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.