So you just found a Nova Gadget in Grandpa's storage container...

[NewK]

It just struck me, reading in Terra Firma that there was a lot of Nova Tech and Core Tech based on nova principles that was sold before everything fell apart.

So, someone is digging through great grandpas stuff and they find... oh, a suit of armor, a gun, a glowing ball that speaks to them. Maybe a Qtech bodyguard that is programmed to protect the first person it meets, by vaporizing anyone who threatens him (threats can include harsh language, approaching within three feet, or spreading rumors. There's a reason that model wasn't popular).

But regardless, given that the nova designed stuff, especially at the higher end, might be nearly impossible to understand, and can range from "art object" to "doomsday device to MAKE THEM ALL PAY". How do the various governments deal with it? A hotline? Does everyone's hazmat departments include "So you just got called about Aberranttech" courses?

Cause it seems to me you could do an entire campaign based around the adventures of a major city's "Aberrant technology disposal team" ranging from the funny to the quite possibly world-endangering--and better, since most of these events probably are on the lower end of the scale, you're likely to not get provided with all the best equipment. If you need that, you call in the Psi Orders or the national military.

Or they investigate after your last message ended in a suddenly-cut-off scream of horror.

[MythAdvocate]

That would be a fun campaign for Talents.

[Mateus Luz]

Most of the Nova-Tech was already collected by the rewrite project sometime around the 2080s, but there is still some (or a lot if you want in your game).

I think Aeon takes care of it, so, the response teams would be from Aeon and responding anywhere in the world, except FSA, that have their own teams to do that (and hunt Aberrants and Aberrant cultists, and anything Aberrant...), operating inside FSA.

[LordHeru]

The idea of 'found this is grandpa's attic' is a really interesting one. I mean imagine a campaign arc where there is this glowing golden ball and everyone things its this doomsday device and so there is research and adventure and running from both good and bad guys. But in the end its a nightlight. (I mean its quantum powered so it doesn't just provide light but also pushes away bad energies and other quantum stuff.)

You could also go the route of the item being a Key. To what, that is the adventure.

I don't know about you but if I bought something that was considered safe, and I used it for years before anyone thought to say it might not be safe, I doubt I would go out of my way to give it to Aeon when suddenly it stopped being safe. But even more if I lived in the same house for decades then who is to say I would even remember that I have that nova built quantum item, I might have thought I got rid of it but its in the basement or the attic or the garage, just waiting for my grandson to find when he is 20 and in need of adventure.

[Zeea]

I would imagine that Proteus' Titan Section would show up, just in case the tech turns out to summon monsters or awaken a cryofrozen nova.

EDIT: Also, there's a device in the movie Brightburn that seems absolutely _perfect_ for a darker version of this scenario. Heck, you could play out a lot of that course of events in Aeon.

[LordHeru]

I don't really think that Proteus would have been able to find ALL the various hidden knickknack and such things that might have been bought and sold and hidden in basements, attics, and garages.

Especially when them finding it all ruins stories while them not finding everything, just a lot of things, and such.

Also now I have the idea of the players finding a hidden door in the basement that leads to a tunnel that leads to a bunker that leads to a chamber which has a portal that opens to some mysterious other place - like a vast ancient city or cityship or something.

[NewK]

That, or just weird stuff. I mean, Terra Firma mentioned that there were examples of tech that were widely distributed, and because of that, I bet that a lot of people don'[t really know the difference between "busted core/nova tech you can toss" and OH GOD, AUNT SALLY JUST EXPLODED INTO TENTACLES!

And that would be the fun for me--the organization is picking up old junk, stuff someone panicked over, or the Nova version of a toaster oven, about 95% of the time.

Because they're doing this 95 percent of the time, you honestly can't afford to put the best and brightest on the job, because most of the time they're assuring the old lady that the "commemorative Cestus Pax" point (with glow in the dark metal) really isn't talking to her in her sleep.

But then the 5% comes up. An active gun that someone grabbed to rob a bank. A little investment program that is actually a Nova designed AI. A "pet cat" that is a robotic murder bot.

And of course, you have no idea until you actively open the door for the call--unless Herzog calls you, has a nice chat, and then mentions y'all should probably pack the good armor and update your wills before you go out tomorrow.

