Tuesday 28 January 2014

Falling Damage





I calculated all the averages for most tables here. I am pretty sure I understand how averages work less well than anyone reading this blog.

I did not write down the distributions when I started and now I wish I did. Anyway.

LOTFP standard is (I think) 1d6 per every 10 feet.


Falling distance in d6
Feet fallen
Cumulative dice
Average Damage
Max
Min
10
D6
3
6
1
20
D6
7
12
2
30
D6
10
18
3
40
D6
14
24
4
50
D6
17
30
5
60
D6
21
36
6
70
D6
24
42
7
80
D6
28
48
8
90
D6
31
54
9
100
D6
35
60
10

Now this has a lot to recommend it. Not least simplicity. Very little to get wrong here.

But I really really don’t want anyone walking away from a long fall. The idea of it kind of enrages me.

I could just say ‘roll any doubles and you have a broken limb.’ Or throw in a table of some kind. But I don’t want any more tables at this point.

But then a cleric can heal that in one go and the guy can be up and walking in a minute. It doesn’t satisfy me.


Falling distance in dice chain
Feet fallen
Cumulative Dice
Average Damage
10
D4
2
20
D6
4-7
30
D8
10
40
D10
15-16
50
D12
22
60
D20
32-33
70
D50
53-63
80
D100
95-122
90

Fuck it
100

Things cant get worse

The things I like about the dice chain; It is a little bit less lethal at smaller heights.  You get to keep adding different shaped dice one by one. There is a nice ritualistic aspect to that. It takes a while but falling a long way is meant to be bad. It will almost certainly kill characters after 60 or 70 feet.

Once you bring in the big dice the probability curve flattens out a lot. High numbers are pretty guaranteed.

Too harsh? Lets try another one.

Falling distance in dice chain
Feet fallen
Cumulative Dice
Average Damage
10
D4
2
20
D6
4-7
30
D8
10
40
D10
15-16
50
D12
22
60
D20
32-33
70
D20
43
80
D20
53-54
90
D20
64
100
D20
74-75

This is kind of the girlified version of the dice chain. I quite like this. We can leave in the triples mean limbs snapped rule.

Ok, lets try an insanely swingy method.

Falling distance in dice chain
Feet fallen
Dice rolled
Average Damage
Max
Min
10
D4
2
4
1
20
D4*D4
4
16
1
30
D4*D6
4 or 6 or 12
24
1
40
D4*D8
4 6 8 12
32
1
50
D4*D10
4 6 8 12
40
1
60
D4*D12
12
48
1
70
D4*D20
12
80
1
80
D4*D50
12 24 36 49
200
1
90
D4*D100
12 24 36 60 72 84
400
1
100
?
?
?
?

Ok, I have no fucking idea what is going on with this table. It’s all over the place. Averages are pretty low right up until 70 feet. But average means fuck all with this table. Lets try another one.

Falling distance in dice chain
Feet fallen
Dice rolled
Average Damage
Max
Min
10
D6
1-6
6
1
20
D6*D4
4 6 12
24
1
30
D6*D6
6 12
36
1
40
D6*D8
6 12
48
1
50
D6*D10
6 12
60
1
60
D6*D12
12
72
1
70
D6*D20
12
120
1
80
D6*D50
12 24 30 36 48 60
300
1
90
D6*D100
60
600
1
100
?
?
?
?


I would have to say the d4* version is the most OSR’y. No-one who falls will have any idea what is going to happen. Neither will the DM. Maybe the averages don’t need to be that high if the potential is frightening.

8 comments:

  1. I use the straight d6 per 10 feet rule + doubles mean injury, triples mean permanent loss. But I have a simple d6 table memorized that equates numbers with broad hit locations:
    1 = foot/ankle
    2 = leg
    3, 4 = torso
    5 = arm
    6 = head

    (Basically, I imagine a six-foot tall human and the die roll is the number of feet above ground for the hit location.)

    So, double 2 means a broken leg, double 4 means broken ribs (Move 3, requires twice as much rest.) and Cure spells only cure one injury, in addition to standard healing. Natural healing requires system shock or Con rolls per week for each injury to recover, so it's independent of hit point recovery; a badly-injured character may be out of commission for quite some time.

    Where this becomes important is the double or triple 6 result, which is a head injury. Double 6 is unconsciousness for several turns, but triple 6 would mean head smashed in, instant death. Triple 3 or 4 would be loss of a vital organ, so that is also instant death. That keeps short falls relatively easy to deal with, but makes long falls more likely to cause serious injury or death.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A thing about 10d6, though, is that 10 (and 60) will almost never occur. 95% of the time you'll roll between 24 and 46. 99.7% of the time you'll roll between 19 and 51. Now, maybe that's still an enraging amount of walking away from a long fall, I don't know... but at least if somebody only takes 10 points that is a statistical miracle and I for one am inclined to indulge them in their lucky break...though I'd probably make up some reason they didn't pancake, like hitting a bunch of tree branches on the way down that broke their fall.

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  3. Doubles on 10d6 are far more likely than doubles on 2d6, though. As in, it's impossible to roll 10d6 and not get at least one set of doubles. So, I don't see very many victims walking away from a 100-foot fall.

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  4. I struggled with falling damage when I was GMing 2e AD&D back in my teens, because it never felt real to me, and your analysis is pretty spot on. The dice chain is an elegant and simple solution, and I really like it. Except, instead of a d50, I would use a d30 there, and then move on to the d100. After d100, I'd just keep adding d100s. Like you said, at 60-70 feet they would likely be dead anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very interesting. What do you mean when you say 'average'? The average result of a D6 roll is 3.5 (not 3); the average of D4 * D6 is 8.75; the average of D4 * D100 is 126.25. I might be confused about what you're doing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I used this website http://anydice.com/ typed in the rolls that I needed and wrote down the highest rated results for each roll.

      Delete
    2. Ah, I get it! That's not the average, that's the mode (most common result).

      Delete