Unusual Scifi weapons
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sithknight
SOC-7
You know - I was thinking this is one thing that makes Traveller cool.
By keeping it hard sci-fi with some pretty boring, basic but effective weapons - you open up all sorts of plots and stories for the oddball weapons!
Want a maser rifle - sure! Just cam on the market from Instellarms - and everyone wants one. But remember the caveat - NEVER EVER buy the first production run of anything...the bugs are never fully worked out.
Want a blaster from Star Wars? Sure - hell, it's just a hand-held particle beam weapon. Just HOW do they deal with the radiation it spits out, hmmm? Or perhaps someone solved the problem and is now on the run from six megacorporations and 15 spy agencies...what a story. Sort of like "Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues"...
By keeping it hard sci-fi with some pretty boring, basic but effective weapons - you open up all sorts of plots and stories for the oddball weapons!
Want a maser rifle - sure! Just cam on the market from Instellarms - and everyone wants one. But remember the caveat - NEVER EVER buy the first production run of anything...the bugs are never fully worked out.
Want a blaster from Star Wars? Sure - hell, it's just a hand-held particle beam weapon. Just HOW do they deal with the radiation it spits out, hmmm? Or perhaps someone solved the problem and is now on the run from six megacorporations and 15 spy agencies...what a story. Sort of like "Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues"...
Jeff M. Hopper
SOC-14 1K
I don't have the math to solve it, but wouldn't a quantum black hole below a certain size evaporate into a hellstorm of gamma- and x-rays? Maybe design a weapon which is the next generation of meson guns that fires quantum black holes timed to evaporate inside of the target.
Been reading a lot of Stephen Baxter lately, gettin' on a gravity kick for devices...
Been reading a lot of Stephen Baxter lately, gettin' on a gravity kick for devices...
TheEngineer
SOC-14 1K
If its about ultra Traveller tech stuff I really like all type of gravity weapons.
Like g-grenades, which produce a varianty of nasty g-fields (e.g. enhanced surface gravity, zero gravity or centered gravity), hand-held tractor beams, g-scrambles or at the end ship sized gravitational projectors, which are at worst able to produce gravitational singularities.
Despite all this tech stuff my players still prefer their beloved ACRs and auto-shotguns
Like g-grenades, which produce a varianty of nasty g-fields (e.g. enhanced surface gravity, zero gravity or centered gravity), hand-held tractor beams, g-scrambles or at the end ship sized gravitational projectors, which are at worst able to produce gravitational singularities.
Despite all this tech stuff my players still prefer their beloved ACRs and auto-shotguns
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
A while ago Malenfant came up with the excellent idea of a spacetime "twanging" weapon. It induces a massive distortion in spacetime, which then produces lots of nasty side effects on, and in, the target.
I quite liked the idea, and postulate IMTU that it is an add on to the jump drive...
I quite liked the idea, and postulate IMTU that it is an add on to the jump drive...
Keklas Rekobah
SOC-14 1K
Did someone mention gravity weapons?
The gravitic disruptor is based on the English translation for the Klingon name of their disruptor weapon, the "Shake it until it falls apart tool."
Hand-held g-weapons can only produce a gravitic pulse, which could induce enough kinetic shock to cause internal organ trauma, jam machinery, or crack a wall. Range would be short.
Vehicle-mounted g-weapons could produce a series of such pulses, perhaps four per trigger pull. Each pulse could break bones, twist metal, or break down a wall. Range would be short to long.
Ship-mounted g-weapons could have the same range and targetting rules as lasers. The continuous version could literally shake another ship until it falls apart, complete with detached hull plates, twisted and broken framing members, and the odd blob of red jelly freeze-drying in the vacuum of space...
My kind of weapon... freeze-dried victims don't shoot back!
The gravitic disruptor is based on the English translation for the Klingon name of their disruptor weapon, the "Shake it until it falls apart tool."
Hand-held g-weapons can only produce a gravitic pulse, which could induce enough kinetic shock to cause internal organ trauma, jam machinery, or crack a wall. Range would be short.
Vehicle-mounted g-weapons could produce a series of such pulses, perhaps four per trigger pull. Each pulse could break bones, twist metal, or break down a wall. Range would be short to long.
