All i was reading Suns of Fortune, gearing up to set a portion of an adventure on Centerpoint Station, specifically Null Town. I read this and was looking for some input.

"The gravity between buildings is only about five percent standard, making it difficult to get around without a Jetpack or Magnetized boots."

Would this qualifiy as difficult terrain? If there was a battle in the streets outside of Null Town, would you also include some coordination checks if threat or despair is rolled.

Does anyone know what five percent of standard gravity is like?

Naleax

It would def count as a check of some sort. .05g's means 5% of what normal gravity exerts on us here on Earth. You would 'weigh' 5% of what you actually weigh in that condition. The moon is about 16%G which is 3x greater than null town, to give you an idea of how it would look moving around

I would either call it difficult terrain or add Setback dice for environmental conditions - or possibly both! Throwing in Coordination checks is an excellent idea.

5% of 1g is next to weightless in my mind, so someone properly trained in microgravity maneuvers might get a boost die.

It would def count as a check of some sort. .05g's means 5% of what normal gravity exerts on us here on Earth. You would 'weigh' 5% of what you actually weigh in that condition. The moon is about 16%G which is 3x greater than null town, to give you an idea of how it would look moving around

Good to know 2P51. So i'm thinking that if a despair or enough threats were rolled someone might actually loose their footing and start floating upward? Perhaps their magnetized boots malfunction. I'm assuming standard star wars vehicles would still be used in this environment?

I would either call it difficult terrain or add Setback dice for environmental conditions - or possibly both! Throwing in Coordination checks is an excellent idea.

5% of 1g is next to weightless in my mind, so someone properly trained in microgravity maneuvers might get a boost die.

I agree, but i don't want to make a potential battle a huge pain in the arse for the players. Of course opponents are going to be subject to the same rules, Could get interesting.

Thanks for the insight guys.

Naleax

I agree, but i don't want to make a potential battle a huge pain in the arse for the players. Of course opponents are going to be subject to the same rules, Could get interesting.

Thanks for the insight guys.

Naleax

Throwing around a couple Setback and/or Boost dice hopefully shouldn't cause too many problems. It's not a fun battle unless it's hard!

For a bit of Earthly perspective, imagine a gallon of milk or water (roughly 4 litres).

Think about how easy it is to lift, throw, carry, etc.

That gallon weighs around 8 pounds here on Earth. If a person weighs 160 pounds in standard gravity, they would only weigh about 8 pounds in Null Town.

It would def count as a check of some sort. .05g's means 5% of what normal gravity exerts on us here on Earth. You would 'weigh' 5% of what you actually weigh in that condition. The moon is about 16%G which is 3x greater than null town, to give you an idea of how it would look moving around

Good to know 2P51. So i'm thinking that if a despair or enough threats were rolled someone might actually loose their footing and start floating upward? Perhaps their magnetized boots malfunction. I'm assuming standard star wars vehicles would still be used in this environment?

I would either call it difficult terrain or add Setback dice for environmental conditions - or possibly both! Throwing in Coordination checks is an excellent idea.

5% of 1g is next to weightless in my mind, so someone properly trained in microgravity maneuvers might get a boost die.

I agree, but i don't want to make a potential battle a huge pain in the arse for the players. Of course opponents are going to be subject to the same rules, Could get interesting.

Thanks for the insight guys.

Naleax

You won't float up, there is gravity. Not being practiced in working in that gravity I can def see people diving for cover and instead flying straight into a wall, or over whatever they were diving for.

It would def count as a check of some sort. .05g's means 5% of what normal gravity exerts on us here on Earth. You would 'weigh' 5% of what you actually weigh in that condition. The moon is about 16%G which is 3x greater than null town, to give you an idea of how it would look moving around

Good to know 2P51. So i'm thinking that if a despair or enough threats were rolled someone might actually loose their footing and start floating upward? Perhaps their magnetized boots malfunction. I'm assuming standard star wars vehicles would still be used in this environment?

I would either call it difficult terrain or add Setback dice for environmental conditions - or possibly both! Throwing in Coordination checks is an excellent idea.

