GURPS Ultra-Tech is the
GURPS supplement dedicated to futuristic and science-fictional technology (apart from
bio-tech, which gets a whole separate book to itself.
GURPS third edition had two volumes covering these topics; the material was updated and consolidated into a single volume for fourth edition.
Tropes notably invoked by Ultra-Tech:
- Abnormal Ammo: Ultra-Tech has smart missiles that are detailed as characters. Any ability a character can have, and any item a character can carry, can be the payload of a smart missile.
- Auto-Doc: Ultra-Tech has several versions for different Technology Levels, from the TL9 Automed (a sealed trauma pod with automated functions, but which needs advice from a real doctor if anything unexpected happens) to the TL12 Medical Bush Robot, which has multiple medical instruments on its fractal "branchesstar" enabling it to perform any surgery.
- Cool, but Stupid: The rocket striker is a swinging melee weapon with a rocket engine attached for extra power. Yes, you read that right. May be either
So Bad, It's Good or just far too silly. - Deadly Disc: Ultra-Tech puts rubber coatings on the rims of its disc grenades so they bounce off walls, with a (probably timed) warhead inside.
- Fun with Acronyms: High Explosive Multi Purpose warheads.
- Invisibility Cloak: Various versions are described. At the most advanced level, the Invisibility Surface works not only in the visual spectrum but well beyond it.
- Jet Pack: The book has a nuclear jetpack that lets out a torrent of irradiated plasma below it. It's cool but neither particularly safe nor stealthy.
- Neural Implanting: Instaskill nano rapidly reorganizes a person's brain to give them basic knowledge of a new skill.
- Ragnarök Proofing: Anything that is made from Living Metal will last forever because the material will automatically repair any damage that it incurs.
- Robotic Assembly Lines: The book has rules for setting these up, specifically focusing on the product being made so that you can get along with the game.
- Sniper Rifle: Ultra-tech sniper rifles are naturally depicted as utterly terrifying. For example, the grav railgun can be carried by someone in a good suit of Powered Armor and fires with enough force to punch straight through a tank from five miles away.
- Variable-Length Chain: The Monowire Whip is so thin, you can fit miles of it in a spool the size of your hand. (It's also invisible, unless you deliberately build markers into it.)
- Wave-Motion Gun: The Heavy Disintegrator Cannon is probably the book's grossest super-weapon. It's available at the highest Technology Level covered, and is also flagged as "superscience".
