Mythology, ancient and modern, is filled with all manner of “magical” weaponry. King Arthur’s Excalibur, for example.
But…are there any magical firearms, guns in fiction, that anyone can recall?
Now, of course, there aren’t going to be any ancient legends about Beowulf’s enchanted flintlock. But surely in modern works—like comics, movies, RPGs, etc.—there’ve been at least a couple, right?
And, if so, what were these weapons, and what was “magical” about them?
In the “Rifts” RPG, there is a class of magic called techno-wizardry that does just that. Guns with “limitless” magazines or that fire lightning? No problem. The standard “TK-gun” just fired little bits of telekinetic power, and was reloaded by channeling some energy into it. Replace your car’s battery with a couple charged crystals and it’ll run forever! A flashlight that actually makes sunlight - useful for vampire encounters.
Unfortunately, the focus went from “tinkerer with some magic powers” to “magician with some mechanical aptitude” and it got pretty goofy (in my opinion).
The game “Serious Sam” has a magic cannon that fires uranium-filled cannonballs. I guess the magic is what lets you carry the damn thing and fire it without being turned to salsa.
The thing with firearms, is that in fiction/fantasy, specially vis-a-vis bows, spears, swords etc., they tend to be viewed as, for lack of a better term, “less noble”.
(How’s that for abuse of commas?)
As BraheSilver mentions, the temptation with a gun will be towards technologizing the “magic”.
Closest thing I can think of are the “Lazy Guns” described in Iain M. Banks wonderful novel Against a Dark Background. The Lazy Guns are immensely powerful and act more or less based on a person’s thoughts, but in highly unpredictable ways that make them as much a danger to the operator as they are to the target, and which give them, in effect, magical properties.
The “Saint of Killers” from the Garth Ennis Preacher series had a spiffy set of pistols. Forged from the sword of the Angel of Death (IIRC), they never ran out of bullets, never missed, and never failed to deliver a kill shot.
Good enough to take out Satan, the Heavenly Host and The Big Boss himself.
There is a “gonne” that evidently can control whoever holds it, forcing them to kill. The “Gonne” was the villain of the piece. Don’t know if that’s magical, or anthropomorphism.
The gun used by Clive in the Suikoden video games supposedly had an elemental spirit or something in it, although I don’t remember the exact situation very well.
Some of Barbara Hambly’s books (the Windrose books, I think) featured some firearms that were described as “metaphysically dead” and immune to magical influences. They were inscribed with runes and sigils to make them that way because using them against mages was suicidal otherwise–a wizard could just make it misfire or even explode. I suppose that could be counted as “magical”. It was implied that weapons could be imbued with other magic, but such uses of magic were highly illegal.
Some computer/console RPGs feature firearms and ammunition that are clearly magical, mostly because of the special types of damage they do. You might have blessed ammunition that does extra damage against undead, or a pistol that inflicts cold damage, or any number of other odd things that you wouldn’t expect out of a standard firearm. Then, of course, there’s this one and this one.
How many ways can a gun be magical anyway? I can think of:
Blessed/Cursed: Doesn’t function magically but possessing or holding it has an effect on the wielder.
Limitless Magazine: how all guns ought to be, somehow.
Perfect Aim: always hits what the shooter intends it to , even if the shot has to go around corners or home on a moving target.
Bullets of Death: even the slightest nick is fatal.
Silver Bullets of Death: destroys creatures that are normally immune to physical attack (vampires/werewolves, etc.)
Irresistable Missile: bullets penetrate steel armor, concrete walls, warding spells, force fields, neutronium, etc.
Infinitely Configurable Ammo: The shooter can charm the bullets to do whatever they want them to: armor piercing, explosive, incendiary, signal flare, smoke grenade, poisoned, etc., etc.
In Phil Foglio’s SF graphic novel “Buck Godot, Zap Gun For Hire,” an acquaintance of the title character, known as The Rat, has two sentient and articulate guns, “Smith” and “Wesson.”
BTW, the graphic novel is a hoot - great art, lots of humor, and hijinks.
Both Dragonstar and D20 Modern have rules for magical firearms. You can put the same enchantments on guns and bullets that you can put on other projectile weapons and their ammo in the Dungeons & Dragons world.
To add to Lumpy’s list, from tweaks I’ve seen and used:
Recoilless Silent: no silencer, just all inner mechanisms are quiet and charms the bullet to be silent despite supersonic speed. No muzzle flash Very low weight: How else can you hold a chaingun in each hand? "Cloud 'o Lead": Uses illusion to make it look as if there are ten times as many rounds heading your way. Useful to scare away bandits, especially with the aforementioned chinguns. Resistant: maybe considered something about the object itself, but can fire underwater, in fire, in a vacuum, etc.
One character took a sentient rune dagger and made it a bayonet, but perhaps that doesn’t count. Besides, the knife kept calling him a sissy and tried to wave around while he aimed.
Not a firearm, but one character had a magic 8-foot-long chainsaw that did tremendous damage, had infinite power, and was incredibly durable.
I believe there is a thread somewhere else on the SDMB that makes reference to a type of firearm that was developed in the 1930’s (although maybe a bit earlier). Supposedly, it could emit fatal beams. Try as I may, I could not find even one posting making a literary reference for such a weapon. Has anyone else heard of these?