Realism In D&D/Freeform

[color=darkred]That's why falling deals Wound damage in FFRPS... Where you get maybe twice your Con worth of Wound points.

[note: The falling rules are not quite so simple, but you still can't survive a 200' fall without some kind of magical aid][/color]

[quote="Pheenyx"]Heh yeah realism.. Hmm..

High level fighter sees a town a few miles off away from a 3000 foot cliff. Rest of the party decides to take the long way down. Not the fighter. Eyeballs it, knows that you can only take a max of 20d6 falling damage... then jumps off the cliff. Lands, stands up, brushes himself off, shrugs, and walks into town.

Yup, there's realism.

*Is glad she's doing the ATFS with realism in mind*[/quote]

Interesting point, however I do have some counterpoints/questions.

First:
You'll note that it states that it is the "simple rule" which implies there is room for a more advanced situation specific rule. Yet there is no such rule, so does this not lend credance towards Rule 0?

Two:
Being a simple rule, it supplies terminal velocity for all objects, so can't we being smart lil dms, figure that terminal velocity is going to vary [in how fast you reach it] based on drag?

Third:
Realism? Well, Said fighter can swing a bastard sword upwards of 4-5 times in 6 seconds, And if he misses the first time completely [by more then the AC Mod, which implies he completely missed] he can magicly bring the sword around, and attack again. Wihtout every incurring penalty? Hm, But its a realistic game.

Yes it should be rooted in realism, but shouldn't we take a nod towards fantasy, thats what this game is after all, is it not?

Furthermore, the situation is contrived itself, a 3000 foot sheer drop, that does not slope at all, which also happens to be remarkably close to civilization?

Fourth:
The Holy Roman Empire, It wasn't holy, nor roman, nor an empire.

Just some things to consider, no its not an attack.

--Brad

Reference Item 1: SRD Entry for Falling Damage
FALLING
Falling Damage: The basic rule is simple: 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet fallen, to a maximum of 20d6.
If a character deliberately jumps instead of merely slipping or falling, the damage is the same but the first 1d6 is nonlethal damage. A DC 15 Jump check or DC 15 Tumble check allows the character to avoid any damage from the first 10 feet fallen and converts any damage from the second 10 feet to nonlethal damage. Thus, a character who slips from a ledge 30 feet up takes 3d6 damage. If the same character deliberately jumped, he takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage and 2d6 points of lethal damage. And if the character leaps down with a successful Jump or Tumble check, he takes only 1d6 points of nonlethal damage and 1d6 points of lethal damage from the plunge.
Falls onto yielding surfaces (soft ground, mud) also convert the first 1d6 of damage to nonlethal damage. This reduction is cumulative with reduced damage due to deliberate jumps and the Jump skill.

[quote]High level fighter sees a town a few miles off away from a 3000 foot cliff. Rest of the party decides to take the long way down. Not the fighter. Eyeballs it, knows that you can only take a max of 20d6 falling damage... then jumps off the cliff. Lands, stands up, brushes himself off, shrugs, and walks into town..[/quote]

This comes up more in FPS's than in DnD. O_o... if a fighter has that many hitpoints, then he certainly can do a lot more than just plummet 3000 feet 'without a scratch.' That's when you can't restrict things to reality, since currently I'd say there are no people who you can base a level 40 fighter on.

Besides, it's not as unrealistic as you'd think. The record plummet without major injury is 10,000 feet (I think it's feet), and 80,000 feet with major injury. And these people (probably) weren't level 40 fighters.

*shrugs* if the fighter wants to be realistic like that, be realistic yourself.. the gods can smite him.. or have some sort of dragon spot him and catch him during his fall.

either way, if i dm-ed that session, the fighter woulda been making a new character (or rezzed) if he wanted to continue play in that adventure

That's why the DMG isn't always regarded as a rulebook, but more of a $20 set of guidelines. If the player's being retarded, let him die, hopefully he'll learn his lesson after tearing up his character sheet (like a good player should).

About the Holy Roman Empire, yeah, it's crap, until you look at Charles II, the impotent, disfigured, dim-witted king who fux0red it over....

/me screams "CHARLES!!!" like Timmy, from Southpark, screams his own name.
*sighs* The euphoric nostalgia from such a simple phrase as that will never die off :cry:.

Having a dragon spot the falling player. Fro some odd reason couldn't help but to think of :

Fighter jauntily saunters up to the cliff waves to his friends, smiles, then cannonballs. The whistling sound as the sound barrier is approached wakens the dragon living in a shallow cave of the cliff. Dragon reaches out catches the plummeting fighter, sticks a thumb under the fighter chin and {POP!} the head pos into the fighters mouth. The rest fo teh party comes feather falling by and seeing their beheaded companion are aghast, UNTIL...

