Talk:Falling

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Nice work Andrew, probably a damn good page to add to the GM's guide next edition. --Mandos 07:08, 24 May 2008 (NZST)

Hear hear. Suggested improvements (that I don't have time to look into myself this weekend --Errol 08:09, 24 May 2008 (NZST)):

  • terminal velocity of someone (skilled) trying to fall quickly - if someone falls off a cloud (and falls at standard TV), at what rate can someone falling feet first gain on them? If the answer is "this only works if you start from orbit", note it. (If the cloud is over a mile up, Darien will have a go at shadow-walking into your shadow, if you have one.)
  • add mph to damage comparison table.
  • add notes on how things work with natural fliers (you can go faster flapping wings going down, but you may have limits that prevent your downward speed being flying speed plus gravity effect).
{Flapping wings should help initial acceleration, but reduce maximum velocity - at TV, you should glide vertically with folded wings; its difficult to get a clear rule of thumb - maybe not worth worrying about? - AW.}
  • useful info somewhere would be the distance to horizon at various commonly used heights. A page on flying in general, with notes on various transit heights in common use, navigation via landmarks, how easy is it to spot fliers etc. Darien will try to get a first draft up this week, I will need to do research to match my character's knowledge.
{see Chapter Fifteen of my last epic for a start on distance to horizon - I used (Alusia radius) * sin(theta)/(1-sin(theta)) = height above sea level, where theta is the angle of difference from Alusia's centre between locations. Chapter Eleven may also be of use for landmark navigation. - AW}

Just some supplementry notes (since Andrew mentioned heights) - from wikipedia

  • 50% of the atmosphere is below 18,000 ft which implies adventurers will require extra air (air pressure is half of that at sea level).
  • The tropopause (boundary between troposphere and stratosphere) is at roughly 26,400ft at the poles to 56,800ft at the equator
  • The Karman line (the boundary marking the start of space) is at 100km. The ISS orbits within the thermosphere at 320-380 kilometers.
  • Freefalling parachutists have a terminal velocity of 120mph (55m/s). A freeflying skydiver can get up to 200mph (89m/s), which is roughly the same as a peregrine falcon diving on prey.

--Keith 08:45, 24 May 2008 (NZST)

  • The free-fall speed is ~120mph - I didn't know about the skydiving speed Keith! I'll work that into a table as per Errol's request.
  • I figured that as aerial affinity allows up to 40,000 (at Rank 20), and as the tropopause at Seagate latitude was around 36,000, which also gave a margin for error for Rk 20 Aerial afifinity, that this seemed like a good max height.
  • I have a bunch of note on the distance to horizon at various heights, from the navigation stuff I wrote up. I'll see if I can make it coherent. Looking forward to the flying page. What height you can make out humans or horses, or recognise individuals would be nice.
  • I'll add a mph to ft/s to "my preferred damage system" table, and we can see if it is useful.
  • This was mainly for my own amusement (and Kit's Rank 8 free-fall skill); glad to hear there are other free-fall junkies out there. Maybe I should take the tongue-in-cheek humour out and make it factual.
    • As long as the data is reasonably factual I don't think any humour should be removed :-) --Mandos 09:30, 26 May 2008 (NZST)
  • I like that these numbers are about I worked out for Gerald's falling (up or down) boots.
  • I've tried to find out how fast skydivers can track and according to Wikipedia (the only source I can findonline after about 15 minutes hunting) is a maximal glide ratio (for skydivers) of about 1:1 and reported horizontal speeds of approx 100mph.

Struan 09:27, 26 May 2008 (NZST)


I guess if I want meters/second I can always divide ft/s by three ... or multiply mph by 8/5 for kmph

Oh ... if someone dropped a coin from a cloud ... you're looking at a terminal velocity of roughly 64mph. --Keith 17:23, 26 May 2008 (NZST)

On the table for falling damage you mention that it is for someone with 5 TMR. For those of us who are mathematically inept could you include an example of someone with a different TMR so we can extrapolate out how the TMR affects damage? --Mandos 16:19, 27 May 2008 (NZST)

The Simple Rule includes subtracting TMR from damage. So if the Table says 10 damage and you have 7 TMR you would only take 8 damage. Stephen 16:39, 27 May 2008 (NZST)
Mandos wonders why it didn't just say that :-) :-) --16:40, 27 May 2008 (NZST) - And now it does :-) - -Mandos 08:22, 28 May 2008 (NZST)

Teleporting - Darien would probably try to be going at TV (or feet-first TV) with SWings on before shadow-walking under someone/thing. This if SWing to the ground and flying up and matching speed isn't do-able. This is helped by him having an item that will put him in shadow if a light source is available.

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