Everyday Civilian Bio-Tech

LostOne · Unread post by **LostOne** » Thu May 01, 2008 12:15 pm

I was curious if there was a thread around detailing stuff that the average Splicer citizen would use daily that they might take for granted?

For example, people in our society use daily that is taken for granted: toothbrush, deodorant, hair-styling products, makeup, clothes washing machines, refrigerators, microwaves, door locks, etc.

Has anyone come up with any of this kinda stuff as bio-tech or alternative solutions?

I was thinking the dentick from Farscape was ripe for borrowing, but I'll just mention it here and not post any conversions (not that it needs any for those that know what it is).

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Thu May 01, 2008 7:02 pm

LostOne wrote:I was curious if there was a thread around detailing stuff that the average Splicer citizen would use daily that they might take for granted?

For example, people in our society use daily that is taken for granted: toothbrush, deodorant, hair-styling products, makeup, clothes washing machines, refrigerators, microwaves, door locks, etc.

Has anyone come up with any of this kinda stuff as bio-tech or alternative solutions?

I was thinking the dentick from Farscape was ripe for borrowing, but I'll just mention it here and not post any conversions (not that it needs any for those that know what it is).

I was considering a chemically-heated portable 'stove' that could be slung over a back, and a lung-like air-freshener/filter for workplace air quality improvement...

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Fri May 02, 2008 2:36 am

Those are both worthwhile things that you'd think would be available for the civilians.

The Baron of chaos · Fri May 02, 2008 12:19 pm

Times ago i posted a thread about this same very topic, it was interesting, because it seemed odd that only military biotech was developed and not other supportive tech
http://www.palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=58209&sid=c9032e2082cc797d4a0bf303cbea368a

Ectoplasmic Bidet · Fri May 02, 2008 12:48 pm

This evening when I get back from watching Iron Man, I'm gonna try to write up some civilian bio-tech stuff. I've had a few ideas over the years that I never got around to developing, maybe I can salvage a few of them.

slappy · Unread post by **slappy** » Fri May 02, 2008 6:50 pm

I have a couple I've been kicking around:

Boozers: Looks like a three-armed squid. They excrete a strong alcoholic beverage. They come in fruit and various mint flavors. Favorite drink among many Splicers, as long as they can ignore the fact they’re drinking the urine from a mutant squid. Also known as “Squid ****.”

Moisture Condensers: It looks like a four inch long auger sea shell with a spiny pod covering the opening on top. This device constantly extracts moisture from the air and stores the drinkable water inside the hollow shell. It can only hold 6 ounces of water at a time but it can extract up to 50 ounces a day from what climates, 30 ounces from an average environment, and 15 ounces a day from dry climates.

Fuzzballs: It looks like a baseball made of flesh covered in a thick cotton-like fuzz. This fuzz is actually an edible fungus that has sort of a citrus flavor. It contains all the proteins, carbohydrates, and vitamins that a human needs to sustain himself indefinitely. It is primarily used by field Splicers so they do not need to worry about scavenging for food in the field. It can provide enough food for one meal a day, so it is more like emergency rations but multiple Fuzzballs can keep one person well fed. Host Armor, Gorehounds, and War Mounts generally require a great deal more food than a human so these are not ideal for sustaining Bio-Tech.

I was also thinking recently about living conditions within the Resistance. What would their bathroom look like? I don't think it would need to be filled with creepy Bio-Tech equivalents. I figure you would have the same porcelain fixtures with plastic piping and all that. The Bio-Tech part would come in concerning what heats the water and pumps it through those pipes. That's where you come up with some odd organic creature tucked deep within the bowels of the underground haven.

Just a thought. Looking forward to what others add.

