Blasters & 12 Blaster Settings

Every since I read MAGE a long time ago and read about how the school of Forces is like, all different kinds of energy combined together, I always thought that was an extremely interesting concept. However it fits better in a setting that is more scientific then a medieval fantasy one, which would care about things like elements more then wavelengths in my opinion.

So then, what about Science Fiction? What about Perfected Tyranny?

Blaster Rifle w/ open battery chamber

Blasters

Blasters are a universal energy weapon. They can kill people, they can kill robots, they can kill weird alien goo monsters and they can kill SICOs. Smart space people in the future would probably just use nukes to kill each other, or kinetic rods launched at near lightspeed from solar systems away, but where's the fun in that? While a good old fashioned gun could probably kill most humans and fleshy monsters easier then a laser gun, it won't do shit against a living pile of rubber, or a heavily encased robot, or a being made out of energy. Plus, all it takes to fire them is a bit of energy, which can be generated in a massive number of ways.

Now one problem I had with making this post was my desire to create multiple types of sci-fi energy weapons. You know- lasers AND plasma AND ray guns AND pulse weapons and all that, but maybe it's better if they're all under a generic umbrella that can do anything.

Blaster Batteries

Blaster Batteries are wonderful pieces of technology. Just to make them a little better, they're generic 'Power Cores' that can be used for any medium range tech- you can put as many or as few as you'd like together to power bigger things. They look like pure black cylinders, and aren't really made of metal. You can bet a few developing races have made religions after finding one or two left behind on their backwater worlds.

Any type of energy that the cylinder absorbs goes into its charge. It's cool to the touch, and absorbs some amount of heat. It's black, and absorbs most light. It's dense and its weight balance is weird. Throwing these things don't go as far as you might expect, because it's absorbing much of the energy. It falls at a sluggish pace, once against absorbing its falling speed as energy. Despite being a cylinder, if rolled on its side down a slope that isn't too steep it will impossibly slow down and stop rolling, its ability to absorb its momentum at one point being too much for gravity to overcome its inertia.

The reason why these babies are so useful is because all of the above charge it, so you can see how easy it would be to keep an army or scouting team supplied with power. Leaving it out in the sun is a great way to get a passive charge. You can shake them up for a small boost if you need some power right now, or throw them into a fire and let them absorb it that way. Normal campfires are too cold, and its ability to absorb heat too quickly, for a regular fire to actually damage it.

Ray Gun Settings

Rays Guns, much like Sci-Fi itself, have many grades of technology. Some are bulky and thickly designed, with rough knobs on the side clicking to determine the Ray Gun's setting. Some are sleek, with touchscreens and security settings.

Every Ray Gun has the 'Blasting' setting, which is the generic weapon setting. Fires a small blast of energy that deals 1d6 damage to pretty much anything. While strictly military guns will just have this, most will have a few or all of these special settings.

Pew Pew

Ray Gun Settings - 1d12

[1] Heat- Soft wide-ray that slowly heats up whatever its pointed out. Melts ice, dries out fabrics, and solidifies mud. Can be focused to start fires, melt your way through a bulkhead, or boil water.

[2] Stun- Intense blast of energy that shorts out the nervous system of most creatures for a moment. Good non-lethal option, but is less effective on larger creatures. Small creatures may have their heart stopped by it. Criminals in space prison get stunned so often they build up resistance.

[3] Sound- Directional speaker- focused down a narrow path. Can play music, amplify your voice, or just be so shrill to hurt you or break glass.

[4] Light- Flashlight, projector, can be made wide angle. Some get so strong they can shoot a beam that can be seem from space, useful for SOS signals. Maybe can shoot a flare.

[5] Radio/Signal- Self explanatory. Useful for planetary communication, doesn't travel faster then the speed of light unless you hook it up to a Hyperwave reactor.

[6] Plasma- Fires out super-heated gas like a flamethrower. People love this to burn out alien infestations and shit.

[7] Hologram Projector- Produces 3d images at a distance, but will flicker and look pretty shitty. Real issue is what you can project, you'd have to program anything you'd want to project.

[8] Levitron- Point this at something to make it levitate, be pulled towards or away from you. Has a clear weight limit and doesn't work as well against moving targets.

[9] Transfer Beam- Firing this very weak beam lets it specifically seek out and recharge other power cores you point it at. You can use your gun like a battery pack for your other gear.

[10] Wave- Builds up a powerful single blast of sound, wind, or pressure. The shockwave will break glass and knock back nearby creatures. Probably the best way to defend yourself underwater.

