It's ok to use lightsabers on a far future setting which has no Jedis whatsoever?

It's ok to use lightsabers on a far future setting which has no Jedis whatsoever?
Also, which other futuristic weapons are cool besides lightsabers, weird versions of lightsabers and laser guns?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=egG7fiE89IU
andromeda.wikia.com/wiki/Force_lance
youtube.com/watch?v=uMAx6Cb6etE
starfrontiers.com/Rules/
orionsarm.com/eg-article/48fddeba8bc05
youtube.com/watch?v=KYUolurihOQ
starfrontiers.com/
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

OP here, what I'm aiming is a Not-to-be-taken-seriously Raypunk setting. But I want to use things that give a good, stereotypical futuristic feeling

Also laser eyes

youtube.com/watch?v=egG7fiE89IU
posting my current inspirations.

Here's the Force Lance.

andromeda.wikia.com/wiki/Force_lance

Of course they are if you're not taking it too seriously. Its laser sword and planet you're going for.

Other cool weapons of the top of my head: Crystal Matrix Cannon, Semiotic Scrambler, ABG-Ray Carbine, Neutron Beam, Gravity Frag Grenade.

Use the beam swords from no more heroes that look like fluorescent tubes

Power weapons in 40k aren't exactly lightsabers, but if you squint a little they're pretty close.

Be mindful of just how dangerous they are.

The reason force users are the onnly ones that use them in Star Wars is because it takes a lot of skill and concentration to maintain proper control over the "blade" as it has no weight and can cut through near everything instantly.

Building it in a different way, such as this or having feats and/or skills related to it's use is a good idea.

I'd allow it as long as you didn't expect it to block bullets/lasers etc.

I'd be inclined to make it a Return of the Jedi lightsaber that just bounces off people though for balance (or difficulty rather) issue.

>Also, which other futuristic weapons are cool besides lightsabers, weird versions of lightsabers and laser guns?

Ever play Star Frontiers?

There are gyrojet weapons, which fire small rocket-propelled projectiles similar to the bolt guns of WH40K; needler weapons that fire a cluster of flechettes that can be used to drug a target; sonic swords... imagine a light saber with a blade made of *sound* - it would be invisible! Try dodging that!

In Paranoia, you need to Stay Alert, Trust No-one, and Keep Your Laser Handy. Also, they had an "ice gun" - just add water!

>it has no weight and can cut through near everything instantly.

The evidence for this is spotty at best because the movies largely contradict it.

In the OT, the lightsabers clearly had a good amount of weight to them. George specifically told Mark Hamill and Bob Anderson (Vader's stunt man) to act like they were wielding very heavy weapons, likening them to Excalibur.

They became much floatier in the PT when George decided to turn the saber duels into martial arts spectacles.

The new movies are going back to weightier weapons. And Finn uses one fairly competently despite having no real skill with the Force.

Space metal shit.

youtube.com/watch?v=uMAx6Cb6etE

Not OP but I've been looking for this for years now. My dad used to have a copy of this and the older D&D editions on his shelf. I could never remember the title when I tried to find it. You're a godsend.

>Not OP but I've been looking for this for years now. My dad used to have a copy of this and the older D&D editions on his shelf. I could never remember the title when I tried to find it.

I used to have physical copies of a lot of the Star Frontiers stuff... Alpha Dawn, Knight Hawks (the hex-and-chit space ship game), and a couple of the modules that go along with Crash on Volturnus. It's a shame TSR evaporated before they could provide second and subsequent volumes of Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space.

Now all I have are digital copies that I got out of some torrents a while back. Don't know that I'll ever play the game again, but the nostalgic feeling I get when I read through the books and look at Jim Holloway's illustrations really takes me back.

There was a d20 sci-fi game I saw floating around a few years ago that, while it wasn't Star Frontiers, had the Yazirians ("monkeys") and Dralasites ("blobs") in it.

>You're a godsend.

Hopefully this thread won't fall off page 11 before I can find that torrent.

A flail with no chain. Just a taser-ball and a ring to anchor it.

Well, *that* didn't take long!

starfrontiers.com/Rules/

^this^

Ignore the tin-hat force users, it's not a mystical weapon, just a magnetically contained plasma reaction.

Can a non-force user block blasters? No, but they can still cut through bulkheads and other ponces who are stupid or disparate enough to use the plasma cutter as a real weapon.

>which other futuristic weapons are cool
-Micromissiles
-Electric batons
-Personal sheilds
-Compact jetpack/jetboots
-Freeze rays
-Genetically locked weapons
-Guns adjustable payloads on the fly (HE/AP/IN)
-knockout gas
-Power armor/Cybernetics
-explosive automated micro drones

s'all good

>-Personal sheilds

In the Forever War, the weapons tech eventually gets so advanced the humans develop a sort of anti-light shield which vaporizes complex biological matter and anything moving faster than a certain velocity. The aliens can't shoot at the humans anymore so they make their own special suits and rush through the shield with medieval weapons.