The Baron of chaos · Sat May 03, 2008 9:27 am

This awoke my interest so here some new things

Printing bio-machine. The main chassis is made of wood, but the secret lay inside. The characters are made of semi-living organic gelt hat harden or soften given low-level bio-electric shock. Result is that could print quite fast once connected to a bio-comms, translating thoughts in written words. Only side effect is that need to be recharged with ink once a while (generally every 100 printed pages9and gel has short life span, only 1d4+1 months. Is commonplace amongst librarians, who generally own 1d4x10 printers, and in bureaoucratics offices(Bureaucracy, existed in ancient egypt, in middleage, in modern times and will survive till the end of humankind ). The largest great house often host a printing commerce, having very fine and top quality printing bio-machine. These are alos essential in keeping the human knowledge memory alive making copy of precious books

Pleasurmatic(an old glory, first thought for Rifts cyborg, converted then for pretty much games i've played

). This little worm like organism connect trought a umbilical cord to the back of the neck, not dislike the warmounts connection system, and stimulate the serotonine production of the metabolism and amplify the pleasure receptors of the brain. Final result is a VERY pleasurable sensation whose intensity could vary from mild relaxation to extasy and rapture(think somethign like "OMGYESS") . Orginally thought for therapy for battle shock and traumatized dreadguards and roughneck, it had become, despite Librarian,engineers and Warlord prohibitions, a source of entertaimente and addiction.
Bonuse: While on Rapture the subject feel no pain, feel very good and is +3 to save vs HF , fatigue . Sadly is -10% to all skills and had no initiative due being lost to it
Value: 1d6x100000 credits highly illegal outside medical facilities so price could vary
Life Span: 25 years
noie: very very addictive

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat May 03, 2008 2:17 pm

Bio-Chem Latterns---Look like glowing ostrich eggs held in netting that can be hooked to a belt, harness, wall-protrusion, or other mounting mount....safe, cool, bright, light...Can be turned off and on by pressing a protrusion at the top of the egg, but will burn for a month before dimming...Can be recharged simply by soaking in a sugar-solution or by injecting a nutrient fluid into the bulb...

The Baron of chaos · Sat May 03, 2008 4:53 pm

Digging Gauntlets - This is the first of a series of generic bio-organic large gloves who had become very widespread amongst the non-host armor pilots. Thes eone in particular had become a serious hit for most worker, for offering also a minimal combat ability. The glovese are made of chitin tipped with large claws made for digging, the claws had micro pores that secrete acid that further help in digging earth.
MDC: 18 each
Damage: 1d8+2 Megadamage
Digging speed: Dig through earth and normal rock at Speed equal PS+15 MPH, PS+5 through MDC material.

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Sun May 04, 2008 4:30 pm

How about a bio-taser for the civvilian police?
or a arrow head gecho for hunting,bio-locks,a sense enhancer or a healer pod for bio-tech?

LostOne · Unread post by **LostOne** » Mon May 05, 2008 10:42 am

The Baron of chaos wrote:Printing bio-machine. Only side effect is that need to be recharged with ink once a while

Squid naturally produce an inky substance, I believe some cultures actually have used it for ink. No reason the ink couldn't be produced by the device.

LostOne · Unread post by **LostOne** » Mon May 05, 2008 10:51 am

abe wrote:How about a bio-taser for the civvilian police?
or a arrow head gecho for hunting,bio-locks,a sense enhancer or a healer pod for bio-tech?

some of this stuff exists already, or you need to expand on what you mean.

They have the equivalent of night-vision goggles (Eye Pod) for sense enhancement.
Slap Patches for healing.

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Mon May 05, 2008 6:14 pm

They have the equivalent of night-vision goggles (Eye Pod) for sense enhancement.
Slap Patches for healing.

the arrow head gecho produces arrow heads for arrows that are the equilivent of steel for all except nanite purposes
the bio-taser just stuns criminals so they will go to trial or so they wont hurt themselfs
bio-locks are the bio-tech equilivent of metal locks

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Tue May 06, 2008 3:29 am

Those are some awesome ideas! I can see a lot of these devices being in the hands of the ordinary people! I'll have to do some research before I even think of adding to this great list.

