal library, and can throw and distort them a far distance, but is limited to the sounds onboard the processor. There is a generic “river sound” and if anybody listens to it long enough they'll realize it's looping. This device can also be used in conjunction with a computer or data-pad to hack an electronic at range.

[33] Ripple-Effect – One Handed

Modes- Modified Wave + Blaster

This weapon fires a regular blaster shot as a wave of energy. The scintillating bolt deals damage to all in a cone, but has short effective range compared to any normal blaster.

[34] Path of the Builder – Two Handed

Modes- Levitron, Weaponized Levitron

Picks up and flings matter, including at enemies. Has several automated functions; pointing the gun on a tripod at a big enough pile of bricks and it will build a simple, prebuilt design of a house for you. The only problem is running out of battery before it gets done with the kitchen.

[35] Flying Ape – One Handed

Modes- Blaster, Stun, Modified Levitron

This weapon was designed in the shape of a boomerang (with an unfortunate banana-yellow paint job.) If thrown in the air, it uses the gravity modules and thrusters to fly wherever it was programmed to go. By default, it returns to the throwers hand in 20 minutes. This gun is often thrown and then the user can surrender or pretend to be unarmed only for it to swing back and return to them just when they need it.

[36] Azure Striker – Two Handed

Modes- Detector, Advanced Blaster

This weapon can scan for life forms and heat through walls, and the advanced blaster can fire energy bolts infused with gravitons, allowing them to punch through thin walls or flimsy cover to attack opponents. It's sleek design and fast fire rate hint that it was once used in special police forces as a tool for breaching urban locations.

[37] Glatherin – One Handed

Modes- Modified Heat, Heat, Blaster

The name of this weapon roughly translates to “witches who fly but never leave the ground”. Beyond normal blasting and heat ray modes, this weapon can also create heat in the potential energy of objects. The invisible beam may feel similar to a tickling or bugs-crawling-on-your-skin type if it hits you, but is not painful or obviously noticeable at first. After 1d6 turns, the area blasted by this energy beings to heat up, the molecules burning themselves up. Fully inoculated beings are consumed by this fire with no way to stop it, unless they can cool themselves down enough before the flames start to cook their skin and melt their organs. This weapon is highly prized by assassins but the battery is drained after one use of the modified heat setting AND it has a short range when using its special stealth mode.

[38] Khan Rifle – Two Handed

Modes- Blaster, Disintegration, Stun

This weapon is short like a carbine and can be easily loaded and fired while mounted. It is adorned with tribal ornaments; a primitive culture with an advanced weapon. It has a weight pulley within the short stock that transfers some of the kinetic energy of the weapon rocking during long travels that help keep it fully charged for combat.

[39] “It's OK to Lose” - One Handed

Modes- Blaster, Scrambler

Clearly modified for stealth and ease of quick drawing; this gun can be stored in a pocket. Belonging to a famous dirty gambler alien, who met a quicker gun once and hasn't gambled since.

[40] Bird Caller – Two Handed

Modes- Sound, Stun

Shoddily made, this unnecessarily large weapon can mimic the sounds of various tropical alien birds and stun them, making them easy to capture. It has an auto-lock on feature to hit fast moving targets, but the charge on the stun is too weak to stun anything more then a few dozen pounds. Instead, stuns by this gun stun individual body parts of larger creatures.

[41] Port-A-Maid – One Handed

Modes- Modified Hologram-Projector

This gun has a white and black color scheme and is presented as more of a household product then a weapon. It creates a dainty looking maid out of holographic, solid light that can interact with her environment. It is still a weapon, because you can program the maid to attack people with rolling pins and knives and it deals damage like the real thing! The Maid Projection cannot die but can be temporarily disabled via a concentrated blast or a stun setting; destroying the gun will obviously also stop the murderous cleaner.

