Rayguns & Rockets, Detailing Retrofuture Equipment

[Anderlith]

So I'm trying to make a retrofuture campaign setting. Its going well so far, but I'm having trouble making a comprehensive list of pulpy SciFi weapons armor & equipment. I have bubble headed spacesuits, rayguns, & disintegration beams.

I'm throwing in a handful of laser pistols/rifles but other than that I'm stumped. I'm having trouble thinking of good names/descriptors for them as well. What do you suggest?

[Vitruviansquid]

You need laser swords. Bad.

[Fri]

check list of dnd equipment, pick what you like, and put either laser, ray, telescopic, electric, or atomic there.

Atomic 10 feet pole? awesome.

(or just check what equipment you think you'd like to have, and put some retrofuture twist there. Example, instead of cure wound potion, make it Dr. Vermouth Cure-all Radium Tonic. If you like handy haversack and want it in your game, make a similar item named Venusian Aetherspace Traveling-Trunk. )

[ImNotTrevor]

Jetpacks, fusion batteries, hoverdollies, powergloves, knock-out gas, hypnosis rays, freeze rays, stun beams, forcefield projectors, battle computer (feeds them data for a combat bonus)

Watch some Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and write down some of the silly gizmos that come up in those awful B-movies, then make them actually neat. Watch Flash Gordon, Space Ghost, and other similar shows. They're full of this stuff.

[Anderlith]

One thing Im definitely adding is Robo-Domo a device that sprouts dozens of noodle arms & white gloved hands to basically be your butler

[Beleriphon]

How Retro-future are we talking? Like Victorian retro-future, or Fallout retro-future. Because if its Fallout just take the name from anything in the games, swap proper nouns and you're good to go.

[Anderlith]

1930ish close to how fallout is

[Beleriphon]

1930ish close to how fallout is

Okay, so you're more likely to end up with things that are chemical in nature, rather than Van Hooten's Amazing Elctro Hat you'd probably end up with an Reverse Magneto-field Deaccelerator.

[LooseCannoneer]

1930ish close to how fallout is

Seconding the chemical focus, especially some *ahem* particular chemicals. Cocaine was taken on voyages to Antartica to keep people moving. Let your players buy Uncle John's Pep Pills.

[comk59]

This is actually sounding more bioshocky than fallout...

Is bioshocky a word? Well, it is now.

[Koo Rehtorb]

Blatantly stealing from Stars Without Number...

Field Emitter Panoply
Deflector Array
Kinesis Wraps
Monoblade
Mag Pistol/Rifle
Spike Thrower
Thermal Pistol
Plasma Projector
Thunder Gun
Distortion Cannon
Shear Rifle
Mind Blade
Telekenetic Sling
Hydra Array
Wheatcutter Belt
Vortex Cannon
Lazarus Patch
Argus Web

Possibly slightly less pulpy than you were going for, but possibly some material in there anyway.

[comk59]

Heat rays are a must.

And don't forget about the large clunky robits!

[Anderlith]

Well, I'm not really wanting to go a chemical route, more atomic & crazy science.

I'd like to have rayguns as special & iconic to a select few cosmic explorers. Kinda like the Bolters in 40k, or lightsabers in Starwars. So I need a good future weapon for the everyman. I'm thinking lasers will work but lasers seem too close a Raygun (a thermo-nuclear heat ray, or something) Slug throwers would be my next go to but they don't work in space. So maybe the Mag Pistol/Rifle would do?

I'd like to stay way from laser swords but I'm trying to think of a cool pulp feeling melee weapon

[GungHo]

Well, I'm not really wanting to go a chemical route, more atomic & crazy science.

I'd like to have rayguns as special & iconic to a select few cosmic explorers. Kinda like the Bolters in 40k, or lightsabers in Starwars. So I need a good future weapon for the everyman. I'm thinking lasers will work but lasers seem too close a Raygun (a thermo-nuclear heat ray, or something) Slug throwers would be my next go to but they don't work in space. So maybe the Mag Pistol/Rifle would do?

I'd like to stay way from laser swords but I'm trying to think of a cool pulp feeling melee weapon

Tesla batons.

And slug throwers should work just fine in space as long as the chamber/cartridge is sealed (a solid propellant caseless cartridge or even gyrojet rocket is well within 1930/40s imagination) or if you use railguns/coilguns. The majority of your issues with external ballistics are solved unless you're shooting in artificial gravity, in atmosphere, or on a quickly-rotating body. Might as well be a ray gun.

If you want to give the heroes ray guns so that they can have good-guy freeze/stun settings and give the sadistic ballistic weapons like suit-shredding needle/flechette guns to the evil fishcatpigs, that might be a good Saturday matinee-style parable.

[Beleriphon]

Well, I'm not really wanting to go a chemical route, more atomic & crazy science.

