How is UPBs handled lore wise?

[Evan van de Steeg]

Are they stored in a bag or a case or a wallet? Are they pressed into a cube or coins?

[Jack Simth]

There's no one way to carry coins in real life: They can be stuffed in a pocket, rolled into paper cylinders, put in a wallet, placed in a bag, kept in a piggy bank, et cetera.

Why would there be one way to store UPB's?

However, their fundamental purpose is for making things, so they're not going to be stored in a way that could damage them or make them inconvenient for that purpose (so no pressing into cubes or coins, they'll stay as loose grains of rice until they're used).

[Arevashti]

I'd rule that they're customarily kept in a little tube like an eyeglass repair kit, or in a little box like an emergency sewing kit, and dispense like Tic-Tacs or Pez; different manufacturers may have different ways of packaging them, but those are likely the most common. My guess would also be that they're fairly durable; I imagine them being rubbery (like a firm eraser) until "directed" to be either more or less rigid.

[Calgon-3]

I think they're programmable matter so they're whatever shape their owner wants thm to be. Their only relevant charactertics are their mass and volume. Most efficiently stored as something stackable, or maybe moldable to whatever shape you want like putty.

[Calgon-3]

Or maybe they hardly have any size at all. The important thing about them is they're the essential piece of technology and they could be a standard unit of nanites that are actually incredibly small, but they can latch on to and organize whatever bulk matter is available to make things out of.

[Jack Simth]

They're explicitly the size of a grain of rice by default, and the gear maintenance kit has a nite about a pen-like dispenser.

[Calgon-3]

So about 7000 UPB's per pound then? A human could easily carry several hundred thousand of them.

[BigNorseWolf]

Calgon-3 wrote:

So about 7000 UPB's per pound then? A human could easily carry several hundred thousand of them.

1 kg (2.2 lbs) rice contains 50,000 grains. I've hauled 50 lb bags around town so say 100,000-200,000 just slung over your shoulder, more if you want to get a backpack or a wheeled luggage something.

[Taja the Barbarian]

1,000 UPBs are officially 1 Bulk, so an 18 Strength character could potentially only carry up to 9,999* without being encumbered, or up to 18,999* without being overburdened (assuming they have no other non-light items on them).

UPB (1000) wrote:

Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 233

Category Trade Goods
Price 1,000; Bulk 1
Description
A universal polymer base, or UPB, is the basis for most technology in the Pact Worlds, the Veskarium, and many other systems. Each UPB is a tiny multifunction component, not much larger than a grain of rice, capable of being configured to act as a brace, capacitor, circuit, diode, fastener, insulator, lens, modulator, pipe, resistor, and dozens of other constituent parts. UPBs can even be spun out into fabric, broken down into component chemicals, reconstituted into new chemicals, or supplemented with base materials (such as dirt or sand) to form massive braces or walls. The right combination of hundreds or even thousands of UPBs can create everything from a comm unit to a laser weapon to powered armor. In their raw form, UPBs have a bulk of 1 per 1,000 UPBs, though when aligned and configured they can easily take up less bulk, and when configured for a specific purpose that calls for a minimum size and bracing (possibly combining them with inert materials), they can have a higher bulk.

UPBs are so ubiquitous that they are usable as currency in many major settlements and trade hubs. While credsticks are a more convenient and secure way to carry value, UPBs have the advantage of direct utility and untraceability. They are a popular way to pay smugglers and criminals, but they are also useful for trade missions to systems with UPB technology that don’t use credits as currency. The value of the Pact Worlds’ credit is based on the economic utility of a single UPB.

Chapter 2: Character Creation / Character Creation Steps / Step 9: Fill in the Finishing Details wrote:

Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 16

...
Carrying Capacity
This is how much bulk your character can carry based on her Strength score. She is encumbered (see page 275) when carrying an amount of bulk greater than half her Strength score, and overburdened (see page 276) when carrying an amount of bulk greater than her total Strength score.
...

Chapter 8: Tactical Rules / Combat Basics / Other Rule Terms wrote:

Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 242

...
Rounding
Occasionally the rules might ask you to round a result or value. Unless otherwise stated, always round down. For example, if you are asked to take half of 7, the result would be 3.
...

*With the rounding rule, 9,999 UPBs would still be 9 bulk, while adding just one more would make it 10 bulk.

As for the OP's question, I don't believe there is much 'lore' for this: It's pretty much up to the GM to decide, or more likely just ignore if they don't want to worry about such a relatively minor detail.**

**We just finished playing an AP in Azlanti space a little while back, and apparently there was no issue spending Pact World credits there because economic realism doesn't really add anything but frustration to game...

[Jack Simth]

Huh...the crafting rules include:

Quote:

due to the economies of scale enjoyed by multisystem corporations and shops with dedicated construction machines and drones

Something occurs to me: Maybe the corps are just building out of real materials (which also explains mining and things, which wouldn't be particularly necessary with the generic material that is UPBs).

[John Mangrum]

UPBs themselves need to be manufactured from something, after all.

[Jack Simth]

John Mangrum wrote:

UPBs themselves need to be manufactured from something, after all.

Sure... but they can mimic anything, including radioactive substances, or biological ones, or whatever. They're programmable matter, specialized tools are largely irrelevant, specific source materials are largely irrelevant... unless the specialized tools and manufacturing plants aren't working with programmable matter: They want a shipment of grain with which to make their breakfast cereal, they don't use UPBs like you might shipside.

Which also helps explain why repairs are easier on something you made yourself (the matter is still slightly programmable), and they are more durable (they're not made of the same stuff as the factory items).

[Metaphysician]

I tend to imagine the standard way UPBs are stored is effectively "tanks", with them being extruded as needed. However, there really shouldn't be limited to a single such manner. I can just as easily imagine UPBs having a 'transport state' where they congeal into an appropriately-shaped solid form for easy handling. I can especially imagine the latter for when people use UPBs as hard currency. Sure, sometimes you might need to make change, but a lot of the time it might be easier to have a standard 'coin worth 20 credits' or 'card worth 100 credits', where the coin or card is literally made of that many UPBs in 'transit' mode.