[johntfs]

I don't really think that Proteus would have been able to find ALL the various hidden knickknack and such things that might have been bought and sold and hidden in basements, attics, and garages.

Especially when them finding it all ruins stories while them not finding everything, just a lot of things, and such.

Also now I have the idea of the players finding a hidden door in the basement that leads to a tunnel that leads to a bunker that leads to a chamber which has a portal that opens to some mysterious other place - like a vast ancient city or cityship or something.

Figure Proteus found the obvious stuff. Figure a lot more stuff just stopped working because it broke or otherwise run out of Quantum. Still more stuff that was hidden failed in more spectacular (and destructive) ways. Remember as well that Aeon (and Proteus) don't actually have any law-enforcement or other authority to actually compel people to hand this stuff over. They can ask people with that authority to do it, but that's about it, legally. Obviously illegal covert action is also a possibility, but recall that the big reason that Aeon has the influence that it has is due to its fairly universal good reputation. Getting caught swiping some 8 year old's Divis Mal comic that his great-granddad owned will not be conducive to that good reputation. So figure they pick their targets carefully.

While it's possible, figure the really cool/dangerous stuff isn't going to be in great-grandpa's steamer trunk in the basement. It's going to be at the bottom of the Marianas Trench in a Nova sealab. Or a mile under the Antarctic Ice or somewhere on Venus, Mercury or Pluto. Figure quite a few things are probably in storage in Nihonjin government warehouses or just hidden away in some abandoned, deserted area of the arcology.

There's probably not really enough stuff left to base a whole chronicle around unless you just want to. As something to throw at an existing group of Psions and Talents it'd make for a cool scenario, though.

[BrilliantRain]

Unfortunately 100 years is probably too long for a random self storage company to even exist, let alone keep a unit closed, so finding some of the good Nova Tech on Container Wars is probably out of the question. But it would be cool.

[Astromancer]

Unfortunately 100 years is probably too long for a random self storage company to even exist, let alone keep a unit closed, so finding some of the good Nova Tech on Container Wars is probably out of the question. But it would be cool.

I agree on the storage unit time line Brilliant Rain, but warehouses are another matter. Maybe grandpa or great aunt Saphronia had a summer cottage in the woods and you're cleaning out the attic. In the Western USA there have been small sheds built in caves and mines. People have found wild things in some of these places. One man found the complete run of a small town newspaper 1879-1902 no one had known existed. The newspapers were given to a university library which is why I heard of it.

[Shepherdboi]

Do note a huge chunk of America was within a corruption zone until recently, so you could easily have properties which were abandoned for over sixty years, and are only now being reclaimed.

[johntfs]

The way I look at it, if you really wanted to build some kind of Aberrant-leaning Friday the 13th: The Series/Warehouse 13 campaign out of finding weird Nova crap before it kills too many people, you could. Still, in a more "As written" campaign, more than likely that kind of stuff is more going to be for an occasional adventure rather than a full campaign. Because Nova stuff is rare now after Proteus/Aeon/Governments/etc have done 60 years of "spring cleaning." Might they have missed something? Sure. But it's not like every estate sale or flea market has working Death Rays available.

[Astromancer]

Not every Nova gadget is a death ray. A toy with unexpected uses would be interesting. Example: a Jack-o-Lantern that's a magic lantern that projects 3D highly animated ghosts and ghouls out of a Basil Wolverton horror comic, with full sound effects. It was meant to gross out and amuse middle school kids but in the Aeon period, where such horrors are plausible, it's a source of real terror if used carefully.

[johntfs]

Not every Nova gadget is a death ray. A toy with unexpected uses would be interesting. Example: a Jack-o-Lantern that's a magic lantern that projects 3D highly animated ghosts and ghouls out of a Basil Wolverton horror comic, with full sound effects. It was meant to gross out and amuse middle school kids but in the Aeon period, where such horrors are plausible, it's a source of real terror if used carefully.

"Death Ray" is shorthand for any realistically useful/dangerous Nova device. As in, you're probably not going to pick up that "magic Jack-o-lantern" at somebody's yard sale either.

[Astromancer]

"Death Ray" is shorthand for any realistically useful/dangerous Nova device. As in, you're probably not going to pick up that "magic Jack-o-lantern" at somebody's yard sale either.

True enough, but finding it forgotten in an attic is workable. The point is non weapons can be powerful too.