Ways to use artifical gravity as a trap

[Eternal!Forever]

I'm the GM for a Star Wars Saga Edition game. But this question is genre nonspecific.

I'm also soon to be starting another SAGA game as a PC but that's unrelated to this post.
Soon, I want my players (3 level 12 PCs with an NPC ally) to find and explore an ancient alien temple on a small moon orbiting a gas giant.


The original inhabitants are now long gone the losers in an interstellar war. Because of the war they hid this temple and rigged a bunch of traps to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

The only really special thing about this temple is that it has artifical gravity. It pulls in different directions in different rooms, can turn on and off, or change direction. Most of the other technology has fallen into a state of disrepair or no longer powered. However the artifical gravity continues to function.

There are small channels cut through the temple with gravity pulling air throughout for air conditioning and what used to be very impressive fountains, however the water is now all gone. Small rocks and dust constantly flow through both of these features.

The temple was made at the height of this civilisation so the upper floors would have been fancy and impressive. The temple extends below the surface into the rock of the moon so Cavern like areas also exist.

I think I want to use a pit trap that pulls the party sideways (in relation to the temple)

Maybe have some spikes in places.

My question to the playground: What traps can we come up with that use artificial gravity as a feature?

[Thrawn4]

You cut let them hang in mid-air until they starve or are rescued.
Alternatively, let them soar up high a hundred meters and then drop them.

[LibraryOgre]

Greatly increase the gravity in an area... it can either be used to slow people down, or to drop heavy objects on them.

Fluctuate the gravity rapidly. In some people, it will cause nausea, but it will force everyone to deal with weirdly unsteady footing.

Or, you know, make a gravy gun.

https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-07-28

http://ovalkwiki.com/Gravy+Gun

[neonchameleon]

The two obvious ways are the float trap - with gravity pushing you away from all the walls, and the Extreme Heavy trap. The third would be the oscillator (7 gs and flips every five seconds). Oh, and the old "There's no ceiling here and I've just reversed gravity".

Get more interesting and you can set up some interesting pseudo-parkour routes that are only known to those who knew the temple so you bounce round the room and end up on the far wall; any miss takes you back to the start a little more bruised.

[Eternal!Forever]

Excellent ideas so far everyone, thank you.
Keep them coming.
I really want to come up with a dozen or more different traps all using this artifical gravity mechanic.

[erikun]

How mean do you want to be?

Do you want these to be intentional traps (i.e. traps set up when the city was active) or accidental traps (i.e. common features that became "traps" because you might not know what they are)?

One rather simple idea is to have a room where gravity shifts along the side, jettisoning content out over a cliff edge (where gravity returns to normal). A trap would simply have a pressure-sensitive plate, while the non-trap variant could simply have a chute emptying into the sideways-gravity room.

Other ideas include a room where enough weight will reverse gravity, smashing a mobile floor up against the ceiling (automatic trash compactor). You could have an incinerator that has gravity sideways, as a way to pipe smoke into another room - perhaps because you want to dump trash or something else from a room above. You could have "elevator" shafts with reverse gravity pointed upwards, potentially even more dangerous if something had smashed through the ceiling and would just fling the party up into the air.

Of course, don't forget to include some gravity "traps" which aren't necessarily dangerous. A weak low-gravity or zero-gravity public area could be used for a children's playground, or something equivalent to an ice rink. There might be small sections of reverse-gravity areas, where someone would start a fire and then pipe smoke into, performing some sort of performing art with the captive smoke cloud. There could be ramps which turn along the walls, with gravity following them, to allow people to move upwards in the structure while continuing to move along with the upward gravity. In fact, in some heavy transportation areas, they might've had separate up-gravity and down-gravity areas designed specifically to allow them to move heavy objects with the assistance of gravity, rather than needing to pull against it.

[Telok]

Cruel would be an area with bands of gravity shoving one way at knee and ankle heigth and another band shoving in the opposite direction in between them.

[Knaight]

A fun one would be to have adjacent bands of gravity that point in opposite directions, and thus violently spin anything in both of them. Another fun one would be to use gravity gradients for stretching and compressing things in certain directions. Fields could be designed to pull everything towards a central point somewhere, which makes a fun trap when that everything involves a bunch of intruders and also a large amount of some sort of caustic liquid.

