Haha, always ask the experts... so, how can one add authentic looking laser bolts to a fan art scene, especially space battles? What would you do? Thanks in advane, and may the force be with you.

Try doing it as a post effect. You can do this with a program such as Paint.NET, which supports gaussian blur. You can get the program (for free) and related tutorials at www.getpaint.net

It is better to do one thing well, than to do many things and excel at nothing.

I remember getting some good effects using particles, but it's been so long ago I don't remember how I did it. If you don't know how to use particles grab a tute off blender.org or blender.wiki.  It wasn't very difficult as I remember.