Okay, I'm going to answer this in a metafictional way, and I hope that it makes some sense. What we've got is classic comic book rubber science. Every power in V&V can be found as a device, which means that yes, we've got blasters of all descriptions, particle weapons, ice guns, you name it. Much of it has been around for a generation or more. Not all of it is mass-produced, though -- isolated researchers/mutant geniuses/mad scientists/goofy gadgeteers frequently produce unique devices far above the local tech level. (I know I wrote a little bit about that somewhere in DW2.) Some of it can get reproduced, and goes into the world tech pool. Some of it just seems to work automagically, with no real explanation (at least in terms of current theory and practice). Such devices are subject to considerable research, both magical and mundane, to determine their operating principles. Sometimes such research is even successful. The DW version of the UN/Warriors have a warehouse chock full of toys taken off supervillains which have so-far proven resistant to analysis and replication. When he was at home, Doug sometimes puttered around there.
To answer your specific questions: Railguns, yes. They're current technology for us in the real world. Plasma cannons? Several varieties, depending how you generate your plasma. Lasers? Oh yeah. Very genre. Bomb tech? V&V has silly rules for bombs, so we don't use them, and no one in the campaign has given much thought to'em. Case in point: atomic bombs do 2d100 points of damage. Which means a normal can throw himself on a nuke and completely smother its explosion almost 1/4 of the time -- and surivive! If it were to come up as a story point in DW, I'd probably extrapolate something I felt was reasonable but it's never been explored in the game world.
Computers? God, do we have computers. Quantum computing is bleeding edge stuff in the real world, so I'd presume it's a bit more mature in Warriors' World, but it's another area that no one's really explored. Almost certainly some of those gadgeteer-produced computing gizmos incorporate quantum computing, though.
Beyond that, well, there's a lot that gets handwaving in the game, and which I really didn't lay out in detail for the world when I started DW. But if you mix the usual tech of a super world with a bit of real-world sensibility, you can get a bit of an idea of where we are. The main thing for me when writing is to give the sense of a world that is a strange mix of familiar and unfamiliar; wildly uneven tech levels across different fields is part of that.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
To answer your specific questions: Railguns, yes. They're current technology for us in the real world. Plasma cannons? Several varieties, depending how you generate your plasma. Lasers? Oh yeah. Very genre. Bomb tech? V&V has silly rules for bombs, so we don't use them, and no one in the campaign has given much thought to'em. Case in point: atomic bombs do 2d100 points of damage. Which means a normal can throw himself on a nuke and completely smother its explosion almost 1/4 of the time -- and surivive! If it were to come up as a story point in DW, I'd probably extrapolate something I felt was reasonable but it's never been explored in the game world.
Computers? God, do we have computers. Quantum computing is bleeding edge stuff in the real world, so I'd presume it's a bit more mature in Warriors' World, but it's another area that no one's really explored. Almost certainly some of those gadgeteer-produced computing gizmos incorporate quantum computing, though.
Beyond that, well, there's a lot that gets handwaving in the game, and which I really didn't lay out in detail for the world when I started DW. But if you mix the usual tech of a super world with a bit of real-world sensibility, you can get a bit of an idea of where we are. The main thing for me when writing is to give the sense of a world that is a strange mix of familiar and unfamiliar; wildly uneven tech levels across different fields is part of that.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.