The reasons that mecha are not reliable as weapons of war are manifold, but the world changed more than many people expected and the way wars are fought have changed greatly since the middle of the Petroleum Era.
A basketball sized can that can diffuse up to a typical lightning bolt's worth of energy into gamma rays. In 100 words.
Why aren't gamers using this already? This stuff is real. No really, this stuff is REAL. Google it. Cheap too. Feel free to reply with your own ideas on how to use it.
With bright light and 5 minutes burn time, this is required equipment for any cave-diver worth his salt.
Need to know which way you took in the maze? Mark your path with chalk.
Leaving a message on the wall for your sleeping lover? Write it in chalk.
Got a virginal sacrifice, a lunar eclipse, but nothing to to inscribe your floor with? No, not chalk; YOU need to get some help. Expensive, professional help.
Fire is best kept in the boiler; it's much too dangerous to be using for something as simple as lumination.
"Commander... every chime in a five mile radius is making a racket. Something big is coming... something mean."
-Arbiter Elusis
While the glory goes to the battlemechs, during the height of the Star Empire, the martial machines were said to be outnumbered 20 to 1 by their menial brethern, the industrial mechs
Most steam engines require vast quantities of coal and water. Dr. Farthing’s Fabulous Engine requires only the water that it will turn into steam, or so the good doctor says…
You never know when you’ll need an IRON SPIKE!
I saw him pull that odd piece out once more, using it to fiddled with the lock. He open the big fold, and flipped out one long thin piece. He pulled a single piece out from a slide and fiddled in the lock. He stopped, smirked, and flipping out a small thin scraping tool he began to probe the area around the lock. “Trapped,” he said.
The Korinthan Master Thieves often employ this extremely potent acid in their nighttime activities.
If one listens to the aether, one can hear the vibrations traveling through space. If one listens carefully one can hear what is said. - Lord Caasi on Aetherschreibers
Sometimes locks need that extra sharp fingernail to twist the catch. Sometimes a thief might find himself locked in a prison with a wooden door. The Muzzled Mouse is a hideous little tool which helps one in such situations…
An expertly crafted quill pen which enhances the efficacy of spells on the scrolls it is used to write.
A race of beings actually IS invunerable while in adolecence. They age, but cannot be killed. A miniority of the race (1 in 20) does not become invunerable, but rather becomes immortal at some point in thier adolecence, and ceases aging while being vunerable to death in all the normal ways. Another minority (also 1 in 20) Permanatly becomes invunerable after adolecence, but ages twice as fast as the race normally does. There is no known way to test for which of the three traits an individual manifests and the three traits cannot mix, as they are tied to the same gene, as it were.
2xp
At the annual tech show in Dubai this week, IDC has announced its entry into the subdermal monitor wars. Sources in the company say that they believe that their Dermal Screen is more than capable of competing with the iSkin. Here's their official press release: