Greetings!
I always found Ancients technology to be a very *useful* Ref. trick.
There were so many very good Campaign plotlines you could develop...
Mysterious patron who keeps helping the group out...finally the group discovers
after some time that the patron is really a surviving ancients sentient
android...should they continue to help him/her/it? What are its goals...?
The group needs to penetrate a high security complex (for whatever
reason)...they have a cloaking device of some type, but its effects are highly
erratic, because they are not sure how to control it...when it works it is
unstoppable, but when it doesn't, watch out!
etc.
Referee gimmicks are not generally a BAD(tm) thing, but they can be
abused. Ancients technology gave a good rationale to introduce things into the
Campaign that had an element of mystery and were unpredictable.
These benign mutations could fall under the same classification. Hey!
What would a friendly virus do? :-\ What even is a friendly virus? Hmmm...
the possibilities are endless.
The key thing is not to over do it. A gimmick is a good Macguffin or
Campaign thread, but if the group finds itself ``saved'' by a different
Ancients' remnant or friendly virus every week, it has stopped being something
creative and become a crutch instead.
Got to run!
In service,
Rich Staats
Refereed Traveller long enough to be classified as an Ancients' Relic
;-)