From phbongo@telepost.noMon Jun 9 12:54:17 1997 Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 03:49:06 -0500 From: Per Henrik BongoReply 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.