Technology
My version of the pseudo-science page. Same rules that Matt wrote out, basically. This will summarize the level of advancement in the various fields of tech that may be of interest to the players (or have been directly stated to be interesting to the players).
1.) Gravity on ships: whether a ship has gravity or not is largely up to the crew, though those who travel for long distances in space and those who carry passengers are strongly recommended to have it. Some technicians prefer to leave it out of the engine room, since it makes it much easier for them to get around and can actually permit them to move pieces of the ship much larger than if gravity is active (though they must be fairly expert at zero G movement for this, or just end up bouncing themselves like a pinball against giant metal things). Gravity is generated by means of a precursor based technology manufactured by one of the megacorps (Interstellar Robotics Inc.) that is still poorly understood on a theoretical level. The gist is that it allows 1:1 translation of electromagnetic energy into gravitational energy, so that a large gravitational force can be created with the expenditure of not a whole lot of electricity. It works in a "cage" format, with the wires that generate the field needing to circumscribe the space: as such, the gravity can't be relocated, although it can be turned off. Although this is a very ubiquitous technology, it is also fairly expensive since it is precursor based.
2.) Engines: Most ships draw their power from a small, highly stable (and therefore expensive) fusion reactor, although older power sources exist for those without much cash. Fuel cells for the reactor are relatively small: more space in the engine is taken up by a reactor that takes energy from the fusion reactor, uses it to super-heat/charge gas from the fuel cells, which then provides the thrust for flight. Directional thrusters can operate on the same principle (powerful and costly) or can simply use pressurized gas (cheap and puny). These thrusters also work for atmospheric flight, though some ships prefer to save fuel by installing propeller, turbine, or other atmospheric drives that utilize energy more efficiently when in atmospheric flight.
3.) Personal Weapons: can be divided into several categories. The most common remain standard cased/caseless slug throwers, from light pistols all the way to assault rifles and auto-shotguns. Variations include ramjet (tiny-missile guns), railgun, laser based weaponry (lasers function essentially as flamethrower/shotgun-esque weapons, directed laser energy being too energetically expensive with all that atmosphere in the way). Based on the type of weapon and the quality, the effects of these guns can vary significantly. The major advance in close combat weapons has been the invention of "vibro weapons": these do little to improve the damage of the knife (it still sticks in you) but has made them incredibly effective against armored targets. I think I am also going to include plasma weapons.weapons rules
4.) Armor: armor breaks down fundamentally into three groups: soft, hard, and powered. soft armor maxes out at 10 sp, hard at 20, and powered at 40. Again, quality of the armor makes a big difference. All armor is made from advanced composites, although much of the materials sciences and raw materials used to make them before the sundering are no longer available: thus, the best armor in the Gemini is armor from pre-sundering or precursor sites. Most Lycurgan aristocrats have pre-sundering armor, which contributes significantly to their reputation as the best foot soldiers around.
5.) Energy: Things are very much the way they are in the Gemini because of the distribution of resources. Limiting resources are basically any material resources. The most abundant, and therefore the cheapest resource, is energy. The small scale, well contained K-tech fusion reactors are extremely practical for spacecraft, while about 50% of the energy for cities, factories, and space stations is provided by the energy farms of Chriseis and Briseis, beamed via microwave to the populated planets. Also, large scale, poorly contained non-K-tech fusion reactors provide the other 50%. In the end, long distance space travel, and especially space transport, is a highly profitable business because nearly every planet lacks either resources, manufactured goods/services, or both.
6.) Cybernetics (everyone except Gabe can read this section): Cybernetics, first and foremost, were developed as medical technology. Since their inception, they have also begun to serve other purposes. It is crucial to remember that a cybernetic body part has, in its most quintessential form, few advantages over a meat limb, and for those, it also has disadvantages. A cyberarm cannot be stronger than a regular arm except in crushing/grabbing because of the restrictions of the human frame: without essentially "full conversion" there are very limited benefits to strength or durability. Of course, cybernetic parts can often perform tasks that meat parts can't: touch really hot/cold/radioactive shit, see in infrared/ultraviolet/microscopically/video recorder, etc. They are also expensive, must be maintained carefully, and are typically non-modular, meaning that if something breaks, the whole thing usually has to be replaced.