[42] AV41 – Two Handed

Modes- Wave, Modified Wave

This weapon is a high tech design. It has a simple wave function that can be so weak as to just blow away dust or so strong as to blast apart glass and break bone. It's so advanced as to have a ranged wave function; through setting the range-finder you can set the wave to expand outwards from all directions in a sphere disjointed from the weapon, resulting in beings or objects exploding from the inside out and creating makeshift shrapnel bombs.

[43] Carnage – Two Handed

Modes- Repeating Blaster, Levitron

This weapon can fire extremely fast. Every other round it shoots, it gets an extra shot. The blaster wounds from this weapon are especially damaging to the body and it deals +1 damage. The weapon is also equipped with a levitron function to move debris out of the way or to create cover by levitating an object in front of your advanced. Clearly a soldier's weapon. Well known design flaw; if you hit the weapon at the right spot the levitation engine overflows and causes the weapon to implode, taking its operator's hands and part of their face with it.

[44] Asmog – One Handed

Modes- Light, Modified Light, Sound, Wave

This weapon has a dark paint job and was created for use in back alley cyberpunk dystopias. It can create light, but can also “reverse” the light function and deflect light rays away from an area, thus creating darkness or projecting a cone of darkness. It can also create sounds, usually to make a crime in a crowded city, and finally can produce waves that blast through trash or temporarily disable police hover drones by throwing them to the ground.

[45] Power Raygun – One Handed

Modes- Blaster/Heat, Intensified Heat

This weapon fires short duration beams of heavy heat energy. It straddles the line between heat rays and blasting shots. As it is used, it can pour the internal heat sink as well as its power into a greater and more focused beam of heat energy- the beam becomes extremely destructive akin to Disintegration, but reducing anything to it naturally from its intense heat projection.

[46] Invader's Clapper – Two Handed

Modes- Blaster, Stun, Special Projection

This weapon is used by advanced races to invade and capture planets and bases of lesser races. Beyond its normal blasting and stun functions, it can also use a projector to create a “slow burn” function. The projection can create transparent walls, manacles, or cages of energy which can either burn things that try to pass through them or remain solid for a short period of time. The projection costs a massive amount of batteries, but is a self-contained system once created and lasts for a few hours.

[47] Second Opinion – One Handed

Modes- Stun, Levitron, Heat, Sound & Detection

This is a medic weapon. Beyond lacking lethal methods of defense on its own, it has a 'sedative' function as a stun. It can also levitate objects to get easy access to patients, heat to cauterize wounds, and sound/detection function to take field x-rays and ultrasounds of patients bodies. Extremely valuable and useful for field work, this 'weapon' is well sought after.

[48] Tribesman's Fire – Two Handed

Modes- Heat, Sound, Projection, Light

Painted, with a bone handle. This weapon can by splayed open to create a “false” fire, the illusion of flickering flames with the exposed core providing the heat of a fire. It can also emit a heat or light beam to stun or injure pray, but the damage to the front of the weapon from stones indicate it was heavily abused and may have lost several features before being turned into an advanced weapon belonging to a simple people.

[49] Booster Dynamics – Two Handed

Modes- Blaster, Enhanced Blaster, Wave, Advanced Wave, Recharging Function

This weapon is charged with a long handled crank along the side, which neatly folds against the weapon when not needed. This crank requires an exploration turn of charging to fire a single shot in the battery, and is therefore not very efficient, but can be charged before any regular shot to increase it's power by a much more effective degree. Improved shots have +1 damage on a hit, the blast striking with more force and heat. This power can also be used with its wave of pressure function to allow the wave to deal 1d4 damage to creatures even above water from the bone-cracking force.

[50] Asmon's Assembler – One Handed

Modes- Heat, Advanced Levitron, Scrambler, Signal

This assembler is a weapon with a vitally important and useful function; repair. Its levitation device can force parts back together, the heat function can laser weld metals and singe plastics back into shape. This does require a data stream in real time to keep up with the repairs, of which the signal function lets it pick up any of the low-grade frequencies some advanced objects constantly emit to aid with repairs back to factory settings. As with all pieces of technology, the power to create is similar to the power to destroy, and as such this can also create scrambling white noise to both reboot machines as well as disable them for a short time for more destructive or nefarious purposes.

