Alternitive for a Light Saber

[Pirate Penguin]

So far all i have come up with is the Viroblade idea from KOTOR. So I thought I would call upon strolen's galactic database.

[MoonHunter]

LEts see

Stasis Blade  A piece of mono-filiment wire suspended in a forcefield/ stasis field.  Since one molecule thin wire can cut anything, you see how this goes.
(Known Space)

Ripper Blade:  A sword like arrangement.  Tiny teeth and spun along the edges by a powerful motor in the handle.  Good for ripping flesh.  BattleTech or Warhammer had this one.

ForceBlade: A forcefield shaped like a blade.  Power cell in hilt.  More believable than many power swords

Plasmasword: Unleash plasma into a magnetic bottle that makes it sword blade shaped.  Basically a light saber without the laser.

There are more, but that is all I can think of right now.

[Scrasamax]

Chainsword - A vicious weapon revealed by Warhammer 40K, essentially a combat chainsaw held with a sword grip. Looks heavy and cumbersome but can be used to horrific effect against light or unarmored targets. Plus, the action of the chain would actually pull the weapon into or through a victim.

Moonhunters Ripper blade

[Cheka Man]

Thoughtblade-Only useable by a powerful wizard or someone with a very deep grudge.The person creates the deadly blade with his or her mind. It has the advantage that if the person drops the weapon by mistake the blade will vanish until he/she can pick up the hilt so it cannot be used on it's owner.The disadvantage is that keeping the Thoughtblade *on* for a long time is tiring.

Wizards can concentrate their minds well enough to use it, whilst someone with a deep enough grudge will be able to use their anger to form the blade.

[Ylorea]

The water blade.

In efect this type of "blade" is used these days by many bakkers to cut cake, but refined versions of this are used to cut stainless steel as well.

Now first of, you would believe that you would need to have gallons and gallons of water to create a sword, but in effect the whole idea is to have water squirting out of the handle of your sword at a high speed, but the width of the beam would be very small. (like the stasis blade proposed by moonhunter, the thickness of the blade should be mere microns.)

You know what the biggest problem for this type of blade is?
First to get the beam fine enough, but once that is achieved, how are you going to assure that the blade is not going to be too long. The first couple of inches might be strong enough to cut thru steel (even inch thick steel) but to create a beam like that, the water would be able to cut thru unprotected flesh maybe as much as ten feet away.

Yours,
Ylorea

[EchoMirage]

a blade could be made of many rather unusual ... things

first of all ... sound. A plane of sound projected from a hilt could be terrible if it touched unprotected flesh, but also crystalline beings would be in dire peril. Perhaps a siren or similar being (harpy?bard?) would have to give up his life or at least voice to create it... or have its voice taken, of course.

then, the idea of light would not have to be obsolete... while a blade of light is unable to parry (except through destroying the opponent's weapon, it is the same as the angelic sword of fire, but capable of working underwater. Clerics of sun deities, aasimar and celestials could have some ... or a powerful sun mage could make one, of course. If you included a fine-tuning button, you could de-focus it and turn it infra-red or microwave for cooking, and also make it ultra-violet for tanning (or ultra-violeNt against vampires )

A chainsword made of vampire teeth sure would do SERIOUS damage, as well as draining the life of victims, while one of bullette teeth could cut through armor like paper.

then, a blade of nothing would also serve the user well - say, a static disintegrate spell.
Like there is the 'chromatic wall' wall in DnD, you could make a chromatic blade, smaller, but more durable.

A demon with fiery blood could have a sword fuelled by his own vitae
It could be damaging, like the water sword, but drain the user, but then, don't give it to Alien, please!

These are my ramblings so far

[CaptainPenguin]

About the "light-sword" idea-

Some people might protest that the lightsaber is not a bad idea. This is wrong. If such a light weapon existed, its cutting beam would extend forever. Have you ever shone a flashlight into the sky at night? That's what it would be like, except it would cut stuff. So whenever you swung it, it might slice up a planet somewhere.

[Ria Hawk]

Which could prove interesting in it's own right.  "Magic weapons that were a REALLY bad idea, and the worlds devastated by them, next on Springer."

[Cheka Man]

     Very funny.

[Pirate Penguin]

The Light saber could rapidly flicker on and off, so the blade wouldn't extend to much, but it would have to do so just under the speed of light.

[EchoMirage]

you know, if it just flickered, it would not make a continous cut, just punch a lot of holes into something.

but I'd say, it would have to be contained, or, say, we could state that the light is focused enough only two to three feet from the hilt.

but yes, the other variants are just better.

(but if you managed to cast a spell like the Shape Light spell from Gurps, you could make the light follow a bent course, like shaping space just in regard to light, so that it follows a straight course along bent space - you could make a self-contained loop that would replenish the loss of oneregy through reflux and the power source in the hilt)

[Agar]

Stasis Blade  A piece of mono-filiment wire suspended in a forcefield/ stasis field.  Since one molecule thin wire can cut anything, you see how this goes.
(Known Space)

Mono-filiment isn't neccessarily monomolecular. It simply means single strand. To quote Shadowrun:

My shoelace is a monofiliment, and you don't see me loping any limbs off with that.

I'm betting Moon meant monomolecular, and I get myself cut on a monomolecular edge every couple of days, so I can testify they're sharp as heck.

Lightsabers use photons, since they're sub atomic particles and really small, letting them get in between other things and make the cutting action. Another way to do damage is mass, and other subatomic particles happen to have more mass without being an atom by themselves.

Like Neutrons.

A neutrino blade would be smaller than a single atom, but freakishly heavy. A more wieldy blade would be some uber-alloy, titianim or whatnot, with a neutrino razor edge. A short sword might wiegh as much as a great sword, but it would be miles sharper and good luck trying to break that edge.

[Czernobog]

what about a nanotechnology blade?
a column of virus sized mecha that disassemble anything theyre plunged into.
Theres the initial stab, and then the mecha inside the wound begin to eat you from the inside.

[Pirate Penguin]

Thats kind of over the top.

[Kinslayer]

Just some random, middle of the night, type thoughts:

Glass:  or other rigid amorphous material, can be chipped/carved to monomolecular thickness. As added bonuses, pieces of glass can break off in a wound (assuming that the victim lives), and it isn't noticable with metal detectors.

Transit blades:  think Star Trek transporters in miniature.  They break down whatever matter they encounter, can have limited distance, and can be customised to not harm certain substances--such as a blade that will destroy equipment but not flesh.  

Superhot:  not quite plasma, but heats the surrounding air in a blade-like plume.  This has the disadvantages of radiant heat and poor parrying.  With superheated air, you don't need a combustable material, just a power source.  

Ice:  can be made very hard with enough pressure, can be sharpened to amazin thickness, and completely destroys the murder weapon once it melts.  

Gravitic:  this blade drives molecules apart.  Parrying isn't a much of a problem, as any solid object will be made of some form of molecular particles.  Substances that are completely formed of covalent bonds, or similar methods, would not be affected.  

Electrical: either as an arc, or on an atomic level.  If the blade can be focused so that the electrical attraction of electrons to protons is disrupted, the material the blade attacks can be affected on a macroscopic level.  

MASER: same great lightsaber taste, but is invisible & causes havoc to electronics.  Metal armour is an effective barrier, but is heated & sparks quite a bit.