Exploratory EquipmentExploratory Equipment

and mobility gear for use in wilderness areas. This equipment can be found with survey teams, in survival lockers on lifeboats, and in the backpacks of campers and military mission teams.

W

Ater

p

urifier

The water purifier is a battery-operated microfilter and chemical treatment machine used for purifying natural water sources. The machine can also be used to recycle biological waste water. Fifteen minutes are required to treat each litre of water. The battery pack is good for 200 filtration cycles, and can be recharged from any vehicle or other electrical power source.

TL: 9 Mass: 5 kg Price: Lv2,100

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Anteen

The normal canteen is a two litre container with a basic microfiltre to apply limited purification to water as it is filled. The filter cartridges are good for about 20 fillings of the canteen. The filter is only good for treating fairly clean water, and while it filters contaminants, it is not as effective at filtering pathogens.

TL: 8

Mass: 2.5 kg (full) Price: Lv20

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OmpACt

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AtiOns

Each ration pack is a complete, pre-packaged meal, providing about 1,000 calories and fortified with a full day’s requirement of vitamins and minerals. Each meal comes in its own self-heating (or self-chilling, for some dishes) serving tray. The heating/ cooling process is activated by breaking the seals and takes around 30 seconds. Military issue meals provide 1,500 calorie, and consist of more basic fare, easily-digested and not likely to cause stomach upset. They are also bland to the point of tastelessness, and all portions of the meal have textures that can be described best as ‘interesting.’ All compact rations sold in the French Arm have to have the Approuvé stamp of approval.

TL: 8 Mass: 1 kg Price: Lv15

f

OOD

s

ynthesiser

A food synthesiser can be used to detoxify local food sources and add essential elements for human consumption when compact rations are not available. Sometimes a food synthesiser can even

make the result palatable. When using a food synthesiser, an operator packs the mixing chamber with native foodstuffs (plants and plant analogues work best, but animal tissue can be processed if enough time is allowed). The synthesiser chemically analyses the contents, irradiates them to kill local pests, neutralises or filters out toxic elements, adds missing vitamins and minerals, and ejects the result in either a dried or pulpy form (operator’s choice). However, a food synthesiser cannot add missing amino acids, nor can it change the chirality (handedness) of the proteins and carbohydrates it processes. The synthesiser is of no help on worlds with a Compatibility of 0 or lower.

The amount of food produced and the time required to do so is dependent upon the Compatibility of the planet. Individual foodstuffs can vary from the world’s base Compatibility.

The time required for the food synthesiser to process 1 kg of food material is a number of hours equal to 10 -Compatibility. Food Purifiers require refills for their vitamins and minerals, usually once per month, but can be as often as once per week in particularly poor environments.

TL: 10 Mass: 25 kg Price: Lv1,500

r

efill

p

ACks Mass: 1 kg Price: Lv 50

b

iOmOnitOr

The biomonitor is a broad-purpose monitor about five by eight centimetres, usually carried on the belt or wrist. It can give body function readouts for medical diagnosis, can monitor breathability of atmospheres (noting presence of various gases, harmful pollens, and other toxins), and when connected to a nanocomp or portacomp, can give a good analysis of edibility of local plant and animal tissue.

TL: 10 Mass: 0. 5 kg Price: Lv500

g

Oggles

Goggles come in two different types; the first being nothing more than an inexpensive piece of protective eye-ware, and the second being a photosensitive, auto-darkening piece of

Exploratory Equipment

61

equipment to protect against steady bright light or sudden flares. The auto-darkening models provide a +1 DM for checks against blindness induced by lasers or flares.

TL: 2 (normal goggles) or 8 (photosensitive goggles) Price: Lv5 (normal goggles) or Lv190 (photosensitive)

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ACkpACk

A backpack is used to carry equipment (as well as protect it) while keeping hands free. Small items can also be suspended from its frame.

TL: 8 Mass: 2 kg Price: Lv60

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OAD

-b

eAring

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Arness

The load-bearing harness is actually a belt and vest, designed to allow an explorer (or soldier) to carry their equipment load distributed fairly evenly across their body. Pockets and pouches can be attached anywhere on the vest using quick-release gekkotoe material, similar to 20th_{century hook-and-loop}

fasteners. Backpacks can be attached directly to the vest, rather than using the included straps.

TL: 9 Mass: 1 kg Price: Lv30

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inD

-p

rOOf

l

ighter

Using hydrogen fuel and an electric element, the wind-proof lighter creates a high-pressure plasma flame at nearly 4,000° Celsius. Turning off the lighter shuts down the fuel flow and shuts off power to the element. The lighter contains enough fuel and power to remain lit for five full minutes. Refilling the lighter costs about Lv3 for a new battery and fuel.

TL: 10 Price: Lv16

f

lAres

Flares are used to signal at a distance, such as in the marking of temporary landing areas. They typically come six to a set.

