Topic: Low Gravity penalties? (SM 2. Well, mostly...)

[Aotrs Commander]

I'm about to drop the PCs on a low-G moon in their latest adventure.

A quick search through my books located me 'gravity and maneuvers' rules in SpMCo 2, which suggested basically increasing manouver difficulty categories per full G with penalty and an additional penalty for every 10% or so. A 1.5G planet, for example would impose a -50 penalty to manouvers, a 2.5G would upgrade difficulty three levels and apply a (net) -65. Etc etc. All well and good.

What it didn't say was anything was whether this penalty should be applied to things less than 1G (I'm aiming for about 0.5G). 

I.e, should, then, a 0.5 G planet apply a +50 bonus to manuvers, or should this also be a -50 penalty? I'm not quite sure, I can sort of see it both ways (unlike high G which is obviously generally more difficult.) On the one hand, you'd be able to maneuver more easily, but on the other hand, it's still out of normal parameters.

Maybe work the rule in reverse, which would give you downgrading the difficulty of manouvers one level but giving you a -50 penalty?

Anybody have any suggestions about which way I should go?

(A quick search of the boards mentioned something about gravity rules in Future Law; ironically probably one of the few books I don't have, so that's out of the question, so it comes down to interpreting the ones I have to hand or houseruling it!.)

I'm not really interested in the long-term effects, by-the-by, since they'll only be dropping in to briefly murder some random bad guys like adventurers usually do (justifyably in this case!)



Edition-wise, I'm playing my hideous mutant hybrid system the like fo which Man Was Not Meant To Know (i.e. primarily Rolemaster 2/SpaceMaster 2 with some of the bits (from RMSS/RMFRP and Priviteer whacked on the side; mostly the new attack tables, crits and round sequences etc etc).)

[markc]

 First i would like to say I love your system hybride. IMO use anything that makes your game better.

 Second, I did not see anything in Future Law about actions in gravity but it did have rules for PC's from different gravity worlds. so for this I think i would apply a -50 like you talked about above or cut it in 1/2 as IMO it is easyier to move and opperate in low gravity. But also note that if they had mechanised suts or powered armor they might be able to set the computer to adjust for the low G.

MDC

[Oldgrue]

The way we run it is that anything more than 25% off the character's normal gravity is a negative modifier. 

This way we don't have people pushing for 2g homeworlds bouncing about being supermen.  When everything moves differently than you're accustomed its easier to hurt yourself. 
this also makes things easier with the '0g maneuvering' skill.

[PiXeL01]

I seem to recall but arent sure that one of the Datanet additions have something on gravity though I cannot recall from which of the 8 it is

[Aotrs Commander]

Okay, then I'll think I'll go with the downgraded maneuover difficulty and slap half the penalty on (-25) as markc suggests.

One of them does have a suit of AT X (ex-SM2 AT 20 AEX) with lots of bells and whistles. I forget if it's got gravitics in it; I'll have to take a look. I do know one of the other characters has an anti-grav belt but I don't thnik that'll help with getting the tech on it and negating it's normal use for flying...

[markc]

 IMO an anti grav betl would help a little if there is a little gravity. So for a .25 gravity I might give them a bonus of less than +5 also it should/could make the person faster when using some type of thrust unit. Again IMO the amont would be very small but in a race it could make the difference.

MDC

[Aotrs Commander]

Another rnadom thought came to me as I sat pondering on teh great white throne (as such thoughts often do)...

What effect should gravity have on thrown weapons (e.g. grenades)? My first thought would be to apply the G as a divisor to the range (and possibly the deviation), but what would be a good idea to apply to the accuracy? Half the maneouver penalty maybe? I think I'd increase the maximum range but keep the same range penalties (that seems to make more sense, since the penalties from range are usually from visual targetting rather than other concerns).

[markc]

 I think I would adjust the ranges as you have said but I would make the PC make a Zero G Maneuver before the throw or add a Zero G Combat skill like a riding skill in which an OB cannot be higher then the skill.

MDC

[Aotrs Commander]

I think some of them do - probably - actually have Hostile Environments: Zero-G (or if they haven't thend it's their own faults! It's not like about three members of the party are Explorers and another couple are pretty close!)