"Sci-Fi Weapons that Make Sense" Topic
10 Posts
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Tango01  | 24 Oct 2025 3:44 p.m. PST |
"Science fiction often provides a stark lens we can view the world from as well as amazing special effects. But one thing I enjoy the most is seeing new takes on one gritty detail: weapons. If your chosen genre is sci-fi , then here are a few films you should take notes from…"
link
Armand |
| Sargonarhes | 24 Oct 2025 7:25 p.m. PST |
Blasters are not always a one-shot-stop weapon. How many do we see take a hit and are still up? Plenty of times, hero characters tend to have plot armor so they can take a blaster hit in a hero location. The SKS rifle from Fury Road? Seriously I thought this was supposed to be about sci-fi weapons, not real weapons from bad movies. And light sabers don't really make sense, they would be too hot from the blade for anyone to handle them. We see this in Gundam with the huge beam sabers as they call them, and there is clearly a lot of heat coming from these things. And no seeming way to cool or shield from the heat they make. Knives and daggers come into play in every era of conflict, even in Starship Troopers knife fighting was the standard training. Laser whip from Last Jedi, another bad movie when this weapon was done before it in the Masters of the Universe movie. I find the writer of the article to be an ignorant idiot. |
 John the OFM | 25 Oct 2025 3:48 a.m. PST |
40K Bolters are just an Uzi. Light sabers are magic swords. |
| Tango01 | 25 Oct 2025 3:20 p.m. PST |
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| Oberlindes Sol LIC | 26 Oct 2025 8:47 p.m. PST |
Light sabers make sense. Sure they do. Next. |
| Tango01 | 27 Oct 2025 3:41 p.m. PST |
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| Covert Walrus | 29 Oct 2025 1:21 a.m. PST |
" 40K Bolters are just an Uzi"
I'm not weapons proficient, but I'm pretty sure Uzis do not fire 10mm explosive headed rounds, do they? I'm more in favour of weapons from literature, some personal favourites being - Neutron Excitation Blasters; From Piper's "Paratime" stories, these weapons use a projection of neutrons to make atoms in the target into unstable isotopes by simply adding more neutrons to the material. Plausible as a concept, especially in-universe when used against armour of collapsed Nickel and other materials where atomic coherence has been increased to make the material stronger, at the cost of being unstable, the Neutron Blaster will cause the metal itself to disintegrate explosively. Diones; From E C Tubb's "FATE" series, basically a chemical version of a fusion gun, using volatile materials and electric charge to create a pulse of plasma from the firing chamber. Low temperature (Speaking relatively – still talking some 20 000 Kelvin) or nonthermal plasma is a reality at present, often used to sterilize food stuffs with delicate structure like fruit; A minor increase in heat and energy output would make them a decent energy weapon though short ranged, and in universe Diones are available in sizes from handguns up to and including starship-mounted turret weapons.
( More on the effects of nonthermal plasma can be found in Laroussi, M. (1996). "Sterilization of Contaminated Matter by an Atmospheric Pressure Plasma", IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. 34, 1188 – 1191.) |
| Tango01 | 29 Oct 2025 3:46 p.m. PST |
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| TimePortal | 31 Oct 2025 5:12 p.m. PST |
Back in the 1980s a book was released called the Book of Mars. It covered every weapon from stones to SciFi weapons. Great supplement for RPG gamers to game designers. I think it was RAFM but may have been Ral Partha.
The old Traveler rule supplements did a good job of comparing weapons |
| Tango01 | 01 Nov 2025 3:57 p.m. PST |
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