It's the year 3000 and people are fighting wars with swords, spears, and bows again. Pretty cool stuff for a game.

>Compact jetpack/jetboots

An excellent plan, sir, with just two minor drawbacks:

1). We don't have any rocket-pants, and ...

2). Rocket-pants don't exist outside the fictional serial "Robbie Rocket-Pants."

>In the Forever War, the weapons tech eventually gets so advanced the humans develop a sort of anti-light shield which vaporizes complex biological matter and anything moving faster than a certain velocity. The aliens can't shoot at the humans anymore so they make their own special suits and rush through the shield with medieval weapons.

We don't even know if the Taurans *have* kidneys!

>It's the year 3000 and people are fighting wars with swords, spears, and bows again. Pretty cool stuff for a game.

If you're assigned to operate the Stasis Field, make sure to bring along your sword!

>Also, which other futuristic weapons are cool besides lightsabers, weird versions of lightsabers and laser guns?

- Force blades that materialize just as the cut is done
-Transforming bows that can go from short bows to Dragon Slayer Bows with variable arrows
-Orbiting mechanical turrets that shoot lasers at your enemies and form around you to create a shield
-Hard light armor
-Guns that shoot hard light bullets
-Guns made of hard light
-cybernetic battle steeds with hard light horns and fangs and claws
-vehicle mounted laser weapons mounted onto shield Gundam wing style
-Whip swords
-Rocket hammers
-Sonic weapons
-Fire/Ice/Lightning generators that let you shoot said element out of your hands.

Particle weapons that actually have unique effects instead of being generic pew pew beams.

orionsarm.com/eg-article/48fddeba8bc05

>-Personal sheilds

Shield practice? But Gurney, we had practice this morning! I'm not in the mood.

youtube.com/watch?v=KYUolurihOQ

Man, the thing about nuclear explosions from lasers and shields was stupideist thing ever.

Don't forget mechanical arms to wield multiple beam swords.

>Man, the thing about nuclear explosions from lasers and shields was stupideist thing ever.

I don't know about that. It certainly explains why everybody's not flashing laser beams all over the place.

In the original Star Frontiers, there were two kinds of protection: you could get an albedo suit or field that would protect you against laser damage, or a skeinsuit/inertia field that would protect you against physical damage. In fact, it was common for players to wear an albedo suit and an inertia field to get at least a little protection from both.

Once Zebulon's Guide came out and introduced things like maser weapons, the rock-paper-scissors aspect of attack and defense turned into rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock, and it became very difficult to defend yourself properly.

Balance is good and al, but those huge ships standing on the ground with their shields up and all it takes is one madman with a gun to destroy everything(and he might even survive it), that's just bullshit.

Yes.

>-Whip swords

Ooh! Monofilament whips! If they're attached to the back of your helmet so you can whip them around stylishly and slice your opponent to ribbons, so much the better!

I work with an Indian guy named Sundar. Every time I see him or someone even mentions him, my brain automatically adds "the Barbarian" to it.

OK, *here's* the Thundarr (and Kamandi and Planet of the Apes) picture I was looking for...

Are you seriously asking if you can use something from one setting in another? Of course.

The only limitations are making it fit well enough that others would be interested.
It's not like lightsabers are completely unique either; they're just one version of the plasma/laser/whatever-sword idea which is really just about adding a sci-fi flare and semi-believable functionality to traditional swords.

They might actually be able to block blasters to some degree by watching where the enemy is shooting, although it would be much smarter to just try to dodge out of the way.

If anything I'd think a "freeze ray" would be more objectionable on grounds of realism.

But freeze rays are real, though.

The science behind them sounds like a bad star trek episode, but it apparently works. Basically, you use lasers to punch the most active particles out of an area, causing that area to rapidly cool (by pushing the heat somewhere else). In lab conditions they have managed to cool a small sample by anywhere from 36 degrees in less than a second, to up to 200 degrees over extended exposure (there are diminishing returns on the freeze ray. It becomes harder and harder to cool things after the first blast).

Bonus round: this freezing tech was originally developed by DARPA as part of a much larger project for experiment with forms of weather control! The idea was to rapidly cool a patch of air to create condensation, to create a sort of 'instant rain' device.

Mass Driver, simply the most devastating weapon.

Well jet-whatever is kinda real too.
Like we could probably make it happen but it wouldn't really be useful and would probably just kill the user.
Likewise adapting that freeze-ray to a useful weapon for a game seems unrealistic, but who cares cus it's cool.