TL: 9 Mass: 2 kg Price: Lv10

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OrtAble

s

tOve

The portable stove is a small electric stove powered from a rechargeable battery. Solar panels on the lid of the stove recharge the battery when closed. Each 5 minutes of use requires 2 hours of charging time, with the battery able to provide 40 minutes of cooking time.

TL: 10 Mass: 2.5 kg Price: Lv100

p

ArAChute

A parachute is a fairly simple method of aerial descent, essentially a large canopy of light-weight nylex or similar material, attached

to a pack by a cluster of shroud lines. The release of the parachute from the pack can either be automatic, controlled by an altimeter in the pack, or manual, where the wearer pulls a ripcord to deploy the chute. All chutes also include a backup chute. The parachute allows only minimal control of speed and direction of descent, and the wearer is largely at the mercy of the winds.

TL: 7 Mass: 10 kg Price: Lv800

p

ArAWing

In contrast to the parachute, the parawing can be aimed and controlled precisely enough to hit a designated drop point. The parawing is smaller, and has an aerofoil cross-section, allowing it to be steered precisely. It is packed in a similar fashion to a parachute, and uses a small parachute as a backup rather than another parawing. Landing the parawing on a target is a Difficult (-2) Athletics (co-ordination), Dex check.

TL: 8 Mass: 8 kg Price: Lv1,200

W

ingsuit

The wingsuit, often called a squirrel suit, uses flaps of lightweight cloth between the arms and legs, and between each leg, to provide enough surface area to allow the wearer to glide. The glide ratio is 3, which means that for every metre of altitude lost, the suit and its wearer move three metres forward. The wingsuit is incapable of slowing the wearer down for a landing without simply dropping out of the sky, so the terminal phase involves a parachute or parawing.

Small jet units can be added to the wingsuit, which gives it a glide ratio of 12. An extremely skilled operator can even use the jets to come to a crash stop while flying very low above the ground, allowing the operator to dispense with the parachute or paraglider. This is a Formidable (-6) Athletics (co-ordination), Dex check, with a -2 DM if carrying a load of over 10kg.

TL: 8 (TL10 for microjets)

Mass: 4 kg, plus parachute, micro-jets +5 kg

Price: Lv2,000 for wingsuit, additional Lv3,000 for microjets

s

urvivAl

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OCOOn

The survival cocoon contains heating and cooling elements to keep the occupant comfortable in almost any temperature. It includes a hood with a heat-exchange unit to pre-warm or pre-cool incoming air, and self-inflating pockets along the back to provide support and comfort to the occupant. The included power cell provides up to 48 hours of comfort at extremes of temperature down to -40 and up to +50. It can be recharged by hand via an included crank, or from any standard power source.

TL: 11 Mass: 3 kg Price: Lv200

62 s

urvivAl

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lAnket

The survival blanket is a thin sheet of wind-proof synthetic, with a reflective layer that is kept inwards towards a person’s body, capturing their body heat. A ceramic heating element and a thin- film battery provide additional warmth for up to 18 hours. The survival blanket increases effective temperature by 10°, or 20° if there is power for the heating element.

TL: 10 Mass: 1 kg Price: Lv10

s

nOWshOes

Snowshoes are large and awkward but permit normal walking speed over deep snow. Otherwise, snow deeper than knee height will reduce movement by half, while snow thigh-deep or deeper will slow a person to a crawl, only 10% of their normal movement, with running or jogging impossible.

TL: 8 Mass: 2 kg Price: Lv120

s

kies

Cross-country skis allow rapid travel over unbroken snow. Skis have a quick release clamp for the special shoes worn with them. The price of the skis includes the shoes, along with the poles used for additional pushing and balance. They have the effect of doubling speed on a Routine (+2) Athletics (co-ordination), End check.

TL: 9 Mass: 3 kg Price: Lv250

r

espirAtOr

Often an entire protective suit is unnecessary and unwieldy. In such situations, people commonly use a simple respirator mask to filter the air they breathe. Typically, the filters in such a mask must be changed every 6 to 12 hours, depending upon the amount of pollutants in the air. A filter mask grants a +1 DM to Endurance checks involving atmospheric taints.

TL: 6 Mass: 0.5 kg

Price: Lv350, replacement filter: Lv15

p

ressure

t

ent

, s

mAll

The pressure tent is an inflatable hemispherical tent with a radius of two metres. The tent includes a small airlock along with a life support system good for 12 man-days (i.e. 12 men for 1 day or 1 man for 12 days). The airlock can be detached for use on worlds with breathable atmospheres. It is powered by a solar panel built in to the roof, but if that is obscured it only has power for 12 hours.

TL: 9 Mass: 2 kg Price: Lv5,000

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ressure

t

ent

, l

Arge

An inflatable half-cylinder with a width of four metres and length of 10 metres, the large tent is suitable as a small exploration base. The tent includes a small airlock, and the life support system is good for 120 man-days. The interior can be subdivided many different ways. Again, the large tent is powered by rooftop solar cells, but can also be run off a power station or fuel cell. The large pressure tent is self-inflating.