[Eternal!Forever]

How mean do you want to be?
Very, but not overly.
I don't want it to kill more than one party member (at most) by the time they get through, but they should all be hurting.
I do want the traps (many of the later ones anyway) to seem like they were designed to be lethal, but maybe they have degraded with time. That or there were components of the trap that were mechanical and no longer powered.



Do you want these to be intentional traps (i.e. traps set up when the city was active) or accidental traps (i.e. common features that became "traps" because you might not know what they are)?
I'd like several of each. The whole premise is that they mastered artifical gravity and use it for everything.



Of course, don't forget to include some gravity "traps" which aren't necessarily dangerous.* A weak low-gravity or zero-gravity public area could be used for a children's playground, or something equivalent to an ice rink.
Love this. I'm going to put it just off the main entrance.


Cruel would be an area with bands of gravity shoving one way at knee and ankle heigth and another band shoving in the opposite direction in between them.
Can you (or anyone with a better understanding of physics than I have) better explain how this would actually work?
Reading the description I picture someone walking along the floor of a room, but a short band of gravity at the bottom pulls to one side, with another above that pulling to the other side.
Wouldn't that low band make it so you can't actually walk on the floor of the room? I imagine it would pull your feet out from under you, causing you to fall down (toward the floor) into it and then "fall" (sideways) to the wall of the room.


A fun one would be to have adjacent bands of gravity that point in opposite directions, and thus violently spin anything in both of them.
Nice. I'm going to use this. Quick question: would the spinning continue to accelerate? At least until some relativity high terminal velocity is reached based on air resistance. Of course a spinning sphere wouldn't have any air resistance, would it continue to accelerate indefinitely?
Also, what would the air in a room like this do?


Another fun one would be to use gravity gradients for stretching and compressing things in certain directions. Fields could be designed to pull everything towards a central point somewhere, which makes a fun trap when that everything involves a bunch of intruders and also a large amount of some sort of caustic liquid.
Another good one. Think I'll use some sort of Acidic sludge that causes minor damage. Of course a knowledge check will reveal that if it wasn't so old it would be an extremely deadly liquid acid.

Great ideas all, thank you everyone.
I think I can use all of them.

Anyone have any more ideas or some info to clear up my questions it'd be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[Telok]

Can you (or anyone with a better understanding of physics than I have) better explain how this would actually work?
Reading the description I picture someone walking along the floor of a room, but a short band of gravity at the bottom pulls to one side, with another above that pulling to the other side.
Wouldn't that low band make it so you can't actually walk on the floor of the room? I imagine it would pull your feet out from under you, causing you to fall down (toward the floor) into it and then "fall" (sideways) to the wall of the room.


head @ --> Gravity bands and direction
torso || <--
legs /\ -->

Having parsed it out I suppose that instead of hurting them it would mostly be really disorienting and hard to get out of. Although if it was string enough, switched on fast enough, and the person was oriented in the wrong direction it could break their back.

[Knaight]

Nice. I'm going to use this. Quick question: would the spinning continue to accelerate? At least until some relativity high terminal velocity is reached based on air resistance. Of course a spinning sphere wouldn't have any air resistance, would it continue to accelerate indefinitely?
Also, what would the air in a room like this do?

It would accelerate until air resistance got in the way, a spinning sphere would have air resistance (it would actually be fairly easy to calculate it, by which I mean it's still a fluid mechanics problem and thus a certain amount of obnoxious, but at least the geometry involved doesn't suck), and the air probably wouldn't be affected much as the force of gravity is pretty minor - although there's room for heavier/lighter than air gases to get a bit weird.

[Jay R]

I've never done this, and wouldn't. But it's still the first thing that came to mind.

"OK, gravity is now double what it was. Re-calculate encumbrance, and determine what you need to leave behind, and what your speed is now. Don't forget to include your own added weight."

[Knaight]

I've never done this, and wouldn't. But it's still the first thing that came to mind.

"OK, gravity is now double what it was. Re-calculate encumbrance, and determine what you need to leave behind, and what your speed is now. Don't forget to include your own added weight."

