Wondrous Inventions

[transmetahuman]

Often, a gadgeteer character is played like a Reed Richards or (from what I've heard) MacGuyver - someone who can improvise a Mentation Readjustment Neutralizer or Adamantium Demolecularizer or whatever else is needed at the moment from his VPP. Some of these power suit guys come up with a dozen different major advances in as many fields, just getting their Flight and a big enough battery to power the thing.

 

I grew up on stuff like Tom Swift Jr. and Campbell's "Arcot, Wade, and Morey" stories, though. Though these guys could improvise, too, they got a lot of mileage out of versatile key inventions like Swift's Repelatron or whatever Campbell named that thing that takes random kinetic (heat) energy and makes it all go in the same direction. Or the "temporary matter" materializer (been awhile since I re-read Campbell's stuff). Or Niven's time-retarder/stasis field, and Vinge's "Bobbles" version of same. I remember one particularly wild exploration of a calculator-sized device that could "delete" regions of space, and peoples' memory of whatever was in that space, and return it when needed (can't remember title or author though). I really like "take one idea and explore its ramifications" fiction.

 

In a grittier, more realistic people-with-powers type games, I'd like to see inventor types take this kind of path more often (at least as NPCs): a physicist who is the only person who knows how to generate a force field, or a chemist with a formula for a frictionless lubricant. They aren't polymaths who can do anything with a workshop and some time, but their schtick is too versatile to call them one-trick ponies (like Paste-Pot Pete).

 

What I'm looking for are off-the-wall, wondrous single advances that a clever person can use in a variety of ways. The force field generator, bobbles, and frictionless lubricant are examples - many possible uses for offense, defense, movement, and other stuff. I'm looking for concepts, not really game stats (which would by nature be somewhat fluid as more applications are discovered - one reason this works better with NPCs). Any cool ideas out there?

 

Books & stories in this vein are welcome, too; it'd help if you could synopsize the basic idea though.

[Tigereye]

Re: Wondrous Inventions

 

How about a nearly two-dimensional, polarized explosive; one that somebody could set off a large concentrated charge that could cut through inches of steel, yet one could get out of harm's way by ducking at the key moment?

 

Stable metallic hydrogen- a thimbleful could have as much fuel energy as a hundred gallons of gasoline

 

Discovery of the "lost chord"- a musical note or combination of notes that no one has ever heard of before. Sound could drive people temporarily (or permanently) insane

 

Creation of a device that increases the critical mass of radioactive materials to the point that they cannot explode by normal means- or rapidly accelerates their decay into non-radioactives

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: Wondrous Inventions

 

All but the last report at the Vulcan Institute of Very Advanced Logic, Applied Science and Various Endeavors of Generally Advanced Studies (VIVALASVEGAS) deals with advanced technology. Of course, all that stuff was for consumption by Trek-o-philes, but I did work out the math for the proposed "artificial quantum singularity". I also figured out how you'd draw energy from one, given its characteristics. You'd definitely need some sort of gravity manipulation tech just to keep it from bumping into stuff (an event fraught with catastrophic potential).

[nexus]

Re: Wondrous Inventions

 

To steal from a less than serious movie "Flubber" given its properties the stuff had myriad uses.