Science Fiction. Phone PDF. Virtual Tabletops. STL 3D Model. Steve Jackson Games. Pay What You Want. See all titles. Follow Your Favorites! Sign in to get custom notifications of new products! Recent History. Product Information. Copy Link Tweet This. Matt Riggsby. Klaus Scherwinski , Ruth Thompson.
Original electronic Scanned image These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching.
However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.
For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high.
It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Fantasy-Tech 1: The Edge of Reality. History Talk 0. The steam pump lifts 1, gallons of water 15 feet per hour, requiring 1, lbs. These machines were often variations on the theme of an overbalanced wheel which uses hinged weights to keep a vertical wheel always more heavily loaded on one side than the other or siphon arrangements which provide a waterwheel with its own self-refilling reservoir.
One novel design had a rotating wheel set with magnets that were attracted to another magnet at its base, pulling the wheel down on one side, while shielding the magnets on the other side and providing no balancing attraction. Even if they worked, such machines would be relatively weak, far outpowered by waterwheels and windmills.
Through TL3, they would be scientific curiosities. The first suggestion that such a device could be used for useful work appeared in the early 17th century. Scaling up small designs helps a bit but runs into structural limitations with the materials involved. Asphalt stoppers sealed the jars. Each stopper had embedded in it a hollow sheet-copper cylinder surrounding an iron rod with a small gap between them.
This design strongly resembles a wet-cell battery. This observation was further bolstered by chemical analysis of the pottery indicating that the vessels had once held an acidic substance. If the ends of a wire were connected to the copper cylinder and the iron rod while the jar was filled with the mildly acid electrolyte vinegar or even fruit juices are sufficient for this purpose , this would create a circuit through which electricity would flow. After all, just what does one do with low power direct current at the end of Classical antiquity?
Even without electric motors or communication equipment, there are several possibilities. The process would simply need time and a number of batteries, not a high voltage.
Etching is essentially electroplating in reverse. A metal plate is coated with wax or varnish and a design is scratched into the surface. When the plate is placed in an electrolyte bath and hooked up to a current, areas of bare metal are eaten away, producing a shallow relief. This could be used purely decoratively or as the basis of durable printing plates.
A large bank of batteries, wired together in series, might power an electrical arc across the gap between carbon electrodes.
High-quality charcoal would suffice, and it might be treated with metallic salts to produce different colors of light. At the dawn of TL3, this artificial lightning would have been very impressive, particularly in the darkened interior of a temple, since it required no kindling or other effort to start, and would have produced a surprisingly bright light like a tiny bolt of lightning. This application of electricity is another one that historically appeared a few years after the arrival of electrical batteries.
Low-power electrical current has been used to help relieve some kinds of chronic pain. Using a battery, a physician skilled in its use some varieties of Esoteric Medicine may allow this may roll against his skill to reduce the level of pain suffered by a character with the Chronic Pain disadvantage for a day.
Divine Presence. Even a very low current, if run through a metal cult image or wired touch-points on an altar, could provide small electrical shocks or peculiar tingling feelings with no indication of where they came from. It would be very easy to believe that the sensation was one of direct contact with the divine. Ultimately, an electrical use was discredited. The asphalt stopper completely insulates the metal components, leaving no connection points for wires, but such a near-miss device is too intriguing to ignore.
It provides 0. The use of magnetism depended on natural magnets. Very weak magnets could be produced by hammering iron under the right circumstances, but without electricity to help the process along, lodestones were, for all practical purposes, the source of all magnetism. Lodestones were rare and nigh miraculous, and therefore very valuable. However, the ancients were clever enough to realize the possible uses of strong magnets.
A medieval romance attributes to Queen Dido of Carthage the idea of using magnets as a defense. Powerful magnets in the walls protected Carthage, the story claims.
Armed men passing too close would be pulled against the wall, unable to escape with their weapons and armor. A set of magnets is rated for its ST at a distance of one yard. The effective ST of the magnets is reduced by distance: Divide the ST by square of distance in yards.
Anyone carrying at least 1 lb. If he loses the Contest, he may not move any farther away from the magnet than he currently is. For other sizes, multiply cost and weight by the desired ST squared. Certainly, they seem to function as royal tombs, but is that the sole reason for designing immense structures that must have consumed a huge portion of the royal budget?
