 February 24, 2017 - 9:25pm | In the Alpha Dawn rules, the effects of gravity are an optional rule, but it only seems to impact a few things such as the Yazarian's gliding distance, the amount of weight a character can carry, safe leaping distance and falling damage. Movement rates are not affected for characters or robots or vehicles. Projectile weapons have the same range. So, should there be any impact of gravity on the distance that a person can toss a grenade? Hurl a spear? Throw a knife? Or should we just say that things even out? Sure a Dralasite might be able to move faster in a lower gravity environment, but the bullets fly faster and longer anyway so what's the difference? Yeah, a bomb or grenade falling from an aircar might fall a bit faster in a heavy gravity environment, but Star Frontiers isn't a science class. Anyone have any thoughts on this topic? Joe Cabadas |
 February 24, 2017 - 10:10pm | This question seems like a discussion of "abstraction" versus "simulation" in the games designs. Star Frontiers lives more on the abstract end of things, simplified and streamlined. Other games, like Living Steel, and parts of GURPS, fall heavily in the "simulation" end where the mechanics are complex and modeled heavily on many realistic factors. What I could say about this topic is that the mathematics are reasonably straightforward to work out player strength as a factor, player height, mass of thrown object to generate new PB/S/M/L/E bands. As long as you break down the math into easy to use tables during character creation, and run through the existing weapons to make examples, an idea like this can really work out. This was the problem Living Steel had - fantastic system, but it took a lot of research and assembly for a GM to streamline it on the players' behalf - and most of that was changes to the character creation to "pre-calculate" all of the various bits and get them in up front. Set up your system as a set of character creation add-ons, and equipment table add-ons and it could work and bring in some extra realism without being that cumbersome at the table. And, the result needs to be something the players themselves have handy, rather than having the GM or the players page-flipping for this one piece of simulation mechanics. |
 February 25, 2017 - 11:11am | do we need this added level of simulation? I suppose I could see a player trying to justify that hey the gravity is lighter so I should be able to throw the knife farther. would prefer something simple and optional I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 25, 2017 - 11:35am | do we need this added level of simulation?
I would prefer something simple and optional We probably don't. TSR never bothered to include it. I was just wondering if anyone else had any thoughts on it and adding an additional gravity mechanic -- above what's already there -- would probably bog things down. Joe Cabadas |
 September 22, 2017 - 5:32pm | I would live it up to the GM if he would allow the physics and mechanics of throw weapons, weight allowances, projectile dynamics, and thrust & impact trauma. This could be ironed out before a campaign or gaming session on any particular adventure. When all parties are in agreement, a simple table can be created to be used by all. |
 September 22, 2017 - 6:07pm | Don't forget air resistance and resultant loss of velocity if you really want to bring the phancy physics into missile ranges. ;) I'm not enough of a gun bunny, or throwing weapons buff to really worry about it, but I could see it being fun for high or low gravity, or thick or thin atmosphere to affect weapon ranges. |
September 22, 2017 - 6:37pm | Cant agree with you more brother, good observations. |
September 22, 2017 - 10:02pm | I can see a referee announcing that because of the higher gravity and dense atmosphere all weapons ranges are degraded by X ammount for this adventure, except beam weapons. Simple announcement at beginning and a straight forward -25% modification. Although I'd probably prep a table of the modified weapons ranges ahead. I could live with something within shouting range of the KISS rule I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 23, 2017 - 5:14am | Should gravity effect projectile objects? While I could refer you to various shooting manuals that take things like (as previously stated) air pressure, humidity, wind, elevation, and other factors; what I would really like to ask is did you see the chasm jumping moon buggy in Armaggedon? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 September 23, 2017 - 8:56am | Well some games and even old sci-fi pulp fiction does at times the gravity into effect as part of the story line, or abilities of characters, or phenomenon that acts on weapon ranges. I would definitely say for SF it is optional, as fast simple game play is one of the perks of the game in general, I can see house rules on this or maybe one time adventure rules on this though. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
 October 2, 2017 - 10:56am | If you're going to make gravity affect ranges, then you also need to make gravity affect aim. If you grew up in 1.0g, throwing something in 1.2g or 0.8g is going to force you to recalibrate. And that's just too much paperwork for too little verisimilitude. |
October 4, 2017 - 5:54pm | If you're going to make gravity affect ranges, then you also need to make gravity affect aim. If you grew up in 1.0g, throwing something in 1.2g or 0.8g is going to force you to recalibrate. And that's just too much paperwork for too little verisimilitude. Yes, you are probably right. Joe Cabadas |
October 4, 2017 - 5:58pm | Well some games and even old sci-fi pulp fiction does at times the gravity into effect as part of the story line, or abilities of characters, or phenomenon that acts on weapon ranges. I would definitely say for SF it is optional, as fast simple game play is one of the perks of the game in general, I can see house rules on this or maybe one time adventure rules on this though. Yes, if it was part of a particular story line or some phenomenon, then perhaps gravity's effects on throwing and slug thrower weapons would come into play. Otherwise, it probably is just too much of a bother to worry about... Which brings to mind, do the existing optional rules for handling jumps and falls make sense? Why doesn't it slow down/speed up movement depending upon whether it's higher gravity or lower? Joe Cabadas |
