Lobo wrote:Killer Cyborg wrote:Lobo wrote:Killer Cyborg wrote:Already addressed.
don't see it sorry
Killer Cyborg wrote:RUE 358
Plasma Blasts are, in some ways, worse, consuming the lim cut off the body, liquifying the flesh and bone, and severely burning 25-35% of the rest of the victim's body (third degree burns).
They use the word "burning" then use "burn" to explain the level of burn.
You're really counting that as two uses?
So if Particle beams said, "completely vaporizing- third degree vaporization- the limb..." then it would be a heat weapon?
Yeah I thought I answered that already.
Actually, you did. We just came around to it again.
For me, it shouldn't count as a second mention (though I think the "2 mention" standard you've set is rather arbitrary) because it's addressing the first mention, not the beam itself.
Don't know what third degree vaporization is though lol.
Me either.
What it all comes down to is that yes, the books do mention heat-related terms, or terms that
can be construed as such, in relation to lasers... but they also mention such terms in relation to other weapons.
It shows that the writers didn't put a heck of a lot of analysis into the terms they were using.
Yes, they use the term "liquify," but that doesn't mean that they associated the term with heat.
Yes, they use the term "vaporization," but that likewise doesn't mean that they associated the term with heat.
Yes, they use the term "burn," when describing the secondary damage effect of some of the weapons on SDC beings, but that doesn't mean that they recognize (or care) that the primary effects of lasers in the real world stem from heat.
What it comes down to is that the books NEVER, not ONCE, ever list lasers as a heat weapon in any of the very many situations where it would actually matter.
The most they do is acknowledge heat as a secondary effect in a mostly flavor-text section prefacing some optional rules for SDC beings surviving being hit by MD weapons, and that's not nearly as strong of an indicator as the many instances where lasers have specifically been left out of list of heat damage.
There's plenty of mentions of fire, magic fire, MD fire, and plasma scattered through the books in the various descriptions of heat resistance/immunity, but not one mention of lasers anywhere in there. Not ever.
Which is more likely?
a) The writers intend for lasers to be considered to be heat weapons, but never mentioned them as such anywhere that it would factor directly into gameplay, despite the dozens of opportunities where they list out various forms of heat damage (including very obvious ones like "fire")?
or
b) The writers, for whatever reason, think of lasers as "energy" weapons, but not as heat weapons, despite the fact that they actually are heat weapons in the real world. Maybe it's balance, maybe it's ignorance of science, maybe it's something else, but that's their decision and that's why they
never once list lasers among the weapons that heat/fire resistant/immune beings/objects take reduced damage from?
Can you really, honestly read through the descriptions of those anti-heat powers, where they mention fire, and magic fire, and mega-damage fire, and plasma- but never lasers- and assume that those powers were
intended to provide protection from lasers as well?