Military class cyberware, ie weapons, skinweave, body plating, smartgun links, etc., are different in the Gemini than in cyberpunk. First of all, they are basically illegal anywhere laws are enforced (megacorp enforcers will get verrry antsy around you with this sort of stuff). Second of all, they are poorly disseminated, so that they are very hard to find, and even more difficult to have installed. Of course, buying the equipment background would allow you to have some of this, but other than that, if the group doesn't have a fixer-type with a very high streetwise rating it is unlikely that you would be able to get much more of this.
7.) Bio-enhancement: the meat version of cyberware: much of this is done through actual genetic manipulation, a K-tech that was never 100% mastered by humanity. The surgery involved is less than cyber, the maintenance is lower, and emp and such isn't a problem: the downsides are largely cost and the risk of biological catastrophy/cancer.
Military class bio-enhancement is even more illegal and hard to find than military cyber: most of this is still cutting edge and found almost exclusively in megacorp black ops teams. Since much of the medical technology was lost at the sundering, this area has been a long time in coming back up.
8.)Medical: as mentioned above, medicine in the Gemini was one of the areas that suffered the most during the sundering. Most of the truly cutting edge medical tech was developed out of system, and was just making its way to Gemini, and this tech has largely been lost. However, the megacorp planets, and the Priam, have excellent medical care available albeit at a high price. Elsewhere it is highly variable, particularly on frontier worlds: it is probably closer to 21st century third world than anything else. Numerous "hospital crews" cruise the systems, offering their medical services at each stop to pay the bills, with top-of-the-line (at least for frontier standards) medical suites on board. Of course, there are charlatans too...
an interesting invention is the cryo-stasis chamber: essentially a high-tech coffin, if a person is too sick/injured for available medical care, they can be stuck into this thing by a paramedic-level person, frozen, and then transported within a month or so to a place with better medical care. Of course, this is no guarantee that better medical care will help them either (in fact, unfreezing the person back into their critical medical state and then rescuing them has bred a whole new specialty in medical care "cryo-emergency care").
9.) Nano: There is little to no "nano": ie highly autonomous, cell-sized or smaller robots/computers. Some do exist, but many of these are either experimental, serve research purposes, or are K-tech.
10.) Robots: Robots exist. Most of them are very simple robots, capable of following basic strings of commands using simple AI. The most advanced robots, largely novelties for the rich, can closely mimic human form and behaviour. Notably, the military and some industrial groups also make use of advanced robots, typically not in human "form", to perform dangerous or complex tasks in inhospitable environments on ships, in mines, etc. Since human labor is so cheap, robots, particularly advanced robots, have found limited application.
11.) AI/Computers: Obviously, computers are immensely fast and powerful at this point. Most starships (though certainly not all) have advanced computer systems capable of the very complex calculations needed to keep the ship on course and everything on the ship running well. More advanced ships have better computers, capable of controlling weapons systems, engaging in evasive manuevers, preparing breakfast, etc. Of course, computers are jacked into the web: this is great for gathering information, but also makes the computers vulnerable to attack by hackers. This is where the downside of AI comes in: the better the AI, the more autonomous the computer, and the less likely that it will "listen" regarding staying off the web: it is not unheard of for megacorp police or even pirates to defeat an enemy ship through computer hacking. The more human control there is over the systems, the more difficult this sort of trickery becomes.
12.) Precursor Tech: Called K-tech because of the fact that the first person to discover a precursor site, Dr. Hans-Joachim von Edelstein, called it "Die Stern-Kultur" (the star culture), which eventually became abbreviated to the "Kultur", and then just to the letter K. Hence K-tech, K-ship, K-rifle, etc. The Gemini was originally notable because of the density of K-artifacts. Of course, most of these were taken out of system. Nevertheless, numerous sources still exist in the systems. Those finds that represent a technology breakthrough, ie those that can be studied, dissected, and copied, sell for millions or even billions to the megacorps. Functional k-tech artifacts that are non-replicable, or that represent examples of tech already discovered, still are often worth hundreds of thousands to millions of credits to collectors or those with particular use for the item (or just phenomenal amounts of money). Damaged/cryptic K-tech can still sell for thousands of credits to those who break it down for rare materials or who think they can partially repair it (there are a few people who can do this).
