Help! How does G-Experience work?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Brett

An answer from Kromm would be nice. But a citation of a rule I have overlooked or a link to a previous Kromm answer would do.

He's usually very nice about replying to e-mails and private messages about rules-stuff, though.

And if he wanted to discourage such messages, he wouldn't have them enabled here on the site for everyone. I get the feeling that it is totally okay to ask him.

[Agemegos]

Emboldened by Icelander's reassurance, I wrote to Kromm and received the following reply:

Originally Posted by Kromm

Everything within one G-increment around some value. You pick a gravity value and within one increment around that, you have experience with it.

It takes two full G-increments to cause a -1 (p. B350), so in effect, it round in the character's favor.

I don't see that at all. IGT expressly changes increment size, and that's all it does. It doesn't directly affect penalties at all. Moreover, IGT affects IQ and HT penalties, not just DX.

[Agemegos]

So, as I understand it, an astronaut native to Earth with G-experience on the Moon (0.17 gee) would suffer DX penalties as follows:

**** g *** DX penalty

**** 0 ******* -3
0.01 – 0.2 *** -2
0.21 – 0.37 ** -1
0.38 – 0.4 *** -3
0.41 – 0.6 *** -2
0.61 – 0.8 *** -1
0.81 – 1.19 *** 0
1.20 – 1.39 ** -1
1.40 – 1.59 ** -2
1.60 – 1.79 ** -3
1.80 – 1.99 ** -4
2.00 – 2.19 ** -5
2.20 – 2.39 ** -6
2.40 – 2.59 ** -7
2.60 – 2.79 ** -8
2.80 – 2.99 ** -9
3.00 – 3.19 * -10

Surface gravity on Mars is 0.38 gee. NASA must be chagrined.

[Agemegos]

Here's an interesting example: a character who is native to a planet with 1.03 gee at the surface, who gains experience of a planet with 0.46 gee.

**** g *** DX penalty

0.00 – 0.03 ** -5
0.04 – 0.23 ** -4
0.24 – 0.26 ** -3
0.27 – 0.43 ** -1
0.44 – 0.63 ** -1
0.64 – 0.65 *** 0
0.66 – 0.83 ** -1
0.84 – 1.22 *** 0
1.23 – 1.42 ** -1
1.43 – 1.62 ** -2
1.63 – 1.82 ** -3
1.83 – 2.02 ** -4
2.03 – 2.22 ** -5
2.23 – 2.42 ** -6
2.43 – 2.62 ** -7
2.63 – 2.82 ** -8
2.83 – 3.02 ** -9
3.03 – 3.22 * -10

[Langy]

I'd have ruled it was half a G-Increment around one value, or all of a single G-Increment, if I were making the rules up myself. That way you could say 'I have G-Experience between 0G and 0.2G' rather than making G-Experience 'I have G-Experience between 0G and 0.4G', which is significantly greater. Means with 10 full points of G-Experience, you'd have G-Experience between 0G and 4.4G, which seems excessive (how often are you going to be in gravity higher than 2G?).

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Langy

I'd have ruled it was half a G-Increment around one value, or all of a single G-Increment, if I were making the rules up myself.

I would have made it the whole of a G-increment, I think: one of the ones defined by the character's home gravity. That would make things a bit simpler, and avoided the queer effects of small gaps and overlaps.

Or I might have gone all the way to a fixed scale of g-categories, such as Universe and ForeSight used.

how often are you going to be in gravity higher than 2G?

No more often than I can help. And making DX-based rolls in it still less!

[Phil Masters]

To be honest, I think that G-Experience and the associated rules are a wee bit ... over-strenuous. I want to have the possibility that someone born on Earth can learn to operate 100% comfortably on Mars or the Moon or wherever, no annoying and boring faffing about with penalties. Okay, realistically it might be hard, but I'm not convinced it would be impossible (especially given nanotech neural treatments for the nervous system or some other TL10+ handwave), and for an even faintly dramatic - let alone cinematic - game, it's got to be quite straightforward.

So in my opinion, GMs shouldn't be afraid to house-rule "G-Experience for gravity level X means no penalties or problems in gravity level X".

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

So in my opinion, GMs shouldn't be afraid to house-rule "G-Experience for gravity level X means no penalties or problems in gravity level X".

Sure. It might take several months, more likely years, to achieve that, but it's not unreasonable. And as for character creation, there just has to be an option that the player can pay CPs for, and then he justifies it in backstory.

A bigger question is how to handle experience with rotation-induced "gravity" in high-RPM habitats.