Ship-mounted g-weapons could have the same range and targetting rules as lasers. The continuous version could literally shake another ship until it falls apart, complete with detached hull plates, twisted and broken framing members, and the odd blob of red jelly freeze-drying in the vacuum of space...
My kind of weapon... freeze-dried victims don't shoot back!
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Hmm, a sidarm that causes a telepathic assault, a telekinetically guided (knife)missile, or how about teleporting the target (or just bits of it 
)...
selunatic2397
SOC-12
How about an old school african big game rifle of insane proportions?
My group had run into a hunter who managed to get himself killed on a illegal hunt on a restricted world...no, my heroes did not kill him...they did loot his ship though!
One of the toys they grabbed was a gun case made of exotic woods and precious metals...but very huge in size...they grabbed it and ran back to their ship to get while the getting was good.
5 weeks later they asked me what was in it.
I described a truly beautiful work of art...rare woods...chasing...inlays of ivory...it was one pimped out hunting rifle...
Then they registered what I had said the caliber was...ONE INCH.
Yep, that baby chambered a 25mm cannon round, was semi-automatic, and had a 5 round box magazine...and one of the biggest optical sights they had ever seen.
They asked me just what in blue blazes did you hunt with that!!!
I merely replied that they never checked when they looted the safari ship to see what he was there for, or, what/where he may have hunted prior to his death.
This brought about one of the worst bouts of paranoia that has been my delight to watch as a referee. They imagined all sorts of horrible monsters...each worse than the last...
When I asked my merry bunch of gun junkies who was going to fire it, my father who was a usmc gunnery sgt and rifle range instructor dropped in and told all kinds of war stories about what that "cartridge" would do to your body...
No one, and I mean no one, has ever fired the 25mm Kain Tuck Long Rifle...
I never told them the damage [or had to come up with what it would do] because no one ever fired it. I have lost its specs sheet long ago much to my grief.
But...mounted on one of my heroes trophy room walls is the only gun to have scared the living drek out of my players,
My group had run into a hunter who managed to get himself killed on a illegal hunt on a restricted world...no, my heroes did not kill him...they did loot his ship though!
One of the toys they grabbed was a gun case made of exotic woods and precious metals...but very huge in size...they grabbed it and ran back to their ship to get while the getting was good.
5 weeks later they asked me what was in it.
I described a truly beautiful work of art...rare woods...chasing...inlays of ivory...it was one pimped out hunting rifle...
Then they registered what I had said the caliber was...ONE INCH.
Yep, that baby chambered a 25mm cannon round, was semi-automatic, and had a 5 round box magazine...and one of the biggest optical sights they had ever seen.
They asked me just what in blue blazes did you hunt with that!!!
I merely replied that they never checked when they looted the safari ship to see what he was there for, or, what/where he may have hunted prior to his death.
This brought about one of the worst bouts of paranoia that has been my delight to watch as a referee. They imagined all sorts of horrible monsters...each worse than the last...
When I asked my merry bunch of gun junkies who was going to fire it, my father who was a usmc gunnery sgt and rifle range instructor dropped in and told all kinds of war stories about what that "cartridge" would do to your body...
No one, and I mean no one, has ever fired the 25mm Kain Tuck Long Rifle...
I never told them the damage [or had to come up with what it would do] because no one ever fired it. I have lost its specs sheet long ago much to my grief.
But...mounted on one of my heroes trophy room walls is the only gun to have scared the living drek out of my players,
Madarin Dude
SOC-13
selunatic2397 that sounds like a anti tank rifle. they are used against tanks to blow off a tread. They are also used to take otu APC's in WW2 the Russians and the Finnish had them.
From television the most awsome weapon were in of all shows star trek the animated series. 1 is the toatal conversion gun a pistol that would produce mushroom cloud nukes from the other end and the Klingon Stasis Field Generator. Anyone who played Star Fleet battles would know it. It basically freezes your opponent in time making them uable to attack you cannot attack them while in this state but you can bring all your other ships up and ready for the moment he is dropped out. If you know how to use it, it is really deadly.
From television the most awsome weapon were in of all shows star trek the animated series. 1 is the toatal conversion gun a pistol that would produce mushroom cloud nukes from the other end and the Klingon Stasis Field Generator. Anyone who played Star Fleet battles would know it. It basically freezes your opponent in time making them uable to attack you cannot attack them while in this state but you can bring all your other ships up and ready for the moment he is dropped out. If you know how to use it, it is really deadly.
selunatic2397
SOC-12
That's what I based it off of...one of those WW1/WW2 anti tank rifles.
