Landspeeders on the water?

[Dredwulf60]

How do other GMs handle repulsorlift vehicles that typically travel low-to-the ground; aka 'landspeeders' when encountering a body of water?

My personal ruling is that 'liquid' does not register with the craft's repulsors, as a result, the standard landspeeder cannot travel across water; once it is in water that's deeper than it's maximum altitude...it sinks.


I have hybrid craft that have boat hulls or otherwise have flotation; when they get to deep water they are propelled via hydroplane. These are a bit more expensive and popular as recreational vehicles.

[Whill]

I think it's a good question and has been discussed here before. It seems to me the only way repulsorlifts would work to keep something afloat in the air above water would be if repulsorlifts work with respect to sea level. However a repulsorcraft's flight ceiling would seem to be a specific distance above a ground surface they are traveling over (regardless of what "sea level" they are at).

If water just doesn't register, why doesn't it register?

Repulsorlift technology does seem to just be gravity cancelation effect because the giant droid carrier passed over Qui-Gon and Jar Jar harmlessly to them, so there was no force pushing down like the weight of a real vehicle does on the ground it passes over. So perhaps a repulsorcraft's flight ceiling is independent to how repulsorlift technology works. But if so, then what does determine maximum altitude? I'd be willing to accept repulsorlifts working above water if I can rationalize what limits landspeeders to staying close to the ground and what determines a vehicle's specific flight ceiling.
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[garhkal]

Yup/ It was discussed somewhat in the following 2 threads


http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1288&highlight=water


http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1733&highlight=water
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[Dredwulf60]

[garhkal]

That they were... Its nice to use the search function from time to time.
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[Dredwulf60]

[garhkal]

True. I know a few other forums, allows you to put in just one word initially to generate up a big list, then you can narrow your search IN that list with another word.

Such as say i was looking for a thread on non-magical healing for an adnd game. I could start my search with Healing, then sub-search it with non-magical..
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[MrNexx]

Me, I like a Back to the Future solution... [s]hoverboards[/s] repulsorlifts will work just fine over water, but you need power for propulsion. Since most repulsorlifts have that power, they work.

Now, you might have some fluids over which they don't work, but that would be a specific effect. So, they'll be fine over water or liquid methane, but the silt of the Estuary of the Forked Tongue? It's too fine for repulsorlifts to work, except on the rare mudflats.
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[CRMcNeill]

Based on my understanding of how repulsorlifts function, landspeeder-type repulsorlifts still function over water, but lose some speed when they do. The reason for this is, in a nutshell, ground-effect repulsorlifts use tractor beam tech to, in effect, pull on the ground underneath them to generate forward movement. This works fine on solid ground, and even on loose dirt or sand, but anything in a liquid state, while still providing a sufficient surface to lever against to generate thrust, will also be forcing the liquid in the opposite direction, creating a wake.

For game use, I'd go with the following:

Unless specifically tuned for nautical use, ground-effect repulsorlifts suffer the following restrictions:

1). Altitude reduced by 50%
2). All Terrain Difficulties increased by +10

On the other hand, a repulsorlift specifically tuned to operate on or over liquid will function normally.
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[FVBonura]

I would rule that anti-gravity repels against all mass. Clearly the strength of the field predicates altitude. This also means that the strength of the repulsive field weakens the further away from the source of mass it is. This also suggests that the drop off in field strength is more like magnetism and less like gravity even though it affects gravity. I would rule that a repulsor vehicle passes over water as would a hovercraft. I do have one caveat, altitude would be reduced by a percentage while the vehicle is moving or making maneuvers because essentially it’s pushing off on the water at an angle and said water would slip away. I don’t think that this reduction in altitude would be sufficient to pancake a speeder on the water’s surface. This also means that waves would generate an upward motion as the vehicle passed through it.
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