Questions tagged [weapons]
For questions about existing weapons or designing new ones.
1,206
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Stopping A Diamond Drill With A Metal Hand [closed]
Okay, there's this scene where a character with cybernetic arms is fighting another character, this one who can spin her arms and legs around at Mach speeds, and has claws instead of fingernails and ...
2
votes
3answers
75 views
Warhammer homonculi grow edged weapons out of their own bodies. What should those be made out of?
As I mentioned before, dragons would be too goofy, werewolves are closer to oversized dogs, while lizardfolk are now finally part of the standard fantasy races. These creatures are more cool than ...
17
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10answers
4k views
How to kill an alien with a decentralized organ system?
I had a cool but not so original idea: aliens with many many redundant organs, and a nervous system spread across their bodies. This creates some issues. How do I kill one?
What the Alien is like:
The ...
0
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1answer
95 views
Bathroom Mirror vs Eye Lasers
There is this scene where the main good girl is fighting the big bad alone. The big bad fires his eye lasers at the good girl, who uses a bathroom mirror to reflect the rays. The big bad can control ...
4
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6answers
204 views
What armament would be best for a 21st century airship?
So I am writing a story with 21st century airships. They replace all heavier than air flight and there are extensive “sky navies”. The airships are able to carry 150,000 pounds of whatever you want ...
6
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9answers
213 views
How could the sword be a viable weapon against modern technology, with the advantage of science-based superpowers?
The atmosphere in the Judging Hall was stretched so thin that it seemed like it would snap at the slightest blink of an eye. On one side of the hall sat the Master Judge and his guards, his hand ...
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2answers
91 views
Swallowing Multiple Grenades
Okay, there's a character who is force-fed multiple grenades. The resulting explosion does severe damage to their body, but doesn't completely destroy them, and their healing factor fixes all of the ...
7
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11answers
2k views
Why would humans still duel like cowboys in the 21st century?
So I have a story about a world where honor is the most important thing and where if someone insults you... duel to the death. Most often this is peacefully resolved but when duels happen I want a ...
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4answers
129 views
Missile warheads in space?
So I am thinking about space battles in my universe. The main weapons on my ships will be missiles/torpedos. Which of these would be the most effective warhead:
Tungsten shotguns. The missile closes ...
22
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11answers
4k views
What would cause a culture to keep a distinct weapon for centuries?
Imagine you have the stereotypical mysterious nation across the ocean. Their mercenaries are sometimes contracted into your army. They dress weird, talk with an accent, and have really odd weapons. ...
12
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8answers
471 views
Realistic space battle distances?
Distance in space battles is a crucial variable that affects the tactics and outcomes. With the following tech what is a reasonable distance for battles to be engaged:
Engines:
Fusion drives with max ...
28
votes
11answers
5k views
Reason to use tridents over other weapons?
So, I wanted one of my species in a world of mine to primarily use tridents as their weapons. I'm not sure of their location outside of a mesa. I did a little research and tridents were indeed used in ...
6
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6answers
158 views
Best shotgun rounds for space boardings?
Here's the gist, my power armoured marines are going to be equipped with full-auto 8 gauge shotguns (in other words a quarter bigger then your average 12 guage shotgun). Now the marines are much more ...
5
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2answers
194 views
How Precisely Can a Space Cannon be Targeted?
If I have spaceships that are firing some variety of cannon at each other - MAC, laser, particle cannon, doesn't really matter the type - at extreme range, then even if the gun itself were somehow ...
6
votes
3answers
148 views
Shape of a Large Battle Laser?
If I have lasers being used as a primary weapon for spaceships in a realistic sci-fi setting, what would the proportions of the laser cannon itself be? Presumably the cannon would be cylindrical, but ...
2
votes
5answers
187 views
Which boarding option is easier?
So in my books I have a couple of boardings. Some of my previous questions make that clear. So I was wondering...
Is it better to:
A: use the available railgun tech to kill easier and just plug the ...
4
votes
5answers
192 views
Could I design a bolt action rifle during a period similar to the medieval age (with light magical assistance)? [duplicate]
Writing a fantasy story where my protag has knowledge of modern day Earth technology. Magic also exists but it can't just create things in and out of existence and uses the body's energy for it to ...
