A couple new (at least new to me) games I've read recently have gotten me thinking about how different games handle damage from falling.  It's an interesting rule to compare because whatever the genre- fantasy, pulp, supers, sci-fi, there are going to be high places and the potential to fall off of them.  It's probably one of the things that almost all rpgs have some sort of rule about.

OD&D: 1d6 damage for every level a character falls.  This is interesting because it bases the rule on the assumptions of (A) playing in a dungeon with levels and (B) those levels being relatively uniform in height.  Characters have roughly 1d6 hitpoints per experience level, so falling is quite dangerous.  From memory, I recall playing AD&D 2nd Edition with 1d6 damage per 10ft.  I don't know if that was the official rule, but it makes sense that somewhere along the way "per level" was changed into "per x distance".

Palladium games:  In TMNT&Other Strangeness falling damage is 1D6 per 10 ft.  My guess is this was copied out of Palladium Fantasy, which was copied out of D&D.  Of note, while falling damage is the same as D&D, the vast majority of characters in Palladium games are quite a bit sturdier.  Combined hit points and sdc are often over 100.  Now heroes would be expected to hold up to falls better then the average person, but if we compare the average person on D&D (1d6 hp) and the average person in the Palladium Megaverse (10 HP + 20 SDC) and both take 1d6 damage per 10ft of falling, we can see that falling is less lethal in the palladium games.

Now for the 2 games I recently read which got me thinking about this:

Two Fisted Tales: Damage from Falling=6+yards fallen+1d10 (where 0 is zero, not 10).  So falling 1 yard means taking anywhere from 7 to 16 points of damage.  This is highly lethal considering being shot with a .38 calibre pistol does 4-10 damage and anything over 10 points of damage in a single attack will kill you, whether your joe blow off the street or Doc Savage.  Of course Doc Savage would probably have some cards up his sleeve (actual playing cards in the game) to reduce the damage and save his bacon, but falling is still extremely deadly in the game.  Falling 10 ft is almost guaranteed (90% chance) to kill a man.

To the other extreme we go with...

James Bond 007:  There are no hitpoints in the James Bond rpg.  Rather there are conditions: Normal, Lightly Wounded, Medium Wounded, Heavy Wounded, Incapacitated, and Killed.  Here's how much damage falling does:

0-10 ft: no damage
11-20 ft: light wound
21-60 ft: medium wound
61-150 ft: heavy wound
151-250 ft: incapacitated
251 or more ft: killed

Talk about cinematic!  A character who is not previously injured can fall 150ft and walk away on their own power or fall up to 250 ft and survive.  

If anyone else finds this topic interesting, please share any other rules for falling damage in different rpgs that you found good, bad, or simply unique.

I have an intentionally provocative line in my RPG.net sig that says "Wushu is not a real RPG because it lacks falling rules."

In 4e it's 1d10 per 10ft, except if you make an Acrobatics or Athletics check (an intentional jump, in other words). IIRC, you get the first 10 ft. for free, though I may be confusing it with 3.x there (I'm still not as used to 4e as I eventually got with d20).

I'm trying to remember Shadowrun's rule, so I can do the math and make fun of it. My biggest criticism, with every falling damage system I've seen, is that is has no maximum damage cap, apparently because game developers don't understand terminal velocity, or can't be bothered to approximate it.

Quote from: wulfgar;236757Talk about cinematic!  A character who is not previously injured can fall 150ft and walk away on their own power or fall up to 250 ft and survive.

That's not uncommon in many other systems either.  Between breakfall skill, fate points, and other options PCs can often manage the above under lots of systems I can think of.  What seems to make JB007 distinctive is that damage is a simple flat result.  Instead of a set of rules for falling damage, and then more rules to help PCs survive it, it just gives a simple result.  

In the HERO System, you take 1d6 normal damage per scale inch (2m) of velocity.  If you fall 50" (328 feet), you'll take 20d6 damage - which is just on the edge of killing a normal person, and definitely survivable by a tough character.  (Edit: It does have a terminal velocity maximum at 30d6.)

Well, if you want terminal velocity in the falling rules, will each character have drag as a stat?

Quote from: jhkim;236913What seems to make JB007 distinctive is that damage is a simple flat result.  Instead of a set of rules for falling damage, and then more rules to help PCs survive it, it just gives a simple result.

Sometimes we do that in Shadowrun. If you have a character who jumps regularly - someone with all the climb, jump, fall, and wall-walking adept powers, for instance - having to do the math and the rolls every time gets kind of intrusive. So you just do a sort of "I take 10" abstraction, work out the average result, and then the player knows, "Okay, I can fall 300 feet and take moderate damage," which takes some randomness out of the game, but takes away some pain-in-the-ass.

Quote from: jhkim;236913(Edit: [HERO system] does have a terminal velocity maximum at 30d6.)

Most excellent!

Quote from: wulfgar;236922Well, if you want terminal velocity in the falling rules, will each character have drag as a stat?

Like any complex system in roleplaying, you abstract it. Average drag coefficient for persons of any particular given size shouldn't be too difficult to produce. If you wanted to get ridiculous, you could produce tables of mass density for given atmospheric conditions, too, but I think that level of detail would be needless and intrusive.

Quote from: Engine;236891I'm trying to remember Shadowrun's rule, so I can do the math and make fun of it. My biggest criticism, with every falling damage system I've seen, is that is has no maximum damage cap, apparently because game developers don't understand terminal velocity, or can't be bothered to approximate it.

D&D 3.5 tops out at 20d6, which makes a fall about as deadly as a 7th level if you fall 200 feet or more.

http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/games/index.php?game=drowning_and_falling

This is a game which only has rules for drowning and falling.

I have always used 1d6 per 10ft with bonus for high dexterity or acrobatic skills this will typically reduce damage for every +1 or no damage for successful acrobatics check under 20ft.

I'll only worry about falling damage rulings when I begin modelling rag doll physics, fluid dynamics and aerodynamics. Common sense should prevail.

Characters only take damage from uncontrolled falls in my games. Terminal falls are, well, terminal. That's if I use rules at all.

As per genre.