6 Bullshit Fantasy "Technologies"

[1] Ice Crystal Array

Built into the snow-fortress and frozen snow walls; complex arrays of permafrost ice crystals arranged to allow their resonance to manipulate pure ice and snow. Pulling or rotating the crystals, or inserting them into empty slots, controls temperature in the room and even weather outside by manipulating the carefully aligned system of ice and cold. Even a weak hit with a blunt weapon or if a character wearing metal armor is shoved into it the crystals shatter and the entire contraption fails spectacularly as shards of crystal and frozen water fall from the ceiling.

[2] Bubble Channelers

Giant coral domes with weird 'pipes' and mounds built into it in the ocean. Channel water currents and create oxygen bubbles in little circular chambers that can help humans breathe underwater, if desired. Blowing on the pipes can channel bubbles and air in great currents; bubbles blasts that can act as defensive platforms that can capsize ships or knock away Merdragons.

[3] Ligament Mecha

By chewing up and spitting out ligaments and tendons from their victims; cannibal apes and spit and stick them into “joints” of wooden and stone war machines. These joints are kept moist by sacrifices of blood from forest creatures and human victims; and kept fed by the same blood. They are stroked with different reeds and brushes to give them a sense of touch, and are then led by the apes who ride around on the sloppily animated war golems; needing constant blood as their fuel.

[4] Dwarven Glasswork

Create invisible walkways and bridges across long chasms as an extra line of defense against invaders, as well as invisible spikes in pits. They're not actually invisible, they are just glass that has been cut in such a way that you can only see the cut lines and edges of the piece from a single, very specific angle. Usually, this is marked by a dwarf ancestor or God's statue; line up your eyes level to his and at just the right angle you will see the craftsmenship of the dwarves.

[5] Asuerian Balance

Ancient civilization named Asuer. With great religion based on men balancing on poles for their whole lives and gods of balance and harmony to create a strong society. Principles incorperated into their work and architecture; found methods to perfectly balance even huge objects, slowly remove the base until they float in the air with nothing supporting them. The object will regain gravity and crash into the ground if another force hits it that would move it or nudge it normally; jumping on a floating platform while wearing too heavy armor, for example. Most are made of thick stone so would need a strong force to knock them down. Have even tougher structures that are supported and can't be knocked down nearly as easily; entire castles suspended over a chasm on a single reed.

[6] Replaying Pots

Pots that were spun with small fibers with religious chants and magic spells spoken; the vibrations of the voices and sounds were then trapped within the pot's grooves, and can be released by spinning the pot with a needle and amplifying the sound through a funnel, conch shell, horse skull, etc. Spells played back have some amount of magic; you could both learn a spell and might also accidentally be cast on the spinning wheel, releasing magical energies into the present day. You could also use a pot with a hidden groove to store and hide a hidden message.

Blasters & 12 Blaster Settings

Every since I read MAGE a long time ago and read about how the school of Forces is like, all different kinds of energy combined together, I always thought that was an extremely interesting concept. However it fits better in a setting that is more scientific then a medieval fantasy one, which would care about things like elements more then wavelengths in my opinion.

So then, what about Science Fiction? What about Perfected Tyranny?

Blaster Rifle w/ open battery chamber

Blasters

Blasters are a universal energy weapon. They can kill people, they can kill robots, they can kill weird alien goo monsters and they can kill SICOs. Smart space people in the future would probably just use nukes to kill each other, or kinetic rods launched at near lightspeed from solar systems away, but where's the fun in that? While a good old fashioned gun could probably kill most humans and fleshy monsters easier then a laser gun, it won't do shit against a living pile of rubber, or a heavily encased robot, or a being made out of energy. Plus, all it takes to fire them is a bit of energy, which can be generated in a massive number of ways.