2
votes
1answer
61 views
Could an evaporating micro-black hole serve as a useful weapon?
According to Wikipedia and Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, micro-black holes are expected to evaporate quickly due to Hawking radiation, releasing a burst of final emission equivalent to ...
4
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4answers
485 views
Scientifically Plausible Ranged Pain-inducing Weapon?
So, one of my characters was meant to be a Mr.Godcomplex type of guy, complete with the "Spare the child, spoil the rod" mentality towards his underlings and a penchant for making examples ...
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0answers
43 views
What modern tactical knives do you think will become future classics? [closed]
I’m developing a costume for some military characters in a story set in 2156. What knives of today do you think could still be popular and in use by armed forces in 136 years? What are the Fairbairn-...
3
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3answers
138 views
How useful would it be for a hunter to be able to climb trees really well?
I'm writing a medieval fantasy hunter character whose gimmick is that he's really good at climbing trees. If you can imagine a tree being climbed, then this guy can climb it without breaking a sweat ...
5
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9answers
893 views
How can mage guilds compete in an industry which allows others to resell their products?
Mage-smithing is a process in which forged weapons are imbued with magical attributes in order to create enchanted weapons. This process is long and hard, requiring numerous items and various rituals ...
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5answers
263 views
Logistics of crafting ammunition after the apocalypse?
So, nuclear war has wiped out civilization, and brought humanity to its knees. Nuclear winter, radiation and violence has turned the Earth into a wasteland; a slaughterhouse and a breeding ground for ...
34
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16answers
5k views
Semi-plausible reason why only NERF weaponry will kill invading aliens
Aliens are invading with lasers, spacecraft, and tons of superior technology. The end of the world seems to be coming, until some kid finds the aliens one weakness. Nerf guns*.
For some reason the ...
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15answers
2k views
Why enchanted weapons are seldom recycled?
Set in the medieval period the one where King Arthur was supposed to obtain a certain quest reward from lady of the lake.
Magic strength in this universe depends on species and most importantly the ...
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10answers
1k views
Dedicated castle assault unit
Medieval warfare can get ugly, particularly during sieges. Most will agree that the best course of action is to sit tight for a year or two and hope the defenders starve before your attacking force ...
5
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3answers
157 views
Creating the weight for my weapons in my MMORPG
I'm having a tough time coming up with good weights for my weapons to allow me to calculate what swords would take longer to swing, for example.
Here is what I have come up with so far:
...
8
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8answers
1k views
How do guns not penetrate the hull of a spaceship/station and still punch through body armor? [duplicate]
There are plenty of modern or slightly futuristic developments of the firearm that would avoid punching a hole in spaceships. The problem is that in doing so, all of them are much worse against body ...
6
votes
4answers
301 views
Hard sci-fi super weapons?
So in my questions about the intergalactic highway and simulated ship quarters I established a universe where the navy fights a cult of alien worshipers over star gates. 500 to 700 years in the future....
19
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5answers
4k views
Would laser weapons have significant recoil?
I was bumming around Reddit the other day when I came across a discussion talking about how laser guns in Warhammer 40,000 have appreciable recoil, enough that a laser sniper rifle was described as ...
0
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2answers
124 views
Causing Nuclear Reactions With A Sword
Okay, so the ultimate villain of my story is a million-year-plus-old malevolent extraterrestrial believed (and for good reason) to be the most powerful being in the universe. He has incredible ...
8
votes
7answers
1k views
Firework-based ranged weapons?
This is an odd question, but one that has been taunting my mind for a while. I had the idea of a weapon which used a firework, or something similar to a firework, for ammunition. I'd prefer it to work ...
6
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5answers
162 views
How to defend a sailing ship from a wyvern
Pirates are always a threat, but this particular coastal city has another worry - wyverns. In order to get from said city to open seas, the ships must traverse about 600km towards the exit from the ...
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3answers
136 views
How To Liquefy A Human [closed]
Okay, I'm asking this question because in my story, the main bad guy gets killed when he's punched so hard by the heroine that he explodes into bits. His skeleton is broken into many fragments, his ...