My point is basically that it's silly to harp on something like jet-packs/boots/pants amidst all the other silly stuff that goes on in sci-fi, especially since the op made it clear this was for a not-too-serious raypunk setting.

>Are you seriously asking if you can use something from one setting in another? Of course.

not asking for permission, but Lightsabers are cool not just because they're fancy pocket chainsaws, but because the "jedi privilege" shit they evoke. Its a ligthsaber still cool once you take it from the special throne it has on star wars and take it elsewhere, where it might be used by any common mugger? has it the same appeal in the hands of a low rank police enforcer? should lightsabers be sold at a futuristic hardware shop as builder's tools?

You can put revolvers on a victorian england setting but you don't get the feeling they have on the american west

See Also there's no reason you can't carry over or make your own version of some cultural/religious significance about a particular weapon.
Want laser swords or axes or whatever to be the sacred warrior weapon? Go crazy.
Want it to just be a niche weapon for certain circumstances and to provide an excuse for swords in sci-fi? Sure, whatever you want.

>You can put revolvers on a victorian england setting but you don't get the feeling they have on the american west
Yeah because you decided that should be the case for your personal fictional world and opinions.
There's no reason you CAN'T include some element of old-west gunslingers in a setting vaguely based on victorian england.

Raypunk? Jesus christ, what the fuck.

This is how people define genre now, might as well get used to it or you'll just get booty-bothered a lot.

But Space Opera is literally its own genre already.

Using a melee weapon as your main weapon in a setting with reliable ranged weapons is stupid unless you have some kind of power like high speed or superreflexes

To be fair space opera can cover a decent variety of sub-genres.

I'm not arguing FOR the "everything is just __-punk!" stupidity divorced from the original meaning of cyberpunk, just saying that's how things are now.
You can get all bothered whenever you see it and try to explain the problem but it's a waste of effort against the cultural momentum and you'd be better off just smiling and nodding and talking about the details instead of getting hung up on terms.

All of the Star Frontier stuff can be found at:
starfrontiers.com/
Even the CYOA books from the 80's.

Not exactly the first thing I was thinking of but perfectly within the realms of awesome.

>stone age is now stonepunk
>medieval is now darkpunk

Not the other guy, but that's only how "things are" if you allow it to be so. Punk as a suffix only applies to settings in which related ideologies are the basis. It isn't just "oh that has xyz tech, so it's xyzpunk".

Wouldn't medieval be Steel punk? Or something

>Using a melee weapon as your main weapon in a setting with reliable ranged weapons is stupid unless you have some kind of power like high speed or superreflexes

... or forcefields/suits/defenses that reduce those otherwise reliable weapons to peashooters. For example, in Star Frontiers, if you knew you were going to be facing enemies that relied on laser weapons, your ladz could kit themselves out with albedo suits and fields. Any successful laser hit would automatically have its damage reduced by 75%! Then, the "slow blade" really would penetrate the shield!

Some of it you can chalk up to the mechanics, some of which don't always translate well to real-world physics and biology. A laser weapon does 1d10 damage per SEU (Standard Energy Unit) expended. Most weapons had a dial that you could set, so a laser pistol could be set to "10", and deal out two 10d10 shots, but then your battery is empty. A more reasonable approach my be to set the pistol to "2" or "3", and rely on mutliple shooters with multiple weapons to take down an opponent because, unlike the real world, one shot is *never* going to do the trick.

I would argue the only reason Lightsabers are as cool as they are is because it is taboo.

That's also why I hate them, they distract from the actual emphasis of the setting. Namely, weapons (any weapon) doesn't make you powerful, only the belief is something greater lets you ascend the material.

The Emperor and Yoda didn't need them, when you understand you wont either.

You could probably justify melee weapons in ships if boarding is a real concern

And I'm saying you can "not allow it to be so" as much as you want but your little tantrums on the ass-end of the internet aren't going to change the trends of wider culture.

I could be down for something like "serf-punk".

Serfpunk

Lightsabers bounce shots back at shooters. "Reliable ranged weapons"?

Because there's only one type of ranged weapon, right?
Sure they can deflect blasters and physical projectiles but explosives, fire, and energy weapons could get through.
You can also just overwhelm them with pure amount/size of shots. Even with NOTmagic speeding your reflexes and guiding where to block, your lightsaber can only occupy and deflect projectiles in so much space at a time.

Although not weapons per say, I always thought the Hotlzman Shields from Dune were cool and unique.

Yes, but come up with a name other than lightsaber.

Well, lightsabers are basically the breadknives out of Foundation, so to answer your question yes it's OK, but, caveat, Foundation is not cool, it's seriously one of the most boring space operas you'll ever encounter, and yes, I've seen all your Dune shit.

