The US Special Operations Command has been trying to come up with a way to overcome the problem of getting parts that are vital, but rarely needed in the field.  Enter the MPH — Mobile Parts Hospital.  It is essentially a small fabrications lab that can fit into a standard shipping container (manufacturer’s site.)

When coupled with new advanced in computer-assisted design and fabrication like the Rep-Rap, there’s a revolution in small, to-order manufacturing in the offing.

These technologies — the “print on demand” manufacture, coupled with small manufactories that fit into shipping containers have fairly obvious uses in modern and science-fiction gaming settings.  For a modern day espionage campaign, no longer does the villain need to be holed up in a superbase or factory — even harder to find, they could be building weapons or what have you in a shipping container on a cargo vessel — completely under the radar — using sat-phones or satellite internet to make their deals with customers.  It also could be an excellent perk for the character spy — a small fabrication point in the field that they could, with a few hours work, put together materials needed for an operation.

In the sci-fi vein — this sort of set dressing works particularly well for cyberpunk settings for the same reasons as above.  In the Serenity/Firefly universe, we saw Badger’s outfit operating out of what appeared to be a series of shipping containers mashed into a base of operations.  Having a small CAD computer and fabricator would mean a small outfit could make a killing providing the basic parts and essential tools to a community…and you could transport it on most freighters.

Just a few ideas…