[RQ-Rules] Unifying Knockback and Falling Damage

[D. Smart]

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Nice! Thank you!

David Smart

Thomas M. Cantine wrote:

>>When a giant smahes you into the ground - The Spike - then leg damage is
>>probably fair. We had two Great Trolls fighting and knocking each other
>>through walls, once. The knockback didn't kill them but it knocked the house
>>down.
>>
>>Simon
>>    
>>
>
>I think the problem with knockback as it's written in RQ3 is that it is
>completely out of touch with the falling damage. You take way more damage
>being shoved three meters into a tree than you would falling three meters
>straight down onto solid rock. I have therefore written up the following,
>my own treatment of knockback and falling damage:
>
>
>Falling
>
>The damage for falling can be left as it is in RQ3 (i.e. 1d6 per 3 m of
>height). I agree that armour should not substantially affect falling
>damage, which is primarily due to rapid deceleration on impact. However, a
>tiny amount of incidental damage is from contact with the surface of the
>ground itself, and armour should help against that, hard armour being
>slightly more effective. Thus, for falling damage, allow soft armour (of
>any type) to count for 1 armour point, and hard armour (of any type) as 2
>armour points. This won't make much difference when someone falls off a 30
>m cliff, but will save someone tripping over a cobblestone from a few
>scratches and bruises.
>
>The better protection from falling damage should be provided by the Jump
>skill, but one critical detail seems to have been omitted from the RQ3
>rules: the benefit of landing on your feet instead of your head. Since all
>falling damage goes to total hit points anyway, a successful Jump roll will
>have no effect on one's likelihood of surviving a fall whatsoever.
>Solution: allow legs to have 3 armour points each for the purposes of
>falling damage, and arms to have 2 armour points, not cumulative with the
>worn armour protection mentioned above. On a failed Jump, a lucky faller
>might still land on an arm or leg and enjoy the benefit of this protection,
>but on a fumbled Jump limbs have no armour points for falling damage. A
>special success allows the faller to spread the impact over two chosen
>locations, and on a critical success the faller may distribute the impact
>over any number of chosen locations.
>
>Note: The basic principles for falling damage also apply to adventurers
>colliding with surfaces at any angle, such as when one sprints into a brick
>wall. The damage given in RQ3 for knockback into solid objects (1D6 for
>every meter of movement) is way out of line with falling damage. In
>general, a movement rate of 5 m per strike rank is equivalent to a fall
>from 3 m of height. Unfortunately, while kinetic energy increases linearly
>with height, it does not do so for speed.  I offer therefore the following
>simplified scale of impact damage for typical speeds:
>
>        Damage  Equivalent speed        Typical situation
>        1D3             1-2 m/SR                Walking into wall; tripping
>over cat
>        1D4             3-4 m/SR                Running into wall; falling
>from 1 m
>        1D6             5-6 m/SR                Sprinting into wall;
>falling from 2-3 m.
>        2D6             7-8 m/SR                Trotting horse.
>        3D6             9-10 m/SR               Charging horse
>
>        While it may not be necessary to calculate beyond this speed, it's
>interesting to note that kinetic energy increases as the square of
>velocity. This means that an unhappy adventurer travelling at 60 m/SR
>should suffer approximately 100D6 damage on impact, demonstrating why
>trebuchets are not a viable means of personal transportation. In any case,
>since the same amount of kinetic energy is applied to the adventurer on
>launch (though over several meters of acceleration) for maybe 50D6, it
>doesn't matter how one lands; the launch will kill you.
>        One might wonder how it is that a person being hit with a boulder
>flung by a trebuchet would take only 12D6 damage, but 100D6 damage from a
>wall at the same relative speed of impact. While dead is dead, the
>ballistic adventurer will leave fewer recognizable bits behind, because
>every one of those bits will make the same abrupt splattering deceleration.
>In contrast, the trebuchet ball might carry away with it a couple of hit
>locations, leaving behind several relatively intact portions. Indeed, an