It could also be fun to go the other way - cut gravity to something like 1/4 the previous value, put people in a position to load up on truly ludicrous amounts of loot, and then have fun with how the mass is still there and that's what inertia cares about.

[Jay R]

It could also be fun to go the other way - cut gravity to something like 1/4 the previous value, put people in a position to load up on truly ludicrous amounts of loot, and then have fun with how the mass is still there and that's what inertia cares about.

Ooh, I like it. If inertia is what matters, and not weight, then the monsters who live in that field have maces and flails that weigh four times as much, and do four times as much damage, but swing (in this field) just as quickly. Then when the PCs take the wonderful weapon back home, they can't wield it.

[Knaight]

Ooh, I like it. If inertia is what matters, and not weight, then the monsters who live in that field have maces and flails that weigh four times as much, and do four times as much damage, but swing (in this field) just as quickly. Then when the PCs take the wonderful weapon back home, they can't wield it.

Conventional weapons are going to have some issues (F=ma gets fun once that acceleration vector is something like trying to counteract torque from having swung it and not just lifting it), but I could definitely see some fun coming at the edge of these fields - throw rocks in a high arc from the 1/4 G zone at targets in an adjacent 1G zone, and they're going to be nasty missiles on the way down. The weirdness in the arc would also make avoiding them that much more difficult. Armor could also be fun, as weight is much more of an issue there and the extra mass is useful for things like smashing into people.

[TeChameleon]

Some other fun bits that could be tried:

"Housekeeping Mode": anything dropped on the floor would be yanked away into vents along the wall by strong sideways gravity at floor level; originally it was basically their equivalent to vacuuming the floor, and only activated when no-one was in a given room; unfortunately, the sensors that detected that have long since rotted away, but the sensors that detected things falling on the floor are simple gravity-flux monitors, and thus work just fine. Good times when the wall tries to eat you every time you take a step (or, if you want to be really mean, have the 'dropped stuff' sensors be badly degraded, but still functional some of the time- roll up a string of random numbers, and every time someone moves the correct number of squares, *yoink*! Have fun watching your players go bananas trying to figure out the 'trap' :smallamused:)

Busted Entryway: A simple one- the normal entrance is caved in or blocked in some other fashion, but there's a crack in the wall large enough to crawl through some distance away. Only problem is- if you went through the normal entrance, the pathway would take care of re-orienting your gravity for you. Go through the crack, and 'down' is suddenly the far wall/floor of the 200m-long/tall room!

Hurricane Zone/Asteroid Meteor Belt: Spinning off from the 'two adjacent areas with opposing gravity' bit, if some walls went down in the wrong places, you could end up with a localized hurricane with its own belt of whirling chunks of rubble/skin-flaying sandblast contained in it. For extra fun, lightning-bolt levels of static charge has built up within the mini-cane, and over the years has blasted away everything that was formerly close enough to ground it out. Enter the PCs, the tallest things in the area for some reason...

Wind Shearing: What started as a relatively simple, gentle pedestrian 'flyway' gravitic 'tube' of jetting air has, over the years, lost all the baffles and controls that moderated its airspeed. Protected from friction with the surrounding air be the same gravitic 'bottling' that accelerates it, the (completely invisible save for whatever safety markings/lane designators/whatever survived) constant cannon blast of air has reached absurd speeds and would shred anything that bumped into it into a fine mist so fast that it would look like it had disintegrated.

Adiabatic Compression Heat "Fireball" Trap: Venturing on into an area in which I am barely competent to spell the thing, much less understand it (and thus if someone who is better at the physics end of things than I am would be willing to confirm this would work, or else call me an idiot, it would be appreciated...), but if you pulsed a pinpoint of super-high gravity for a split-second, the air would heat up significantly as it was compressed, and then expand rather explosively once the force compressing it was removed. In essence, you'd have a trap that acted like a combo incendiary/flashbang/concussion grenade that also suctioned you towards it with high winds/gravity right before going off 'bang', in all probability right in your face.

