V&V Power Spotlight: Gravity Control

[hidufel]

Thus sayeth the rulebook:Gravity Control:
The character has the ability to control the amount of gravitational pull exerted on objects around him. He can multiply an objects weight by his own Strength score (i.e. a character having a Strength of 10 could make a target weighing 100 Ibs suddenly weigh up to 1000 Ibs). He can also give an object less weight, down to negative S x the target’s original weight (i.e. the character above could make the 100 lb. weight now weigh anywhere down to negative 1000 Ibs). Any amount of negative weight will cause an object to 'fall' upwards.

Characters made to weigh more than normal accrue all the normal inconveniences: reduced effective carrying capacity (thus reduced basic HTH damage, reduce jumping distance, etc.), possibly an Agility minus (2.6B), etc. If the additional weight exceeds his Carrying Capacity, he will fall to the ground, unable to move. Whatever surface he is standing on will take damage based on his new weight (roll damage as indicated on the table in 2.6E). The character himself may take damage if his carrying capacity is exceeded, based on the number of excess pounds (see 2.6E once again), and this damage will be taken every between turns phase during which the excess weight is in effect.

A character made to weigh less than normal (but not a negative amount) may add his weight loss to his effective Carrying Capacity. A character weighing nothing will not fall, nor can he move normally: if a surface is available for him to push off from, then he could float through the air at his normal jumping speed, for a near-unlimited distance, but Agility saves will be required for him to go in the direction he desires.

A character given a negative weight will fall upwards, taking falling damage based on his negative weight score (if he falls up into a ceiling or something), plus gravitational damage as described above if applicable. If given sufficient ballast, he might be pulled back down.

All falling damage taken by a character with modified weight should be based on his current weight, not his original.

Gravity control requires an anchor to determine 'up' from 'down’. On a planet that's simple-but in space, a ship or an asteroid or the closet planet must be used (the attacker cannot use his own body).

Gravity Control has a range of S, and lasts so long as the target is within this range and the attacker spends one action per turn to maintain it. Power cost is one per positive or negative multiplier applied to the target's weight, or at least one (even against unresisting targets). The subject of any attack made by a character under the influence of Gravity Control receives free Gravity Control defense.

Gravity Control may be established and maintained over inanimate objects using movement instead of actions.

Obviously this is a very difficult power to simulate. The GM should use extreme care when determining the effects of its use
HOw have you used this power in game? or not? has it been too powerfull, not enough... is it too confusing?

I once played a character for many years, this was his main power, and i used it extensivley. so i do have quite a lot of input on it. and some insight. At one point i even went and found the expert opinion of some physicist on the proper application of multiple gravity factors on a falling object. i have more to say on that... but for now i thought id get the apple falling, so to speak...

[Food Eater Lad]

Gravity Powers: Pr= variable. The power spent creates a warp of the power spent squared. The radius is the same as the power spent in movement points. Ex: Warp Woman spends 10 power. She can create a Gravity Warp up to x100g s. It can affect an area up to 200 movement points. Gravity power has been increased dramatically in my game!

[bishoplogan]

most people drop it,
but I would love to hear your input.
Cause you can never have enough good villians.:th_dblthumb2:
:sasmokin:

[baldingfatman]

It hasn't been used much in the games I've played in. It's not a popular power.

I have used a limited version of it for a few PCs. Basically, the characters have only had the power to negate gravity, not increase or reverse it, and then only by touch. Basically, it gave them the ability to lift anything, giving the appearance of superhuman strength without increasing HTH damage.

[Ivory Paladin]

Gravity Control's description is definitely a little wordy, but a couple of careful re-reads can easily clear up any confusion a player or GM might have. As far as it being too powerful - I could see how some could say that. We have only one character ( an NPC ) in my gaming group with it and he is quite powerful. Of course we did structure him to be powerful ( he's our campaigns equivalent of Magneto ), but it wasn't really too difficult to do so.

Giving a Gravity Control character Heightened Agility and Heightened Strength could easily make them VERY powerful. The Heightened Strength would greatly increase the effectiveness of the power; combine that with Heightened Agility and you have an very strong gravity control that can 'handle' several targets at once ( considering the attack rate that a high Agility gives and the ability to easily pay the 'one action' maintenance cost - since the character would have several actions available ).

