[Psionics] [Space] Psi Trek - Worldbuilding

[Prince Charon]

Phasers and other energy weapons question

Ray-guns have been a staple of science fiction since quite early in the genre, and Star Trek has a variety of them: Lasers in the first pilot, 'phasers' since then (someone on staff decided early on that they didn't want people writing in and saying 'Hey, that's not how lasers work!' so they came up with a new word), disruptors (both sonic and 'generic streaks of light' versions), polaron weapons, and in ENT, 'phase pistols' (which may or may not have been early phasers, but certainly seem to be), and generic plasmoid blasters like the EM-33, or the various pulse rifles. There are a decent number of ways to simulate these in GURPS. Phasers specifically do present something of a problem, though, as they are the 'Swiss Army Knife' of energy weapons; not everyone wants to simulate that, but enough will that this post is useful.

* One option that gets most of the functions of the phaser using pretty realistic technology is to combine two types of Pizard's beam weapons: Remote Electroshock Stun Guns with Pulse Lasers (TL10 selected for convenience, it's not a requirement; Pizard will come up more in this post, because he's got a lot of useful stuff). You have a variety of stun-like effects, you have a laser for killing opponents, starting fires or heating rocks, using as a signalling device at long ranges, and even cutting, drilling, and welding if you fudge it a little (Pizard has laser cutters in that page, and welding shouldn't be much harder to stat out). It isn't a perfect representation, of course, it doesn't have a 'vaporise/dematerialise' setting, but you might not want that. If I were doing a Hard-SF or 'Very-Firm-SF' version of Star Trek, it would be ideal (and polarized anti-glare goggles would be standard issue), but I don't think it's the best fit for Psi Trek.

* Swinging in the other direction, phasers could be weaponized psychotronic generators, like the Mind Disruptors in GURPS Psi-Tech p27. There are a few ways to do this:

-As above, most of the functions of the phaser can be done with Ergokinesis. Indeed, the lowest stun setting (seen in one episode of TOS, and possibly only then) leaves the target dazed rather than unconscious, like the Confuse ability with the Daze technique (Psionic Powers pp32-33). A weapon that imitates Confuse, Lightning (pp33-34, drawing from the power pack), and a few light-based Innate Attacks (not worked out in the book, but mentioned under Additional Ergokinesis Abilities on p37) could plausibly do everything the 'Pizard combination' above could, with some additional abilities like keeping the reflections confined so that you don't damage your eyes just seeing the weapon in use. Still can't dematerialize people, though... but you could perhaps make them explode by tearing away the electrons in the outer shells of their atoms (probably a Crushing or Burning Attack, with 'Surge, +20%' and 'Explosion, +50% per level'); nasty, but fits some scenes in Trek, IIRC (not limited to the shows, I believe there were a few like that in the comics and books).

-Teleportation can be stretched to cover this: Beaming electrons and other particles into the target can produce stunning effects, and could be used for heating with some precision, creating most of the other effects we've seen phasers used for. Additionally, this could be used to disintegrate a target in a way that might look like something out of Star Trek: Like a cleaner, much finer, but much scarier version of Innerportation (Psionic Powers pp70-71), each molecule of the target - or perhaps even each atom, or subatomic particle - is teleported a semi-random distance and direction away from the target's position. Thus, the target is converted into a hollow, very sparse cloud surrounding the place they were when the beam hit (a Corrosion Attack with something like 2d+110 damage or higher for roughly human-average targets).

-Finally, the weapon could generate abilities from several powers, pretty much whichever power the designer feels would be more efficient for that task. Either it's a single, highly versatile psychotronic generator, or like a Swiss Army knife, it's a single, portable item containing several devices. The stun setting probably uses Telepathy or Biokinesis (equivalent to Sleep 4 or higher, Psionic Powers p49, with Increased Range instead of Malediction), the Heat/Kill/general damage settings would use Psychokinesis (similar to Pyrokinesis, pp56-57, with different modifications depending on the setting) or Ergokinesis (as above), and the dematerialize setting would use Teleportation (as above). This is my preferred option.


There's also the question of other energy weapons. Are they all variants of the same technology that became the phaser? If not, what are they? What energy weapons are common? Along with the Mind Disruptors mentioned above (perhaps developed by a telepathic race, or one with telepathic enemies... or enemies that are particularly vulnerable to Telepathy), you could use psychokinetic effects to imitate Pizard's Space Fantasy Disruptor Beam Weapons. Biokinetic technology could lead to ray-guns that produce a variety of toxic effects. Another teleportation-based weapon that you may or may not want to use is the TR-116 Projectile Rifle with transporter assembly - a sniper rifle that teleports the bullet from the muzzle to the vicinity of the target (and is only an energy weapon because it does that - without the transporter, it's 'just' a very advanced version of a modern 'chemical explosions propelling bits of metal' rifle). Depending on what sort of teleporter tech you prefer, this may be useful, interesting-but-unneeded, ludicrous, or impossible. An option for any weapon which normally has recoil is to make it recoilless by adding a psychokinetic Inertia Dampening Field.

For non-psionic weapons in general, Pizard's Equipment page has a lot more, both with and without his house rules. I tend to like his stuff better than what's in Ultra-Tech 4e, at least when it comes to weapons, even though I'm not totally sold on his house rules.

Vehicle-scale weapons would most likely be larger and more powerful versions of the personal-scale weapons. Melee weapons and grenades will have separate posts.


Thoughts?