Re: Re: Drawing of whitewall...

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 17:14:57 -0700

C'est par mon ordre et pour le bien de l'Etat que le porteur du pr�sent a fait ce qu'il a fait.
- Richelieu

Sheesh, my computer is in the shop for a weekend, and there's a ton of stuff I can't respond to in a timely manner...

> ISTR some rule that meant high level characters jumped
> off cliffs because it was faster than the stairs...
> but I am no D&D player, and may have been misinformed.

Because the damage from falling remains steady, while the Hit Points a character can take increases with his experience level. So as you gain levels, you fear damage less and less. "Dramatic tension" is achieved by introducing higher and higher level monsters (with higher and higher levels of damage). It's sort of like the "No self-respecting hero" rule, but is a side-effect, rather than a design feature.

> > Tatouth the Scout has "Fall Softly" and "Rock
> > Jumping", so all the Orlanthi
> > (including your vingans) should be able to improvise
> > those off their Movement affinity.
>
> I hate to get all rulesy - but can they? Devotees,
> sure. Initiates? Improvising a feat from some other
> sub-cult?
> And the masses probably aren't concentrated anyway.
> -10 from their affinity if they can do it at all. Yes,
> I know, WW is only mundanely High, not magically so,
> but even so, 14 is quite high enough to be going on
> with when your end skill is probably only 7.

Yes, they can (while initiates can't use feats per se, they also aren't tied to a particular set of feats - they have a "Movement" affinity, and "Fall softly" is part of Movement). But yes, a -10 penalty is a dis-incentive to an initiate jumping off the wall.

> > > > and get there in at a rate of 32'/minute/minute
> > > > *and* expect to survive the landing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. that was a "Disconnect brain from fingers" fumble. I remember high school physics quite well, usually, but when you're thinking "seconds" and type "minutes"...

> > >
> > > Well, at an acceleration of only 1/60 of gravity,
>
> > Or even 1/3600th (/minute/minute) ....
>
> 9.81 m/sec^2, even.
>
> > Simon (Knitpicking 10W2)
>
> And Spelling 13. It's "nit-picking". Removal of small annoyances, nothing
to
> do with the manufacture of fabric from yarn.

Nits are baby lice or louse eggs. (Pedantry 5W)

> (who rolled a 1 on her own Pedantry 15W)
>
> By the way, HQ p275
>
> Jump down safely from a city wall: 5W2 to 10W3
> Jump down safely from a fortress tower: 5W3 to 10W4
>
> Whitewall (walls plus cliffs) is higher than any of these. Please don't
try
> a mundane jump?

Definitely don't. I'd put the resistance at ~10w5 or so. "So you gotta ask yourself: 'do I feel lucky'? Well? do ya, punk?" - Inspector Harry Callahan, SFPD.

RR

Powered by hypermail