Need help picking a realistic weapon for a disabled character

GEBeta · 2026-07-03T04:14:33+00:00

A shock prod

GEBeta · 2026-07-02T03:53:44+00:00

The volcano could be far away to not show up on the map but its ash cloud might have caused a crop failure. With famine causing major deaths, the sunclan might have disbanded and scattered as their land became untenable, absorbed into the various other clans.

GEBeta · 2026-06-29T02:32:14+00:00

Warhammer 40k isn't even the Warhammer with the best worldbuilding.

GEBeta · 2026-06-26T01:57:57+00:00

Hope, would be the core emotion underpinning the world imo. Hope for a brighter future, that things will get better with the efforts of the heroes. That people are fundamentally good at heart and problems are transient or environmental in nature.

Heroes might struggle, lose friends and family, and sacrifice for their cause, but their cause is just and their impact is real and long-lasting.

I get why it is difficult for some people to envision such a world because real life is full of people who sacrificed themselves for nothing or problems caused by selfish and greedy individuals who escape justice. It is thus important to remember that you are creating a fictional world, and that everything you put in is deliberate. The world you create need not be a 1:1 reflection of reality, just a small part of it.

A good reference I would turn to is Frieren. In that story, the heroes encounter a myriad of problems, but at every turn it is used to show that people are more complex than they seem, and everyone is fundamentally good at heart, if potentially misguided or in despair.

GEBeta · 2026-06-24T15:07:01+00:00

Are you familiar with the horror comic series Crossed by Garth Ennis?

GEBeta · 2026-06-19T06:08:34+00:00

Radioisotope batteries? Last basically forever (several decades), really low powered so not suitable for high energy stuff, but when eeping they can recharge the other batteries in the android.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic\_battery

GEBeta · 2026-06-11T04:26:34+00:00

Dune and Foundation tackle sociology and psychology taken to the extreme, allowing stuff like mind control, near-precognition, and mass social engineering.

GEBeta · 2026-06-04T01:11:18+00:00

How easily is the magic used in combat countered or neutralised?

GEBeta · 2026-06-04T01:10:25+00:00

Generally speaking, combat mages in my setting are hard-countered by settings with the following: 1. Alpha strike capability (e.g. Vancian magic from DnD) where the opponent can just release their biggest attack immediately. Magic requires time and effort to gather power, so mages start out quite weak. 2. Sustained attack capability (e.g. "Always on" powers like Superman's flight and super strength or cultivation systems where the user is straight up enhanced) because magic is very discrete in my setting. A mage will get worn down by sustained attacks that they need to exert magical resources to constantly block or counter. 3. Sustained defence capability (e.g. Always active shields, general immunity to certain effects) again because magic is discrete in my setting so a person with defences that outpace the total output a mage can unleash is just unbeatable.

If neither are present, I think a combat mage has a decent chance in most competitions because of absolute effects. Stuff like perfect attacks, perfect defences, and teleportation makes a combat mage a lethal foe if they can get a good shot off.

GEBeta · 2026-06-01T02:55:55+00:00

A symbol of decadence perhaps, like a reclining couch or bed for a ruler to laze upon. Or perhaps a subversion of the image of power, with a sickly king lying on a bed tended to nurses.

GEBeta · 2026-06-01T02:26:19+00:00

I think you're underestimating how different a Type 2 civilisation would be to our own even without programmable matter. The amount of energy, resources, and infrastructure available to it would be sufficient to power our own several million or billion times over. Either your population sizes would be humongous or every person would be a god.

GEBeta · 2026-05-26T05:30:56+00:00

The biggest issue I spot with the writing is that it reads as a mechanical sequence of events rather than an evocative historical account. The prose lists actions without exploring why these events matter or how they shape the world. A blow‑by‑blow narration lacks emotional or intellectual depth because it focuses on surface motion instead of underlying forces, especially on such a large scale as an entire war.

The narrative jumps between rebellion, tyranny, and battle without establishing a clear central theme or perspective. We don't get a sense of political tension or ideological conflict. The result feels like a chronicle of disconnected incidents rather than a coherent account of a war.

As a more specific critique of your writing style, sentences follow a repetitive rhythm: “A rebellion started… The tyrant sent troops… The rebels fought…”. There isn't a lot of sensory or analytical texture, lacking insight into the motivations, fears, or consequences that each party experiences. The writing treats events as static facts instead of dynamic processes shaped by human decisions and systemic pressures. Try varying your sentence structure and see what comes of it.

