[DF] Imma Chargin' Mah (Fantasy) Lazors!!!

[Stripe]

For an upcoming Dungeon Fantasy session, I'm considering introducing ray guns in the style of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe or Taarna or Thundarr the Barbarian or Filmation's The New Adventures of Flash Gordon -- basically Conan the Barbarian plus ray guns. Normally, though I love the original Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy IV with all my heart, I don't like mixing sci-fi with my fantasy in table-top gaming, but this is just a short campaign of connected dungeons.

What I don't want to do is make the ray guns magic boom sticks like musket-shaped wands enchanted with Lightning Bolt. I want them to be fashioned with some form of weird fantasy technology, probably using crystals, mirrors (making them fragile), platinum and gold with wooden stocks. I want them to be TL3^ on the very cutting edge, almost TL4^.

I want to make sure they are balanced in a fantasy setting beside archers using bows and arrows.

As a starting reference point for balance, Heroic Archers with striking ST 13 and a composite bow does 1d+3 imp damage per turn, more for Weapon Masters. However, they can use different arrows including bodkin points doing piercing damage with an armor divisor (B277), or willow leaf arrows doing cutting damage (Treasure-Tables, p. 8; Low-Tech, p. 73). They add accuracy bonus without taking an Aim maneuver and have further options in Power-Ups that can make them even more fearsome. Plus, bows will be much cheaper. So, adding balanced ray guns won't make archers obsolete. At least, that's the goal.

While I was going to design my own, the more I thought about it, the more I like the idea of just using unmodified electro lasers. Then, I adjusted the damage up to 1d(2) burn (still with the surge and aff) and worsened the Shots considerably from practically unlimited to 12(3) and 24(3). Getting "ammo" will be as difficult as magic items.

Weapon           Damage       Acc  Range      Weight   RoF  Shots  Cost    ST   Bulk Rcl
Composite Bow    1d+3 imp     3    280/350    4/0.1    1    1(2)   $900    10†  -7   -
Handgonne, .90   2d pi++      0    100/600    15/0.1   1    1(60)  $300    10†  -6   4
Musket, .75      4d pi++      2    100/1,500  13/0.05  1    1(15)  $200    10†  -6   4

Raygonne         1d (2) burn  4    40/80      2.2/0.5  3    12(3)  $1,800  4    -2   1
linked           HT-4(2) aff  
Ray-Musket       1d (2) burn  8+1  160/470    3.7/1    3    24(3)  $3,900  4†   -4   1
linked           HT-4(2) aff

I threw a couple old guns in there for reference.

using the stats from the Basic Set, electro lasers don't have good range or damage, certainly not against armored opponents. In fact, they seem to be a pretty poorly suited for the battle field. They seem to perhaps have been designed for riot control or as less-lethal police sidearms.

As personal weapons in a fantasy campaign, though, they don't seem too terribly bad, especially for a dual-weapon fighter who has a sword or axe in one hand, raygonne in the other. With a rapier, it would be a cool Swashbuckler concept.

What do you all think? Would they be too powerful or too weak? Should I lower the damage back down to 1d-3 burn with no armor divisor?

What about unmodified TL9^ flamers from Ultra-Tech?

Of course, when they first encounter them, they won't have any idea how to use them, but they will know they are weapons from seeing them used previously. I'll have an NPC there to tell them, "This is the business end. Don't point it at anything you don't want to kill. Hold it like this. Look through the sites like this. Pull this trigger to make it shoot. Be careful with that. You'll shoot your eye out."

I'm considering introducing the concept in a dungeon-ized wreckage of an ancient alien spaceship. Most, if not all, of the psionic elder-thing space alien squizards are dead, but the psychopathic AI still functions as do a small squad of robot soldiers. Real robots, not robot-like golems, mind you. Of course, the robots will probably be colored evil-skull white and there will be a bad-ass black version and scary red version. The Mother Brain-like boss will be a giant psi-borg.

I think it would be a significant and refreshing departure from what I've done in the past.