You've missed the point. It isn't "wider culture". It's a bunch of spergs on the internet who can't grasp the concept of words. If you'd like to join them, go ahead. The actual majority of people will continue without you and your "idiotpunk" ideas.

If you're going to use them outside of Star Wars, don't call them lightsabers, and don't make them the signature weapon of space paladins.

Maybe go for swashbuckling feel. Starships are valuable, so boarding and capture is usually preferred over blowing them up. Any gun or explosive strong enough to punch through body armor/person shields is also a threat to the ship you're standing in. So space pirates and space marines alike favor energy melee weapons.

>You've missed the point
Back at you.
>It isn't "wider culture". It's a bunch of spergs on the internet who can't grasp the concept of words
It's tons of people on popular sites including this one and plenty of mainstream "nerds" irl that go to cons and shit and get more attention from maintstream media and culture than you.

You're the minority and you getting all booty-bothered and obsessing about "well acccshually the technical definition..." is the more spergy behaviour.

>The actual majority of people will continue without you and your "idiotpunk" ideas.
wew kid, first off calm down and work on your reading comprehension.
I've repeatedly stated that I do not support calling everything "___-punk".
I just realise that the evolution of language and slang is out of the hands of some nerds arguing on the internet no matter how much you stamp your feet and sperg out.

You clearly need to get out and interact with more people because you have a warped view of "majority" that seems based on your personal opinions and isolating yourself from conflicting ones.

Even just steampunk has strayed from the meaning of punk in cyberpunk but it has a huge fandom irl and gets more media attention even if it's just a bunch of former goths that bought some "old-timey" clothes and rolled around in gears.

>They might actually be able to block blasters to some degree by watching where the enemy is shooting, although it would be much smarter to just try to dodge out of the way.
No, that's retarded. That's like trying to block bullets with a steel pipe by looking at they're aiming.

Realistically, nobody would use a laser sword in battle when guns are readily available. But keeping one on your belt for utility is handy since they'll cut thru almost anything.

>bronzepunk

>Back at you.

Playground-level debating.

>It's tons of people on popular sites including this one and plenty of mainstream "nerds" irl that go to cons and shit and get more attention from maintstream media and culture than you.

Except it isn't. Anyone with a brain knows the suffix -punk only applies to settings with a specific ideology. It isn't steampunk to just use steam technology without any of the punk elements. Neither is it "raypunk" just to use lightsabers. No mainstream "nerds" think that, nor do any self-respecting media sources. It's literally just you and your autistic ilk misusing words and then demanding it's valid.

>You're the minority and you getting all booty-bothered and obsessing about "well acccshually the technical definition..." is the more spergy behaviour.

You're really obsessed with this booty stuff, aren't you? Very telling.

>wew kid, first off calm down and work on your reading comprehension.

Projection. Well done.

>I've repeatedly stated that I do not support calling everything "___-punk".

And yet here you are, sperging out over the fact that the majority know how to properly apply such terminology.

>I just realise that the evolution of language and slang is out of the hands of some nerds arguing on the internet no matter how much you stamp your feet and sperg out.

Then you should realise that those nerds trying to make "punk" anything won't work, since the wider community knows otherwise. But more projection.

>You clearly need to get out and interact with more people because you have a warped view of "majority" that seems based on your personal opinions and isolating yourself from conflicting ones.

Sure, I'M the one here that needs to get out. Whatever makes you feel better.

>Even just steampunk has strayed...

Not even slightly. Want to trypunk again?

(not the guy you're arguing with, by the way)

I've had this kind of argument before regarding other terminology that was changed for no reason. Ready examples include meme and emoticons. The definition and use of "meme" was changed once Reddit got their hands on it and emoticons were just changed to "emojis" for no reason whatsoever.

I concluded that the generation responsible, this generation, was upset that they exist in a time where they can contribute nothing meaningful so instead they seek to redefine established terms/concepts so they can feel like they've done something.

You're not going to win against these people. There's more of them than there are of you.

>You could probably justify melee weapons in ships if boarding is a real concern

In Star Frontiers, using PGS (projectile/gyrojet/sprayer) weapons was really frowned upon on board starships. During a combat action, the crew of a military ship is going to be wearing space suits, but anybody else? One stray shot and you could depressurize an entire section!

That doesn't mean nobody *ever* uses them on board - I remember one module where the NPC captain of a beat-up old freighter who hires the PC's actually had a ring-and-post set into the floor of the far end of the ship's main access corridor so he could mount a machine gun on it and keep "undesirables" from boarding his ship - but it's an extra level of danger that more sane types would try to avoid if they could.