TL: 11 Mass: 30 kg Price: Lv2,000

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ngstrOm

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eCreAtiOn

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eyerDAhl

’ s

mArt

t

ent

The Smart Tent is a non-pressurised tent that sleeps four. It uses memory-plastic materials to set itself up and take itself down. Without human intervention, the tent takes five minutes to set up; with human help it takes three. Takedown time is half this. Inflatable pads in the tent’s floor give it some rigidity and comfort.

Nano guard material resists dirt, mold and mildew, and water rolls off of it. At the same time, it breathes freely, and the material wicks moisture out of the tent, eliminating condensation. For an extra Lv75, it is available with ColourChange walls that can change the colour and reflectivity of the tent walls to one of 16 settings.

The only thing that the tent cannot do by itself is stake itself down, or remove the stakes. A human is still necessary for that.

TL: 11 Mass: 2 kg Price: Lv250

i

nertiAl

C

OmpAss

An inertial compass is a small, wrist-worn unit that always points towards a preset location (usually north). The inertial compass will always indicate the preset direction even if its wearer undergoes movement such as flight or underwater travel.

TL: 9 Price: Lv80

i

nertiAl

m

An inertial map is a small nanocomp that contains a detailed map of an area in a memory chip. The map gives a small holographic picture of any 10-kilometre square area in its memory. Once the user has plotted in his present co-ordinates, he is represented as a dot in the centre of the screen, and the map moves about that dot as the user travels. Inertial maps are often hooked up to display on other screens, such as the terrain display of a vehicle or combat walker. Map chips cost Lv15 for a 1,000-kilometre square area. Making map chips of uncharted areas and then selling them is an easy way to pick up extra money on many missions.

TL: 11 Mass: 0.5 kg Price: Lv500

63 C

limbing

k

A climbing kit includes such tools as pitons, 100 metres of fine rope, small hammers, and carabiners. Use of the climbing kit confers a +1 DM to all Athletics (co-ordination) checks used for climbing.

TL: 8 Mass: 12 kg Price: Lv450

r

Ope

Rope is available in a multitude of materials, from spun glass fibre and synthetic polymers to natural long-fibres like hemp or jute. The rope presented here is typical of the natural fibre ropes common in utility use on many colony worlds. It has a breaking weight of 500 kg (adjust weight for local gravity), and masses one kilogram per five metres of length.

TL: 4

Mass: 1 kg/ 5 m Price: Lv5 per metre

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Ope

, A

DvAnCeD

At the opposite end of the scale from the natural fibre rope is the spun carbon fibre rope, just barely thick enough to grab, and requiring special gloves be worn. The carbon fibre rope has a breaking weight of 10 tons, and masses one kilogram per 100 metres of rope.

TL: 11

Mass: 1 kg/ 100 m Price: Lv100 per metre

A

utOgrApnel

The autograpnel consists of a handheld, battery-powered compressor unit, which can fire a small grapnel as far as 20 metres in the air, then pull a load as heavy as 100 kilograms up the trailing rope. The battery is rechargeable, and is good for 20 uses. It takes about 5 minutes for the compressor to build up enough pressure to fire the grapnel to maximum height on a normal-gravity planet.

TL: 9 Mass: 7 kg Price: Lv660

64

The following chapter includes tools that are commonly available in the 24th century.

b

AsiC

t

OOl

k

This kit includes small hand tools suitable for a variety of purposes, including wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, etc.

Ail

g

Using accelerator technology similar to a gauss weapon, the electromagnetic nail gun is used to drive long nails quickly and accurately. Nail guns can even be used to join wood, synthetic and metal structural material to concrete used special nails. Use of a nail gun reduces all construction time required by half. It is possible to override the safety mechanism on a nail gun, turning it into a low-powered, short-ranged, wildly inaccurate gauss gun (Range Pistol, Damage 1d6, DM-2 on all attacks). Electromagnetic nail guns are illegal in Manchurian and Incan colonies.

TL: 12 Mass: 2 kg Price: Lv220

e

leCtrOniC

r

epAir

t

OOls

Electronic repair tools are specialised tools for work on electronic and photonic equipment, as well as gauss and energy weapons. Use of this equipment allows the Engineer (electronics) skill to be used with no penalty. Electronic repair tools must be the same tech of the item being repaired, or no more than two Tech Levels higher. They cannot be from a lower Tech Level.

TL: 11 Mass: 3 kg Price: Lv300

C

utter

b

The cutter bar is a brush clearing tool, much like a very powerful hedge trimmer, with smaller, sharper teeth. While it can do gruesome damage, it is unwieldy, as it was designed as a tool rather than a weapon (DM-2 to attack).

TL: 11

Length: 110 cm

Range: Melee (large blade) Damage: 3d6

Heft: 3 Mass: 4 kg Cost: Lv250

In document 2300AD Tools for Frontier Living (11923996) (Page 61-65)