The Perpetual Dilemma Of Falling Damage

Most of the writing I'm doing for the game right now focuses on specific situations that may arise over the course of a campaign: i.e., chases, disease, encumbrance, etc.  All of it will be considered optional rules, offered for the BM as suggestions.

In that vein, I've decided to bring back the falling damage rules as they were apparently meant to be: with a geometric progression of damage dice, rather than a linear one.  Here's the text for the section on "Climbing & Falling": 

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Climbing sheer surfaces requires a Tough Trickster lore check. “Sheer surface” is defined as any surface without clear hand-holds or other protrusions.  Some species receive bonuses to their climb checks, detailed in their species description, and of course any character with levels in Trickster lore will have a great advantage here.

Any creature who flies under her own power and suffers an attack while airborne that inflicts 50 percent or more of her total maximum HP should make a Challenging Trauma save, or fall to the ground.

There are two ways a BM can model the physical consequences of falling.  One method should be chosen and used consistently.

Characters and creatures suffer compounded damage from falling, 1d5 [1d6] for each 10 feet.  In other words, falling 10 feet inflicts 1d5 [1d6] damage, while falling 20 feet inflicts 1d5 [1d6] + 2d5 [2d6], falling 30 feet inflicts 1d5 [1d6] + 2d5 [2d6] + 3d5 [3d6], and so on.  This geometric progression continues to a maximum of 21d5 [21d6], which represents terminal velocity.

Alternately, the BM can choose a particular height as a threshold, and rule that any character who falls that distance or greater and hits the ground needs to make a Trauma save or be instantly killed. A successful save means she suffers 1d5 [1d6] damage per 10 ft. fallen (in a linear progression), to a maximum of 20d5 [20d6] for falls of 200 ft. or more.

This second method can assign Threat Levels to the Trauma save based on every 10 feet fallen, like so:

Table 4.2:  Falling Distance and Trauma Save Threat Levels 

Distance Fallen                                 Threat Level 

10 ft.                                                   Easy 

20 ft.                                                   Average 

30 ft.                                                   Tough 

40 ft.                                                   Challenging 

50 ft.                                                   Formidable 

60 ft.                                                   Heroic 

70 ft. +                                                Epic

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Falling damage is a difficult thing to model in an RPG, because the real-life situation seems so arbitrary.  Sometimes, people die simply while tripping over a curb and landing the wrong way, while someone else survives a fall from thousands of feet after their parachute doesn't open.

Still, the consequences of falling in the real world are terrifying for most people to contemplate, and the same should be true of characters in a fantasy world.  So these suggested rules are meant to address that.  Sure, they're arbitrary, but then, aren't all rules?

Streamlined Initiative & Updated Runner Niche

One of my goals for the final version of Great & Small is simplified rules using a unified dice resolution mechanic.  Which is the reason I settled on the current engine, 2d10 +/- modifiers = 20+ meaning a success.

My current version of initiative has always felt too clunky to me, though.  I adapted it more or less as-is from B/X and the Rules Cyclopedia, but I've never felt it works simply enough for my design goals.

So, here's a streamlined version, that will likely replace the version in the Quick Start Core Rules.  The change alters the niche ability of Runners, as well.

Initiative
Your initiative equals your Total Level (or Hit Dice) + the Speed of the action you are declaring. Higher total scores go first, then next lowest scores in descending order.  In the event of a tie between player and BM, both sides should roll the core dice and add their Total Level (or Hit Dice).  The higher result wins.

Changes to the Runner niche
Under these revised initiative rules, Runners now add their niche die roll result to their total initiative score, instead of having all actions default to a Speed of Quick.  Thus, Runner characters' initiative equals Total Level (or Hit Dice) + Speed of declared action + niche die result.

Scaling, Size Category, & Hit Points

In the Great & Small Quick Start rules as they're currently written, each species of animal receives a fixed number of hit points per level, modified by the roll of their niche dice.  I derived the hit point values through more or less straight conversion of the animal stats (or stats of a similar creature) from the Basic/Expert rules, the Rules Cyclopedia, or some other basic edition resource or retroclone.  I gave each animal maximum possible hit points at 0-level, followed by an average value of their listed Hit Die type each consecutive level thereafter.

Tying hit point progression to species in this manner is just an iteration of the race-as-class concept from basic editions, in which dwarf, elf, and halfling were classes unto themselves.  But the method produces inconsistent results, giving divergent hp progressions to species of roughly equal profile (such as rabbits and small cats).  Some players may find this approach illogical and unsatisfactory.

Therefore, I've been toying with the idea of tying hit point progression to Size Category rather than species or niche.  In this scheme, rather than receiving a fixed amount of hp + niche die result per level, all characters roll for hit points per level on a die type tied to their Size.

Size determines type of die rolled for hit points per level according to the following table:

Hit Dice Per Level By Size Category (Zocchi Dice Progression)
Fine: 1 hp
Diminutive: 1d2
Tiny: 1d3
Small: 1d5
Medium: 1d7
Large: 1d10
Huge: 1d12
Gargantuan: 1d14
Colossal: 1d16

Hit Dice Per Level By Size Category (Standard Dice Progression)
Fine: 1d2
Diminutive: 1d3
Tiny: 1d4
Small: 1d6
Medium: 1d8
Large: 1d10
Huge: 1d12
Gargantuan: 2d8
Colossal: 1d20

Simulating (or Replacing) the Zocchi Dice

One of the major differences between Great & Small and other “old-school” rpgs is its reliance on non-standard Zocchi dice, especially d3s, d5s, and d7s.  This choice was made mostly to give such dice something to do other than take up space in old Crown Royal bags, and give them a place of their own in the tradition of role-playing games.

However, Zocchi dice may not be to everyone’s taste, and can sometimes be hard to acquire (though at the time of this writing, most of them could be ordered from Chessex and DiceShop). If you do not have or do not want Zocchi dice, here are some things you can do to simulate them using the more standard set of RPG dice. 

I rolled a natural 176. Does that hit?

-- 1d2, roll 1d4 and divide by 2.

-- 1d3: roll 1d6 and divide by 2.

-- 1d5: roll 1d10 and divide by 2.

-- 1d7: roll 2d4-1.

These are the most commonly used Zocchi dice in Great & Small.  The larger, less frequently used ones can be simulated like so:

-- 1d14: roll (2d6 + 1d4) -2

-- 1d16: roll 3d6 -2

-- 1d24: roll (2d10 + 1d6) -2

Alternately, you could just use the standard array of dice in place of Zocchi dice.  If you use this option, the following guidelines should keep things relatively balanced.

The 1d2 and 1d3 are already fairly common in other classic fantasy games, so keeping them as is shouldn’t promote too many problems.

Niche die progression should be changed to 1d2 at 0-level, 1d3 at 3^rd level, 1d4 at 6^th level, and 1d6 at 9^th level.

In general, damage dice or other non-core rolls calling for d5s should use d6s instead, and d7s should be replaced by d8s.