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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdamos!mr-frog
From: mr-frog@sdamos.UUCP (Dave Pare)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Gary Gygax & "playing by the book"
Message-ID: <27@sdamos.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 4-Nov-84 00:13:06 EST
Article-I.D.: sdamos.27
Posted: Sun Nov  4 00:13:06 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Oct-84 00:47:55 EST
References: <3905@decwrl.UUCP> <393@uwmacc.UUCP> <145@uwai.UUCP>, <1197@eosp1.UUCP>
Organization: Phonetics Lab, UC San Diego
Lines: 52

:

The falling damage has always struck me as a bit silly.  I mean, I've
fallen ten feet, and wasn't even hurt, much less taking 1d6 of damage.
I find it very hard to believe that someone could die from falling
ten feet.  While I'm sure that it's possible, I suspect that it's
not a 50% chance.  This rule strikes me as more of a "well, if you
aren't good enough to make a ruling on the spot, use this silly
rule instead" case.

Consider this; average people have 1d6 hit points.  This means that,
if you fall off the roof of your house, then (statistically speaking)
you will die one out of every two falls you have.  Doesn't this
strike anyone as even slightly rediculous?

I've heard stories of people whose parachutes didn't open, and the
people have still survived.  That would be impossible if the AD&D
system is used.

Oh, by the way, I'll certainly agree that the exponential "drop-damage"
system is a very bad one to use!

On the other hand, if you inject some poor slob with enough curare
to kill an elephant, the dude still gets a save.  I like that.
Where in the real world people die horribly and without a doubt,
the D&D character gets a save.  But because it's "just damage", the
character doesn't even have any roll he can make to avoid falling
damage.

The idea of a saving throw is to give the poor player a chance to
"survive the unsurviveable".  Like Rasputin with his multiple
gunshot and knife wounds.  However, this idea is violated in the
extreme by this rule of falling.  I believe that there should be
a chance based on the level of the person of being able to survive
a fall (no matter how far you fall).  Monks (of course) would have
an increased chance of doing this.  I further believe that a first
level character should have a chance (however small) of surviving
a fall of 200 feet and such, just as a first level character can
survive a normally lethal injection of poison if he makes his 
savings throw.

The bottom line?  I think that a character should have a "save
vs. poison" to survive any fall he takes, no matter the damage
rolled on the dice.  The damage could perhaps be accrued as
"stun points", broken bones, and such, but the person would
*still be alive*!  I further propose that the damage be cut by
a third, with 1d6 damage being taken for every thirty feet
(which would probably do somebody in fairly easily).


Dave "I've fallen ten feet and survived" Pare