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 6:38 pm

any thoughts on my items & how they might work in splicers?

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 6:44 pm

the bio-locks would probibly need bio-keys of course.

glitterboy2098 · Sun Mar 24, 2013 7:59 pm

living portapotty? or is a toilet with a tongue too much body-horror?

Snake Eyes · Unread post by **Snake Eyes** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 1:37 am

glitterboy2098 wrote:living portapotty? or is a toilet with a tongue too much body-horror?

OMG!!!

Ale Golem · Unread post by **Ale Golem** » Tue Mar 26, 2013 5:41 pm

abe wrote:the arrow head gecho produces arrow heads for arrows that are the equilivent of steel for all except nanite purposes

I have an image in my head of a Splicer hunters/warriors with a small group, 3 or 4, of Arrow Head Geckos on his shoulders. They're his pets and faithful hunting companions, he takes care of them in his downtime and they are adored by his children. I love these little guys!

Now that I look, I don't see any stats for a bow in the Splicer main book. Do they exist or have people just ported them over from Rifts/Palladium Fantasy?

Shark_Force · Unread post by **Shark_Force** » Tue Mar 26, 2013 11:16 pm

Ale Golem wrote:
abe wrote:the arrow head gecho produces arrow heads for arrows that are the equilivent of steel for all except nanite purposes
I have an image in my head of a Splicer hunters/warriors with a small group, 3 or 4, of Arrow Head Geckos on his shoulders. They're his pets and faithful hunting companions, he takes care of them in his downtime and they are adored by his children. I love these little guys!

Now that I look, I don't see any stats for a bow in the Splicer main book. Do they exist or have people just ported them over from Rifts/Palladium Fantasy?

do the stats exist, or do bows exist?

the former, kind of. the latter, yes.

in particular, on page 203 in the WP Archery skill, we are told what the typical values for range and damage are for a variety of bow and bow-like weapons. in fact, apart from bio-weapons and the weapons used by NEXUS robots, the WP skills are the only source of weapon stats in general i think.

glitterboy2098 · Wed Mar 27, 2013 12:17 am

there is a book called In the courts of the Crimson kings, by S.M.Sterling that has some interesting bio-tech. it's set in an alternate universe where the probes of the 1960's (the Venera probes for venus, and the Vikings for mars) found worlds more like those described by heinlein, Robert E. howard, etc. turns out mars and venus were terraformed by 'the lords of creation' millions of years prior, and seeded with terran life.. including humans in more recent times.

on mars, because the planet had so little metal and no tectonic activity to speak of, the local civilization turned to breeding, and later engineering, living things to produce their tech. so you had things like octopi which had been engineered to be living night vision goggles, or medkits that used various worms and bugs instead of instruments and drugs, guns that used a methane producing critter to propel ceramic bullets, whips that were actually rats (the grip is the body, the tail is the whip.. and the tail secretes a contact paralytic), rooms are carpeted with a sessile furry critter, messages are carried by birds with perfect memory and vocal mimicry, etc..

it wouldn't carry over one to one, but plenty of inspirational ideas in the book. especially the idea of "feral" versions of the various tools. where the animal parts escape and breed, creating a weird ecosystem. some of which can be quite deadly.

Ale Golem · Unread post by **Ale Golem** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:59 am

Shark_Force wrote:
Ale Golem wrote:
abe wrote:the arrow head gecho produces arrow heads for arrows that are the equilivent of steel for all except nanite purposes
I have an image in my head of a Splicer hunters/warriors with a small group, 3 or 4, of Arrow Head Geckos on his shoulders. They're his pets and faithful hunting companions, he takes care of them in his downtime and they are adored by his children. I love these little guys!

Now that I look, I don't see any stats for a bow in the Splicer main book. Do they exist or have people just ported them over from Rifts/Palladium Fantasy?