With all of that said my gaming group decided to make a house rule changing the Strength based ruling to Endurance and made a verbal agreement to keep gravity controlling characters Agility scores within 'reasonable' limits. We decided to change the Strength to Endurance, because we all agreed that anyone with a half way decent Strength score ( which most Gravity Controls will have ) would probably be best suited for HTH combat. Changing it to Intelligence was suggested, but we figured that there were already a few powers out there based on Intelligence so why do another. Making it an Agility based power was just too tempting and was ruled out immediately. So Endurance it was – the more we thought about it the better it sounded.

Aside from his other powers ( Flight, Force Field, etc. . . ) our Gravity Control NPC had a variant of Gravity Control based on Endurance and this power:


Relative Gravity: This character has his own personal center of gravity. He can determine that "down" is always beneath his feet. Among other things he can walk along walls and ceilings. He can also choose to fall in any direction, simulating a form of uncontrolled flight. He is unaffected by Gravity Control attacks and his personal gravity can not be altered.

Needless to say he was quite a challenge for our group. Not only did the Relative Gravity power just seem to fit well with the character concept, but it helped solved the problem of dealing with this part of the power description:

Gravity control requires an anchor to determine 'up' from 'down’. On a planet that's simple-but in space, a ship or an asteroid or the closet planet must be used (the attacker cannot use his own body).

Over all I like the power, but I can definitely see why most campaigns have only one character ( at most ) with it.

[SD Anderson]

With all of that said my gaming group decided to make a house rule changing the Strength based ruling to Endurance and made a verbal agreement to keep gravity controlling characters Agility scores within 'reasonable' limits. We decided to change the Strength to Endurance, because we all agreed that anyone with a half way decent Strength score ( which most Gravity Controls will have ) would probably be best suited for HTH combat. Changing it to Intelligence was suggested, but we figured that there were already a few powers out there based on Intelligence so why do another. Making it an Agility based power was just too tempting and was ruled out immediately. So Endurance it was – the more we thought about it the better it sounded.



Basically you took Gravity Control out and put in a depowered version of it into your game. If it works great. But, you can't make your house rule apply to other games.

[Ivory Paladin]

If it works great. But, you can't make your house rule apply to other games.

Which games? I'm confused :confused2:

[SD Anderson]

Which games? I'm confused :confused2:

You have a house ruled fix for gravity control in YOUR game. Other games are being played and they may well use the RAW verion of the power.

[Food Eater Lad]

In the two times I have used a villain with gravity control powers, the players teamed up and took them out BEFORE the villain even had a chance to do anything. They are that terrified of that power. Even though it has never even been used against them, it is the one power that gets them to stop bickering and team up.

Next time I use a gravity villain, I am calling him Butterfly Man, so that he will at least get to use his powers before they figure out what he can do.

[Ivory Paladin]

You have a house ruled fix for gravity control in YOUR game. Other games are being played and they may well use the RAW verion of the power.

ok >shrugs< . . . I'm not sure what your point is . . . did I do something wrong :confused2:. I thought we were just having a 'round robin' discussion about Gravity Control and I was adding in my experiences with it as part of the discussion. I'm not sure where you thought I was trying to force rule changes down peoples throats, but I assure you that was never my intention. I really just thought I was addressing / discussing the topic of the thread, which I thought was . . .

HOw have you used this power in game? or not? has it been too powerfull, not enough... is it too confusing?

I once played a character for many years, this was his main power, and i used it extensivley. so i do have quite a lot of input on it. and some insight. At one point i even went and found the expert opinion of some physicist on the proper application of multiple gravity factors on a falling object. i have more to say on that... but for now i thought id get the apple falling, so to speak...

. . . but I guess I shouldn't of. My sincere apologies to anyone who thought that I was being pushy or to anyone who thought I was trying to alter their gaming experience - it won't happen again I promise.

