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Gravity Descriptors
The following are important descriptors for gravity powers
and their effects.
Gravity Features
Potential Feature effects associated with Gravity Powers
include the following:
You can automatically sense the relative gravity affecting you to within one-tenth of Earths normal
gravity (or 0.1G).
You can reduce gravity on relatively small masses
(rank 5 or less), making them float weightlessly so
long as you maintain the effect.
Offensive Powers
Offensive gravity powers typically use sheer force to
damage the target. Note that a number of utility gravity
powers also have offensive uses, particularly in regards to
pinning targets in place with massively increased weight
or leaving them floating helplessly in zero-gravity.
Gravitic Blast
You unleash a blast of gravitic force that smashes into
your target.
Gravitic Blast: Ranged Damage (force) 2 points per rank.
Gravitic Burst
You release a burst of gravitic force in all directions
around you. If you can produce a burst of gravitic force at
a distance, rather than radiating out from you, apply the
Ranged modifier to the power.
Gravitic Burst: Burst Area Damage (force) 2 points per rank.
Gravitic Wave
You send forth a widening wave of gravitic force that
slams targets in its path before dissipating.
Gravitic Wave: Cone Area Damage (force) 2 points per rank.
Gravity Field
This power intensifies the pull of gravity around you while
leaving you unaffected. Subjects in the field are effectively grabbed (Heros Handbook, page 196). If the subjects
Strength resistance check against the fields rank fails by
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one degree, the subject is prone and restrained (immobile and vulnerable). If it fails by two or more degrees, the
subject is bound (defenseless, immobile, and impaired).
Like a grab, you can make effect checks in succeeding
rounds to increase the degree of an existing hold, and
further degrees of success are cumulative.
Gravity Field: Burst Area Move Object (gravity), Limited to
Pulling Downwards 2 points per rank.
Null-G Field
The reverse of the Gravity Field power (previously), in a
Null-G Field, if the effect rank equals or exceeds a subjects
weight rank, the subject floats, weightless, inside the field.
This leaves subjects without other movement capabilities
effectively immobilized.
Null-G Field: Burst Area Move Object, Limited to Lifting Upwards
2 points per rank.
Singularity
A dangerous and deadly attack, this power creates a microsingularityessentially a tiny black holewhich draws
nearby matter into it to be torn apart and annihilated. Any
target caught in the Singularitys area of effect is drawn
towards it and suffers Damage upon contact until destroyed,
whereupon the target disappears into the singularity. It takes
a standard action each round to maintain the singularity, effectively reusing the powers Damage effect each round.
Singularity: Burst Area 2 Damaging Move Object, Limited to
Pulling Towards the Center of the Area 4 points per rank.
Upalanche
Shifting the direction of gravity, you cause loose debris
and objects to fall sideways or upwards to smash into
your targets. The rain of debris causes damage on two
consecutive rounds. Add more ranks of Area to create
even larger cascades of debris.
Upalanche: Ranged Cloud Area Damage (bludgeoning) 3
points per rank.
Defensive Powers
Defensive gravity powers primarily use gravitational force
to deflect or shield against attacks.
Gravitic Containment
Reflexively creating a point of intense gravity at the heart
of an explosion, you prevent the explosive force and material from achieving escape velocity, containing the blast
in an area no larger than its source and negating the explosion. This power has the Reaction modifier, allowing
it to immediately counter other effects, but it also makes
a useful countering effect power stunt using extra effort
and a hero point to instantly counter (Heros Handbook,
page 21) with any gravity power.
Gravitic Containment: Nullify Explosions, Reaction 4 points per
rank.
Gravitic Deflection
Gravity waves deflect incoming attacks, increasing the
weight of projectiles so they simply drop out of the air and
bending energy beams and similar attacks around their
targets. By default, this power protects a single target
but you can apply the Area modifier to allow you to exert
Gravitic Deflection over a larger area and protect multiple
subjects at once.
Gravitic Deflection: Deflect 1 point per rank.
Gravitic Immunity
Your control over gravity is such that you are immune to
its effects, able to compensate for them instantly.
Gravitic Immunity: Immunity 2 (Gravity Effects) 2 points.
Gravitic Shield
A hardened skin-tight shield of gravitic force protects you
from incoming attacks. A Gravitic Shield may be Subtle,
invisible to all but Gravitic Sense and similar effects.
