Questions tagged [weapons]
For questions about existing weapons or designing new ones.
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How fast does a pineapple need to fly to kill?
Basically, spud guns use air pressure to shoot spuds. More air pressure, faster spud. How fast would a pineapple gun (ignore making it, say it just works) have to shoot the pineapple to be lethal?
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Can spacecraft defend against antimatter weapons? How?
Here is what we know:
We have the means to create stable antimatter
We can direct it in a beam
It can travel nearly as fast as light with ease
Antimatter and matter combine in dangerous ways: one ...
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Assassination by means of shooting through wall
In the story I am writing right now, a scene portrays the attempt to kill the main character in his own apartment. After having studied the floor plan, the assassin decides to shoot him from the ...
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Bow types and their pros and cons
What bows are used for different situations and what makes them the best choice?
In my story a village is only easily accessible in one direction (Tall mountains around it and a fast river behind) ...
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The Anti-Santa: Dealing with the Naughty List
Old Nick is Saint Nicholas' elder brother.
He sees his brother's good work at Christmas and wants to help in his own way, and sees a gap in the market (he really can't compete with spreading good).
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Projectile weaponization of water
Is it possible to weaponize common tap water in some sort of gun?
Imagine a basic water gun. It doesn't do much damage at all.
But what if we could fire the water out in controlled spurts, at high ...
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What would be the next logical step after crossbows?
In this world I'm making, I'm trying to avoid firearms (to keep things like melee weapons more balanced), but also be more industrial. I'm justifying it by the simple idea of 'we never discovered ...
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A weapon that can instantly kill millions without harming the bodies
I have a world set in the far future, no specific time for vagueness sake, that is completely war-torn by 2 warring factions. This planet is both sides' last stand, so it's all-out, no-limits warfare....
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Is there a way to make a metal sword resistant to lava?
My story involves sword of very high quality; they use lasers to cut, but have a metal reinforcement. The monsters the characters encounter and fight have lava as their 'life liquid'. If someone were ...
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Justifying the use of directed energy weapons
In my scifi setting I want a broad range of slugthrowers (bullets, smart ammo, grenades,...), exotic weapons (flame/chemthrowers, high tech blades, nano-bots,...), and directed energy weapons (heat ...
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Justification of the trope that mining tools are tougher than military equipments
It seems to be a recurring idea in science fiction that some industrial tools, especially mining tools, are extremely sturdy and reliable to the point that in certain combat situations where ...
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Advantages of an electrified sword?
So I want my rabbits to have lightning swords. Well it's not literally a blade of plasma but just a metal sword that has a current flowing through it.
What kind of advantages would the weapon bring ...
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Safe destruction of kinetic projectiles
Imagine you have a big honking space gun mounted on your spaceship that launches slugs at a few percents of the speed of light. We'll call that fairly destructive.
However if you missed and the slug ...
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A more powerful bow
What methods are there to make more powerful bows, besides simply upscaling it? Just for definition, I will take more powerful to mean that it has more draw strength and longer range. The tech level ...
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Would it be plausible to ride a rhinoceros into battle?
Another question from Reddit that may fit the format of this site.
Elephants used to be used for warfare in the past, and even those are hard to tame. Would it be possible that instead of horses, ...
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Guns vs. Moon Dust
I'm building a sci-fi world in which there are a lot of wars, fought across the galaxy. In order to make this world feel real, I want to design weapons that are well-suited for the environments they'...
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Sci-Fi weapon that can kill people through armor, but doesn't damage starship hulls?
I have been trying to come up with some kind of small arm that could be used in a science fiction setting with the following two characteristics:
It is designed so that it won't put a hole in a ...
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A steel-cutting sword?
So within my world there exists a faction of monks on a secluded mountain whose scientific and philosophical knowledge outstrips the outside medieval world. And with these monks being famous more for ...
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Chlorine Trifluoride as a Space Weapon?
Pretty self-explanatory. Could a spaceship use a "ClF3 Mortar" to fire copper shells at enemy vessels? At first glance, this seems like a good weapon: it can burn even in space and can set fire to ...
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Why Laser "Guns"? [closed]
We all love laser guns (which are usually plasma weaponry) but why guns? It's not like we need the long barrel for making it more accurate or the stock to control recoil. So why guns and why not ...
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Logical in-universe reason for humans to continue using conventional firearms while other species use exotic weaponry?
In my world, I planned for humanity’s soldiers and civilians to use conventional, chemical-propelled firearms. There are changes of course (ETC ignition became common, more lightweight materials, ...
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Why might plasma weapons have different colors, even when made by the same manufacturer?
So, I plan to write a graphic novel that takes place in the 26th century. By then, humans have stopped using the old slugthrowers and have upgraded to something more.....eloquent.
I mean, if you're ...
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How do I scientifically explain a specific type of wood piercing through armor when not even bullets can?
I've created a monster with three weaknesses:
A soft spot in his belly that can be pierced through normally with objects, but the monster is so big and fast that hitting it is extremely hard and ...
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How to safely knock someone out
I'm the new superhero on the block. I've got the classic powerset - super-strength and super-durability. I don't have to worry one bit about your average thug hurting me.
On the contrary, I'm really ...
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Could a 19.25mm revolver actually exist?
I'm working on writing a story wherein there is a revolver inspired by Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy's samaritan. My question is; can such a gun, as described below, work? Or would it be a bone breaker ...