It was truly a pleasure to be able to finally post here after so many years of lurking - thanks again and keep up the great work - you guys are terrific! :wave:

:spring_blau: LONG LIVE V&V!!! :go:

[AnotherSKip]

SD, suggesting things is never a bad idea, and changing the stat it was foccused upon isn't really a big enough houserule to seriously mess with the mechanic enough to flip out over RAW vs House Rule or call it "depowered"

Of course after reading it then I was thinking well, why not a Charisma based gravity control power?

since CHR often relates to WIllpower in this games ,

either that or you could say that you just know how to talk to the little gravitons and get them to do what you want!

which I could find very useful like here :bricks:

[hidufel]

ok >shrugs< . . . I'm not sure what your point is . . . did I do something wrong :confused2:. I thought we were just having a 'round robin' discussion about Gravity Control and I was adding in my experiences with it as part of the discussion. I'm not sure where you thought I was trying to force rule changes down peoples throats, but I assure you that was never my intention. I really just thought I was addressing / discussing the topic of the thread, which I thought was . . .



. . . but I guess I shouldn't of. My sincere apologies to anyone who thought that I was being pushy or to anyone who thought I was trying to alter their gaming experience - it won't happen again I promise.

It was truly a pleasure to be able to finally post here after so many years of lurking - thanks again and keep up the great work - you guys are terrific! :wave:

:spring_blau: LONG LIVE V&V!!! :go:
Ivory paladin, you did exactly what was asked. I for one really enjoyed reading your thoughts on the matter, and fully invite you to do so again here. I wanted to make that clear! please, continue sharing with us! we enjoy having you here.

SD Anderson... um what the heck? I pretty much asked for exactly what he responded with. I asked for what people did with this power, how they used it, how they played it...

[hidufel]

I had a character GForce, Gravity was his main power. The way ive used the power, mostly as an attack form. Often id fling the vilian into the air, and let gravity do the work. Falling rules in the game are, the subject takes square root of their basic hits, times the number of inches fallen that turn.

a 200 lb man (4 basic hits) falling 15 inches (75 feet) would take thirty points of damage.

if i need to deliver a really nasty blow... id them into the ground even harder.

a 200 lb man (4 basic hits) under 10 gravity (now weighs 2000 lbs - 40 basic hits 9 (square root being 6.3245)) falling from 15 inches would take 95 points of damage.

if i REALLY needed to deliver a blow... id take myself up higher, with them, and then follow them down, under a higher gravity. (my max strength was 20)

At one point i even went online and asked a physics professor how to handle falling under higher gravity, and it works out (at least i think) the square root of the wieght factor multiplied by the falling time, would be the new falling time. this meant things i made heavier would fall faster, not because they were heavier, the effect of gravity was stronger on them. an object under 1 g acceleration fell 100 inches on the first turn... whereas an object under 20g acceleration fell 447 inches that first turn....

as you can tell its very easy to get obscene damage. sometime it was need to overcome a villians invulnerability (for falling damage divide the damage by the inv) or armor (for falling, armor defends to its fullest) or even for flying characters (unless winged, negates gravity all together)

also... i tended to kill a lot of villians. a lot of it accidently, but after the first few, i became ultra paranoid about it. it still happened, though.

after that i became mostly about flinging multiple opponents into the air, (yes requiring multiple to hits) ort simply imobilizing villians by clamping down on them, sticking them in place. if their weight overcame their carry capacity, they were immobilized.

the variable cost of the power was enough to ensure it wasnt always used to its fullest. GForce had something like 70-80 power, not every gravity attack was going to be at the full 20. often it was just a simple 1 gravity negative. (enought to fling a ground pounder up till they were out of range... 20 inches, then they fell right back to earth.)

it wasnt often i actually had to spend an action to maintain... (unless i was taking them and myself for a ride)

[Aj Woj]

I've always wanted to modify it to a low level version of flight, and super knockback with a punch or kick (no gravity of who you hit).

Yes I remember hearing stories of you killing thugs and villains in our games, Hidufel!

[Stephane]

I never liked Gravity Control. The wording was always a little odd to me. It is one of those powers that don't work like any other power and is extremely and deceptively powerful.

I avoided it like the plague, just as much as Death Touch or Water Breathing B.