Gravitic Shield: Impervious Protection, Sustained 2 points
per rank.
Movement Powers
Control over gravity opens up numerous options for
movement, from soaring through the air to walking on
walls in defiance of gravitys normal pull.
Anti-Gravity
Fine manipulation of gravity allows you to soar and swoop
through the air without any other means of propulsion.
Anti-Gravity flight can be extremely stealthy, qualifying
for at least the first rank of the Subtle modifier.
If you can grant others the ability to fly as well, apply the
Affects Others modifier. If you merely carry others along
with you using your own gravity powers, use the Gravikinesis power instead (see Utility Powers).
Anti-Gravity: Flight, Subtle 1 point + 2 points per rank.
Directional Pull
You can alter the direction gravity pulls for you, effectively
changing which direction down lies. This allows you to
do things like walk on walls or ceilings as if they were the
floor or ground.
Directional Pull: Movement (Wall-Crawling) 2 points per rank.
Free Fall
With power over gravity, you can slow a fall to land as
lightly and gently as a feather.
Free Fall: Movement 1 (Safe Fall) 2 points.
Gravity Warp
Using gravity to bend space, you open up a momentary
warp between two distant points, allowing you to travel
between them instantly. Your Gravity Warp may be a personal power, lasting just long enough to encompass you,
or it could have the Portal modifier (Heros Handbook, page
131), allowing others to pass through it as well. Other Teleport modifiers may also apply to the power.
For an interplanetary or interstellar version of Gravity
Warp, add the Space Travel option of the Movement effect
(Heros Handbook, page 120). Some Gravity Warps may be
able to produce Time and Dimension Travel as well.
Gravity Warp: Teleport 2 points per rank.
High-Gravity Adaptation
Your powers allow you to ignore the effects of higher than
Earth-normal gravity. You operate normally under higher
gravity conditions, as if you were still under 1G.
High-Gravity Adaptation: Movement 1 (Environmental
AdaptationHigh-Gravity) 2 points.
Low-G Leap
Rather than freeing you entirely from gravitys grip (see
Anti-Gravity), you lower its effects enough for you to
leap great distances with your normal Strength. If you
can grant this benefit to others, apply the Affects Others
modifier as well.
Low-G Leap: Leaping 1 point per rank.
Utility Powers
Most utility gravity powers involve overcoming the forces
effect to move large and heavy objects more easily.
Artificial Gravity
You can create an area of Earth-normal gravity in defiance of the prevailing gravitational pull, either reducing
the effects of a high-gravity environment, or creating a
normal gravity environment on a low-gravity planetoid,
space station, or space vessel, negating one level of
impeded movement.
Note that artificial gravity is an assumed capability of
space vehicles, although the GM is free to make it a
feature for settings where zero gravity on space vehicles
is the default (see Vehicles, pages 169173 of the Heros
Handbook).
Artificial Gravity: Environment (negate impeded movement
due to gravity) 1 point per rank.
Gravikinesis
Using focused and directed gravity, you can move objects
at a distance, causing them to fall in any direction you
want at a speed rank of (effect rank mass rank) or hover
weightlessly in midair. You can move objects with mass
rank equal to or less than your power rank. See the Kinetic
Powers profile for more details on the Move Object effect
and similar powers using it.
Gravikinesis: Move Object 2 points per rank.
Gravitic Communication
You can modulate gravity waves or particles to carry communication signals across interplanetary distances within
a solar system. You can communicate over radio frequency bands at a level where only specialized graviton detectors (or recipients with Gravitic Sense, following) can pick
up your communication.
For gravity controllers who do not have this power, it
makes a potentially useful power stunt for last-ditch communications.
Gravitic Communication: Communication 5, Area, Subtle 1
26 points.
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Gravitic Sense
You can sense gravitational waves and flux, detecting
the use of gravity powers and similar effects (like artificial
gravity sources) with gravity descriptors. The basic power
just detects such effects at a distance. It may also be Accurate for 2 more ranks, allowing it to target other effects,
and Extended to detect over greater distances.
Gravitic Sense: Senses (Detect Gravity, Ranged) 2 points per
rank.
Low-G Lifting
By touching an object and reducing gravitys effect on it,
you make it lighter and easier to move, effectively increasing your strength when it comes to lifting heavier objects.