I'd like to have rayguns as special & iconic to a select few cosmic explorers. Kinda like the Bolters in 40k, or lightsabers in Starwars. So I need a good future weapon for the everyman. I'm thinking lasers will work but lasers seem too close a Raygun (a thermo-nuclear heat ray, or something) Slug throwers would be my next go to but they don't work in space. So maybe the Mag Pistol/Rifle would do?

I'd like to stay way from laser swords but I'm trying to think of a cool pulp feeling melee weapon

No, not a thermo-nuclear heat ray. A radium beam. It doesn't make sense at all, but it sounds cool so who cares?

An important distinction for the names is whether you're going for a pulp adventure feel, or atomic age feel. Pulp adventure tends to be chemicals and incredible training, while atomic age goes for radiation. Doc Savage is the Man of Bronze because of special training and diet regime. Other heroes are doused in chemicals that give them abilities or use weapons that are chemical based. Post WWII we're into Atomic Age stuff, the farther from 1950 you get the more outerspace and radiation we get. Spider-Man is a classic example, he gets is powers from a radioactive spider. In the 1930s it probably would have been a spider injected with super spider chemicals.

I think going with something like a radio beam gun is a good bet since its fun, it sounds retro-futuristic (it shoots beams of radium!) and because of the name makes it special. A more common weapon might be the electro-gun. Its a gun that doesn't use gunpowder, but instead relies on the power Magnets! to fire solid slugs. Its a coil/railgun but the size of a pistol/rifle at your preference.

[Joe the Rat]

Well, I'm not really wanting to go a chemical route, more atomic & crazy science.

I'd like to have rayguns as special & iconic to a select few cosmic explorers. Kinda like the Bolters in 40k, or lightsabers in Starwars. So I need a good future weapon for the everyman. I'm thinking lasers will work but lasers seem too close a Raygun (a thermo-nuclear heat ray, or something) Slug throwers would be my next go to but they don't work in space. So maybe the Mag Pistol/Rifle would do?

I'd like to stay way from laser swords but I'm trying to think of a cool pulp feeling melee weapon
Mag-guns are perfectly acceptable. I prefer the old "Gauss Pistol/Rifle/Cannon" over railgun.

Some other ideas (because one should always raid the classics)
Radium pistols. They Shoot Radium bullets. When they hit, the sunsolar light makes the Radium explode. Radium.
Electric Rifles. They fire Leydenballs, or little capacitors with spikes, or straight up throw lightning. Whatevs. Ask Tom A Swift.
Arc Voltaic Magnabolters (AVMs) - a combination gauss / plasma weapon. Fires a magnetic slug, which ionizes when accelerated, creating a sheath of burning metal ions. Totally not a bowcaster.
Gyrojet rounds - Bullets with rockets for thrust and stability in flight. Works fine without air. They actually made these.
Masers. Like lasers, only with microwaves. If it's good enough for Godzilla...

Melee weapons:
Exotic materials - Meteoric Iron, Coronally forged fusion steel, scrithwire, Kinesite, Corvarite, depleted radium, flubber.
Powered weapons - GungHo's telsa batons, powerblades (think electric carving knife), blade + electric range = hot knife, taser whip, magnagloves (something something magnets something punch harder).
exotic systems - radium hammer (as radium gun, only in hammer form. Like a weaponized atomic pez dispenser), telluric glaive (bladed aerobee of doom, powered and moved via gauntlet mounted slaved direct energy field, range 3 meters), Faraday's Giant Spiked Hamster Ball of Doom, Rocket Punch.

[Beleriphon]

Some other ideas (because one should always raid the classics)
Radium pistols. They Shoot Radium bullets. When they hit, the sunsolar light makes the Radium explode. Radium.
Electric Rifles. They fire Leydenballs, or little capacitors with spikes, or straight up throw lightning. Whatevs. Ask Tom A Swift.
Arc Voltaic Magnabolters (AVMs) - a combination gauss / plasma weapon. Fires a magnetic slug, which ionizes when accelerated, creating a sheath of burning metal ions. Totally not a bowcaster.
Gyrojet rounds - Bullets with rockets for thrust and stability in flight. Works fine without air. They actually made these.
Masers. Like lasers, only with microwaves. If it's good enough for Godzilla...

Oh, I like the AVMs. Other options are anything from the Hellboy movies. Especially Rasputin's crazy gauntlet thingy.


Melee weapons:
Exotic materials - Meteoric Iron, Coronally forged fusion steel, scrithwire, Kinesite, Corvarite, depleted radium, flubber.
Powered weapons - GungHo's telsa batons, powerblades (think electric carving knife), blade + electric range = hot knife, taser whip, magnagloves (something something magnets something punch harder).
exotic systems - radium hammer (as radium gun, only in hammer form. Like a weaponized atomic pez dispenser), telluric glaive (bladed aerobee of doom, powered and moved via gauntlet mounted slaved direct energy field, range 3 meters), Faraday's Giant Spiked Hamster Ball of Doom, Rocket Punch.

Chain-swords, because who doesn't want a mono-molecular blade that works like a chainsaw.

