Hey folks,

I am playing a mechanic / outlaw technician out there at the edge of the empire and it is great fun. But as I, the player, am not very well versed in things technical, mechanical, electronical or computery I sometimes have difficulties to come up with nice phrases to explain what has to be done to get the ship flying again. Like, instead of saying "I repair the engine" say something like "To get the engine running again, I have to recalibrate the hydropump in order to improve system stability".

Further thinking on this lead me to the idea to construct a table I can roll on whenever a repair has to be done to find out, what exactly is wrong. But as I said, I am very untalented in technical mumbo jumbo in real life and therefore am hoping, you people can help. I just realised I don´t know if or how I can upload my draft for the table I am proposing, so I will just go on and describe it.

The table is divided in 7 categories; these seem to be the main things that can get broken e.g. because of criticals:

1. Hull
2. Sub Light Engine
3. Hyper Drive
4. Sensors
5. Communication
6. Weapon Systems
7. Shield Generator

For each category I propose a table with three colums and each column is rolled with a different die:

1. What is broken? (yellow die)
2. What has to be done... (green die)
3. ...to achieve what? (blue die)

Each column has a number of possible text blocks depending on the die rolled:

1. What is broken? (yellow die) = 7 different outcomes
2. What has to be done... (green die) = 6 different outcomes
3. ...to achieve what? (blue die) = 5 different outcomes

The idea would be to roll the dice and get, for example, the following sentence:

1. The punctured Hull (yellow die, 1 success)
2. has to be strengthened (green die, 1 advantage)
3. to prevent oxygen loss (blue die, empty)

As each die has several sides with the same symbols, you could use more common occurences on those symbols with the most chance to get rolled. So what I need is 7 different reasons, 6 different tasks with 5 different outcomes for the 7 different categories! Are you up to this challenge? I am hoping on your creativity and tech savviness!

If some one else had this idea, I didn´t find anything online and am happy to be directed in the, err, right direction. Thanx fellow space travellers!

I could swear this has been proposed before and there's been some work done on it, but nobody's taken this across the finish line (to my recollection) and I encourage you to run with it!

You might find some of the used "technical readout," incredible cross sections, essential guides, etc to be a boon here. I've been able to pick up some on Amazon for a couple bucks and while they aren't absolutely necessary, they sure do add flavor. Why, just the Millennium Falcon Owner's Workshop Manual could probably yield a ton of good information.

This seems like a really good idea!

There are some “Starship Repair Rules” out there, and so that would be a good source of information about the kinds of things that might potentially be broken.

I have seen some tables for generating this kind of mumbo-jumbo from the GM side, so I’ll have to see if I can dig them up.

But I definitely think that this space could use some more work.

I couldn't help but run this thread around in my head this afternoon and will make this my first meaningful, and hopefully helpful post.

From what I gather the OP is looking for only some cool "color" to fill his dialogue at the table when repairing typically mundane damage effects. His suggestion is a good one, really caught my attention, but Im wondering if it isn't unnecessarily complicated and limited by the die roll mechanic.

In my opinion, for what its worth as a new player of this system, all one needs is a list of cool sounding tech phrases to pull from. They can perhaps sound logically associated with the system in question, or not... (flux capacitor seems to fit almost everywhere!)

I took the liberty of just throwing down some ideas.. take them as they are please, if some of you techy types see something that doesn't work terminology wise - by all means comment. I was just having fun.

Sublight Drive

Pulse Emission Module

Gravitic Stream Accelerator

Primary Propellant Limiter Coils

Particle Emitter

Tertiary Power Couplings

Shields

Number 4 Magneto

Overcharge Dissipater

Secondary Heat Sink

Deflector Array

Emission Control Circuit

Comms

Low Gain Antennae

Signal Attenuator

Focal Telemetry Module

Carrier Wave Amplifier

Modulation Dampner

Hyperdrive

Automatic Transfer Circuit

Power Shunting Coil

Initial Acceleration Bridge

Primary Coolant Rig

Inertial Compensator

Computer

Modular Interphase

Secondary Logic Circuit

Library Data Core

Systems Router

C12 Processor Socket

Sensors

Passive Spectrum Analyzer

Photon Emission Unit

MultiScan Pattern Buffer

Signal Stabilizer

Sublight Wave Neurolizer

Weapons

Pulse Buffer

Particle Ignition Chamber

Beam Focalizer

Gas Attenuator

Reaction Resister Assembly

This is a far from complete list as I would envision several more categories with at least 10-20 specifics per category. The player or GM can easily announce what is being done or not done to the affected part, its the part itself that is the cool part and a list like this might make a bit easier to imagine.

"There's something sparking like crazy back here in the maintenance tube! Looks like the particle ignition chamber for the number-two turret is fried!

I'm pretty sure at some point the mechanic has to yell at someone to "Keep your foot off that blasted samophlange!"

I couldn't help but run this thread around in my head this afternoon and will make this my first meaningful, and hopefully helpful post.

From what I gather the OP is looking for only some cool "color" to fill his dialogue at the table when repairing typically mundane damage effects. His suggestion is a good one, really caught my attention, but Im wondering if it isn't unnecessarily complicated and limited by the die roll mechanic.