Now one problem I had with making this post was my desire to create multiple types of sci-fi energy weapons. You know- lasers AND plasma AND ray guns AND pulse weapons and all that, but maybe it's better if they're all under a generic umbrella that can do anything.

Blaster Batteries

Blaster Batteries are wonderful pieces of technology. Just to make them a little better, they're generic 'Power Cores' that can be used for any medium range tech- you can put as many or as few as you'd like together to power bigger things. They look like pure black cylinders, and aren't really made of metal. You can bet a few developing races have made religions after finding one or two left behind on their backwater worlds.

Any type of energy that the cylinder absorbs goes into its charge. It's cool to the touch, and absorbs some amount of heat. It's black, and absorbs most light. It's dense and its weight balance is weird. Throwing these things don't go as far as you might expect, because it's absorbing much of the energy. It falls at a sluggish pace, once against absorbing its falling speed as energy. Despite being a cylinder, if rolled on its side down a slope that isn't too steep it will impossibly slow down and stop rolling, its ability to absorb its momentum at one point being too much for gravity to overcome its inertia.

The reason why these babies are so useful is because all of the above charge it, so you can see how easy it would be to keep an army or scouting team supplied with power. Leaving it out in the sun is a great way to get a passive charge. You can shake them up for a small boost if you need some power right now, or throw them into a fire and let them absorb it that way. Normal campfires are too cold, and its ability to absorb heat too quickly, for a regular fire to actually damage it.

Ray Gun Settings

Rays Guns, much like Sci-Fi itself, have many grades of technology. Some are bulky and thickly designed, with rough knobs on the side clicking to determine the Ray Gun's setting. Some are sleek, with touchscreens and security settings.

Every Ray Gun has the 'Blasting' setting, which is the generic weapon setting. Fires a small blast of energy that deals 1d6 damage to pretty much anything. While strictly military guns will just have this, most will have a few or all of these special settings.

Pew Pew

Ray Gun Settings - 1d12

[1] Heat- Soft wide-ray that slowly heats up whatever its pointed out. Melts ice, dries out fabrics, and solidifies mud. Can be focused to start fires, melt your way through a bulkhead, or boil water.

[2] Stun- Intense blast of energy that shorts out the nervous system of most creatures for a moment. Good non-lethal option, but is less effective on larger creatures. Small creatures may have their heart stopped by it. Criminals in space prison get stunned so often they build up resistance.

[3] Sound- Directional speaker- focused down a narrow path. Can play music, amplify your voice, or just be so shrill to hurt you or break glass.

[4] Light- Flashlight, projector, can be made wide angle. Some get so strong they can shoot a beam that can be seem from space, useful for SOS signals. Maybe can shoot a flare.

[5] Radio/Signal- Self explanatory. Useful for planetary communication, doesn't travel faster then the speed of light unless you hook it up to a Hyperwave reactor.

[6] Plasma- Fires out super-heated gas like a flamethrower. People love this to burn out alien infestations and shit.

[7] Hologram Projector- Produces 3d images at a distance, but will flicker and look pretty shitty. Real issue is what you can project, you'd have to program anything you'd want to project.

[8] Levitron- Point this at something to make it levitate, be pulled towards or away from you. Has a clear weight limit and doesn't work as well against moving targets.

[9] Transfer Beam- Firing this very weak beam lets it specifically seek out and recharge other power cores you point it at. You can use your gun like a battery pack for your other gear.

[10] Wave- Builds up a powerful single blast of sound, wind, or pressure. The shockwave will break glass and knock back nearby creatures. Probably the best way to defend yourself underwater.

[11] Disintegration- Fires a constant stream of energy that breaks objects down into tiny cubes of their most base elements. Pretty useful industrial applications, but against biological beings it can really fuck you up. Increase damage to d8, but its a battery sucker.

[12] Scrambler- Direct hit disrupts technology. Stuns robots, causes cloaking devices and personal protective shields to stop working. Many unsecured doors can be forced to open by blasting them with this ability. Causes cybernetic implants to be useless hunks of metal for a short time.