# Sci Fi Gadgety names **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 26, 2005, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-gadgety-names/314212 "2005-07-26T13:08:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-gadgety-names/314212/21 "2005-07-26T20:58:13Z")
> [@Sierra Indigo](#): > > Flechette Pistols are a personal favourite (though they are lifted from the Cyberpunk 2020 rulebooks, so that’s a bit of a grey area there). Tiny, hollow darts are fired using a liquefied gas system, with the ammo able to be filled with toxins/drugs of various sorts. Kind of like the sliver gun offered by **Balance** Actually, there wouldn’t be a problem with calling it a Flechette Pistol. Especially since Flechette Guns actually exist. As for the specifics, not sure. Generally speaking, Flechette guns fire burts of thin darts that have rather good range and go through Kevlar like it’s a needle going through woven fabric (which, well, it is). They don’t use them much because it sounds nasty enough to get all kinds of bad PR, and it actually doesn’t do much damage to a person compared to a slower moving bullet, despite it’s ease of getting through body armor. Thus, lots of bad PR plus not so much effectiveness equals a weapon not used often. Darned if it ain’t a cool weapon though. Random name suggestions: Electromagnetic Pulser Gun, AKA the Magpulse or the Pulser. Could either fire pulses that release an EMP on impact with a target (very effective against electronic things like robots or guys in powered armor) or it could use electromagnetic pulses to propel projectiles like a little rail gun. “Plasma Cannon” is always a cool name for a big gun. Also, never be afraid to recycle current weapons terminology: ie: “Laser Carbine” or the “Coherent Energy Cutlass” Then there’s the generic sci-fi fallbacks such as the “Ion Cannon”, “Mass Driver” and “Death Ray” ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-gadgety-names/314212/22 "2005-07-26T22:53:43Z")
My pile of Doctor Who videos includes things like fission guns, antimolecular disintegrator rays, sonic disruptors and the ever-popular “I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow”. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-gadgety-names/314212/23 "2005-07-26T23:01:36Z")
**Steve Wright** You forgot the Tissue Compression Eliminator ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-gadgety-names/314212/24 "2005-07-26T23:37:58Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Actually, there wouldn’t be a problem with calling it a Flechette Pistol. Especially since Flechette Guns actually exist. As for the specifics, not sure. Generally speaking, Flechette guns fire burts of thin darts that have rather good range and go through Kevlar like it’s a needle going through woven fabric (which, well, it is). > > They don’t use them much because it sounds nasty enough to get all kinds of bad PR, and it actually doesn’t do much damage to a person compared to a slower moving bullet, despite it’s ease of getting through body armor. Thus, lots of bad PR plus not so much effectiveness equals a weapon not used often. > > Darned if it ain’t a cool weapon though. [snip] Well, you learn something new every day. I’d only seen them in my CP2020 sourcebook, so I didn’t really know if they were made up by R. Talsorian or from a real source 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-gadgety-names/314212/25 "2005-07-27T04:06:14Z")
Going with another poster’s suggestion about not naming your weapons as a gun, consider: people talk about Brownings, Barettas, Colt .45’s, Lugers, etc. Don’t give it a warped name; give it the name of it’s warped _inventor_. F’rinstance: I like, say, The Kostolitz. What does it do, really? I’m not sure. After hitting a ‘soft’ target, such as a body, you’re left with a smoking red-grey smear on the landscape, but it does no damage to ‘hard’ targets like buildings made of steel, concrete and the like. I’m guessing it’s a powerful microwave emitter, but I dunno. It’s a Kostolitz, dammit. And then you can add model numbers as well: The Kostolitz A-9 is the standard hand-held version, but the company also manufactures the Kostolitz D-4 (Sometimes called the Delta-Delta) as a longer-ranged carbine equivalent. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2005, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-gadgety-names/314212/26 "2005-07-27T05:32:34Z")
If I can’t catch them in a Noetherian web, I blow them to hell with my Casimir Inverter; unless it’s _personal_. That calls for six rounds from my trusty Bactrian Pornolyzer. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2005, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-gadgety-names/314212/27 "2005-07-27T07:25:10Z")
[(On the subject of Flechette guns, with integral grenade launchers. Not known if you could use flechette grenades with them, too.)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPIW) Sanctihydrate Anti-Nosufuratoid Area Denial System—Holy Water, sprayed around to keep Vampires away. (Oh, right, like there aren’t going to be _any_ vampires in the future.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-gadgety-names/314212.md?page=1)