CT Only: STR and local Gravity

[Supplement Four]

Just something for discussion...


Should a character's STR rating (and possibly DEX and EDU) be tied to the local gravity of a world?

If a character comes from a world that has standard 1G surface gravity, should there be a minimum STR rating for characters of that world that is higher than STR 2?

Should we be able to tell, by looking at a character's STR rating, a range of worlds where the character might be from?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I've left attributes alone while in different gravities. Either one has the strength to lift something (or to stand up), or they don't. During chargen though, I might use different starting attribute DMs, depending on race and environment. Again, they won't change when their environment changes during gameplay.

 

[GypsyComet]

Strength is Strength, but a kilogram is not going to feel the same in different gravities.

As for evolving in different gravities, look to the Darrians.

 

[Supplement Four]

Strength is Strength, but a kilogram is not going to feel the same in different gravities.

Yes. CT has rules for this.

As for evolving in different gravities, look to the Darrians.

Nice, Gypsy. I'll look that up.

 

[coliver988]

Just something for discussion...


Should a character's STR rating (and possibly DEX and EDU) be tied to the local gravity of a world?

If a character comes from a world that has standard 1G surface gravity, should there be a minimum STR rating for characters of that world that is higher than STR 2?

Should we be able to tell, by looking at a character's STR rating, a range of worlds where the character might be from?

Even with our single data point of Earth, strength can range a great deal. I've a friend at the gym who is 6'3" or so and close to 280 pounds. Strong as an ox (in fact, fun story: I had a flat in the parking lot, could not get the lug nuts off due to the air gun putting them on, asked him for a longer lug wrench but all he did was just push down and got them off. I was jumping on the stupid things and could not budge it). And another friend there who does not look it, but is probably the strongest one there as he benches 315 for reps...) And on the opposite side are people who just don't have any natural strength for a variety of reasons.

So while there may be an average curve to strength related to home world gravity conditions, I don't think on a per person basis it would be statistically reliable. And if we posit grav plates, a sufficiently higher tech world would probably gravitate ( ) to having a standard G in most buildings.

(another side note: Space:1999. When walking out on the moon, slow motion bounces. Inside Moonbase Alpha, it appeared normal gravity. Other than the expense of special effects, could we assume grav plates there?)

 

[whulorigan]

(another side note: Space:1999. When walking out on the moon, slow motion bounces. Inside Moonbase Alpha, it appeared normal gravity. Other than the expense of special effects, could we assume grav plates there?)

Episode #3 ("Black Sun") made explicit that they had field emitters that maintained their gravity within the base. Also, w/o artificial gravity, they would have been floating in zero-g when they were flying through space in their Eagle spacecraft.

 

[Supplement Four]

(another side note: Space:1999. When walking out on the moon, slow motion bounces. Inside Moonbase Alpha, it appeared normal gravity. Other than the expense of special effects, could we assume grav plates there?)

I always did. Aboard the Eagle spacecraft, too.

 

[GypsyComet]

Aboard the Eagle spacecraft, too.

The Eagles are pretty beefy, but the feats we see them perform would be impossible without some form of gravity manipulation.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

British syfy is all.

 

[kilemall]

As I've said before, -1 STR +1 DEX for low-G childhoods, +1 STR -1 DEX for high-G. Nothing fancier.


I've no idea what effect G has on EDU.



If there were any other planetary effects on charstats beyond environmental skills, it would be something like maybe the TL limit on EDU, tainted atmospheres maybe doing -1 to END or INT, or rich planets are +1 SOC and poor planets are -1 SOC.

 

[mike wightman]

Despite it being a common sci fi trope the reverse is actually true.

High g environments require you to have faster reactions.

If you trip you have less time before you hit the ground so natural selection would favour high dex/reflexes.

Low g actually gives you more time and so your reflexes can be slower. You may be taller but your reaction times are likely to be much less than those of someone from high g.


Without geneering the stat that is most likely to suffer in both cases is endurance - the slighter build of low g would give lower End and the additional strain on the heart and organs for a high g world also lowers End.

 

[Condottiere]

I don't think that endurance would be lowered in a higher gravity sitution, just fatigue.

Though probably lifespan, if the heart isn't occasionally replaced.

 

[mike wightman]

The additional stress on the heart will reduce your life span, due to the higher blood pressure required to pump blood this will reduce End, you will bleed out faster, that sort of thing.

 

[GypsyComet]

The last estimates I saw were that it took ~10,000 years of slowly climbing the Andes and enduring high infant mortality rates for the Peruvians and other Inca descendants to adapt to the high altitude and lower oxygen through lung and, presumably, blood adaptions. I suspect that the Minor Human Races are all pretty well adapted to their homes after 300,000 years, though that may result in some continuing issues. Heavy-worlders may have aggressive clotting agents as a second stage adaption to the problems Mike brings up, while hemo counts in low gravity dwellers may be high to help with the low partial pressure of oxygen of typically thinner atmospheres.

Life finds a way, as the saying goes, and where it can't manage that, we won't find natives.

At the same time, if 10,000 years is enough for some adaptions, some early Vilani settlements may have adapted to their local variations of environment enough to be recognizably departed from the Vilani phenotypes. Like the old cautionary tale (in Analog SF, I think) of an Earth population that has begun to adapt to Coca Cola to the point where it has changed from popular to metabolic necessity, the old colonies may be filled with people who have larger lungs, a new melanin adaption, or an immunity to iocane powder...

 

[BlackBat242]

Despite it being a common sci fi trope the reverse is actually true.

High g environments require you to have faster reactions.

If you trip you have less time before you hit the ground so natural selection would favour high dex/reflexes.

Low g actually gives you more time and so your reflexes can be slower. You may be taller but your reaction times are likely to be much less than those of someone from high g.


Without geneering the stat that is most likely to suffer in both cases is endurance - the slighter build of low g would give lower End and the additional strain on the heart and organs for a high g world also lowers End.

1. Dex incorporates far more than just reaction time.

2. While a heavy-G-adapted person will likely have good dex in a similar environment, the game stats are for "normal" environments.


A very strong person, used to heavy gravity, will be likely to over-move in lower gravity... or to move deliberately and carefully - both of which result in a lower application of dexterity.

That said, I would also penalize the dex of low-G persons in a normal-G environment, as they have to struggle and exert themselves to move somewhat normally.

 

[mike wightman]

1. Dex incorporates far more than just reaction time.

Yes it does, but a major component is reaction time.

2. While a heavy-G-adapted person will likely have good dex in a similar environment, the game stats are for "normal" environments.

One of the reasons I allow players to describe their characters from their stats rather than adjusting stats based on homeworld.

A character with 888 could be from a high g world.

A very strong person, used to heavy gravity, will be likely to over-move in lower gravity... or to move deliberately and carefully - both of which result in a lower application of dexterity.

Their reaction time and the body coordination required to move in a higher g environment will result in them being even more 'graceful' in a normal g environment.

That said, I would also penalize the dex of low-G persons in a normal-G environment, as they have to struggle and exert themselves to move somewhat normally.

Ther is nor reason for a low g native to have higher than normal dex considering their reaction times will degenerate over the millennia of natural selection - if we take natural selection off the table however...