In my opinion, for what its worth as a new player of this system, all one needs is a list of cool sounding tech phrases to pull from. They can perhaps sound logically associated with the system in question, or not... (flux capacitor seems to fit almost everywhere!)

I took the liberty of just throwing down some ideas.. take them as they are please, if some of you techy types see something that doesn't work terminology wise - by all means comment. I was just having fun.

Sublight Drive

Pulse Emission Module

Gravitic Stream Accelerator

Primary Propellant Limiter Coils

Particle Emitter

Tertiary Power Couplings

Shields

Number 4 Magneto

Overcharge Dissipater

Secondary Heat Sink

Deflector Array

Emission Control Circuit

Comms

Low Gain Antennae

Signal Attenuator

Focal Telemetry Module

Carrier Wave Amplifier

Modulation Dampner

Hyperdrive

Automatic Transfer Circuit

Power Shunting Coil

Initial Acceleration Bridge

Primary Coolant Rig

Inertial Compensator

Computer

Modular Interphase

Secondary Logic Circuit

Library Data Core

Systems Router

C12 Processor Socket

Sensors

Passive Spectrum Analyzer

Photon Emission Unit

MultiScan Pattern Buffer

Signal Stabilizer

Sublight Wave Neurolizer

Weapons

Pulse Buffer

Particle Ignition Chamber

Beam Focalizer

Gas Attenuator

Reaction Resister Assembly

This is a far from complete list as I would envision several more categories with at least 10-20 specifics per category. The player or GM can easily announce what is being done or not done to the affected part, its the part itself that is the cool part and a list like this might make a bit easier to imagine.

"There's something sparking like crazy back here in the maintenance tube! Looks like the particle ignition chamber for the number-two turret is fried!

This is a friggin´ great start, thanx for your ideas! I still like the idea of the dice roll mechanic, but am not limited to a) the type of die (why not use a d20 if we have lots of ideas) and b) the three columns - you are absolutely right, the affected part is the most important piece of information and then go with it

I could swear this has been proposed before and there's been some work done on it, but nobody's taken this across the finish line (to my recollection) and I encourage you to run with it!

You might find some of the used "technical readout," incredible cross sections, essential guides, etc to be a boon here. I've been able to pick up some on Amazon for a couple bucks and while they aren't absolutely necessary, they sure do add flavor. Why, just the Millennium Falcon Owner's Workshop Manual could probably yield a ton of good information.

Thanx for the tip, ordered the Falcon Manual

You can Google science fiction articles on various technology and get some good info but oddly enough Im finding the best stuff on real world, subtly related tech. Look of radar or sonar tech for scanners, radio parts for comms, particle beam and laser tech for weapons etc. Check out NASA's info on ion drives, reactor components and what not. Scan a little and pick up a few phrases that seem to catch the feel for what you are working with and throw them together. Doesn't have to make sense, just sound cool!

I stole your idea for my own game and am working on a chart with 20 entries per category and plan to use a d20 just as you suggested. I hope to expand the categories to eventually include repulse speeders, ground vehicles, various types of equipment and hand weapons, powered armor, etc.

http://www.ds10.org/Database/babble.html

http://www.technobabble.biz/

The progressive auxiliary spacecraft's Biogenic photon launcher with rear command systems has Polarized displays with primary subspace combadge interfearing with the MK-12 inhibitor with the flight computers and central entities. I am going to need to use the temporal subspace torpedo with the verterium cortenide subspace analyzer.

I'll have to find the section it talked about, but the old WEG Ghostbusters game had suggestions on stringing together pseudo-science. It gave you ideas like "Reverse the polarity of the sonic oscillator" or "That was a class four wave form anomaly"

I'll have to go see if I can find my old box of that.

When I get on my PC, I will have to find my TechnoBabble excel document and upload to Dropbox or something and provide the link here. It is a nifty little and ancient document we used back in the D20 days that did nothing more than come up with techno terms and jargon for us. In it you can actually hit the enter and it will randomize the results for you.

You can Google science fiction articles on various technology and get some good info but oddly enough Im finding the best stuff on real world, subtly related tech. Look of radar or sonar tech for scanners, radio parts for comms, particle beam and laser tech for weapons etc. Check out NASA's info on ion drives, reactor components and what not. Scan a little and pick up a few phrases that seem to catch the feel for what you are working with and throw them together. Doesn't have to make sense, just sound cool!

I stole your idea for my own game and am working on a chart with 20 entries per category and plan to use a d20 just as you suggested. I hope to expand the categories to eventually include repulse speeders, ground vehicles, various types of equipment and hand weapons, powered armor, etc.

If u do, please share

Enjoy our hard work and ingenuity of yesteryore! if the link does not, please let me know!!!!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cpl5hsaza76orju/Technobabble.xls?dl=0

If you download the file, in the long white empty bar under the main tool bar area. I don't know the correct term for it, but it is one of the main input areas, if you move the pointer in there and click in there to type, and press the enter key, the document will generate a random result for you. If you highlight the text and hit again, it will generate another random result.

Hope you all enjoy it!!!