[11] Disintegration- Fires a constant stream of energy that breaks objects down into tiny cubes of their most base elements. Pretty useful industrial applications, but against biological beings it can really fuck you up. Increase damage to d8, but its a battery sucker.

[12] Scrambler- Direct hit disrupts technology. Stuns robots, causes cloaking devices and personal protective shields to stop working. Many unsecured doors can be forced to open by blasting them with this ability. Causes cybernetic implants to be useless hunks of metal for a short time.

Perfected Tyranny

Perfected Tyranny is the name of a fictional system of government in my science fiction setting. It was created by the greatest minds, both biological and mechanical, in order to preserve biological life in the war against the SICOs (the solar beings).

It's pretty hard to create a perfect government, since I am not a perfect being myself. But I really enjoy the idea of a totally or near perfect, self replicating government. It's practically self aware, by virtue of the people who live in it and follow its codes.

Tyranny's Purpose

The solar beings hate intelligent life. They're made of living, evolved light and can take different forms, but have “genetics”, “races”, and “genders” all of their own. The touch of a solar beings can cook your skin, lock up your entire nervous system, and destroy matter. They can also fire energy blasts. Though most intelligent biological organisms are on a roughly humanoid scale of size, the most ancient and powerful solar beings can be as large as starships. Indeed, they act AS starships, and can only be fought with the advanced weapons of a starship.

So, how does one fight this threat? The solar beings are energy based creatures, and so you cannot harm or injure them with physical attacks. On the plus side, that means energy shields are as physical to them as brick is to us, meaning you can keep them at bay with the proper shielding. You have to use laser blasters, plasma throwers, ray guns and so on to actually hurt them, knives and bullets won't work. This is also a convenient explanation as to why everyone in the setting uses laser guns instead of bullet based weapons. You need to blast them apart.

But how does one make weapons of this strength? Well first, it takes a lot of technological advancement. Then, it takes a lot of resources. In the same way a tiny isolated island tribe could never be able to support the kind of craftsmen capable of creating medieval plate armor, or a small medieval village could never manufacture an Abrams tank, a single continental nation is poorly equipped to create the kind of weaponry needed to fight even a single SICO, much less the entire spectrum. It requires a larger, more planetary or star system sized scale.

Perfected Structure

Perfected Tyranny's structure is basically space feudalism. Not real feudalism with the whole three estates thing or pop culture feudalism, but structural feudalism in space. Each local power is required to hand up a certain amount of material, wealth, and/or fighting men to the rank above it. That level would be the entire cosmic body; like a planetary governor. This power must then send up its resources to a system-wide power, which will then be sent up to a quadrant or star cluster manager. Eventually, it ends up to the big cheese himself. I don't even have a title for his job yet.

This loose and segmented structure means that, as territory is lost or gained, things don't have to be restructured back at any kind of central command. Additionally, it works well for a sort of government that is “always at war” as Perfected Tyranny essentially is.

Because space is big, and science fiction is all about diversity and scale, the real beauty of this system is when you consider how it allows creatures of totally different cultures to work together. The 'local power' could be literally anything; a king, a clan, a democratic utopia or a dictatorship. It could be a corporation that sends money up the chain as part of its taxes, or it could be a peaceful, communistic hive mind of aliens, who simply mine for ore and crystals to send up to the Tyranny.

Unchanging Fluidity

Because this is for a game, you can retroactively change or add details to PT to make it seem smarter then it actually is. This is something I want to try to do, at least until my players get annoyed by it. Like I said, it's supposed to be the 'perfect' government type. All the bases are covered.

Some species value being able to fight to the death to prove your worth, so how does this system cover that? Well of course it does- if an underling kills their supervisor, they can become that new leader of that level of the system, and as long as they keep sending money up the pyramid nobody will care. The local clans might, and get into a blood feud, but the system itself will continue. Unless of course it doesn't. If the blood feuds and military coops start to stop the vital power structure, the regional powers at be will send in their agents. The Enforcers.

Enforcers are for-contract police officers. At their digression, they can choose to obey or ignore local customs whenever they are sent to resolve a matter or end a dispute. This balances itself out nicely; there is no legal recourse if one of them decides to kill a local politician of your alien race that you all loved- but you also suffer no legal issues if you just kill the Enforcers instead. and figure out to fix your shitty alien drama yourself. That's the mixed bag about being an Enforcer, you get to kill people but they might kill you back. You're immune to consequence but also unprotected.

Also, the Enforcers are the players.