Author Topic: Dropping heavy object  (Read 920 times)

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Offline Manuscript

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Dropping heavy object
« on: February 06, 2021, 02:02:01 AM »
Hello,

How do you handle dropping an heavy object from above to target someone below ? Which OB do you use ? I am not satisfied to use +1/fallen foot. It seems to me the longer the fall the harder it is to target and the easiest it is to avoid it. And it depends on the object weight and if the target is aware of the fall or not.

Thanks for your help

Offline jdale

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Re: Dropping heavy object
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2021, 12:46:42 PM »
I would probably use a thrown weapon skill as the closest thing, unless the player could make a good argument for why some other skill was more relevant (e.g. maybe some kind of siege or engineering skill for maneuvering large rocks?).

If the people below are aware and have room to move, I would probably handle it with a perception maneuver to notice and assume they are able to get out of the way of very large falling objects which will fall predictably. If the objects are small enough to throw, that doesn't apply, but you generally wouldn't be using the fall/crush table in that case.
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Offline Hurin

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Re: Dropping heavy object
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2021, 02:37:23 PM »
Good call on using Thrown. If you have Spacemaster, you could even perhaps use the rules for hand grenade placement.

If you have the RMU rules, I think they can handle this situation better than any previous edition, because you can increase the size of the attack (maybe for each 10' or 20' the rock falls?) till it reaches terminal velocity, but also impose more of an OB penalty for each increment. The way RMU separates the size of the attack from the accuracy of the attack really helps here.
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Offline Manuscript

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Re: Dropping heavy object
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2021, 10:34:05 AM »
Thanks for all your clever answers !

Offline Spectre771

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Re: Dropping heavy object
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2021, 08:49:21 AM »
We've always added the weight of the object into the OB in addition to the +1/foot distance.  Having a baseball dropped on you vs. a TRS-80 is a huge difference.  There is the Falling/Crushing attack table with maximum damage thresholds too that we used.  Then there is the surprise bonus if the target is unaware and we've always added a back attack bonus or prone attack bonus if applicable. 

To resolve the attack to see if it even hits, we used the MM Table with a suitable difficulty; Target moving at a leisurely pace, jogging, fleeing, etc.  The attacker adds Intuition bonus to the MM roll to see if the attack succeeds.  If yes, then onto the damage roll on the Fall/Crush table with applicable bonuses.
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Offline jdale

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Re: Dropping heavy object
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2021, 09:31:19 AM »
In RMU, for the rock table (for smaller objects) you can scale up the attack size for larger objects without changing the chance of hitting. For very large objects (like a piano) you would use the crush table instead.

In previous editions, an OB bonus is about all you have to work with.
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Offline markc

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Re: Dropping heavy object
« Reply #6 on: February 08, 2021, 02:19:54 PM »
The author is a bit vague on the actual situation and as i thought about the situation I came up with the following:
A) A stone block underground falling after being triggered by an action below.
B) A person throwing a rock downwards from a low height and then a great height.
C) A person dropping a rock from a low height then a great height.

Also the higher the height, shape of the stone , how launched, wind and other mods as well as practice all add into the equation to think about.
Also in RMSS/FRP I would change the stat mods for a drop vs a throw.

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