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[Corsair]

You seem to have missed my point in all of this emp. The plasma gun is just a metaphor for a technology weapon non dependent on magic. My point is the fact that as long as you are in a world where the fundamental laws of chemistry and physics still apply (which lets face it is going to be most if not all) then having a rifle or something is still better than magic, because it will work regardless and you can just carry a spare clip. The point is not about soft or hard scifi I am simply saying that if magic is ruled to either not work or be incompatible so that a magic sword from a different world simply doesn't work in certain world while a gun does and can be reloaded easily heavily nerfs magic. So to counter this magic should be able to be stored with like amulets or something so that you can have a resource that allows mages to explore.

[WillowLuman]

We've already discussed this. Mages running on some source of mana/other stored energy would have a supply (stored either in their body/soul or in items already) when going into a place with different/no magic, which they might recharge either natively or through returning home. Functionally identical to carrying space clips/batteries already.

[King Kravoka]

We've already discussed this. Mages running on some source of mana/other stored energy would have a supply (stored either in their body/soul or in items already) when going into a place with different/no magic, which they might recharge either natively or through returning home. Functionally identical to carrying space clips/batteries already.

Assuming the magic doesn't just straight up go grey goo on the place.

[AoshimaMichio]

My input for discussion about viability of plasma rifles in different Universes is this shameless quote:

In a game in which stone gargoyles can fly and people can cast magic spells, modern rules of physics and chemistry simply don’t apply. There aren’t 92 natural elements, lightning is not caused by an imbalance of electrical potential, and stars are not gigantic gaseous bodies undergoing nuclear fusion. Cute stunts involving clever use of the laws of thermodynamics simply won’t work. Note that cute stunts involving the gross effects thereof very likely will work. Roll a stone down a mountain, and you could cause an avalanche. But in a world with teleportation, levitation, and fireball spells, Newton’s three laws of motion do not apply, and energy and momentum are not conserved. Accordingly, modern scientific meta-knowledge will do you more harm than good. On the other hand, knowledge of Aristotle, Ptolemy, medieval alchemy, or medieval and classical legends might be useful occasionally.

This is a fairly good point, I think. While magic works in Universe A and plasma rifle in Universe B, the opposite is not necessarily true. It may work, it may not. Better leave it to GMs of respective Universes.

[LuckyKobold]

I think this is a pretty awesome idea.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

We could have it be that all weapons/magic works everywhere, but there is a downside to using magic and energy-based weapons outside of their own universe.  ie. Magic doesn't recharge outside of its home universe, and energy/plasma weapons don't work as efficiently, requiring a greater amount of energy needed in order to deal the same level of damage.  Could be explained as each universe having a different energy signature that causes items which run off of principles from another universe to not work ass effectively, but still work.  Barrier could be applied partially to the items as well,s o that they work for a time, but as time goes on, they become less effective until going kaput.  Granted, this would make ballistic weapons the best, unless we make it so that they are barely affected, but are weaker than magic or plasma tech within their native universes/having recently been in their native universes.

[~Neri]

For weapons, energy weapons should suffer the same Dinensional Adaptation people do (although people are adaptable, weapons are not.). So they work fine at first. But the longer they're there the worse they get.

[WillowLuman]

Though, except for extremely soft sci-fi ones, most DEWs run on physics, so unless those are markedly different the only logistical problem is finding energy sources with the right power density to sustain them. I.E. just try getting 15MJ AND get it in the form of useable electrical current in a medieval world.

[~Neri]

Soft scifi falls apart and uses lots of energy, hard scifi uses lots of energy.

That work?

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Though, except for extremely soft sci-fi ones, most DEWs run on physics, so unless those are markedly different the only logistical problem is finding energy sources with the right power density to sustain them. I.E. just try getting 15MJ AND get it in the form of useable electrical current in a medieval world.

Acceptable breaks from Reality comes into play.  If we left it at 'hard sci-fi' tech works everywhere, there's nothing stopping an advanced civilization conquering reality by just providing enough batteries to their soldiers/power to their capital ships/etc.

[~Neri]

Although getting a ship through a tiny portal would be an issue.

[WillowLuman]

Though, except for extremely soft sci-fi ones, most DEWs run on physics, so unless those are markedly different the only logistical problem is finding energy sources with the right power density to sustain them. I.E. just try getting 15MJ AND get it in the form of useable electrical current in a medieval world.

Acceptable breaks from Reality comes into play.  If we left it at 'hard sci-fi' tech works everywhere, there's nothing stopping an advanced civilization conquering reality by just providing enough batteries to their soldiers/power to their capital ships/etc.

Except for other advanced civilizations, or powerful beings, lack of knowledge of portals, portals from their world not being large enough to send armies through (except in single file) etc. We don't need to balance every world so it has equal or near-equal power: advanced worlds trying to exploit less powerful ones makes for good natural conflict. A civilization with lots and lots of magic could conceivably outfit their mage-soldiers with enough amulets/potions/crystals/what-have-you to perform similar conquests against other worlds.

[Avis-Mergulus]

Though, except for extremely soft sci-fi ones, most DEWs run on physics, so unless those are markedly different the only logistical problem is finding energy sources with the right power density to sustain them. I.E. just try getting 15MJ AND get it in the form of useable electrical current in a medieval world.

Acceptable breaks from Reality comes into play.  If we left it at 'hard sci-fi' tech works everywhere, there's nothing stopping an
advanced civilization conquering reality by just providing enough batteries to their soldiers/power to their capital ships/etc.

Er, no. Because they would be facing mages/soft-sci-fi people on their own soil, where their tricks also work perfectly. Fakeedit: Also what Hugo said.

This whole "tech shouldn't work for balance reasons" thing is also bothering me because in my planned setting, there's a city-state that makes a significant part of its revenue on exploiting a portal to a sci-fi-ish world to buy railguns/shields/whatever in exchange for enchanted items (which, by general consensus, should function, if I haven't missed anything). It's a plot point of sorts.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

Except for other advanced civilizations, or powerful beings, lack of knowledge of portals, portals from their world not being large enough to send armies through (except in single file) etc. We don't need to balance every world so it has equal or near-equal power: advanced worlds trying to exploit less powerful ones makes for good natural conflict. A civilization with lots and lots of magic could conceivably outfit their mage-soldiers with enough amulets/potions/crystals/what-have-you to perform similar conquests against other worlds.

Self Replicating Nanobots/Flood-like Organism with indoctrinated loyalty, steal intel or buy it from one of the worlds that offers it as a collegic textbook, again, nanobot swarm.  There's also outfitting a cyborg with Braniac levels of power, intelligence, etc, and telling it to subjugate every universe it can that isn't theirs, with support constantly being sent in.  Or build a variety of Cybermen that can infect everything but the home universe creators.

Although getting a ship through a tiny portal would be an issue.

Through enough singularity AIs at the problem, they'll come up with a way to make their own portals.  Or just take a number of nanites out to a planet's moon and have them turn it into an automated ship yard.

[WillowLuman]

Anything technologically feasible can be countered with technology, and said singularity cyber-monsters will have to contend with gods/ubermages/other singularity cyber monsters at some point.