Hi,

Absolutely loving the Genesys Android setting, and am currently in the process of writing my first scenario for the setting, "Frozen Assets" for my regular gaming group.

Flipping through the Genesys and Shadow of the Beanstalk books, I cannot see any rules for how low/microgravity affects combat. Gravity (or lack of it) counts as 'Difficult Terrain' but this seems to only be in relation to Brawn-related skill rolls. Also, I am thinking about projectile weapons used in microgravity. There's an interesting thread on reddit talking about weapons in The Expanse tv series:

From reading that thread, it seems to me that in The Expanse there is 'normal' caseless ammunition for use where there is gravity, self-propelled rounds to reduce recoil in microgravity, and also lower velocity plastic/composite rounds that can still pierce flesh, but won't penetrate the hull of a ship or station.

I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on how to apply Genesys rules? What about...

- Black die if firing 'normal' ammunition in microgravity.

- Reduced damage if using low velocity plastic/composite ammunition.

- Black die on Agility based skill checks unless character has a Freefall / Zero-G Talent.

I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this sort of thing. Especially if I missed the section on this in the rules! 🙂

'Zero Gravity' is treated as Difficult Terrain, which significantly hinders movement. 'In/Decreased Gravity' affect Athletics, Brawl, Coordination, and Melee checks. That's basically it per RAW, and is already pretty severe IMO. Unusual gravity can make it very difficult to engage close-combat.

So I wouldn't go so far as to penalize ranged combat too; because it just isn't cinematic to make combat in a given environment a no-win-situation. Most Ranged weapons in SotB are "Smart", and use caseless ammunition. That they're usually smart-guns is a good enough justification (IMO) for these futuristic weapons to work just as well in any gravity.

Penetrating the hull would still be a very real danger (especially in an unarmored Passenger Dropship)... As such, security personnel on a spacecraft would be more likely to use Synap Pistols or Masers over any slugthrower or mass driver.

One would assume any spacegoing hull would have at least Armor 1, so hand weapons with base damage under 9 should be fine. But really, this is all narrative. Synap would be preferred for avoiding the "objects in this room do not react well to bullets" problem, but laser weapons, shotguns, and fletchers should be fine too. I could see plastic flechettes with ferrous driving bands for extra safety, too.

I mentioned Passenger Dropships because they have 0 Armor, the other spacecraft in SotB are all better armored.

You could probably use light Pistols, but a good enough roll with one could potentially cause hull trauma.

35 minutes ago, Cantriped said:

I mentioned Passenger Dropships because they have 0 Armor, the other spacecraft in SotB are all better armored.

You could probably use light Pistols, but a good enough roll with one could potentially cause hull trauma.

Okay, sorry. The SEA "yellow jackets" are listed as carrying synaps, so yes, I would imagine most security forces that operate near vacuum carry those. I think masers are unlikely -- the optics of burning someone to death in public are probably not good, and I can't imagine the vessel systems would like getting masered any more than they'd like solid shot.

If you want to provide something heavier than synap, I'd have frangible or lightweight ammo do -1 damage and call it good.

(Those ammo types might do nothing to someone in carapace armor, though.)