Game masters,

Being a 40k neophyte I recently determined that I don't know much about how the Imperium manipulates gravity. Considering the state of some of the structures and space vessels it does appear that mankind can adjust gravity. Doing a search on these forums lead me to a Rogue Trader post about a gravity generator. Mostly curious about the specifics.

I know that 40k uses a great deal of handwavium and some times I find that to be useful to instill some pseudoscience in to the investigations. I also know that a lot of things are spelled out rather explicitly (such as faster than light travel) and I wouldn't want to do any more violence to setting than I already have.

Garner said:

Surely they are powered by handwavium then! If this is true I should be able to have a bit of good ol'science fiction fun.

In similar mention there is anti-grav plating, tech that is common on Solomon, but mostly forgotten elsewhere. It probably works just as grav-plating, but with reversed polarity

Besides this, their MUST be some kind of anti-grav generator…otherwise all those skimmers and speeders would not work

Pg 136, Into the Storm (RT book), Gravity Generator .

Brief description for those of you who don't won the book. Huge squares of metal, used to control gravity, with structures laid out on top of it. Listed as a Very Rare item.

Garner said:

I think you answered your own question. We just have to assume that the Ad Mech have some spiffy stuff even if they don't understand it's potential for multiple applications. They do it 'that' way because they always have.

At the end of the day this is 40k so don't feel like you need to gve your players an explaination. Ignorance is Strength after all. Tell them that thier PCs don't know then sit back and watch the squirming begin.

Gee, even my character's servo skulls are powered by handwavium.

Interogator Z

I think, in Blood of Martyrs, its mentioned how churches in the Imperium are built to be large enough for them not to be able to sustain their own weights. Giving that they are still standing, it gives them a majestic and divine appearance- in reality, they are being suspended by some sort of gravity devices as well. Likely the ones described in rogue-trader but set on reverse?

Saldre said:

How is Blood of Martyrs as a GM resource? I've been thinking about expanding my game beyond the core rule book but having trouble deciding between all the scintallating books.

If the Imperium is making this much use of artificial gravity there's probably some Tech Priest who has a good understanding of how it works. On the premise that there are a lot of Cathedrals in the Imperium I would dare say that producing the plates must be readily available even if at great cost. Would you say that the Calixis Sector has the means to produce the plates or do they import them and distribute the supply sparingly?

I seem to recall an old piece of fluff which stated that the Imperium cannot make grav-plates any more, but some of their planets (Terra being a big one) simply have incredibly vast amounts of the stuff lying around.