Need something more realistic than the old 1d6-Blunt-Impact-per-ten-feet falling damage rules? Then try this for size!
Determine the distance in feet fallen by the character, and consult the table below for the Blunt Impact suffered:
| FALL VELOCITY | BLUNT (FEET) (Km/h) | IMPACT |
|---|---|---|
| 1'+ | 5 | 1d3 |
| 5'+ | 10 | 1d6 |
| 12'+ | 15 | 2d6 |
| 20'+ | 20 | 3d6 |
| 30'+ | 25 | 4d6 |
| 45'+ | 30 | 5d6 |
| 65'+ | 35 | 6d6 |
| 85'+ | 40 | 7d6 |
| 105'+ | 45 | 8d6 |
| 130'+ | 50 | 9d6 |
| 155'+ | 55 | 10d6 |
| 185'+ | 60 | 11d6 |
| 220'+ | 65 | 12d6 |
| 255'+ | 70 | 13d6 |
| 295'+ | 75 | 14d6 |
| 335'+ | 80 | 15d6 |
| 375'+ | 85 | 16d6 |
| 420'+ | 90 | 17d6 |
| 470'+ | 95 | 18d6 |
| 520'+ | 100 | 19d6 |
| 570'+ | 105 | 20d6 |
| 630'+ | 110 | 21d6 |
| 685'+ | 115 | 22d6 |
| 745'+ | 120 | 23d6 |
| 810'+ | 125 | 24d6 |
| 875'+ | 130 | 25d6 |
| 945'+ | 135 | 26d6 |
| 1015'+ | 140 | 27d6 |
| 1090'+ | 145 | 28d6 |
| 1165'+ | 150 | 29d6 |
| 1245'+ | 155 | 30d6 |
| 1330'+ | 160 | 31d6 |
| 1415'+ | 165 | 32d6 |
| 1500'+ | 170 | 33d6 |
| 1590'+ | 175 | 34d6 |
| 1680'+ | 180 | 35d6 |
| 1775'+ | 185 | 36d6 |
| 1875'+ | 190 | 37d6 |
Assume that in most situations, a falling character will reach terminal velocity at 190 km/h.
Impact is suffered to 1d3 reasonable body locations, with the first location suffering full Impact, the second taking half Impact (round down), and the third location receiving one quarter Impact (round down).
Acrobatics skill may be attempted to land on one's feet; a Marginal Success implies only one foot suffers Impact (reduce the actual distance fallen by 5'), and a Critical Success indicates that Impact is distributed between both feet (reduce the actual distance fallen by 10', and each foot suffers only 75% of full Impact). Kind GMs may allow Jumping skill to be used instead of Acrobatics, at some sort of suitable penalty.
Armour provides only limited protection, because the character is actually falling on to his/her armour. For the sake of simplicity, every 6 Blunt protection reduces the Impact by one die (e.g. from 4d6 to 3d6). Therefore, 5 or less AP has no effect on Impact. If you want to be really strict about it, only soft, non-metallic armour provides protection, although all armour can help to reduce any height modifiers (see below).
Different surfaces will modify the effective distance fallen:
Rocky ground: +15'
Hard ground: +10'
Medium ground: +0'
Soft ground: -15'
Deep mud: -30'
Deep water: -50'
If a character falls on another character, both people will suffer the same Impact, which might be about 75% of the full amount.
It is sometimes useful to determine how far a character has fallen after n seconds. Below is a table showing how many feet a character falls after a given time:
| TIME TAKEN | DISTANCE FALLEN |
|---|---|
| 1 second | 16 feet |
| 7 seconds | 647 feet |
| 2 seconds | 62 feet |
| 8 seconds | 814 feet |
| 3 seconds | 136 feet |
| 9 seconds | 991 feet |
| 4 seconds | 234 feet |
| 10 seconds | 1176 feet |
| 5 seconds | 354 feet |
| 11 seconds | 1366 feet |
| 6 seconds | 493 feet |
| 12 seconds | 1554 feet |
Note that a man falling from a height of 1880 feet would take about 13 to 14 seconds to hit the ground. He would probably have reached terminal velocity immediately before impact.
This page was last updated on
January 23, 2002
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authors, 2002.