Gravity Hammer - a hammer that uses something something extra gravity SCIENCE! smashy smashy
Monomolecular whip - a whip that is only one molocule thick!

[SpoonR]

Repeating the suggestion of freeze ray, either chemical or energy science based. Cause freeze.

Anything that uses ether or phlogiston. I would say phl for flame stuff, ether for gravity/teleportation/general weirdness. Maybe a ether portal gun: when fired, the bullet enters the ether, travels through either and gains speed, then exits the ether inside something solid. Effectively teleports through the victims armor then explodes.

Toxin slug. Only hurts Martians or XCom gribblies, not humans. Especially good if bad guy aliens can have a human disguise.

Some sort of disintegration beam. A visual effect like a Star Trek beamup, but disappearing instead of teleporting. Alternatively, anything that makes bad guys scream "Im melting!"

Implosion grenade. Sucks everything within a couple inches into a mini black hole, then the black hole explodes. Works because !science!

Flame cannon. Shoots a lightning bolt, ionizing the air along the way, then the cannon does something that makes all the ions turn into fire. Similar to AVM a couple posts up except the visual is more like a combo force lightning/flamethrower.

Sonic gun. Nonlethal weapon that disables by comboing 'line of really loud noise' with 'worst tinnitus & motion sickness ever'

Bouncy ball that emits hypnosis beams. :smallamused:

Really, as long as you use different colors and slightly different technobabble, you can have all sorts of ray guns with different levels of effectiveness. Good guys get the most powerful, red, beam. Bad guys get a less powerful but invisible beam.

[LooseCannoneer]

Really, as long as you use different colors and slightly different technobabble, you can have all sorts of ray guns with different levels of effectiveness. Good guys get the most powerful, red, beam. Bad guys get a less powerful but invisible beam.

Seconding this, as well as proposing a "Photonic Shield" that only blocks particular colors of lasers. Like RPS, but with piles of ash. Plus, it gives the brainy people things to be brainy at during combat, which is a plus.

[Mutazoia]

If you have the time, read any of E.E. Smith's "Lensman" series (or any of his books for that matter). E.E. Smith is the master of pulp sci-fi, starting with his "Skylark" series in the 1920's. You could say he invented Space Opera.

With pulp sci-fi from the 30's - 50's:

You don't have deflector shields, you have "defensive screens" (often referred to as just "screens")

You don't have lasers, you have "Rays". Ray's can refer to weapons, or surveillance methods called Spy-Rays. (Scanners.)

Communications are accomplished via "Waves" (think "audio-waves"). You'll have general "broad beam" waves, more direct "tight beam waves" and secure "Ultra waves".

Everything is "Atomic" powered. Advanced civilizations may have "Comsic Energy Collectors".
Usually the "Atomic" energy is produced by breaking down, at the atomic level, standard metals. In the 'Skylark" series, they started out using copper, and eventually graduated (after encountering more advanced civilizations) to Uranium. (Plutinium wasn't discovered until 1940, so rarely features in early pulp sci-fi).

Information is either displayed on "view plates" (early concept for TV) or printed on "tape reels" (think ticker-tape).

Artifical gravity is either hand waved or, in the case of more hard sci-fi, achieved by spinning the ship on is central axis, which limits maneuverability...ships have to stop spinning to turn or dog fight.

Spaceships are either cigar shaped or tear-drop shaped (with the engins at the narrow end).

Smith, at least, usually referred to weapons by name, rather than type. So instead of pulling a ray-gun, you would pull your DeLameter. (Much like saying you pull your Glock, rather than your 9mm.) The weapon is usually described once, when it first appears, then you are expected to remember how powerful it is from then on.

You still use "Radios" rather than "communicators". Hand held units are the size of the old walkie-talkies from the '70s

Space Suits have armor, as well as their own "screen" generators.

If the hand held Ray's can't penetrate your opponant's screens, you start swinging your trusty "Space-Axe" (that looks a bit like a firemans axe, with a spike behind the blade, for piercing helmets).

A lot of mathmatics are still done by hand using a slide rule and math tables, as computers were not a thing in the 20s-30s.

And "Space" is also commonly refered to as "The Ether" (used interchangably).

Also, mental powers, such as telepathy (not so much telekenisis) were common in pulp sci-fi, and hypnosis was a threat to watch out for (more than direct mind control, which was the exclusive weapon of advanced evil aliens). The more advanced a civilization was, the less technology they relied on, making more and more use of pure mental forces. For example, the two most advanced civilizations in the "Lensman" series didn't even use space ships to explore the universe, they just used a form of Astral Projection (although that term wasn't coined until decades later).

[Anderlith]

^^^You are amazing. Thank you very much. I've been trying to think of all the things I would need to explain & in what ways & coming up dry. While everyone here has been very helpful your explanations of the way things are called something or thought of on a certain way (reactors using metals, radios instead of comms) those are great bits of advice that give me a great framework. This will help immensely.

[Mutazoia]

Always happy to help!