4
votes
2answers
813 views
Possibility of a seafloor vent used to sink ships
Okay, here's the idea. There's a weapon that an nation built a hundred or so kilometers from its coast(s), installed into the seafloor, what works by absorbing dissolved gases from the water. When the ...
1
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1answer
108 views
My character got whipped and I want to know whether the extent of her injuries is possibe [closed]
My original character got whipped and I don't want any scarring to happen. What I imagine is a that is bruised skin with black lines criss-crossing all over the back. The skin is not broken.
Is it ...
2
votes
1answer
67 views
Effects of Black Hole Macron Accelerators
So far, my previous Black Hole Gun has seen interesting results. However, I also thought back to the Black Hole Launcher, and how to make the Black Hole itself a "projectile".
There are a ...
2
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1answer
199 views
Would this giant rotating shotgun weapon be effective?
TL;DR; Just a random idea I had, but would a giant rotating shotgun-type weapon be effective?
I had this crazy/stupid/possibly-been-done-before/very-dangerous/probably-all-of-the-above idea. I have ...
1
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3answers
91 views
Justifiable reason to use a Submachine Gun in the post-apocalypse? [closed]
In my world, I planned on the use of SMGs (Submachine Guns) being common, with weapons like the H&K MP9, MAC-27, and UZI being most common. After doing some thinking though, I realized that in ...
6
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2answers
227 views
Effects of my Black Hole Gun
I have seen some questions in this site regarding how to weaponise black holes. One very funny one was the Black Hole Launcher, which many to quick to point out how absurd that was. However, I had ...
3
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5answers
878 views
Making a modern day 9mm gun-glaive?
My inspiration and for easier imagining of this glaive-like weapon here is a picture from the Warhammer 40k universe of something very similar. (Picture courtesy of this site click to see larger ...
7
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3answers
248 views
How to make pneumatic weaponry/airguns the main weapons of a miliary force?
Perhaps you know of pneumatic weapons also called airguns, but for those who don't; they're weapons that use air as propellant to launch a projectile rather than for example black powder or smokeless ...
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3answers
104 views
how to cause a supervolcanic eruption
I want to make use of the Toba Catastrophe Theory in my story. From Wikipedia:
The Youngest Toba eruption was a supervolcanic eruption that occurred around 75,000 years ago at the site of present-day ...
5
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6answers
724 views
A near-future traveler wants to become a hero among a medieval society, what gear he would wear? [closed]
It is somewhere from 20 to 80 years in the future, humans have discovered alternative reality hopping technology, that allowed them to visit different worlds. One such visitor needs to become the ...
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6answers
187 views
How to weaponise Anti-Gravity?
Antigravity, as a recap, is the phenomenon of creating a field that is free of / opposes normal gravity.
Supposedly Antigravity is real and can be created. The most common idea is to have a rotating ...
5
votes
1answer
219 views
What kind of wounds would a pulsed laser weapon really create?
Lasers and other heat-based weapons in sci-fi are often misrepresented in how they deal damage. A common reaction to heat based weapons like lightsabers, laser rifles and plasmaweapons is to say they ...
2
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3answers
126 views
Day/night cycling energy in modern weaponry
Hia, I was wondering how warfare, tactics and strategies would change if energy sources were varying greatly over a single day. Especially modern, contemporary wars, since they have much more energy ...
6
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8answers
2k views
How practical is a spear-rapier (fencing foil) hybrid?
Recently got inspired by chinese wushu martial arts movies and I wanted to implement a little bit of what I saw into one of my fantasy worlds.
The idea was to make a lightweight spear-rapier hybrid ...
3
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3answers
179 views
What are the smallest guns that can kill or seriously injure a human [closed]
Back story (not essential to the answer)
Humans invade a forested planet and encounter the local intelligent lifeform. These creatures are tiny compared to humans and they see people as huge monsters. ...
asked Nov 1 '20 at 1:16
chasly - supports Monica
40.3k12 gold badges122 silver badges252 bronze badges
6
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7answers
405 views
Least dangerous tranquilizer dart-ish design
So, now, here is my problem. I'm making a video game, and I wish to make it so that teams use tranquilizer dart-like weapons to capture each other (this is a continuation of my previous question that ...