...on page 203 in the WP Archery skill, we are told what the typical values for range and damage are for a variety of bow and bow-like weapons. in fact, apart from bio-weapons and the weapons used by NEXUS robots, the WP skills are the only source of weapon stats in general i think.

I never would have thought to look beyond the bio-technology section for weapon stats before sitting down to help people make characters. I was expecting a small write up for various bone/resin SD weapons, thank you for the assistance.

Shark_Force · Unread post by **Shark_Force** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:07 pm

Ale Golem wrote:I never would have thought to look beyond the bio-technology section for weapon stats before sitting down to help people make characters. I was expecting a small write up for various bone/resin SD weapons, thank you for the assistance.

well, like i said, it's only really sort of there even.

after all, a typical write-up for a weapon will include things like a rate of fire, ammo capacity, cost, and a description (although probably most of us don't need a full description of, say, a bow and arrow... but we might need it for recognizing one polearm from another)

more to the point, most of those weapons come with a range of possible values pretty much. so you need to decide what each one actually does within that range of values, and fill in a few blanks.

BookWyrm · Unread post by **BookWyrm** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 6:23 pm

glitterboy2098 wrote:living portapotty? or is a toilet with a tongue too much body-horror?

Uh, yeah. I take it you've seen certain episodes of the series Lexx?

I like the ideas of the bio-chem lantern eggs for illumination; the children use them for a game of 'hot potato' called "Black Egg";
the Digger gauntlets for tunnel-expension or to ease the House's living organism base to safely expand;
The Bio-Locks would be keyed to a specific individual's bio-print (touching the lock would confirm the identity; to imprint before installation, the lock-organism is held by it's 'owner' for a few moments before being put in place);
I can imagine a variant of the Bio-Taser as a mutation of the Electric Eel combined with a small squid or octopus--thrown or launched from a modified bio-launcher, the octopus limbs would grab & adhere to the target while the eel part delivers a mild stunning shock.

"Black Egg" game.
When the Bio-Lantern illimination devices became wide spread amongst the Houses, many younger children started playing a rather curious game with them. With a group of 3 or more (usually 6, the highest was 12 members), the children would pass around a Bio-Lantern 'egg' that was engineered to switch randomly between various colors. The one that ended up with the egg going 'black' (shut off/no longer glowing) was disqualified, and the game would continue. usually this is a speed-timed game, and many adults saw this friendly game as a way to promote hand-eye co-ordination in the younger generations. Some children have developed the skill of Juggling (as per the skill, pg. 196) and later have taught this to others. The wise mentor to young Splicers often encourage this activity.

Shark_Force · Unread post by **Shark_Force** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 1:00 am

if you want to see some interesting ideas for this, i recommend the geneforge series of video games (they're single player RPGs available on computer only, to my knowledge...)

for obvious reasons, i can't post all the uses of bio-engineered creations here in this thread (conversion rules, etc), but i don't think there would be any problem with referring people to the games... you can try out a demo just to see some of the starting stuff from each game, and there are 5 games.

(the series also raises some interesting points wrt the rights of bio-engineered creatures... but i don't want to spoil it too much for anyone that actually goes to check it out).

of course, it will probably also give you ideas for bio-engineered creations that are *not* for civilians

glitterboy2098 · Thu Mar 28, 2013 5:03 am

BookWyrm wrote:
glitterboy2098 wrote:living portapotty? or is a toilet with a tongue too much body-horror?

Uh, yeah. I take it you've seen certain episodes of the series Lexx?

actually no. never seen that series.

portapotties with a tongue showed up in In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings, complete with earth humans being rather creeped out by it.

Guy_LeDouche · Unread post by **Guy_LeDouche** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 8:31 pm

Here are a few loose ideas from the LeDouche-verse:

Muck tape

A inexpensive, highly versatile, all purpose tape; Muck Tape works by attaching millions of microscopic bacterial filiments to the contact surface; insuring a strong, even grip. Can be used for a great many things like patching armor, strapping attachments to weapons, binding prisoners and many, many more!