This question has led some to seek other answers. One possibility is that pyramids serve a more utilitarian function. Some believe that pyramids focus cosmic energies that may be harnessed for specific purposes.
One of the great concerns of dying pharaohs was that their bodies would be maintained in good condition for the afterlife. A power ascribed to pyramids is the ability to preserve organic material. If properly prepared, such materials can last indefinitely. A pyramid may have a small chamber at its center where its preservative energies are focused.
When perishable items are placed in the chamber, roll against the Housekeeping skill of the person who prepared them for storage. If the roll succeeds, they do not suffer any decay for the next day. On a second roll, they do not suffer from decay for a week thereafter. On a third, they do not decay for the next month, for the next year on a fourth, the next decade on a fifth. Roll once per century thereafter, if it becomes applicable. Life Energy. Related to the preservative powers of pyramids is their ability to enhance life energy, resulting in longer life and better overall health.
This bonus is cumulative with benefits of medical care. Equipment Maintenance. In a properly aligned pyramid, blades sharpen themselves and mechanical equipment remains in good condition. Metal items in general will not corrode if stored in a pyramid.
For a pyramid of a different size, select a ground area. Double price for electricity-generating pyramids. Some believe this was all done without cranes or other powered mechanical lifting devices.
How was it accomplished? One suggestion is that lost technology could levitate heavy objects. The Egyptians, for example, are suspected of being able to use sound vibrations, produced by giant horns, to lift heavy blocks into the air so that they could be floated to their destination. Sound levitation requires at least two people to set up fields of resonance, though many more can participate. The musicians must arrange themselves within 10 yards of the object they wish to levitate and play, building up resonances for two minutes.
When they have done so, they may move the object as though they had ST equal to their combined Musical Instrument skills at -5 each for example, six musicians with Musical Instrument would lift an item with an effective ST of Living creatures maybe levitated, but they must remain stationary among the musicians as they build up resonance. Levitating with a musical instrument may be treated as a Hard technique defaulting to Musical Instrument-5, with a maximum equal to Musical Instrument skill.
Levitating requires specially built instruments. Enormous horns are most common, but gongs, flutes, and tuned drums have been used. Complex geared devices like the Antikythera mechanism the remains of an ancient Greek orrery were constructed to represent the motions of celestial bodies. In short, they provide specific, limited functions. They lack programmability. If a clock is a computer, the earliest programmable computer was created at the beginning of the 13th century.
Abu al-Iz al-Jazari, a Mesopotamian engineer influenced by Archimedes, constructed a large over 10 feet tall water-driven clock with a number of innovative features. In addition to elaborate displays for the time, date, and position of the zodiac and a band of mechanical musicians playing at appropriate intervals, the clock could be adjusted for the change of daylight and nighttime hours through the year.
Mathematical calculating machines date somewhat later. The lack of earlier calculating machines is likely a question of interest in the application rather than lack of technical capability. Machines for doing simple arithmetic would have been well within reach of far earlier societies.
After all, a clock with multiple time displays for example, for hours and days is performing addition. The difference is a question of display rather than core function. Just as the widespread use of water power was delayed for centuries after its invention by the availability of inexpensive human and animal labor, the appearance of calculating machines may have been delayed by the availability of humans with abaci, who could do the same sort of arithmetic much more cheaply.
Some sort of purely mathematical machine could easily have been built as early as the Roman Republic had someone wanted to impose mechanical precision on arithmetic.
Although this device is not complex enough to run software as it is usually understood, it can solve complex mathematical expressions through sophisticated processes of addition and subtraction like the Babbage difference engine.
Castle Clock TL3. Renaissance Calculator TL4. A small adding machine operated by turning dials to set values and operations and pulling a lever to actually perform functions. The primary difference between this device and its predecessors is size. Later histories hold stories of self-powered equipment ranging from the fanciful but simple, such as self-opening doors, to the enormously complex, such as artificially created life.
Automated Doors TL2 At least as early as the later Roman empire, buildings could be equipped with doors that opened themselves once a mechanism was activated, often by pulling a lever or lighting a fire.