Double-Block "Nasty Jam" Trap: Instead of just heavy things accelerated towards the floor with the aim of catching the PCs between said heavy things and the floor (no disrespect for the classic, of course, you need some of those too- with the added bonus that the gravity that was accelerating the stone block or whatever even faster than usual would also make it harder to get out of the way), the gravity actually happens above the hapless PCs, so the block they may or may not have noticed was slightly loose suddenly (from the perspective of anyone watching, anyhow) rockets upwards to meet a block coming downwards just as fast, to make a rather unpleasant jam sandwich of the poor fool that stepped on it. Be sure to describe any surviving remains (their own or, if you're feeling merciful, that of previous hapless souls who blundered into the trap) as 'laminated' :smallyuk: Has the advantage (from a trap-builder's perspective, anyhow) of largely self-resetting and leaving less of a telltale marking on the floor than a chunk of rock coming down like a meteor and impacting on the floor would.

... this is way more fun than it should be >.>

[sktarq]

Very simple one.

The party finds a gap in floor in the hall-it looks rather like a T-junction with the bar seperated by the gap on a floor-plan.
The gap is classic pit trap size. But very deep.
When they try to cross it a large square brick of metal "falls" down the trap. If they are not quick they will be crushed "under" it. Well under from the point of view of the remains of the elevator - to the point of view of the party it comes up the shaft and slams into the ceiling.

It's a rockfall trap with flipped gravity. The party is not in the adjusted gravity zone and so don't notice the potential.

It is a simple enough trap from an old two entrance service elevator. Could be good introduction to the art-grav nature of the place.

[Guizonde]

one i've used previously, that actually became the "escape rope" of the party. two disks, manhole sized, one on the ceiling, one on the floor. step on it, become encased in solid light. gravity is exerted from both ends towards the middle. i set a 2 minute irl timer once a player was caught in it. the victim would take increasing damage the longer he stood in the trap, waiting for the party to free him. if they didn't, splat. liquid victim all over the hard light tube. i was inspired by the pressure chambers in the first unreal tournament. please note that the victim is fully able to speak and move, even though they are encased in a tube of hard light. make the victim roleplay the pain their character is feeling. it lends a sense of urgency.

the party managed to save the victim in under one minute by shooting out one of the gravity disks, so the freed member got off with some heavy bruising, but no lasting damage. they managed to salvage the other gravity disk, the techie of the party saving it for a rainy day. long story short, said techie used it to break a very very very long fall. instead of falling 400 meters, the upturned gravity of the disk made them feel like they only fell 4 meters. they still all puked their guts at the sudden gravitic inversion. i didn't expect them to use that thing nearly 10 sessions later as a very sci-fi cushion, but hey, it worked (the dice said so), and it was very creative. props to the players. i was expecting them to use grappling hooks if they fell, but i frankly didn't expect them to jump into a close-enough-to-bottomless-pit in the first place.

this from a universe where high-technology is pretty scarce, but manufactured by some evil overlord entity just to troll the players. tech-level is "schizo-tech" on a good day. it's not rare for one pc to use knuckle-dusters, another using a sawn-off shotgun, a third a vibrating hunting knife, and the fourth a flamethrower. players have wisened up to traps like that. "if it looks vaguely advanced, shoot it until it explodes, ask questions later".

[golentan]

Put a room with a gravity manipulator control panel. The room has an apparent puzzle of an "Arrange the blocks to form a path to the door in the ceiling" sort, with the risk that if the puzzle steps are attempted in the wrong order, the blocks will crush the person operating the controls.

The door is a decoy. The moment you attempt to open it, the gravity resets, crushing the person attempting the door to paste, and the actual way out is a hidden floor panel which cannot be operated while the fake puzzle controls are powered up.

My experience is that people are more willing to fall for a set up if they have to work for it. :smalltongue:

[shogun37]

Yes, I'm Necroing the thread. I do apologize. had a bit of am idea when I saw the thread title.
Picture a hallway, eight feet wide by eight feet tall. The trap is two opposed pits (left/right or floor/ceiling). Trap works as follows..Each pit is twenty feet deep, with three feet spikes. Fall/get pushed into spikes, get thrown into other pit. Fall into spikes, get pushed out. Rinse, repeat.
Kinda mean, though.

[LibraryOgre]

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