Technology
From The Shakaroo Sector
Technology is broken into several areas:
Other Technologies
Once again, we are using the GURPS [1]rules from Steve Jackson Games[2]. There will be some variance and these changes will be noted under each of the headings to the left. We are looking at a base tech level of early 10 for this campaign. We are going to be following the SafeTech guidelines found in UltraTech 2. I'm looking at a TL 10 society with an emerging TL 11 in spaceship and military technologies. Since being cut off from the Empire, research has stagnated somewhat due to lack of funding.
The Empire's policies regarding research was very heavily regulated and restricted. Many say this was so that the powers that be could more easily maintain the status quo. Technology has a way of changing the balance of power, and not always in a favorable way from the perspective of the current leaders.
If you can think of any areas we have missed, let us know so we can add them. This is a cooperative effort and we need your input to make this project successful!
To aid those who do not have, or are not familiar with, the GURPS system of tech levels, the following chart may be of some use to get a feel for the system. This is taken from GURPS Space[3] and shows at what tech level certain achievements were made. This is the discovery level. These technologies do not become common use until the next tech level higher. So even though reactionless drives are discovered at TL 9, they are not widely seen in use on starships until TL 10.
Tech Level 0 Stone Age: fire, lever language
Tech Level 1 Bronze Age: (Athens): wheel, writing, agriculture
Tech Level 2 Iron Age (Rome): keystone arch
Tech Level 3 Medieval (pre-1450 Earth): steel weapons, mathematics with zero
Tech Level 4 Renaissance/Colonial (1450-1700): gunpowder, printing
Tech Level 5 Industrial Revolution (1701-1900): mass production, steam power, telegraph
Tech Level 6 Atomic (1901-1950): cars, airplanes, radio, rockets
Tech Level 7 Nuclear (1951-2000?): fission power, computers, laser, rockets, orbital travel
Tech Level 8 Spacefaring (2001-2050?): STL space travel, fusion power, implants
Tech Level 9 Starfaring: FTL star travel, reactionless drives, longevity
Tech Level 10 Antimatter: antimatter power, artificial gravity, short range FTL radio
Tech Level 11 Force: force screens, tractor beams, long range FTL radio
Tech Level 12 Gravitic: contragravity, grav compensators, personal force screens
Tech Level 13 Worldbuilding: full terraforming, including moving orbits
Tech Level 14 Dysonian: construction of worlds, ringworlds, and so on
Tech Level 15 MT: matter transmission, cosmic power, unlimited FTL radio
Tech Level 16 What ever you want....
As a side note, if you can come up with any interesting variations on the technologies we have, please let me know. I would like to set up a system where there are many ways of accomplishing a given task with technology. Another consideration is that we don't want the background being dominated by the tools of our societies. Good stories are about people, not their tools, so lets not get too carried away with mega this and super that. :-)
--Srhoag 22:38, 20 February 2009 (EST)
