Anti-grav questions

[Tobbe]

As an all new Traveller GM, and GM to Sci-Fi games overall, questions amasses.

One of these that has bothered me is how I can, in a very basic way, explain for my players how the Anti-grav works "in-world", ie in gravity? For example the Air-raft. The very short explanation given in the Rulebook gives no hint at all. Could just as well be magic. Any suggestions?

Glad for any help!

 

[Junior]

As an all new Traveller GM, and GM to Sci-Fi games overall, questions amasses.

One of these that has bothered me is how I can, in a very basic way, explain for my players how the Anti-grav works "in-world", ie in gravity? For example the Air-raft. The very short explanation given in the Rulebook gives no hint at all. Could just as well be magic. Any suggestions?

Glad for any help!

I'm no science guy but I would try to say that it makes gravity and then it manipulates it or just manipulates it. I don't know, as I said I'm not a science guy. I've always been curious how Anti-Gravity would work on a planet, wouldn't thinks start moving mighty fast or at least get mighty windy if you didn't have gravity holding you to the rotation of the world, now granted the air your flying in could help prevent that, at least I hope or else Anti Gravity would be fairly useless. Anyways, I'm just musing.

 

[simonh]

One of these that has bothered me is how I can, in a very basic way, explain for my players how the Anti-grav works "in-world", ie in gravity? For example the Air-raft. The very short explanation given in the Rulebook gives no hint at all. Could just as well be magic. Any suggestions?

It's magic. If it realy was just ant-gravity, it wouldn't be able to provide lateral thrust so you'd need a thruster system of some kind as well. I just assume that grav vehicles also have 'thruster plates' the same as starships to provide the additional manoeuverability and that these are automaticaly included in the cost and weight of the anti-grav system.

Simon Hibbs

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

The gravity plates on the bottom of the Air/Raft negate the effects of gravity on the vehicle and it floats. Small thrusters then allow the operator to move it around.

Alternately, or at lower TL, only 90% of the gravity is eliminated, so much smaller engines can be used to negate the other 10% and allow it to fly/hover.

Luke Skywalkers Landspeeder had null-gravity plates, but no lift capability, just thrust.

Those Pod Racers from SW Episode 1 had null-gravity plates and then used thrust to move things around. As the engines were angled up, you got lift.

While the gravity is negated, the MASS is not, so you still need thrust or something to move it around; you can't push on a 747 with your finger and expect it to go anywhere, even in zero-g.

 

[captainjack23]

The gravity plates on the bottom of the Air/Raft negate the effects of gravity on the vehicle and it floats. Small thrusters then allow the operator to move it around.

Alternately, or at lower TL, only 90% of the gravity is eliminated, so much smaller engines can be used to negate the other 10% and allow it to fly/hover.

Luke Skywalkers Landspeeder had null-gravity plates, but no lift capability, just thrust.

Those Pod Racers from SW Episode 1 had null-gravity plates and then used thrust to move things around. As the engines were angled up, you got lift.

While the gravity is negated, the MASS is not, so you still need thrust or something to move it around; you can't push on a 747 with your finger and expect it to go anywhere, even in zero-g.

Unless the grav effect is to cancel or significantly change the relation of Mass to the normal world of inertia. Which seems likely given how things work in space travel/combat.

On the other hand, it does seem to have many of the properties of a gravity insulator -I believe it was a popular crank science quest in the 30 -50's. It simply sets up a forcefield where local grav effects cannot pass. Except that that would also put the passengers in a micrograv environment. Darn.

back to the imaginingboard.

 

[Leo Knight]

I occasionally find books or articles on 'wierd science' to try to give some internal consistency to my Traveller outings, if only for my own satisfaction. One I found recently was this article about Paul Hill:

http://ufodna.com/articles/articles/hill.htm

Hill was an aerospace engineer, who had actually seen UFOs. He tried to reason the performance requirements of such a craft from what he had seen, and from witness accounts. He believed they acted within the limits of known physics, except for the propulsive anti-gravity field.

He wrote a book about it, now out of print. Here's a review:

http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc59.htm

Maybe this will give you some ideas.

 

[hdan]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Trav antitgravity isn't really "anti-gravity" but reactionless thrust. It twists space in such a way that the grav-plates feel a "thrust" against them. This effect can be used in a gravity well to cancel out the local gravity and fly, or it can be used in deep space to propel a spaceship (that's why maneuver drives can work away from a gravity source!). It's why you don't float out of an air/raft as well.

The grav-plates in a starship are essentially the reverse effect. Combined with inertial dampeners to cancel out the engine's thrust, and you can maintain a nice environment.

Unless of course you are in a collision or have some sort of unplanned explosion, in which case the inertial dampeners (which are configured to cancel the m-drive's thrust) won't help you very much, and you'll get that classic "everyone gets thrown around the bridge" effect.

 

[captainjack23]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Trav antitgravity isn't really "anti-gravity" but reactionless thrust. It twists space in such a way that the grav-plates feel a "thrust" against them. This effect can be used in a gravity well to cancel out the local gravity and fly, or it can be used in deep space to propel a spaceship (that's why maneuver drives can work away from a gravity source!). It's why you don't float out of an air/raft as well.

The grav-plates in a starship are essentially the reverse effect. Combined with inertial dampeners to cancel out the engine's thrust, and you can maintain a nice environment.

Unless of course you are in a collision or have some sort of unplanned explosion, in which case the inertial dampeners (which are configured to cancel the m-drive's thrust) won't help you very much, and you'll get that classic "everyone gets thrown around the bridge" effect.

seems to work. I wonder if the problem is that when I read "anti gravity" I tend to read "actual way to manipulate gravity". In fact, Gravitics and antigrav may be more simply descriptions of their observed effects, rather than their actual interaction with physics -rather like MagLev perhaps (not being a psionic power). In short, perhaps the float effect and the thrust aren't directly related to the physics of gravity - except insofar as "flying" would be.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Well you know how most people are, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, they will call it a duck, even if it is a goose.

People might call it Anti-Gravity, but the scientific name and actual physics might indeed have nothing to do with gravity, only the side effect that it appears that gravity is negated.