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Building a Syringe Gun
I'm looking to create a syringe gun for um....reasons.
Don't worry about the specifics, I'm not looking to assassinate anyone (at least not too much), but I want to be the new Vaccination Vigilante®. ...
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Sword with mercury core
The GURPS roleplaying supplement New Sun, based on the Book of the New Sun novels by Gene Wolfe, describes a particular sword as having a hollow channel in its core containing mercury. According to ...
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What are the advantages of exposed bridge on spacecraft?
For most sci-fi movies/tv series ship bridge/main control room is exposed (external part of ship). Examples:
Star Wars Star Destroyers
Stargate Dedalus/Destiny/Atlantis(top of main highest tower)
...
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How advanced or effective weapons can be created from mostly animal body parts?
I have a race of carnivorous mammals living in a very resource-poor environment. Due to a mixture of lack of resources (no metal, no wood or tough stems, etc) and cultural taboos, they are only ...
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Reformatting Death Stars as powerful telescopes
I think the Hubble telescope is too small to observe the universe. Ditto for James Webb, Keck and other telescopes out there. I decided I need something much bigger.
So, I recently got two Death ...
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What early middle ages weapons would suit an extremely strong child?
I'm worldbuilding low fantasy with technology level of the early middle ages. Very few of the people could tap into psionic power, which makes them faster and stronger than common people. Average ...
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How can medieval knights protect themselves against modern guns?
How do a you make a knight with armour and a sword formidable against a modern-day soldier with gear and a gun?
And how can you make a medieval army formidable enough to face a modern day army?
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Arming all untrained people with firearms, which weapon would do?
This is an extention of this question: Using dead bodies for material 4: ammunition
The world is suffering from the creatures of fantasy and nightmares which can appear with just a few minutes of ...
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The new rioters weapon of choice
The nation of Futurestan is a typical overly complex futuristic dystopian utopic society of the 23rd century. Fossil fuels are widely unavailable because only barbarians would think it was a good idea ...
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Handling a sword blade (directly) to stab
I'm ESL, hope I can deliver the questions clearly.
Consider a regular and sharp longsword.
Would it be possible to stab someone by handling it close to the tip or maybe in the middle of the blade? (...
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Feasibility of Centaur Hussars
Would centaur cavalry be able to hold their own in an early 1800s setting? What kind of advantages and disadvantages would they have over the regular man-on-a-horse cavalry? What kind of niche would ...
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How durable would a person need to be to survive impact at terminal velocity?
For a fantasy race, or for bio-augmented humans, how durable would they have to be to walk away from a 1000ft free fall unscathed? And how would this logically translate to other forms of durability?
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How to create a glowing weapon with pre-20th Century technology?
In my hypothetical world, a bladesmith is challenged to create a sword with supernatural properties by the King, to prove his ability. The swordsmith wishes to present the King with a sword that glows....
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How to build a Blood Gun?
I recently played the game Mary Skelter - Nightmares, in which the protagonist after some time acquires a weapon that is called a Mary Gun - a device that shoots his own blood.
I'll change the ...
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Advantages/Disadvantages with Large Naval Guns
When it comes to naval guns, bigger isn't always better. The 46cm/18.1" guns on the Yamato-class battleships didn't have much in the way of advantages over the Iowa-class's 40.6/16" guns. Yet the ...
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What is a good reason for every spaceship to carry a weapon on board?
In the near future humanity has started mining on Mars. International (and interplanetary) treaties governing the use of lethal weapons in space dictate that anyone possessing such a weapon must carry ...
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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. ...
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How to design an advanced deadman's switch for the "vitality impaired"?
I don't usually use vampires as main characters. They're normally supporting characters for more, and yet less, human immortals, but I've decided to flesh them out a bit. I was thinking about advanced,...
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How long would it take to nuke an alien spaceship in orbit?
Some gigantic, and presumably evil, alien spaceship has taken up residence in LEO. This spacecraft is ominously blocking all satellite communications, and launching smaller flying saucers towards the ...
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Designing a magic-compatible polearm
The people in my story's universe all have various magical powers, and if they want the effects of these powers to extend to their clothes or equipment, said equipment needs to be designed to a few ...
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Can I create an unstoppable disease?
Illnesses caused by bacteria can be held at bay by antibiotics, and some viruses can be fought with anti-viral medicine. However, I'd like to create a disease for use as a bioweapon that cannot be ...
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What would be the quickest way to sterilize a planet from several light-years away?
I'm thinking of a couple main ways, but they seem pretty unreliable for complete sterilization. I'm imaging a pretty reclusive hermit civilization around their solar system. They see intelligent life ...
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Weaponising the Grasp-at-a-Distance spell
Wizards have developed a Grasp-at-a Distance spell. It has numerous uses in everyday life of course but the Emperor (may he live forever) wants it to be deployed as a weapon of war.
Spell operation
A ...
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How would sword design change if the aim was to cause as much immediate bleeding as possible?
Supposedly there is a school of magic that allows telekinetic manipulation of blood (and only blood).
Your telekinetic powers can not penetrate solids and other liquids (including human skin) so you ...
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Quick destruction of a helium filled airship?
I am writing a steampunk novel and am working on a scene where an enemy quickly overwhelms and destroys a US airship. The enemy has flying gyro sleds and a large airship of their own that is armed ...