Here's a physics question. . .

[Nekira Sudacne]

The laser does it's damage via heat conduction. the forcefeilds energy absorbs 99.9999999999999% of the heat energy, attenuating the energy to that of say, a flashlight going though.

[Qev]

Well, considering that real photons (as opposed to virtual ones) don't generally interact directly with fields (being chargeless), but do couple to charged particles, I'd hazard a guess that a 'force field' is at least partly composed of charged particles; perhaps a thin plasma maintained by magnetic confinement.

Or, it could be some sort of specially-crafted magnetic field that (by some miraculous means) enhances pair production, converting incoming light into electron-positron pairs, which then self-annihilate back into light, scattering the beam.

I dunno, I'm just making stuff up, here.

[Braden Campbell]

Not too sure if this has been asked before or not, but in y'all's opinion, how exactly would a force field stop a laser?

In reality, it couldn't... but that's why we play role-playing games!

Palladium's technological forcefields are complete and utter hand-wavium, a tip of the hat to "the deflector shields" of Golden Age sci-fi. If you have to have an in-game answer, they interfere with photon-wave mechanics, disrupting the coherency of the laser beam when it intersects the field.

Let's hear it for techno-babble.

[glitterboy2098]

Not too sure if this has been asked before or not, but in y'all's opinion, how exactly would a force field stop a laser?

In reality, it couldn't... but that's why we play role-playing games!

Palladium's technological forcefields are complete and utter hand-wavium, a tip of the hat to "the deflector shields" of Golden Age sci-fi. If you have to have an in-game answer, they interfere with photon-wave mechanics, disrupting the coherency of the laser beam when it intersects the field.

Let's hear it for techno-babble.

third row

in short, most scifi tech based FF's use gravity manipulation to deflect/disperse the beam to a harmless level but basically 'shooting' gravity at it.

[Guest]

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[Braden Campbell]

..and you couldn't fire out of it... or even use your radio.

[glitterboy2098]

My apologies, I probably should've stated this was more of a rhetorical or intellectual conversation than a rules question. . .my bad. . .

It's just a question that occurred to me on the drive home, that if a force field were dense enough to block aligned protons, which is basically all a laser is, it would just be really friggin' dark in there. . .

actually a laser is aligned photons, but here's the deal. a FF isn't really solid. it's transitory. so until it picks up something coming towards you, it's not there.

[Rallan]

The handwavium answer is the only one we've got going for it. Force fields aren't even junk science or idle speculation, they're imaginary crap with absolutely no grounding in science whatsoever. They may as well be magic, because that would make about as much sense.

Basically force fields can stop laser beams but let normal light and heat through because that's just the way this Sufficiently Advanced Technology happens to work. Trying to figure out plausible answers with our primitive 21st century scientific knowledge is a waste of time.

[leonmallett]

Well, considering that real photons (as opposed to virtual ones) don't generally interact directly with fields (being chargeless), but do couple to charged particles, I'd hazard a guess that a 'force field' is at least partly composed of charged particles; perhaps a thin plasma maintained by magnetic confinement.

Or, it could be some sort of specially-crafted magnetic field that (by some miraculous means) enhances pair production, converting incoming light into electron-positron pairs, which then self-annihilate back into light, scattering the beam.

I dunno, I'm just making stuff up, here.

The quantum physics/mechanics dabbler in me asks if we are measuring the laser as a wave or as particles....

[Nemo235]

It's closer than you might think.
Today's science fiction is tomorrows fact.

[url=http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/cold_plasma_000724.html]Force Fields and 'Plasma' Shields Get Closer to Reality
[/url]U.S. Military Uses the Force
'Trophy' Force Field(video clip from Fox News)

[Qev]

Well, the military 'force field' is really just a point-defense shrapnel gun, so I dunno if it really counts.

What surprises me is the 'plasma window' technology that's been developed, that can actually use a flat sheet of plasma to separate vacuum from air at standard pressure and temperature. Shades of the docking bay force fields from Star Trek.

[Nemo235]

This is what it says in that particular article:
"The electrical armor system, powered by the vehicle's regular supply of electricity, stops the jets by zapping them with tens of thousands of amps of current."

After doing some more searching, your right. It's not really a field as much as a system the fires solid objects at an incoming missile.
But I didn't know that at the time.

So where did the other statement come from?
Was it a a mistake, a flat out lie, or and accidental leak about another technology?

[bigbobsr6000]

PC: "How does this work?"

GM: "The shield is electro-magnetically intuned with the energy applied against the free floating electrons and ions held in a containment field constantly being feed limitless frequencies to adjust to the energy variations that made be applied to overcome the shields defense capabilities. This in turns causes an influx in the shield's.....ability.....to...??"

PC's: "ZZZZzzzzzzz........"

GM: "WAKE UP!"

PC: "What .....who...huh? Oh, how was that again?"

GM: "Because I said so!! That's how it works! Now, roll for initiatives."

Thus endth the lesson.

Big Bob.................................

[cornholioprime]

The handwavium answer is the only one we've got going for it. Force fields aren't even junk science or idle speculation, they're imaginary crap with absolutely no grounding in science whatsoever. They may as well be magic, because that would make about as much sense.

Basically force fields can stop laser beams but let normal light and heat through because that's just the way this Sufficiently Advanced Technology happens to work. Trying to figure out plausible answers with our primitive 21st century scientific knowledge is a waste of time.

:ok:

ANY "Real Life" field capable of stopping Energy Beams like Lasers should render the protected individual COMPLETELY blind and unable to communicate electronically; conversely, since Lasers are merely high-powered, "concentrated" light beams, any Field Effect that allows the user to see out must logically let a laser beam in.

Hooray for handwavium!!