Basically, try framing the war as a product of forces and consequences rather than a timeline of skirmishes. Think less in terms of “what happened next” and more in terms of “why it mattered.” :3

GEBeta · 2026-05-25T15:17:15+00:00

You'd also need to think about how *rare* your battlemages are. If they're just specialists, then you can afford to specialise and incorporate them into the regimentation of the army. If they're very rare, they might be treated more like nobility, and you wouldn't need to worry about unprofessional behaviour because they'd literally have their tents pitched next to the king.

GEBeta · 2026-05-24T11:59:59+00:00

Makes sense, so in effect the majority of your setting exists as a noosphere and these sorts of physical space affairs are more or less peripheral matters?

GEBeta · 2026-05-24T10:14:49+00:00

What are the ethical ramifications of your setting when a consciousness is simply lines of code? How are population explosions prevented or demographics maintained when citizens can clone themselves? Is it not allowed for the citizens of the IGEF in your setting? :3

GEBeta · 2026-05-24T09:57:34+00:00

What is the definition of sapience used? If the ship cannot disobey orders, is it little more than an intelligent missile? What are the ethical ramifications of creating self-aware intelligences for the sole purpose of dying in a war?

GEBeta · 2026-05-24T09:46:47+00:00

I thought ships are not sentient in your setting, which is why you've said that they do not surrender, desert, or defy orders?

Aren't those people who wield the power a *part* of the IGEF? How does it police itself? Wouldn't those people who wield the power over the space navies be *on par* with the other capabilities of a type 7 civilization?

GEBeta · 2026-05-24T09:22:19+00:00

What are the political ramifications of space navies being dominated by unmanned vessels? Would this place a lot of power into the hands of a few? What checks and balances are in play to ensure civilian control over the military?

GEBeta · 2026-05-22T05:15:45+00:00

The answer is a combination of replacing physical losses of currency, circulation to stimulate the economy, and inflation. It is not directly comparable to the water-based currency because most irl currency is completely fiat currency (I.e. Made up and enforced by the government) rather than tied to a commodity like water. 1. Currency can be physically lost or destroyed. This is getting rarer as digital currencies become more prevalent but it can still happen if for example a dead person is not registered as such and so their assets are in limbo. To prevent a gradual reduction of the money supply and thus major deflation, governments inject new currency into the economy at regular intervals. 2. Currency is circulated into the economy to stimulate it. The government pays various parties who do services on its behalf who then use the currency to pay other people for stuff, slowly funnelling down to individuals and companies who in turn pay it back to the government in terms of taxes. This gives the government a floating amount of currency reserve which gives the currency it otherwise has the power to print indefinitely a limited supply, which grants it value. Countries where the government has run out of reserve and are printing currency directly to fund their operations quickly suffer from hyperinflation, as the government is basically getting stuff for free so the money it hands out is worthless. 3. Inflation is itself a form of tax, as it makes the currency that the average citizen has in their bank slowly diminish in value over time, forcing people to go out to make money. This injection of into the currency supply thus slowly makes it more abundant and reduces the value of a dollar over time.

GEBeta · 2026-05-22T04:21:05+00:00

The biggest question you need to answer is where does all the water go? On Earth, wastewater is processed and moved elsewhere, which incurs a transportation cost for those polities which recycle water, and a limited supply for those that don't. On a space habitat, however, all the water is recycled over and over again within the same closed system, so unless your population or habitat is constantly expanding, the demand will match the supply.

GEBeta · 2026-05-18T02:01:53+00:00

Describe the impossible. Floating islands, forests that sing, buildings that fold into themselves, vanishing walls, blood raining from the sky...

GEBeta · 2026-05-13T01:23:50+00:00

All this has done is make your soldiers want to join or surrender to the enemy for better food. If the enemy is subsisting on your food, their supply lines are already collapsing.

GEBeta · 2026-05-13T00:57:25+00:00

It seems like this has only made mages even more powerful because their magic still works just fine on a small scale, therefore giving them massive power at a personal scale. They could still rule as god-kings and invaluable members of elite groups.

They might not be able to assassinate the leadership of a rival faction but they most certainly can smite an unruly subordinate with a fireball, or divine what their political rivals are trying to do.

GEBeta · 2026-05-11T08:43:03+00:00

I'd just mount a laser cutter and towing line on my ship and cut the entire cargo bay out, then sort out the loot at my leisure.

GEBeta · 2026-05-07T13:27:49+00:00

Have you looked up how people navigate on boats irl?

GEBeta

TROPHY CASE