Neebie Question on Falling

Hi, I used to play MSH when I was younger & I've just dusted off the box and started playing with my kids.
Everything is going well so far, but I have 1 question.

Can someone clarify how falling damage works? The advanced players book isn't very clear. I under stand that it is treated like charging. With an attempt to break the material strength of the ground.
But actual damage inflicted is unclear?
Anyone help?

Actual damage is equal to the Material Strength of the object you hit, I believe... I could be wrong.

I seem to recall reading somewhere (perhaps in the original Basic Set) about falling damage being 10pts per floor / vertical area of distance fallen (and possibly mentioned as capping out around 150-160pts damage). That, plus damage equal to the Material Strength of the surface you land upon (Excellent/20 for concrete or streets, IIRC) can make for nasty falls from buildings, etc.

Quack, damn you...

Yet the example in the PHB has She Hulk falling many stories but her Amazing or Monstrous Body Armor absorbs all the damage. If it were 10 damage per floor, that means falling 100 feet would be Unearthly damage (plus Material Strength)... something that systematically, few heroes could hope to do unscathed, yet many have done in the comics time and time again. I'd say 2 damage per floor fallen (plus MS) is more fair, as that would put a 10 story fall onto concrete at 40 damage; more than even a human with everything at Good could withstand, but not enough that it'd scratch superhumans with Incredible or higher body armor. Just my opinion.

I was sort of leaning towards to 2 points per area fallen + Material strength of the surface hit, so i'll stick with that.

Thanks all.

What about the following part about breaking the surface on impact.

"Treat such a situation as a
Charging attack on an inanimate object,
with the ground's material strength acting as
the Body Armor of the target. If the damage
is taken by the material, the shock may be
absorbed; otherwise the hero takes damage
from the fall equivalent to the distance."

Any clarification on this?

I never understood it myself. but I do like the 2pts./floor + mat. Str. rule. They say it's very rare for someone to survive a fall of more than 4 stories, and this rule bears that out.

There should be a limit to the MS damage though, imho. Falling 100 feet onto Adamantium shouldn't deal 1020 damage. Also, the MS shouldn't really factor into it up until a certain height. Example: Falling 10 feet onto concrete shouldn't deal 22 damage.

This just came to me.

"If the damage
is taken by the material, the shock may be
absorbed; otherwise the hero takes damage
from the fall equivalent to the distance."

Maybe if the Material breaks (like the example where She-Hulk smashes the conrete footpath) the hero doesn't take damage from the MS, just from the fall. And the fall damage should calculated as 2 Health per distance (Area) or falling speed (maximum velocity of 20 areas per turn) whichever is lower.

So falling from an airplane onto concrete. A hero with IN body armour strikes EX concrete, makes a Green FEAT & smashes the concrete would only take the damage from the fall (20x2) = 40 damage (absorded by the body armour). If the FEAT roll was White they would take the falling damage (40) + MS (20) for 60 damage. Resulting in 20 damage to the hero. This fits the She-Hulk example because she broke the footpath when she hit.

Falling from a first floor window would be MS (20) + 1 Area (2) = 22 damage unless the hero breaks the footpath in which case the damage would be 2.

How does that sound?

I try not to fall. It can be dangerous...Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Carry on. :D

"Fer the love of my sweet Community...RAGNARöK"

Rak,

Seems like a pretty good way to handle it. Some of these things just have to be play tested to see how they work. You can do that out side of game time with different characters and materials. Pretty sick to keep throwing heroes off of buildings to just to check the results, but hey, do your thing. Minus 10 Karma for putting a hero in danger for you own sadistic pleasure.

The Last Duskblade
Q-Class Forever!!!