If you lighten an object for anyone to lift, apply the Affects
Others modifier, allowing you to enhance the lifting capacity of others as well.
Low-G Lifting: Enhanced Strength, Limited to Lifting 1 point
per rank.
Gravity Complications
Gravity is not a force to manipulate lightly and can weigh
heavily upon those who do so (unfortunate puns and
all). Gravity powers can complicate characters lives in a
number of different ways.
Accident
The potential for disaster when manipulating a fundamental force like gravity is considerable. Gravitational
shifts can compromise structures, causing them to literally collapse under their increased weight, or even their
normal weight after a period of near weightlessness.
Gravity powers can potentially cause accidents on a wider
scale: shifting the gravitational balance of an entire planet
Disability
Gravity has a strong influence on human capabilities: a
strong person is a virtual cripple, weighed down by stronger gravity, and someone with limited mobility may be
freed by low- or anti-gravity movement. Gravity controllers might compensate for certain physical disabilities
using their powers, or might face similar disabilities due
to their origins, such as the low-gravity dweller who can
barely move in Earth-normal gravity without the exercise
of some anti-gravity power.
Long-term exposure to low-gravity is known to have debilitating effects, particularly muscle atrophy and bone
loss, some of which can be overcome by proper exercise
and physical therapy and some of which is unavoidable
at our current level of understanding. This may never
become a true disability for most characters with gravity
powers, but it is not difficult to imagine someone with
years of exposure to near zero-gravity suffering from
problems.
Enemy
Gravity powers lend themselves well to dark reflection
foes (Gamemasters Guide, page 48), enemies with similar
powers but a very different outlook. So a heroic and responsible gravity controller might face off against a villain
who is lofty and imperious, made arrogant by vast powers
or, alternately, a vicious brute with none of the subtly or
finesse associated with fine control over great power, just
sheer force.
Gravity powers also fall into the category of too dangerous to run loose, so enemies may include those who
feel the character should be taken out of circulation for
the greater good. This may mean anything from forcibly
imprisoning the character (or finding a way to remove
the dangerous powers) to killing the gravity controller in
order to keep the rest of the world safe. Of course, this can
lead to the self-fulfilling prophecy of otherwise harmless
characters turning against humanity because of those
who hounded them due to their powers.
Power Loss
How do you take away the ability to manipulate a force as
fundamental as gravity itself? Gravity powers may suffer
from power loss in a number of ways.
If there is a way for superhumans to manipulate gravity,
then there is a way for others to do so, perhaps creating
counter-manipulations. Done artificially, this provides a
gravity nullifying device. In settings with artificial gravity
on board starships and space stations, this capability
almost certainly exists. Its primarily a matter of adapting
it to counteract gravitational powers.
Gravity manipulators are also shown as the weak link in
their own power: That is, the human element is the easiest
to disrupt. If you cannot counter the force of gravity itself,
you may be able to disrupt the users concentration and
control. Things like drugs, sensory overload, airborne
toxins, and similar effects may be able to shake a gravity
controllers concentration enough to shut down their
powers, even momentarily.
Reputation
Given all of the considerable power discussed previously,
it is not difficult for gravity controllers to get reputations
as menaces, walking disasters just waiting to happen. This
is especially true if the character is at all casual or dismissive about concepts like power and responsibility, or has
caused prior accidents.
Responsibility
In addition to superheroics, a gravity controllers responsibilities might involve volunteer work (gravity powers
can literally make light work of some jobs) or things like
scientific research or manufacturing. A gravity controller
without scientific training or skills can still be a remarkably
useful aid in performing certain experiments, or in manufacturing materials most easily created in micro-gravity
conditions, such as certain alloys or chemicals.
On the other hand, a less scrupulous responsibility associated with gravity powers might be using said powers
to maintain the proper orbits of things in the world. A
gravity controller could become self-appointed guardian
of order and discipline in the world, whether the world
wanted it or not!
Weakness
As mentioned under Power Loss, the primary weak link
of gravity powers is the mortal mind and body wielding such power. Effects targeting Fortitude and Will may
bypass some of a gravity controllers defenses and disrupt
concentration. Because gravity only affects mass, some
types of energy may also bypass it or have a greater effect
on those who wield it.
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