They typically worked by a hidden hydraulic mechanism or occasionally by steam. Moving Platforms TL2 A wooden platform, possibly carpeted or tiled, set on hidden wheels or lifts so that it can change position. A platform may be attached to a power source to move it around at a steady rate, typically a foot per second.
Such platforms are used in theaters to wheel out scenery during performances or in temples to bring priests or cult images in and out of view. A power source such as a steam engine p. Platforms that move vertically cost twice as much, but since they can be counterweighted effectively, their power source only needs to lift the weight of the payload. They came in a variety of sizes from normal humans to giants, and they were exceptionally durable.
The favorite combat tactic of Talos, the best known metal man, was to stand in a fire until he was red-hot, then grapple opponents, burning them to death. However, they had a significant vulnerability. Rather than equipment, a Classical android may be treated as a character with a modified form of Body of Metal p.
An android has a vulnerable plug holding in its vital fluid. Attacking the plug has the same effect as an attack to the brain, even though it may not be in the head. It costs points to be a bronze android. Typically powered POWER AND by steam or water, mannequins could be built to emulate many natural gestures: sitting and standing, playing a musical instrument, dance steps, and so on.
A mannequin need not be human-shaped, though. Other automata have included mechanical lions and trees full of mechanical birds. It weighs lbs. They used alchemical techniques to harness the principle, widely held at the time, of spontaneous generation.
This idea, put forward as far back as the third century B. For example, mice were believed to arise from bales of straw, while maggots naturally came from rotting meat. If one could control the environment correctly, one could create life to specification. Rare animals, obviously, arise from unusual conditions, so appropriate materials for, say, sables or Bengal tigers are much less common and more expensive.
He must then wait for one week per 10 lbs. On a success, 1d infant creatures are generated. These appear to have been accelerated attempts at selective breeding combined with daring addition of traits from other species. It produces results more quickly than traditional selectivebreeding methods. It had a certain brutal effectiveness, but often with undesirable side effects. A genetic engineering program may select a desired trait for example, increased average ST, an innate skill, etc.
In each generation, the breeding group gains one point toward the trait. However, they also gain a point toward a disadvantage, chosen by the GM and kept secret. With each generation, the engineers may roll against Bioengineering Genetic Engineering skill. On a success, the population gets another point toward the desired trait, or two points on a critical success. On a failure, the population receives another two points toward the secret disadvantage. They automatically gain the secret disadvantage on a critical failure, and the GM picks an additional disadvantage.
The desired trait appears when the breeding population acquires the full value of the advantage; however, any disadvantages they have gained points toward appear simultaneously. One of the most useful, mentioned as far back as Pliny the Elder A. Perhaps inspired by samples of wootz crucible steel, which would have been available just in time for a few specimens to make it to imperial Rome , this was alleged to be a remarkably strong type of iron. It was hard enough that tools made of azzalum could be used to cut other pieces of iron.
This led some scholars to conclude that light was a substance that the stone soaked up like a sponge to emit later. The main controversy about the stone was whether it was natural or could be manufactured. A thumb-sized stone will glow with the brightness of a candle flame for 10 minutes if exposed to bright light for an hour or more.
It fades thereafter, with the glow disappearing after an hour. It can be used as a heatless, flameless, and even concealable source of light, but only briefly. Through history, craftsmen have claimed to invent flexible, or at least malleable, glass.
The earliest account is of a Roman inventor Orichalcum who approached the emperor Tiberius with vessels made from what appeared to be glass. There are several differing historical accounts of a metal called orichalWhen struck, however, the material dented cum. GURPS Fantasy presents one interpretation of it as an unbreakable instead of shattering, and the inventor fantasy metal. Another interpretation is a strong but attractive alloy of pounded it back into shape.
The emperor was copper, tin, and gold. It has the strength of bronze, but the color and shine duly impressed. However, he had the inventor of gold. They may also be considered as being made from gold potentially render precious metals worthless if golden items have any particular supernatural effects. Persian and Chinese craftsmen are said to have invented it as well, though they came off much better. Such stories are sufficiently widespread that they may reflect a real substance, though its properties may be exaggerated.
There is speculation that a difficult-to-produce compound containing silver might be vitrified but remain somewhat flexible. In practical terms, this would give the ancients something resembling plastic millennia before plastics were actually invented. Malleable glass vessels and windows would be as transparent and, potentially, as colorful as regular glass but not be Fragile Brittle. Rather, it was a lightweight, flexible metal: aluminum.