There are also such things as:

Hyper-Matter Reaction Ignitor (From the edge of the empire beginner box)

Effluvial dampners

And my favourite, the oft stepped on: Samophlange

Enjoy our hard work and ingenuity of yesteryore! if the link does not, please let me know!!!!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cpl5hsaza76orju/Technobabble.xls?dl=0

If you download the file, in the long white empty bar under the main tool bar area. I don't know the correct term for it, but it is one of the main input areas, if you move the pointer in there and click in there to type, and press the enter key, the document will generate a random result for you. If you highlight the text and hit again, it will generate another random result.

Hope you all enjoy it!!!

This is amazing, thank you!

I'm no OggDude, but it is kind of neat.

The table is divided in 7 categories; these seem to be the main things that can get broken e.g. because of criticals:

• Hull
• Sub Light Engine
• Hyper Drive
• Sensors
• Communication
• Weapon Systems
• Shield Generator

For each category I propose a table with three colums and each column is rolled with a different die:

• What is broken? (yellow die)
• What has to be done... (green die)
• ...to achieve what? (blue die)

Each column has a number of possible text blocks depending on the die rolled:

• What is broken? (yellow die) = 7 different outcomes
• What has to be done... (green die) = 6 different outcomes
• ...to achieve what? (blue die) = 5 different outcomes

The idea would be to roll the dice and get, for example, the following sentence:

• The punctured Hull (yellow die, 1 success)
• has to be strengthened (green die, 1 advantage)
• to prevent oxygen loss (blue die, empty)

As each die has several sides with the same symbols, you could use more common occurences on those symbols with the most chance to get rolled. So what I need is 7 different reasons, 6 different tasks with 5 different outcomes for the 7 different categories! Are you up to this challenge? I am hoping on your creativity and tech savviness!

If some one else had this idea, I didn´t find anything online and am happy to be directed in the, err, right direction. Thanx fellow space travellers!

Add in "Life Support" and you've now got a D8 main table.

I'll try to write more later when I'm not on my phone.

Enjoy our hard work and ingenuity of yesteryore! if the link does not, please let me know!!!!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cpl5hsaza76orju/Technobabble.xls?dl=0

If you download the file, in the long white empty bar under the main tool bar area. I don't know the correct term for it, but it is one of the main input areas, if you move the pointer in there and click in there to type, and press the enter key, the document will generate a random result for you. If you highlight the text and hit again, it will generate another random result.

Hope you all enjoy it!!!

This is amazing, thank you!

You're welcome. Glad you like it.

You could also print it out and roll 3D12 once, or for each column if you wanted to. Each component has a three part name, then a malfunction. So it's like: Neutrino Field Regulator Polarized.

What does it mean??? Heck if I know! Good thing the Charcater does!!!

Enjoy our hard work and ingenuity of yesteryore! if the link does not, please let me know!!!!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cpl5hsaza76orju/Technobabble.xls?dl=0

If you download the file, in the long white empty bar under the main tool bar area. I don't know the correct term for it, but it is one of the main input areas, if you move the pointer in there and click in there to type, and press the enter key, the document will generate a random result for you. If you highlight the text and hit again, it will generate another random result.

Hope you all enjoy it!!!

This looks promising - thank you!

There’s a good page on Wookieepedia that discusses various aspects of hyperdrive technology and various known things that could potentially go wrong with them. It’s “Legends”, of course, but you should feel free to mine it for any information that you feel is useful.

See http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperdrive/Legends

Ok, it took some time but I used all of your contributions and hints (thank you again for those!) and cobbled together my own tables. I haven´t playtested them yet, but I hope you try them out and give me your feedback. I forgot the samophlange, for example.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/orly3lrd6c044xr/Tech-Mumbo-Jumbo.xlsx?dl=0

My next project will be a list of reasons, why something has to be repaired RIGHT NOW (e.g. "According to security protocol 360/G/13...) or should not be tampered with at all (e.G. voiding warranty). Feel free to throw me some bones here as well

Here, I finally dug out my old Ghostbusters RPG and its list of Mad Scientist Words:

Hyper

Trans

Multi

Para

Dimensional

Space

Super

Nova

Tachyon

Quark

Tesseract

Teleportation

Telepathic

Mega

Micro

Warp

Nullifier

Temporal

Black Hole

Singularity

Quantum

Astra

Synthetic

Time

Unified

Phantom

Video

Computer

Programmable

Non-sequential

Beam

Laser

Photon

Plasma

Digital

Audio

User-Interface

And then from the Doctor Who RPG, a bunch of tools:

Sonic Screwdriver
Master Drone Clamps

Moog Drone Clamps
Stalos Gyro
Influx Booster Stabilizer
Laser Cutter
Magnetic Clamp
Neutron Ram
Astro-Rectifier
Multi-Quantiscope (some models have extra heads for removing Mergin Nuts)
Ganymede Driver (also useful for removing Mergin Nuts)
Demeter Uncoupler (for 2 gauge and smaller nuts)
Mergin Nuts
Zeus Plugs
Crystal Transreverser
Neutron Grips
Electron Crank

Ion Grapple