5% of 1g is next to weightless in my mind, so someone properly trained in microgravity maneuvers might get a boost die.

I agree, but i don't want to make a potential battle a huge pain in the arse for the players. Of course opponents are going to be subject to the same rules, Could get interesting.

Thanks for the insight guys.

Naleax

You won't float up, there is gravity. Not being practiced in working in that gravity I can def see people diving for cover and instead flying straight into a wall, or over whatever they were diving for.

I see plenty of uses for those threat and despairs!

That gallon weighs around 8 pounds here on Earth. If a person weighs 160 pounds in standard gravity, they would only weigh about 8 pounds in Null Town.

There is weight, and then there is mass. The weight would vary by the amount of gravity, but the mass doesn’t. That can have interesting effects when it comes to generating motion or stopping bodies once they are in motion.

That gallon weighs around 8 pounds here on Earth. If a person weighs 160 pounds in standard gravity, they would only weigh about 8 pounds in Null Town.

There is weight, and then there is mass. The weight would vary by the amount of gravity, but the mass doesn’t. That can have interesting effects when it comes to generating motion or stopping bodies once they are in motion.

force = mass*acceleration

so to throw something at a certain speed takes just as much effort as on earth, but the arc it'd follow would be very different close to straight line (not curving down) and the person throwing the "large" mass object would get pushed back less weight means less friction to keep you from going backward, and catching/stopping things get harder because there is 5% of the friction to keep you from moving backward

A few things that will help.

1. Acceleration due to gravity is proportional to it. What that means is when gravity is fifty percent that of Earth's, you speed up 50% as slowly. You can still end up falling just as fast but it takes you longer to get up to speed. On Earth, if you fall for a second then by the end of that second you're travelling at just under 10 metres per second (ouch time if you hit the ground). But in 5% gravity you're only travelling about 0.5m per second (5% acceleration) which is fine. Of course if you leap from somewhere high, you still be going horribly fast by the time you hit the ground, it'll just take you a lot longer before you reach that speed.

2.You can jump really high. Basically for jumping purposes you are twenty times "stronger" than you normally are. Ditto for lifting heavy objects. Both of which being us on to...

3. Weight and mass are not the same thing. What's the difference? Well in low gravity you're not ACTUALLY twenty times stronger, there's just less holding everything down. So if you had a crate filled with beans, on Earth you probably couldn't lift it, it would be heavy. In 5% gravity you probably could because it is no longer attracted to the ground as much. But if you try to throw it, it's still going to move slowly because it still has a lot of mass. You can't throw it like a ball just because you can lift it. It's not a perfect analogy but imagine a small car and a go-kart. Assuming the car has the handbrake off and it's flat terrain, you can probably push the car. It will be hard at first, you'll eventually get it going a little faster (slow acceleration again), but compared to the go-kart it's a lot more work. That's the difference between mass and weight. Even though with neither the car nor the go-kart you were fighting gravity, the car is still a lot harder to push around - it simply has more mass. In the very low gravity of Null Point, you MIGHT even be able to lift that car but it will be like pushing it was. The low gravity doesn't make it easier to push, it just lets you push in a direction you weren't allowed to before.

You can jump 20 times higher or further than normal, however unless the character has some experience or training in micro gravity they may well pick up some spin and fail to land on their feet.

As stated above your mass does not change but your weight does. This would make running, particularly stopping, very tricky. How much control do you get when only putting 5% of your weight down on your feet but still have your full velocity (mass*speed) pushing you forwards? Not sure if this would result in people skidding like they are on ice or bouncing themselves into a long low jump but I can imagine it could result in a fast moving character going past where they wanted to stop, slamming into walls, etc quite easily.

I sometimes have dreams where the gravity isn't the way it should be... It is funny and scary at the same time.

I'm surprised someone hasn't mentioned this or linked to it already:

(Scene from the movie "John Carter" which totally should have been called "John Carter of Mars", btw. It's the scene where he first wakes up on Mars and tries to walk with rather limited success).