When aluminum was first produced historically in the middle of the 19th century, it was used much like silver, for jewelry, tableware, and similar applications, and that is likely to be the case if it were introduced in TL2. However, a clever smith might experiment with alloying it. Aluminum bronze is potentially quite strong for its weight. Rather, the oil flamed but was not consumed. Once lit, it burned indefinitely. One example cited by a Renaissance scholar had stayed lit for over 1, years in a Roman tomb and, after the tomb was opened in his own day, was only put out with great difficulty.
Incombustible oil may be used as a Molotov cocktail p. However, the fire will continue burning until completely smothered by a layer of earth or other solid material; it will not go out after 10d seconds, nor can it be extinguished with water or by beating it out by hand p. If used in a lamp, it will provide light until put out by completely smothering it with earth, sand, or other solid material.
A flask is 1 lb. Four-pointed spikes were loaded with explosives and a trigger mechanism. A small bag may be scattered over a one-yard area with successful DX roll. Others passing through the area get a Vision roll to spot and avoid them.
This is the classic pitch black, head-totoe garment with only a small slit in the hood for the eyes, but the fit is comfortable enough for free movement.
One of the more impressive ninja tricks is a bare-handed sword catch. The trick involves slapping the hands together around an incoming sword. Treat this as a Judo or Karate parry at It requires both hands but grapples the sword if successful; if not, the attacker may choose to do damage to either hand or his original target. To assist in this trick, ninja wore gloves impregnated with a sort of sandpaper made from crushed shells. The additional friction helps stop the sword, reducing the penalty to Large wooden disks with concentric rings connected to them.
These shoes allow the user to walk on any liquid, but he must move at least five yards per second and carry no more than Light encumbrance.
If he does not, he sinks immediately. These are, essentially, what the ancients regarded as advanced science, and are as mundane, in their worldview, as crafts like pottery and blacksmithing. Refinement attempts also require a number of days of work equal to the desired degree of refinement and an Alchemy roll at a penalty equal to the degree of refinement.
For example, making a fourth-degree refinement takes four days and is at -4 to Alchemy. However, special equipment and materials may further modify the roll. Magical Some alchemists claimed that their work was These rules represent an historical view of alchemy as a mundane, essentially symbolic. All the talk of transmuting material science with limited, specific goals rather than a versatile substances and formulating elixirs with the magical technique.
Besides, alchemists in many traditions were also known for deliberately obfuscating when they wrote things down, giving vague or symbolic descriptions to substances, properties, and instructions. Might not the spiritual dimension of alchemy itself be a Elixirs double-blind, obscuring the valuable material aspects?
These are products of attempts to create healing and The practical object of alchemists was transforming subimmortality potions.
However, the user enjoys the benefits of the most stances, typically with beneficial effects. Raw minerals were refined elixir he has consumed. An elixir that can mend any wound. It also grants a HT bonus equal to the degree cerned with medical applications, most notably extending life.
Every degree of refinement after the fifth retains acts as a spellcasting system dressed up in chemical garb. This was an important Curative Panacea.
An elixir that can cure any disease. Refinement is measured in recover from any diseases currently afflicting him. An elixir at a second degree of refinement is more Elixir of Life. The user regains any attribute points lost to aging. For example, an attempt its degree of refinement. Transmutation Transformation of lead into gold is shorthand for a long process of slowly improving raw materials. Transmutation may be handled as refining an elixir, with certain metals being the product of different stages of transformation.
Lead and tin count as being at the first degree of refinement, iron at the third, copper at the fifth, silver at the eighth, and gold at the tenth.
An alchemist could start with lead and work through nine more stages of refinement to get gold, or start with silver and go through just two. Alchemical Laboratory. Chemically resistant containers and vessels, distillation chambers, sand and water baths, mortars, tongs, and scales.
Anything less counts as improvised equipment. Unlike other items in this section, alchemical tools may be purchased or easily made by an alchemist or his assistants.
Philosophical Mercury. This is a substance rather than a particular object. It functions as the ultimate alchemical catalyst.
