Magicalÿ Rifle

[Corvus 501]

If you where a magical invemtor trying to create the next crossbow or battle staff, how would you make a firearm equivalent? Becides the obvious answers like gunpowder, how would you make an inventory scale projectile weapon?

[Sea Skimmer]

Electromagnetic gun design lends itself to the general concept. You could also have a gas piston weapon, with the magic adding and removing heat from the gas to cycle the action and propel the bullets. Some silenced gunpowder ammunition already works on the sealed piston cartridge concept, so no question this would work.

[Corvus 501]

edit, ment infantry

[Corvus 501]

Electromagnetic gun design lends itself to the general concept. You could also have a gas piston weapon, with the magic adding and removing heat from the gas to cycle the action and propel the bullets. Some silenced gunpowder ammunition already works on the sealed piston cartridge concept, so no question this would work.

I agree. Linear accelerators generaly work well, whatever they are, summoning spells, gravaty generators, or electromagnets.

[Elheru Aran]

Frankly there's not a whole lot of ways to make a gun work. You have either an explosive behind the projectile (ordinary gunpowder), an alternative propulsing force behind the projectile (air-guns and such), a linear accelerator (railguns), or the projectile is self-propelled (Gyrojet, recoilless rifles). Pick one and add magic.

[Corvus 501]

Teleport rifle. Point at a target, and it teleports a caltrop into the first solid object in front of it. Ice rifle, conjures or produces ultra hard ice that it accelerates down the barrel. Both are simple ideas. There are many ways to weaponize magic, I'm asking about new ideas.

[TheFeniX]

The question becomes "Why do you need rifles?" Longer barrels mean more acceleration, longer range, more "damage." They also make accuracy better since you have three points of contact and more distance between you fore and aft sight. Does this apply to magical effects?

For a D&D style example: Magic Missile does not miss and while the damage is "minimal" in a campaign setting, it's more than enough to kill most normal people. If you can find a way to mass-produce rifles with magic parts, I don't see why you can't mass-produce Wands of Magic Missile with X charges to be throw away weapons. Artillery could be almost replaced by wands of Minute Meteors. Soldiers could lob fireballs from airplanes equipped with WWII style bomber optics.

Really depends on the setting. In Shadowrun the most powerful magical devices are worthless to mundanes. You could anchor spells to bullets/arrows, but someone has to be there to activate them at the time of use. So, there's never going to be magical, infinite ammo, rifles. Even Weapon Focuses (enchanted melee weapons that do insane damage but also increase the users skill with said weapon) can only be used by the magically active.

If I just had to make a rifle.... Take a rifle, make the trigger pull "cast" a telekinesis spell on the slug in the barrel. When the barrel is empty, pull another slug from a pocket dimension spell. Basically, I'd just rip off Rifts Techno Wizardry. Other option is a standard rifle with enchanted mags that pull ammo from a pocket dimension so the rifles can actually be unloaded. Possibly combine with accuracy increasing magic. Like Magic Missile, the slug "knows" you want to hit the target, and it does.

But you could do all kinds of other crazy shit such as Rifle of "Hold Person." Why kill all these people when you can just paralyze them? If the spell is resisted the first time, you can just keep pulling the trigger. Really, the only thing that keeps Magic in check in most settings is how incredibly rare it is. Once you remove the rarity, the possibilities get crazy.

[Ted C]

Telekinesis is a standard magical effect. Create an artifact that telekinetically throws small objects at deadly speed in the direction you aim. Standardize the small objects for consistent results.

[Simon_Jester]

However, this still raises the question, "why a rifle?" There must be a reason why the rifle cannot be, say, an amulet of "you curse this guy and they fall over dead."

[Ted C]

If you just want something functionally equivalent, it could zap the target with lightning, conjure a hot coal into their head, or any number of other nasty effects. The only critical parts are that any soldier should be able to use it with basic training, and it can be used repeatedly.

[TheFeniX]

Rifles exist because we need to accelerate an explosive projectile enough to go X distance and deliver Y amount of energy to a target. They need to be accurate with training to hit said target and the ergonomics of them reflect that.

I love guns and can shoot a variety of them with above average accuracy. But if you gave me the choice between a rifle, a magic rifle that fired projectiles with a point and click, never missed, and ignored armor, or a wand that did the same thing with a point and thought.... yea, I'd be the next Harry Potter. The wand weighs less, is easier to conceal, and faster to get on target (D&D wands still require you to point at the target, just not really AIM at them). Also, there's no reason you can't enchant rings or other objects to do the same thing.

In the event you still had to aim, a rifle-like design with some kind of (possibly magical) optics would be better than bothering with an actual solid-wood/steel frame. Something made out of balsa or lightweight metal such as aluminum or titanium (which I assume magic would make easier to get from bauxite or get the temperatures high enough to work with, respectively) and just have it enchanted. No actual barrel required. More like a pop-gun with a stock that shoots death.

[Purple]

Honestly, I'd go super fancy on it. Basically, I'd make something that looks like a modern handgun, simply because that shape is about as optimal as you can get for something you are meant to point at people. Also, for the psychological effect of having a recognizable shape. The trigger mechanism is a mechanical system, with a spring just like in a regular handgun for optimal tactile feel if nothing else. And when you press it the weapon discharges what ever spells you have loaded. And that's the clever bit. Rather than loading it with one spell like you guys want I'd make the spells them self in the form of magazine shaped enchanted items. So you can buy the gun once, and than just swap ammo at will. I'd even have a revolver style design with 8 chambers for 8 different spells with a manual rapid selection for the more up scale customers. The spells of course would be sold separately.

Note: I am assuming that anyone can pick this thing up and use it with maybe minimal training and that no talent or inherent magical affinity is required.

