This article is to define places where we've had to make technological adjustments to make things compatible and not automatically restrict a characters effectiveness.
Laser Weapons
It is canon in Star Trek that a traditional laser will not even penetrate the deflectors[1] of the Galaxy Class starship.
- Laser (Actual Definition)
- A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation[2], in this case lasers are highly focused and very pure beams of light in a certain frequency range.
- Laser (Star Trek)
- A directed-energy technology utilizing a beam of light, with all wavelengths equal and all particles in phase with one another. Due to this, the photon's motion was almost parallel, which allowed the beam to travel over a great distance with very little increase of the beam's square area, and therefore with little loss of energy per area[3].
- Laser (Star Wars)
- A laser was a beam of focused energy operating under the same principles as blaster weaponry. Energy-rich gas would be converted to a glowing particle beam that could melt through targets[4].
Clearly the way Star Trek defines laser technology is much the same way it actually works. A laser being a focused beam of light energy in the form of photons which all have the same phase (that is to say they are all sharing the same wave-length and thus the same color spectrum). The way that Star Wars defines a Laser is very different, however, it defines a Laser to be a focused particle energy beam of energy rich gases. The pharse energy rich gases is, in this context, most likely electrically charged or ionized gas, which is also called plasma[5]. That means a Star Wars laser weapon (blaster, laser cannon, turbolaser) is actually a Plasma Weapon in Star Trek terms[6] which is used by many different races.
Player Discression
Since many games, settings, universes, and the like do not spent a lot of time describing how things work, a player can decide if an incoming laser weapon is the Trek style or the Star Wars style of laser. Traditional style lasers are known to be ineffective against vessels that have advanced shields but the technology is still used in mining and other industrial applications, so would still be dangerous without advanced shield technology.
Plasma Weapons
It is Star Trek canon that the precursors to Phase Cannons were Plasma Weapons[7], however, it should not be a foregone conclusion that all plasma weapons are inferior to phasers, disruptors, and other known weapons used often in the later 24th and early 25th centuries. In fact, it is known that forced plasma beams are used by the Borg and other races as well [6]. This means a plasma weapon can be just as powerful as a phaser or disruptor. All of which are classified as particle weapons[8] and thus it can be kluged together that races coming in from other universes to this setting with plasma weapons might be as powerful as the standard weapons present.
Sources
- ↑ Star Trek the Next Generation Season 2 Episode 4 The Outragous Okana in a conversation between Worf, Riker, and Picard
- ↑ Wikipedia Article on the Laser
- ↑ Memory Alpha Article on the Laser
- ↑ Wookieepedia Aritcle on the Laser
- ↑ Wikipedia article on Plasma
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Memory Alpha Article on the Forced Plasma Beam
- ↑ Memory Alpha Article on Plasma Weapons
- ↑ Memory Alpha Article on Particle Weapons