The music starts playing and the dragon holds out their beheaded friend Mentos with a smile. He was after all the freshmaker. To wit, they all laugh and continue on their way.

everyone sings his eulogy:
'Doo doo doo doo, doo-doo, do-Wah!'

It doesn't matter what comes, fresh goes better in life, and Mentos is fresh and full of life.

Nothing gets to you, staying fresh staying cool, with Mentos, fresh and full of life.

Fresh goes better, Mentos freshness, fresh goes better with Mentos, fresh and full of life!

Mentos, the freshmaker!

JOE--

[color=darkred]Hahahaha... Someone needs to make a Flash of that RIGHT NOW. That was great.[/color]

well, considering all that's been said it's still key to remember that a player shouldn't be doing things looking at the way the rules are run. That's called metagaming. The character should be playing by what the character itself thinks is reasonable, and there is no character save ones with some affinity for death or divine rank that would assume a 3000 feet fall is reasonable. and if for some reason teh character DOES think it is, it's the DM's job to ensue proper consequences, it clearly states that rules can be broken because there is no set of rules that can apply to every situation. the game is a system of logic with rules to make sure everyone runs by almost the same system of logic. If i were put in that place, i'd do a 20d6+3000, one for each stupid foot he fell and hope he learns a lesson and if the rest of his party is nice enough they'll find a 17th cleric to true resurrect the shmuck.

Point to Solace. :D

Just for fun I'd put about 20 shocker lizards at the bottom.

Ohh hehehe... if the fall dont kill ye, the massive 'TTTZZZZZAAAAAP!!!' at the bottom will... hehehehehe.

Indeed, some things just plain shouldnt be allowed (the example i used above is actually from somewhere, i lost the url though, it was an /actual/ dnd scenario... which makes it even more stupid). And jumping 3000 feet off of a cliff just to prove 'how tough you are' and surviving is another one.

20d6 damage can easily turn into a death by massive damage save... but the save is so low that a fairly high level fighter would have to roll a natural 1 to fail.... and high-level fighters have a great deal of hit points, so 20d6 is survivable... barely.

Now, id just rule jumping off the cliff as suicide by the character in a fit of temporary insanity, and toss out the 20d6 rule, if your gonna be insane and do that, your gonna take an insane amount of damage, or id keep it and maximize it, so there's 120 damage, add in some nice sharp craiggy rocks at the bottom each dealing mmmm lets call it a d8... and theres lots o them... lets say *rolls d20* 17... and as your jumping down the cliff you manage to hit them all on the way down :) and since you jumped with how much stuff in equipment? 200 lbs? nice, okay, crushing damage as well... (i have a table somewhere for crushing damage from falling objects, i think the 200 lbs falling a good 3000 feet would deal at least another 10d6)... so add that all up the character's pretty much dead... and as it was 'suicide' his spirit leaves his body and either becomes a ghost or goes to one of the nine rings of hell and the gods declare him unressurectable.

Here buddy, have an eraser, better make a new character, next time, don't be a moron, just cause your high level don't mean death can't touch you.

But i am extremely mean when it comes to stupidity in games.

Anyways, what other things have you guys noticed as far as unrealism in game systems as far as rules go?

[quote="Pheenyx"]Ohh hehehe... if the fall dont kill ye, the massive 'TTTZZZZZAAAAAP!!!' at the bottom will... hehehehehe.[/quote]

Solace experienced that one I believe. Which is why I said it, otherwise it would've been rather random.

[color=red]*Striker smacks Jozan, for old times' sake[/color]

[quote="Pheenyx"]Anyways, what other things have you guys noticed as far as unrealism in game systems as far as rules go?[/quote]

Too many things to count. I don't really know where to start, lol.

[quote] And jumping 3000 feet off of a cliff just to prove 'how tough you are' and surviving is another one. [/quote]

Well, one of those records was from a skydiving accident... I think they both were, but I'm not sure.

[quote] Too many things to count. I don't really know where to start, lol. [/quote]

Start in the PHB. I could use one of these lists :+)

[quote] next time, don't be a moron, just cause your high level don't mean death can't touch you. [/quote]

Hercules. Death didn't have a thing on him (Although he did lick death a few times, eh)

And, after licking Death, he could probably [i]use[/i] a Mentos.
'Doo doo doo doo, doo-doo, do-Wah!' :D