>adventurer struck in the arm by a trebuchet might well survive, since no
>more than twice a limb's hit points may be done to total hit points through
>ordinary damage. No such luck with falling damage.
>
>Knockback
>
>When does knockback happen?
>There are four basic types of situations in RQ which call for knockback.
>        (1)   Someone receives a hit which, before armour, does more damage
>than the character's SIZ characteristic. I modify this from basic RQ3 by
>saying that this only applies to blunt weapons, since a major part of the
>damage taken from a slashing or impaling weapon has nothing to do with a
>transfer of momentum. (The damage STOPPED by armour should definitely
>contribute to knockback, but it's much simpler just to say only blunt
>weapons do knockback this way.)
>        (2)  Special success with a blunt or slashing weapon. I have
>omitted slashing weapons from this, for reasons discussed above.
>        (3)  A moving adventurer or monster collides with another. This can
>happen when one adventurer is knocked back into another, or when one runs
>(deliberately or blindly) into another. To determine if knockback takes
>place, match the mover's SIZ + current movement rate (in meters per strike
>rank) against the stationary adventurer's SIZ on the resistance table. If
>the stationary adventurer is aware of the impending collision, he may
>include his DEX with his SIZ on the resistance roll, or he might already be
>bracing against knockback with STR instead (as per RQ3). If the moving
>adventurer is moving under her own power (rather than simply having been
>knocked back herself), and actually intends to collide, she may also add
>her DEX for the resistance roll. On a success, knockback occurs; see below
>for magnitude and effects. On a failed resistance roll, the moving
>character suffers knockback of 0 meters; see below for effects. (The
>stationary character could alternatively Set Spear vs. Charge, precluding
>the use of DEX in the resistance roll if the spear attack misses. If it
>hits, though, it preempts the knockback attempt...)
>        (4)  An adventurer or monster deliberately pushes, shoves, trips or
>otherwise attempts to knockback (or knockdown) someone. This is similar to
>RQ3's old intentional knockback rules, with the resistance roll of
>(SIZ+STR) vs (SIZ+DEX), but requires the establishment of a connection for
>the transmission of force in the first place. This is done with a
>successful attack roll, and the weapons usable for this are Fist, Kick (for
>swashbucklers especially), Grapple, Shield Attack, or any hafted weapon
>used with both hands (the classic quarterstaff shove). A successful attack
>does no damage, but if it is neither parried nor dodged, it allows the
>attacker to attempt the same old resistance roll as per RQ3. This takes
>place on the same strike rank as the attack.
>
>How much knockback?
>        The amount of knockback is easy to calculate: it's usually just the
>attacker's rolled damage bonus in meters, minus the target's rolled damage
>bonus, plus the attacker's current movement rate in meters per strike rank.
>When a character is knocked back, you may treat that character's movement
>rate at any point as the number of meters remaining in the knockback. Thus,
>if Throg is knocked back 5 meters by Lulu, and he bumps into Grothnar 2
>meters away, his movement rate on impact with Grothnar for damage and
>knockback purposes is 3.
>
>What is the effect of knockback?
>        First, and most obviously, the target is displaced a certain number
>of meters. Second, if knocked into a solid object with sufficient force,
>the target may suffer damage from that impact. Third, the target may fall
>to the ground.
>        The damage suffered from impact with a wall or other solid object
>is calculated as in falling damage according to the movement rate of the
>knocked back adventurer. Impact with an object that can itself be knocked
>back (like another adventurer) does half this amount, rounded down.
>        To avoid falling down when knocked back, a DEX x 5 roll is
>required. Another DEX roll is needed to avoid falling down on every
>subsequent impact, so in the above example, Throg would need to roll once
>when knocked back by Lulu and then again when bumping into Grothnar.
>
>
>/=================================\
>|       Thomas M. Cantine         |
>|     "Will Think For Food"       |
>\=================================/
>http://www.incentre.net/tcantine
>
>
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