[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: G-Intolerance

[johndallman]

G-Intolerance [-10 or -20] is a mundane physical disadvantage, although one that is only available in some settings. It makes your ability to adapt to living in different strength gravity fields worse than that of a normal human. It appeared during the 3e period, likely in one of the editions of GURPS Space.

A normal human starts to suffer penalties in gravity of 0.8G or 1.2G, an increment of 0.2G. To reduce that to 0.1G, take G-Intolerance at [-10]; for 0.05G, it’s [-20]. The most noticeable penalty is -1 DX per increment of higher or lower gravity, for tasks that require large body movements, or judging the effects of gravity, such as melee weapon skills, Driving (braking distance will be affected) and projectile weapon skills. See B. 350 for more details.

G-Intolerance does not make you more vulnerable to the effects of brief strong accelerations. That would be Susceptibility (Acceleration), the opposite of Resistant (Acceleration), which has replaced the 3e advantage Acceleration Tolerance.

Basic says this disadvantage is only available in campaigns that feature regular space travel; it would be reasonable to allow it in world-hopping campaigns where different worlds have different gravity, although those don’t seem to be common. Nor are references to G-Intolerance in GURPS supplements. Bio-Tech uses it as a (quite tolerable) disadvantage in bioroids designed to live in space, and Space adds a [-25] level, for characters with no ability to adapt to other gravity levels at all. Underground Adventures uses it, for creatures that live at the boundary between Earth’s mantle and core, and that’s all, for the 4e supplements I have.

I’ve never used this disadvantage, as player or GM, nor seen it in action. It has a place in a generic and universal system, but that doesn’t require it to be used often.

[jason taylor]

At first I thought you meant bigotry rather then a medical condition. And I think that is the common usage in Gurps.

[ericthered]

I generally see people going for its opposite, not taking it. Few people want to do extra math to make their character suck.

[Phil Masters]

This comes down to a basic problem of interplanetary SF, including but not limited to RPGs. Differing gravity fields really ought to be a big practical issue, with all sorts of ramifications, but it's difficult to make them interesting at a level more advanced than "Character X is hosed, they keep falling over and can't judge a throw or a catch, sucks to be them". On top of which, even modern digital FX can't really represent this stuff well on screen, and aside from some images of astronauts in zero G and a few limited images from the Apollo landings, we don't have much in the way of visual imagery to give anyone a sense of the problem.

(Actually, I don't think we really have a very good idea how quickly different people would adjust to different gravities.)

So stories, movies, and games tend to disregard the whole issue or at least handle it inconsistently. So any game mechanic that does address the topic just looks annoying and superfluous.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I’ve never used this disadvantage, as player or GM, nor seen it in action. It has a place in a generic and universal system, but that doesn’t require it to be used often.

It's more mechanically fiddly than many disadvantages. But I think another problem may be that it doesn't provide fun stuff - compare, say, Lecherousness, Compulsive Carousing, Social Stigma, Pyromania, or Phobia (Air Travel), each of which can give the player an opportunity to do something dramatic or silly. This disadvantage just means that you get worse at things until you go to a new planet.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

It's more mechanically fiddly than many disadvantages. But I think another problem may be that it doesn't provide fun stuff - compare, say, Lecherousness, Compulsive Carousing, Social Stigma, Pyromania, or Phobia (Air Travel), each of which can give the player an opportunity to do something dramatic or silly. This disadvantage just means that you get worse at things until you go to a new planet.

Looking at the numbers, it really impedes you. even small penalties matter in gurps, and the gravity penalties are very harsh to start with.


I wonder if a more interesting system couldn't be implemented with limited versions of other disadvantages. Kultz (non-native gravity). Gravity Sickness (Motion sickness, but applied only to changed gravity). Even mental disadvantages, like bad temper could be linked to changed gravity to reflect someone's inexperience.

[Flyndaran]

I always considered that 2 G increments the true handicap. -1 IQ, and -1 Ht seemed the real killers. Most games involve rolling against Health such that any reduction would matter quickly.

Looking at Campaigns again, I can't tell if the line about reducing fatigue by a similar amounts means in addition to what would be lost from Ht reduction. Or if the Ht loss is meant to only drop rolls against the stat and therefore doesn't include sub-stats. I'm leaning toward the latter, but could see a realistic argument for the former.