Tool sets

[Spartan159]

Is there anywhere that talks about the advantages of a say TL 14 tool set vs a TL 3 tool set? Would they be lighter, or same weight but more effective? I suppose I could see them as the same weight over the TLs due to newer tools added to the set. Another thing I thought of was what material would they be made of, possibly advanced materials as TL improves? How should TL affect cost? Same? Higher due to new tools? Lower due to more efficient production? Does anyone have any thoughts on the subject?

 

[Condottiere]

 

[locarno24]

If you're just making the same tool at higher TL, it can be cheaper, lighter, more functional, or all three (an adjustable spanner with a nice plastic grip, or a screwdriver with a magnetic tip, are good examples).

A higher TL tool kit may well not be lighter - because for a moderately comprehensive tool-kit, the amount of stuff you'd be expected to have increases as technology progresses.

Taking mechanical tools as an example: the spanner as a tool is only relevant if nuts and bolts are a thing.

A 'saw' or 'cutter' is an inevitable tool - but you try using a modern (TL8ish) cutting torch on a twisted bulkhead made from TL12 crystaliron that can laugh at a megawatt-range antiship laser and see how far it get you.

The existence of a TL8 powered impact wrench to fit high-torque bolts at manufacture requires a similar level tool to un-fit the things. come TL15 and you're probably looking at trying to unfasten stuff that's micro-welded at an atomic scale.



I've had a little bit of experience of this - in explosive atmospheres (say, oil fumes, or certain bits of a chemical plant), one safety precaution sometimes used is 'non-sparking' tools, which are made from bronze rather than steel. After trying to use bronze cutting and wrenching tools, I can say I honestly understand why we gave up on the metal as a bad idea for general use rather a lot of thousands of years ago....

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

What would the Traveller stats for sonic screwdriver be?

"Negates the need for specialized toolkits and gives a boon to, well, most checks. Does not work on wood. "

Something like that?

 

[Condottiere]

These are more specific functions of the sonic screwdriver:

Lock picking
Burn and cut all kinds of substances
Remotely detonate certain machines and other objects
Amplify sound-waves and the power of an X-ray machine beyond its normal capacity
Disarm weapons (in later models) and electronics
Flashlight
Intercept and conduct teleportation
Regenerating razor wire on a fence
Darken eyeglass lenses to transform them into sunglasses
Microphone (when connected to an audio amplifier)
Detect and interpret signals
Conducting medical scans
Remotely controlling the TARDIS and other devices
Tracking alien life
Using red setting or dampers
Control the properties of atoms and molecules on a small scale
Operate computers, whether their origin is alien or human
Provide Geo-location
Get cash from an Automated teller machine
Light candles
Creating a force field wave with two other sonic to physically repel a Dalek
Modification of a mobile phone
Disclosure and deactivating camouflage
Disarm Robotics
Scan and classify matter
Shatter glass
Create an "acoustic corridor" for speaking with someone far away
Shocking neural centers of a living creature
Tighten and loosen screws

Download a person's consciousness and transfer it into a computer hard drive (only the model created by the Twelfth Doctor as a gift to River Song.)
Aside from being a tool, the sonic screwdriver can be used and considered as a defensive weapon, which is effective for a few types of assault weapons, but not designed to kill or injure living things as the only way it can really hurt or incapacitate a creature is by emitting painful bursts of sound, or, as of Day of the Moon by blasting a green wave of energy to incapacitate a target, though only the Eleventh and Twelfth's sonic has been shown to do the latter.