[TheFeniX]

Honestly, I'd go super fancy on it. Basically, I'd make something that looks like a modern handgun, simply because that shape is about as optimal as you can get for something you are meant to point at people.

Pointing: yes. Aiming: not so much. The third point of contact (your shoulder) is a huge accuracy increase due to the ability to line up the sites with your body and the inherent stability. If accuracy isn't an issue, then the pistol would work fine, except you could then easily make the weapon a wrist watch, ring, or harmonica.

Also, for the psychological effect of having a recognizable shape.

I don't know if the OP specifies the time period. Talking about battle staffs and crossbows makes me think this is more a medieval/classic LOTR/DND/whatever world where there are no guns.

The trigger mechanism is a mechanical system, with a spring just like in a regular handgun for optimal tactile feel if nothing else. And when you press it the weapon discharges what ever spells you have loaded. And that's the clever bit. Rather than loading it with one spell like you guys want I'd make the spells them self in the form of magazine shaped enchanted items. So you can buy the gun once, and than just swap ammo at will. I'd even have a revolver style design with 8 chambers for 8 different spells with a manual rapid selection for the more up scale customers. The spells of course would be sold separately.

If telepathy is part of your magical system, just have it read your thoughts: "Load fireball spell, shoot, shoot, shoot. Load stun spell." Or for safety sake, make loading mental commands, but shooting either verbal, pressing some sort of button (like a rune, fiction writers loves runes) or a combination of the two. Creating "charged" ammo-pack you could just touch the "gun" with to refill all your fancy magic would be a plus.

[Purple]

Pointing: yes. Aiming: not so much. The third point of contact (your shoulder) is a huge accuracy increase due to the ability to line up the sites with your body and the inherent stability. If accuracy isn't an issue, then the pistol would work fine, except you could then easily make the weapon a wrist watch, ring, or harmonica.

I figure that accuracy won't be an issue since there is no recoil and the spells should be smart enough to recognize who you are pointing at.

I don't know if the OP specifies the time period. Talking about battle staffs and crossbows makes me think this is more a medieval/classic LOTR/DND/whatever world where there are no guns.

The details of the shape do not matter for the psy effect as long as it's the same shape every time and the shape is unique enough to be remembered. All I need is to make a distinct look for my death sticks and make sure they all look that way.

If telepathy is part of your magical system, just have it read your thoughts: "Load fireball spell, shoot, shoot, shoot. Load stun spell." Or for safety sake, make loading mental commands, but shooting either verbal, pressing some sort of button (like a rune, fiction writers loves runes) or a combination of the two. Creating "charged" ammo-pack you could just touch the "gun" with to refill all your fancy magic would be a plus.

Basically I want the spell "cartridges" to be physical objects you have to manually swap out and keep inside the weapon both for safety sake and for the sake of ensuring sales. If it's just a contact or thought thing than you can't really know what you have loaded. And you can swap and share spells with your friends as opposed to each of them having to buy a copy of each spell they want from yours truly.

My sales model would be based on handing the guns out cheaply, even at a loss if need be and than monetizing on the wide selection of potential cartridges.

[Elheru Aran]

I should elaborate on my post; by 'rifle' I mean a firearm where the round physically passes through a longish barrel with rifling. Teleporting rounds somewhat defeats the thing, as there's nothing to stop you from simply teleporting rounds from, say, your hand. Unless there's weird mechanics in effect such as you can only teleport objects that are moving above a certain speed threshold or whatever... in which case you may not necessarily need a magical firearm, just magic bullets. And I wouldn't consider teleporting bullets as a form of 'projectile' per se, as it vanishes and then re-appears in another place rather than physically traversing the distance. Teleportation is a method of travel/transit if you want to get really technical about it; the rest is whatever criteria you apply to the projectile.

To illustrate, take the Stargate system. Often enough there have been weapons tossed through the Stargate, like that episode where they fired a rocket through it to take out a Goa'uld. The gate wasn't the weapon itself, merely the means of moving it from points A to B.

I dunno. Maybe I'm just being narrow minded and cranky... I should've gotten home earlier last night.

[biostem]

If we're talking about magical items here, then there are a few possible routes I'd go. If I could simply create whatever I wanted, then I might do something like a dagger or ring, which you need only point at a target and will it to fire some effect - perhaps something like an incredibly focused column of air that simply punches through targets - something powerful enough to punch through plate armor, at least. A ring would probably be best, as it would be small and easy to alter in appearance. I'd probably make a simple iron version of rank and file troops, which only had a finite number of shots, so if any got into enemy hands, they'd eventually get used up.

[SpottedKitty]

Reading the above, I can't stop myself thinking about the toon gun and bullets Eddie Valiant used in the Roger Rabbit movie, if that sort of effect can be replicated with sufficiently demented magic...

[SAMAS]

However, this still raises the question, "why a rifle?" There must be a reason why the rifle cannot be, say, an amulet of "you curse this guy and they fall over dead."

Because he's known to carry an amulet of "Fuck Yo' Curse", or is a species naturally resistant/immune to magic, or has a really high Will Save, or...

[Vendetta]

If you were trying to make a magic gun in a setting which didn't already have guns then you might be doing it because protection from direct magical effects is easy but protection from indirect effects is harder. If it's easy to stop a Magic Missile but hard to stop a crossbow bolt, then making a better crossbow (or a gun) is a more cost effective use of magic.

If the setting already contains guns and magic is new you might be making a rifle that shoots magic because you are intending it to be used by people who are already familiar and trained with rifles and you are just adapting your principle to a form factor with less retraining demand.

[Corvus 501]

Enchant the ammunution with the local version of avada kedavra, stupefy, reducto (disintegrate) or hundreds of other spells. Design the rifle itself to have a second ammo storage/production system to produce mundane ammo, giving unlimited, or nearly unlimited standard ammo.