Calling on Thunder: Making Shock and Awe Work

So me and my awesome girlfriend are thinking of writing a book. I won't go farther than that, but I've spotted a potential nut-buster of an issue:

Shock and Awe.

One of the characters controls lightning and electricity. I want to make this, you know, work within a generally scientific setting, or at least enough of one that people won't be like "dude elec don't work dat way".

Any thoughts?

Well a Lightning Gun is plausible in reality.

How would you make it work? Simple have a proton beam induce a positive charge on an electrically conductive object with a high-current (voltage isn't what kills you) Tesla coil on the output. So long as sufficient positive charge remains on the target and the weapon is aimed in the general vicinity the lightning discharge from the Tesla coil will seek out the target owing to the non-equilibrium of electrical charges.

That's more or less the idea how Nikola Tesla's "Death Ray" would have worked.

Alternatively, electrolasers. Combining effectively: Frickin' Laser Beams, Beam Spam, Shock and Awe, Lightning Gun, Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better (depending on what you send along the electrolaser it can have mass) and a particle beam.

edited 6th Oct '10 7:36:46 AM by MajorTom

Required Secondary Powers has several good suggestions for electrical powers.

Thanks, guys.

I have a few ideas if you're working with magic, contrasted in my two main father and daughter lightning magic users.

Michi, the father. He's ancient and from a combative/warrior background. Also a Lightning mage. He knows a lot about using magic, ie, 'This is how I channel a bolt of lightning into my fingers and send it where I want. He has raw amounts of energy to throw about, and is highly capable.

Yaori, the daughter. She has some warrior training, but not much, courtesy of her father (they are in modern-day/future England, after all). She looks into the scientific theories of how electricity works and functions, then makes use of it to her advantage. So where her father knows 'This is how I do this with lightning' she knows 'Okay, lightning has to flow from an area of high voltage to an area of lower voltage. Normally it wouldn't because air's not conductive, but if I do (whatever) it makes it easier.

It also explains Slow Electricity, by using it magically. Lightning won't naturally travel along any path, it can only move as fast as you will it unless it's travelling along its natural path. Michi often has Slow Electricity, and Yaori's able to use lightning that works more like it should by providing it a path to flow, and inducing the voltage.

One of my characters is from a species that can discharge bio-electricity from her skin. It isn't quite as powerful as a lightning bolt (until Applied Phlebotinum kicks in) but it's still easily strong enough to kill someone. It isn't very effective on others of her race (that's what her claws are for) but since she lives among humans, her negative charge is much greater than those surrounding her. It's also very exhaustive and difficult for her to arc it through the air, and it's much easier for her to come into contact with someone. That's where her arsenal of metal weaponry she packs with her comes in...

...This thread is like three years old.