Default Setting: Low Gravity?

[Cheiromancer]

I've always pictured the typical campaign setting as being like earth, only with magic. But what if that wasn't so? Suppose that the default AD&D world had about one third or one half as intense a gravitational field as we experience.

The game world would still be "physically impossible" (i.e. would require magic to work), but a lot of things would be easier to accept. Giants, say, that don't collapse under their own weight. Medium sized flying creatures (dragons would still need magic to work, I think). Massive underground caves which rarely cave in.

I even read a comment on one of these boards that suggested that ranged weapons had too great a range; well, in a low gravity environment you would expect them to go farther, right?

The rules for falling damage are so abstract that one really can't say what level of gravity they presuppose.

Is there any evidence that gravity in (insert game setting here) is not, say, 40% of the real world value?

 

[graydoom]

Hmmm. A very interesting idea. And it makes a lot of sense too... it's an easy explanation for a lot of things that doesn't require magic.

And I don't think the gravity in any setting has been specifically mentioned. Everything is normally just assumed to be Earth gravity.

 

[DWARF]

Actually.... the physics of that don't work. Since gravity works in a squared form, 1/2 the gravity means 1/4 the atmosphere, so that it'd be TWICE as hard to generate lift. So, and I know it sounds odd, if you want to create a world where it's easier to fly, you should increase the gravity. Double the gravity means four times the atmosphere. Put those two together and you have twice as much lift generated for a given wing type.

Not to be a nay-sayer or anything. I saw a special about different gravity's and atmosphere's effects on potential life development on the Discovery Channel a few years ago.

 

[hong]

Is there any evidence that gravity in (insert game setting here) is not, say, 40% of the real world value?

The PCs are flying around like in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

 

[DWARF]

Ahh, but they would have to have been recently moved there, otherwise species in a lower gravity world would not develop such extreme musculature. It's like when astronauts come back from space. Sure, in space they look pretty adept, but get them back on a crushing 1g and they're in wheelchairs.

So if a species of humans moved to a low grav planet, unless they went on a strict weight training program like a body builder to keep their muscles strong, and kept selectively breeding for overall strength, they're muscles would ultimately atrophy as a species, and a different cellular musculature would be selected for.

Damn, sometimes I hate being a Biologist....

 

[Thebalor]

On the question of atrophying muscles, how do dragons maintain their high str. score while hibernating? (apparently they do it for years at a time)

 

[graydoom]

On the question of atrophying muscles, how do dragons maintain their high str. score while hibernating? (apparently they do it for years at a time)

Magic .

Other than that, maybe a very different metabolism than humans? Would that be possible? Bears do fine hibernating as far as I know, so with a couple modifictions I think dragons could do it even better. I don't really know anything about the actual scientific facts behind it, though.

Hmmm. Magic .

 

[hong]

So if a species of humans moved to a low grav planet, unless they went on a strict weight training program like a body builder to keep their muscles strong, and kept selectively breeding for overall strength, they're muscles would ultimately atrophy as a species, and a different cellular musculature would be selected for.

It's all about focusing ki, baby.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Actually.... the physics of that don't work. Since gravity works in a squared form, 1/2 the gravity means 1/4 the atmosphere, so that it'd be TWICE as hard to generate lift. So, and I know it sounds odd, if you want to create a world where it's easier to fly, you should increase the gravity. Double the gravity means four times the atmosphere. Put those two together and you have twice as much lift generated for a given wing type.

Well, Mars has about 40% of earth's gravity, but only about 1% the atmosphere. And Venus has a lower gravity than earth, but an atmosphere 100 times as thick. So I would think you could have a planet with an earth-like atmosphere and only half a gravity.