However, with inconsistent timekeeping, instruments of questionable accuracy, and the surprise appearance of novel celestial bodies like comets, low-tech astrology was still very much an observational discipline. The primary day-to-day use of astrology was to figure out auspicious times at which to undertake important activities, such as performing weddings, formalizing business partnerships, celebrating coronations, and starting long journeys.
All Astrology rolls for that subject are penalized for imprecise or inaccurate information. For time, the astrologer is at -1 if birth time is known only within the hour, -2 if known within a day, -5 if known within a week, and if known within two weeks; an astrologer may not prepare a horoscope for a subject with a less precise birth date.
He is also at -1 if place of birth is known only within 50 miles, -2 within miles, -3 within miles, -4 within miles, or -5 for a greater distance. Creating a horoscope requires a day of effort with access to appropriate tools and references and a roll against Fortune-Telling Astrology. After working up a horoscope, an astrologer can determine lucky and unlucky times. Each attempt to find such times takes a night of astronomical observations and a day of research and computation.
Deducing a day that is guaranteed not to be unlucky within the next month requires an unmodified Fortune-Telling Astrology roll. If the subject of the horoscope starts a significant undertaking on such a day suffers no good or ill effects from cosmic influences. Discovering a very lucky hour within the next month is at -5, and finding an extremely lucky minute in that time frame is at All rolls to find very or extremely lucky times have maximum effective skill of 18, and repeated attempts for any given time period are at cumulative -1 per attempt.
However, it must be directly related to the task at hand. For example, a general who goes off to war during a lucky hour may reroll his Strategy skill in a battle, but not Gambling during a game of dice on the way there.
Roll 3d when undertaking a significant new task. Starting a significant undertaking during a very unlucky hour subjects the victim to a single arbitrary failure per the Unluckiness disadvantage at some point during the task. However, the failure will only happen with something directly related to it for example, that general might fall off of his horse and break his arm during the battle but be entirely successful at gambling the night before.
Starting during an extremely unlucky minute mean the subject suffers from Unluckiness for the entire task. Benefits and penalties from astrology are in addition to those provided by Luck and Unluckiness. A lucky person who starts a task during an extremely lucky minute essentially has two independent versions of Luck, and is going to have a very easy time of things.
Astrological Tools TL3. A set of tools for astronomical observation, including an astrolabe, quadrant, hourglass, and a set of basic reference texts.
Principles of first aid and treating immediate trauma have remained similar though time and across cultures: Stop bleeding, cover the wound with something to prevent contamination, immobilize broken limbs. Methods may differ in detail for example, a wide range of plasters, poultices, and other preparations might be used for wound coverings , but the basic theory is generally sound, so Esoteric Medicine can at least operate as First Aid skill.
Methods for ensuring long-term health and fighting disease, however, were much more varied and were based on a range of premises modern people would regard as semi-mystical at best — managing invisible elements or energy flows. If the GM decides that balancing humors or unblocking the flow of chi can heal people, these rules may be used to reflect the practice of esoteric medicine.
B and cyclic disease resistance rolls p. No skill roll is required for the doctor, as with the Physician skill. Doctors with Esoteric Medicine can also make daily skill rolls to help injured patients recover additional HP, similar to a practitioner with Physician. However, patients treated by doctors with Esoteric Medicine may be subject to a range of therapies ranging from the unusual to the downright arduous.
A healer with Esoteric Medicine might use any of these techniques: Bleeding. This does 1d-4 points of injury. The patient must also roll against HT; on a failure, he is suffers from Moderate Pain p. B for the rest of the day. However, in wilderness conditions, gatherers with Naturalist skill may be required to find appropriate foods. Environmental Therapy. Likewise, Chinese physicians might use principles of feng shui to give the patient healthier surroundings. The doctor prescribes a series of special exercises to the patient.
The patient must devote at least two hours per day to his exercises. Herbal Medicine. The doctor prepares a custom compound that may contain herbs, obscure animal parts, and minerals. The patient must take at least one dose daily. Though ultimately beneficial, it may be unpleasant in the short term. Preview of the PDF. Contained herein are: New and strange weapons, including the reflective heat ray, the anti-ship claw, and the barrel Leonardo battery.
Combination weapons. Can't decide between a gun and a sword? Consider a gun-sword!
0コメント