M.D.C.: 1 M.D. per one foot strip (0.30 m)
Maximum Effective Holding Strength: Equal to a Splicers Physical Strength of 15.
Trade Value: 2 credits for a 50 foot (15.24 m) roll or 5 credits for a roll of 150 feet (45.72 m).

Dermal-weld (Super glue for organics)
An organic mucus-like substance which is capable of bonding virtually any material to any other material (organic works best, but will work on most anything). Much like the super glue, Dermal weld can be used to bond everything from plastics to ceramics, flesh or even metal (probably not the best of ideas). Made from naturally occuring plants and minerals; Dermal Weld is a cheap, all-purpose adhesive.

Maximum Effective Holding Strength: Equal to a Splicers Physical Strength of 20 if both materials are organic but only 10 if one is an inorganic material and only 5 if neither is organic in nature.
Payload: Enough to cover a 3 foot by 3 foot (0.91 by 0.91 m) area in a thin coating.
Trade Value: 25 credits for a new and unused tube of Dermal Weld.

Pigment Mixer (All purpose paint mixer)

Thermal Woad (Heat cloaking "mud" which fouls up detection; see Ar-nuld in "Predator")

Plasmatic Flare (Road Flare)

Personal Aquafier (Water purifer and canteen combo!)

Shark_Force · Unread post by **Shark_Force** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 4:04 am

just can't seem to keep myself from bringing this up, but... superglue is superglue for organics. in fact, one of the uses (of which there are many) of superglue is to replace sutures in surface cuts.

Guy_LeDouche · Unread post by **Guy_LeDouche** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 5:25 am

Shark_Force wrote:just can't seem to keep myself from bringing this up, but... superglue is superglue for organics. in fact, one of the uses (of which there are many) of superglue is to replace sutures in surface cuts.

True, but it's not "Splicer-fied". What fun is plain old super glue compared to super adhering organic mucous?

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:51 am

how about (for use with the alchol generating squid) a vinegar maker (maybe as a advancement for said squid)?

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 1:02 am

on the holiday's they MIGHT have bio-tech related to the various holiday you know

LostOne · Unread post by **LostOne** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 1:10 am

I'm sure you're right on that. I'm also sure their holidays would be quite different from ours.

The Galactus Kid · Tue Jan 14, 2014 4:36 pm

By the way, one of the projects that we will hopefully be turning in sometime in 2014 is called Splicers: Homefront which will detail many of the wierd bio-tech innovations specifically for domestic and civilian use.

LostOne · Unread post by **LostOne** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 5:31 pm

Can't wait

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 2:52 pm

how about bio-tech utentials for the everyday use?

The Oh So Amazing Nate · Wed Jan 22, 2014 2:32 am

LostOne wrote:I'm sure you're right on that. I'm also sure their holidays would be quite different from ours.

Why can i not help but envision the Evil Murdering Robo-Santa from Futurama?

LostOne · Unread post by **LostOne** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 8:07 am

The Oh So Amazing Nate wrote:
LostOne wrote:I'm sure you're right on that. I'm also sure their holidays would be quite different from ours.

Why can i not help but envision the Evil Murdering Robo-Santa from Futurama?

Because that would be epic.

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 10:44 pm

For hunting you could have a electrified-bio-net!

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Sat Mar 29, 2014 7:22 pm

how about a cleaning tub for dishes & people, granted the one for people would have to be pretty large but you get the general idea.

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 6:12 pm

for hunting, the bio-whip!
could probably also be used by splicer pc's as well of course!

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Wed Nov 26, 2014 5:45 pm

Enhancement of the bio-whip the bio whip dagger!
Basically the bio-e equivalent of the whip - dagger!
This would be useful for hunting.

