House Rules: Falling Damage

by Per Henrik Bongo

From phbongo@telepost.noMon Jun 9 12:54:17 1997 Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 03:49:06 -0500 From: Per Henrik Bongo Reply to: rolemaster@tower.clark.net To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: RE: Falling Damage (long and technical)

I've decided to use some of my not-so-valuable time to make a table which you can use to calculate the bonus to use on the Fall/Crush table. (This is less impressive than Pedro's table but more immediately useful. I make no assumption that this is in line with reality, but it does give you numbers to use with the Fall/Crush table.)

Feet	   Meters		Seconds	   Speed in	   Speed in		
Fallen  Fallen		Fallen	   feet/round	   meters/rd	    Bonus
.03		.009		.03			10			3			N/A
.12		.03		.06			20			6			N/A
.28		.08		.09			30			9			N/A
.49		.15		.12			40			12			+0
.77		.23		.15			50			15			+1
1.1		.33		.18			60			18			+1
1.5		.45		.21			70			21			+2
2		.59		.25			80			24			+2
2.5		.74		.28			90			27			+3
3		.9		.3 s			100			30			+3

6.9		2		.46 s		150			45			+7
10		3		.55 s		180			54			+10
12.2		3.7		.61 s		200			60			+12
20		6		.78 s		255			77			+20
27.6		8.3		.92 s		300			90			+28
30		9		.96 s		313			94			+30
32.7		9.8		1 s			327			98			+33
40		12		1.1 s		360			108			+40
50		15		1.23 s		404			121			+50
60		18		1.36 s		443			133			+60

70		21		1.46 s		478			144			+70
76.5		23		1.53 s		500			150			+77
100		30		1.75	s		572			172			+100
110		33		1.84 s		600			180			+110
130		39.2		2 s			650			196			+130
150		45		2.14 s		700			210			+150
172		51.7		2.3 s		750			225			+172
196		58.8		2.45 s		800			240			+196
248		74.4		2.76 s		900			270			+248
306		92		3.1 s		1000			300			+306

441		132		3.7 s		1200			360			+441
600		180		4.3 s		1400			420			+600
784		235		4.9 s		1600			480			+784
991		298		5.5 s		1800			540			+991
1225		367		6.1 s		2000			600			+1225
1913		574		7.7 s		2500			750			+1913
2755		827		9.2 s		3000			900			+2755
4898		1469		12.2 s		4000			1200			+4898
7653		2296		15.3 s		5000			1500			+7653
30612	9184		30.6 s		10000		3000			+30612

That last number... Hasted Shards, anyone?

Mere falls don't give such big numbers to the F/C chart, as air friction eventually stops the acceleration. (But if the character is falling through vacuum...) It's a bit difficult to calculate at what speed, as it depends on what shape the I'd give humans +400 max. (unless he/she's diving...) and denser races a bit more, with mods for wearing armor or heavy, dense objects. There are, after all, examples from reality of people surviving falls from airplanes. In flight.

Also, the Fall/Crush chart and the damages in it are for human-sized objects and characters. A giant falling 100 feet is clearly going to get more damage than a human, simply because they're both going to be equally *damaged*. As with running into things; a troll running into a dwarf is obviously going to be less damaged than the dwarf (if the dwarf wasn't running with his axe up). My suggestions:

	p=mv. 

If we set m=1 for about 80 kg (or 180 lb), then we can calculate a number x by dividing the weight of a object (or characters) with 80 kg (or 180 lb). The number for the lighter of the colliding objects (or characters) is used. The bonus for the F/C chart is found by calculating the speed difference at moment of impact and looked up in the above chart. (Not so difficult, as most of the time one of objects is standing still, and the moving objects speed is used.) This bonus is multiplied with the number x, and we end up with the bonus which is used when rolling for damage. If the number is below 1, then do not roll.

Alternatively, you could multiplicate x with the damage from the chart.

For colliding with objects with structural hit points, the maximum hits received from chart and criticals cannot exceed the number of points the structure has. (In which case the structure is completely destroyed and the character just ran straight through it, with some slow-down in speed.) Keep the other results of the criticals thou... they exemplify the effect of hitting with the shoulder or head-first.


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