Discussion:Directional Gravity in Portable Holes

Directional Gravity in Portable Holes

Background establishment aside, I've taken the Stagecoach model from the old Arms and Equipment Guide, removed the passenger area, and mounted Portable Holes on the interior walls. Leave a little footer, tack a floor on, and badda bing, extradimensional carriage. What I'm struggling with is the orientation of the gravity within said extradimensional spaces, particularly the walls and ceiling.

The whole, "you've made up the concept, so there's x clause that makes it so" is something I try wholeheartedly to avoid; I enjoy it best when I can make quirky things happen within the given rules. And, operating on the dessy from the 3.5 ed DMG:

"When spread upon any surface, it causes an extradimensional space 10 feet deep to come into being. This hole can be picked up from inside or out by simply taking hold of the edges of the cloth and folding it up. Either way, the entrance disappears, but anything inside the hole remains."

This would also imply a vertical surface, assuming one could mount the Hole and not have it fold over. However, I have also always operated under the assumption that the space created remains in the exact conditions it was in when you last opened it (that precious urn containing the lost king of some fancy hut didn't just fall over and shatter when you folded it up and put it in your pocket).

So what were to happen if, say, you took a normal Hole, loaded it up on the ground, and then opened it against a wall? What had previously been the "bottom" of the hole is now its back. Anything you had stored in there before would "fall" to the side, if the space is effected by the orientation of the gravity at its entrance. Given that the space within, however, is nondimensional relative to the plane of the entrance, it makes little sense to me that it would be effected as such, and instead would retain its "bottom" as though it were placed on a horizontal surface, as the writers intended. After all, it wouldn't be very extra- or non- dimensional if such a measly thing as gravity changed it. The dessy mentions nothing of "dumping" the contents, as with a Bag of Holding, ostensibly because when it is opened, the space is automatically "below" it, regardless of its orientation.

So, operating under those specifics, my wall/ceiling extradimensional spaces would have variable gravimetric orientations opposite their respective openings. This could easily be overcome with a ladder and a bit of vertigo when passing into the space, but again, that's too simple for me. What I'd like to do is find a way to orient the gravity of the space to parallel the gravity of the rest of the plane, i.e. "down" is towards the ground. On the ceiling section, this can easily be accomplished with a liberal application of the Reverse Gravity spell, and perhaps a Wish/Miracle to make said effect permanent. It's the sides, however, that cause the most grief. Reversing their gravity would only serve to push objects towards the opening, rather than the "floor" as I intend.

Is anyone aware of a spell, or set thereof, that would allow a 90° adjustment of the local gravity? In some of the various encounters and locations throughout the D&D cannon, gravity in rooms, particularly those located on other planes (and not those planes with subjective directional gravity) often does strange things, or at least often enough to be represented in their cannon. Unless the writers abided by the "we made it up, so who cares?" viewpoint, there must be some way of altering the gravity of a local environment.

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