futuristic weapons, items, and how they work

[shamguy4]

im writing a fantasy that takes place in the future.
How important is it that I follow rules of how things such as a plasma gun and ion blasters work?

I'm not writing science fiction, although it may appear that way in the beginning, and I know scifi readers have this thing for perfection and realistic weapons and such. But I am more of a make up my cool weapons as I go along. and I know nothing of real weapons!

Maybe I should take out a scifi book on weapons...

Anyways this came up because I have this item that is hard for me to explain and I just began using words that scifi readers might make wide eyes at, like "How dare you!!! Thats not what thats for!!"

Basically I have a portal and it turns on like this:

When he got close enough he bent down and pressed a small power button on the top.
Instantly, a thin bright red cord of plasma snaked its way out of one of the horns going up and in an arc. With a crackle and the hissing sounds of electricity working, it reach the other horn and the circle was complete. The portal opened.

is that ok? or i need to learn this stuff....

 

[chrispenycate]

Why is it not SF? If you start electromagnetically directing plasma in fantasy, it's the fantasy exclusives who'll be at you. Can't win.

I enjoy working out weapons, but I like getting it right - a plasma cannon will always have sideways leakage, a laser or maser not, unless you specifically design for it, if you use neutronium bullets you're going to get a lot of recoil etc. It's only physics.

 

[shamguy4]

oh great now I need to take physics....

 

[LittleStar]

I think it depends. If you don't go into specifics of how any of the portal works then the above is fine to use, we don't need to know how everything about it, that's a hard sf issue I believe. Similarly, I'm fine if you say plasma sheild, or laser blaster, or warp drive etc. none of that bothers me personally, and most would know enough tropes to get their heads around the vocab, eve out of genre. Though as mentioned, it might be worth double checking fantasy vs sf... that's not to say that tech can't be used in fantasy

 

[Ray McCarthy]

and I know scifi readers have this thing for perfection and realistic weapons and such.

Actually most seem to accept any kind of nonsense if it has enough technobabble, or if it has no explanation at all. Depends how good the story is as too how much bad science can be ignored.
Avoid obviously nonsense explanations.

 

[chrispenycate]

Why not just assume I'm not part of your target audience?

 

[ralphkern]

Sounds like you're aiming for a the future fantasy genre, which covers things like Starwars.

Using that as a model, as much knowledge that is required is what the thing looks like, what effect it has and what it does.

No one really wonders why a TIE (Twin Ion Engine)Fighter has solar panels, or the fact that it has a measly Ion engine which would accelerate the thing at about a thousandth of a gee. Just that they get shot down a lot by Rebels, look cool, and the name rocks. Rebels have red beams come out of their blasters (or lasers whatever) and Imperials have green. No one knows how fast Hyperdrive goes, or how/why the Millennium Falcon can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 Parsecs (A unit of distance used to measure time? huh).

If I want an explanation of that kind of stuff (and to be honest, I generally do, hence why this isn't my genre) then I go to Arthur C Clarke and co.

I am vaguely aware the Expanded Universe tries to answer some of this stuff but I'm talking about the core movies.

Please noone bring up Midichlorians (sic)!

 

[tinkerdan]

How about minichlorians or microchlorians.

She was wearing her midiclorian that day but her legs still looked like they went on forever; while they actually came to an abrupt stop at about half a Parsec-which would be what: one-sec?

Anyway a lot depends on whether you want to look like you're hand-waving; though if the point of view identifies the beginning snaking to be plasma you might want to get the description close to what plasma would act like under the condition you have it.

With that configuration you could end up with something like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_gap#Visual_entertainment

but overall this is an interesting article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)

 

[Ihe]

I´ve always thought of plasma as something exclusively harmful. From my perspective, going into a portal made of plasma would kill you. You´d be better off saying something more generic like "energy" or simply mention the color. It depends on the POV and what the character knows about these portals and if he has ever seen plasma before. You could say "something that looked like plasma but wasn´t" etc.

No need to get specific with the tech in this kind of genre, because the moment you do, you start to tie the noose around Fantasy´s throat. Strict, correctly explained physics and use of too many natural laws can at some point come into conflict with the mechanics of your Fantasy elements, which are usually not bound in the same way, and can have their very own, very specific internal mechanics. This clash can rip holes in your plot in respect to the "how".

 

[tinkerdan]

There are many different forms of plasma:

I´ve always thought of plasma as something exclusively harmful. From my perspective, going into a portal made of plasma would kill you. You´d be better off saying something more generic like "energy" or simply mention the color. It depends on the POV and what the character knows about these portals and if he has ever seen plasma before. You could say "something that looked like plasma but wasn´t" etc.

.

:Lightning seems to be one; and there are documented cases of people living after being struck by it. I work with someone who was once struck. She's fine though she does manage to go through an excessive amount of batteries for her watches. They seem to run down rather quickly on her.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Basically in my eyes, the answer to your original question is you really don't need to. We as readers will not doubt be able to tell by the rest of your writing where to put your style on the fantasy to hard science scale is.

The thing is, the more specific detail you but into the description about what it does or what its called, the more you open yourself up to science pedants. So if you were worried, in your example you could be vaguer with your description and not call it plasma but something with a less definitive definition (it could be 'like' plasma)

Personally, like chrispenycate I like to work things out - perhaps not to actually how they should work in real life (I like a bit of licence to stretch reality a bit) but to suggest other things that then would be there. So to give an example, if your characters have portable power sources vast enough to have hand-held plasma guns ('ion blasters'?) then surely people might also have some form of personal magnetic shielding to try and deflect and dissipate such weapons, if 'lasers' are predominant then having a very shiny reflective surface should be top of the agenda for defences etc...

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Millennium Falcon can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 Parsecs (A unit of distance used to measure time? huh).

Obviously the normal route is longer distance

 

[shamguy4]

If i spend time learning all this I will only fall out of my book which I am finally writing so for now.... its a plasma ring contained in a shield of some sort so its not too hot!
there. settled.
ok, I'll changed it to some sort of force field or something...

Dont get me wrong, I love creating the lore, I just know what happens when I get stuck on the smallest things...

 

[Avid Scifi Fan]

Plasma is just a material that has the electrons removed (high temperatures do this). Then you can manipulate it with electrical/magnetic fields.

Ions are bit of materials with fewer or extra electrons so they are electrically charged. Once again, this allows you to manipulate it with electrical/magnetic fields.

Lasers and microwaves are forms of electromagnetic radiation.

For your weapon, I would assume the manipulation physics have all been worked out and it operates as intended.

I try to stay with the basics on operation, assume they work on "line of sight" and maybe spread out a little or get weaker with great distances (not as bad as a shot gun). Plasma and Ion have a mass charge like a bullet (i.e. slug of hot material/gas shooting out to do the damage) where as laser/microwave or other beam like energy weapons would operate like a "flashlight" (mass less).

There a also rail guns which would be similar to projectile weapons, but propell the charge with electromotive forces vs explosive.

You can also "google" these concepts and read up on the general concepts.

Hope this helps.