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Sun Apr 26, 2015 10:47 am

The Galactus Kid wrote:By the way, one of the projects that we will hopefully be turning in sometime in 2014 is called Splicers: Homefront which will detail many of the wierd bio-tech innovations specifically for domestic and civilian use.

how is that book working out now that it's 2015?

The Galactus Kid · Mon Apr 27, 2015 12:21 pm

abe wrote:
The Galactus Kid wrote:By the way, one of the projects that we will hopefully be turning in sometime in 2014 is called Splicers: Homefront which will detail many of the wierd bio-tech innovations specifically for domestic and civilian use.

how is that book working out now that it's 2015?

We have a lot more ideas and things coming along, but I'm still working on wrapping up the Technojacker book that Krisoy and Guy LaDouche wereworking oin. It's in edits right now. I have two other projects on my plate after that, and will be working on more Splicers books once the logjam breaks and books start coming out.

BookWyrm · Unread post by **BookWyrm** » Mon May 25, 2015 3:21 am

How about a Quill-Pen? Grown on the back of a genetically-modified creature (part squid, for the ink, part porcupine for the quills), this creature can grow about 2d6 thin hollow stylus that contain a measure of ink that is useful in both writing and tattooing. Most of these 'quill-pens' contain black ink, but some creatures do produce some quills with red, green, and blue inks (in separate quills; these are noted by a small band at the middle of the quill). It's rare that 1 out of 50 quills produced by a 'pen-quill' creature will produce a quill with white ink.
NOTE: The quills themselves are just barely sharp enough to pierce unprotected skin, for tattooing, but do no real damage. An 'empty' quill-pen is usually returned to the pen-quill creature, who consumes the spent quill to recycle it into a new one. Cleaned & intact empty quills (each about 6 inches long) can be used for a variety of functions, such as darts for games, mini-skewers for eating food, hair-bun pins, even bundles of them for games of 'pick-up sticks'.

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Thu Jun 25, 2015 5:41 pm

For oil lamps how about a oil generator of sorts?
Oil lamps can be made of ceramic materials after all.

RiftJunkie · Unread post by **RiftJunkie** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 1:50 pm

How about a bio-woodshop? A planer could use tentacles to pull the wood through with piranha type somethings that chew the wood down to the desired thickness. Large sanders could be an abrasive tentacle mess.

Clothing industry? Silkworms or spiders to spin and tentacles to weave the fabric. Modify a woodpecker for a sewing machine. Various dyes are easy.

glitterboy2098 · Mon Jun 29, 2015 3:30 am

abe wrote:For oil lamps how about a oil generator of sorts?
Oil lamps can be made of ceramic materials after all.

why use oil lamps if you can engineer bioluminescent plants/sessile animals? less upkeep, self-duplicating, and no need to worry about toxic fumes or handling hazardous materials.

Wooly · Unread post by **Wooly** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 4:17 pm

There are a few books I thought of other then the aforementioned In the courts of the Crimson kings that feature civilian Bio-Tech.

Copernicks Rebellion
http://www.amazon.com/Copernicks-Rebell ... 0977386929

and

Sparrowhawk
http://www.amazon.com/Sparrowhawk-Organ ... 1587151200

glitterboy2098 · Thu Jul 09, 2015 12:16 am

also West of Eden, an alternate pre-history series where dinosaurs didn't die out fully. the book's antagonists, the saurian Yilane, use biological tools specially bred and engineered for a task. boats made from squid and aquatic lizards for example. even clothing (since the yilane evolved from cold blooded marine reptiles, they lack temp regulation.. at one point in the sequel they suffer bad from an ice age winter because they "can't breed coats fast enough")

http://www.amazon.com/West-Eden-Harry-H ... st+of+eden

also, for those looking for interesting military ideas for Splicers, take a look at the Dreen from Ringo's "Into the Looking Glass" series.
http://www.amazon.com/Into-Looking-Glas ... king+Glass

abe · Unread post by **abe** » Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:56 pm

For in - house use maybe a bio-technology version of the Internet?