I figured that there must be something in Traveller that you needed that piece of artillery to "hunt"
I asked the player that had it and he stated that if any target needed that to kill it, he'd just use the ships pulse lasers to be safe.
I figured that there must be something in Traveller that you needed that piece of artillery to "hunt"
I asked the player that had it and he stated that if any target needed that to kill it, he'd just use the ships pulse lasers to be safe.
bozzutoman
SOC-12
Quite an unusual one is the Tnuctipun device from Larry Niven's "The Soft Weapon".
For non man portable I'll take Keith Laumer's Hellbore. A fusion plasma weapon that the packets of fusing plasma are fired at .6 of the speed of light. From planet surface a Hellbore can hit and destroy a ship in orbit. They were the main weapons of the Bolo self-aware cybernetic tank. As well as the secondary weapons on later marks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_(self-aware_tank)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_(self-aware_tank)
Oculus Orbus
SOC-8
I'm gonna go with Spider Jerusalem's bowel disruptor from Transmetropolitan. I think the name of the weapon says it all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_Jerusalem#Weapons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_Jerusalem#Weapons
by_the_sword
SOC-9
My question is: How does she sheathe the weapon when you have to aim it at the scabbard?
How about the Cutlass? Using one of those in a sci-fi setting is pretty unusual.
http://www.coldsteel.com/1917cutlass2.html
iron warrior
SOC-12
In the ads for "Despicable me" they apparently had a "fart gun".
Hey, if someone above me could post a link to a "bowel disruptor" then this is OK.
Hey, if someone above me could post a link to a "bowel disruptor" then this is OK.
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
They're both ok* as long as we don't get smell-o-vision links
* the graphic for the first being copyrighted might be an issue but it's just one panel for the sake of discussion (at a stretch) so it might be ok under fair use
iron warrior
SOC-12
Want a load of weird SF weapons? Two suggestions, my friends.
1. Battlelords of the 23rd century book "Lock n load: Weapons" has weapons that are incredibly strange, like the "thudd gun" that fires a force filed that hits like a solid object and produces massive impact damage, and attractor/repressors that shake a target to pieces.
Plenty of other weird weapons too.
2. '1001 science fiction weapons', a pdf available at most online game pdf sellers that lives up to it's name. Has weapons both serious and silly, mundane and fantastic. Really, this book has something for damn near any gamer, and is one of the most useful RPG pdfs I've ever seen.
I'll also do a shout out for T4's "emperor's arsenal". While T4 sucked, that was a good book for it. Had some plasma cannon that could do over the horizon fire by bouncing a shot off a planet's magentosphere. Obvioulsy only on planets with a significant magnetic field.
1. Battlelords of the 23rd century book "Lock n load: Weapons" has weapons that are incredibly strange, like the "thudd gun" that fires a force filed that hits like a solid object and produces massive impact damage, and attractor/repressors that shake a target to pieces.
Plenty of other weird weapons too.
2. '1001 science fiction weapons', a pdf available at most online game pdf sellers that lives up to it's name. Has weapons both serious and silly, mundane and fantastic. Really, this book has something for damn near any gamer, and is one of the most useful RPG pdfs I've ever seen.
I'll also do a shout out for T4's "emperor's arsenal". While T4 sucked, that was a good book for it. Had some plasma cannon that could do over the horizon fire by bouncing a shot off a planet's magentosphere. Obvioulsy only on planets with a significant magnetic field.
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iron warrior
SOC-12
They're both ok* as long as we don't get smell-o-vision links
* the graphic for the first being copyrighted might be an issue but it's just one panel for the sake of discussion (at a stretch) so it might be ok under fair use
Maybe we need a weapon that only kills lawyers? Then we wouldn't have to worry about this sort of thing
For a really weird weapon, read Allistair Reynolds 'the prefect' that had "whiphounds", monowire whips that could be ordered to do a lot of things, like form a monowire sword, take independent action, scout ahead like a robot hound, fight autonomously, detect and react preemptively towards aggression and even self destruct like a .2 kiloton bomb. I thought of trying to stat one in rpg terms and suffered a serious cerebral sprain...
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