[d20 Modern] House rule for paratroopers?

A thread on the WotC boards details some methods for handling the game mechanics for parachutes, including a weigh-in from designer Rich Redman.

I'm working on a one-shot adventure (or possibly a mini-campaign) in which all of the player characters are paratroopers - I don't want to make the investment in Blood and Guts for a paratrooper AdC (nor do I want all of the characters pursing the exact same class), so would it be reasonable to allow all of the player characters to substitute Jump and/or Pilot as class skills regardless of starting occupation or base class and require them to take at least one rank in either/both, to reflect their training?

Your thoughts and/or experiences would be appreciated.

What are you going to do if the PCs flub their Jump checks or any other die rolls you institute to represent the riskiness of the drop? Say that the character is now a big splat mark right at the start of the game, without even having got to the interesting bits?

For this reason, I wouldn't bother with any sort of rules for what happens during the drop. Just assume that the PCs land safely, and get on with the adventure: "you jump out of the plane. After a terrifying ride through the sky, with flak bursting above you and searchlights stabbing through the darkness, you land in a field...."

hong said:

What are you going to do if the PCs flub their Jump checks or any other die rolls you institute to represent the riskiness of the drop? Say that the character is now a big splat mark right at the start of the game, without even having got to the interesting bits?

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There are plenty of bad thing that can happen between OK and Splat. You might land away from your comrades, you might take a few hps of damage, you might lose a piece of equipment. The most important roll will be for whomever decides to start the jump; does he pick the correct spot for the altitude and wind? Also, is this modern stearable parachutes or the old kind?


Aaron

hong said:

What are you going to do if the PCs flub their Jump checks or any other die rolls you institute to represent the riskiness of the drop? Say that the character is now a big splat mark right at the start of the game, without even having got to the interesting bits?

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Since that is a very real possibility, that could be a consequence in-game, yes.

More likely though you could have characters attempting to steer to avoid a terrain obstacle, or an enemy position, or to counter sudden gusts of wind. There are a great many things that happen during a jump other than catastrophic 'chute failure, as Aaron2 noted.

Perhaps more importantly, this should simply be part of the characters' skill set - based on Rich Redman's notes, these are the skills that a paratrooper character using the core Modern rules would have, so for the purposes of verisimilitude alone the skills make sense to me. What I'm concerned about is how to insure that each character has the skills, regardless of starting occupation and base class - since this is still a roleplaying game and not a wargame, being able to play any character type is still important to me as GM, and I'm sure it remains important to the players as well.

Other thoughts?

The Shaman said:

What I'm concerned about is how to insure that each character has the skills, regardless of starting occupation and base class - since this is still a roleplaying game and not a wargame, being able to play any character type is still important to me as GM, and I'm sure it remains important to the players as well.

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I posted a longer reply on the WotC thread before I realized the thread was 10 months old.

I'd split the characters into two groups. The normal paratroopers and the jump masters*. A normal paratrooper would be trained in proper decent technique (i.e. no to fall butt first), flying under canopy (basic steering) and landing technique. I would probably not make this even a feat, just something they are trained to do (kinda like being qualified in the various military weapons or equipment). I'd use a simple Dex check to guide the parachute around obstacles and another simple Jump check to land without injury.

The jump masters, OTOH, would need a skill that would be used for proper function of the equipment (both main and reserve chutes), determining a good landing zone based on local terrain, and determining the best time to jump once over the landing zone in order to hit it properly. His screwing up will up the DC for the checks the normal troopers need.

This is based on modern technology. I know that when I was jumping (early to mid 90s) you could buy a special altimeter that would automatically deploy your reserve if you passed a certain altitude (say 2,000 ft) and were falling too fast. At that time they were smaller than a cell phone.

Finally, the if both your chutes fail, it was refered to as a "double malfunction". 1 out of every 100 jump results in some sort of malfunction. I've had one, but not a really bad one.


Aaron

* I believe this was originally a mililtary term.

First, thank you for taking the time to reply - much appreciated.

Aaron2 said:

I posted a longer reply on the WotC thread before I realized the thread was 10 months old.

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Because it contained a Modern rules interpretation from Rich Redman, I thought the thread deserved bumping, and in the process added my question.

Aaron2 said:

*snippage*.

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While I appreciate the information you posted, my question isn't about how to use parachutes in the game under the core rules - that's been adequately covered to my satisfaction by Rich.

My question is this: if the player characters are paratroopers, is it reasonable for me to allow Jump and Pilot to be class skills (regardless of starting occupation or base class) and require the players to put at least one rank each?

The Shaman said:

My question is this: if the player characters are paratroopers, is it reasonable for me to allow Jump and Pilot to be class skills (regardless of starting occupation or base class) and require the players to put at least one rank each?

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That's overpowering paratroopers relative to other characters, although it's not a big deal for a one shot where everyone is a paratrooper anyway.

Any character going to paratrooping training is going to take those skills, even if they're not class skills (and almost no first level characters would go to those schools).

Characters with these skills as class skills (eg Fast Heroes) would find it easier to pass the course. (You can picture a paratrooping "element" with a number of Fast heroes, along with a higher-level Tough/Charismatic hero, etc). Perhaps, if they're all the same level, the Fast heroes would be the jumpmasters.

The Military occupation gives you Pilot as a class skill.

It's probably reasonable to demand a rank in at least one of the skills. (Despite Rich's answer, I can't see demanding a rank in Pilot as being reasonable. But that's just me.)

Christopher Lambert said:

Any character going to paratrooping training is going to take those skills, even if they're not class skills (and almost no first level characters would go to those schools).

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All of the characters will start at 2nd level, in part to reflect the additional training.

Christopher Lambert said:

Characters with these skills as class skills (eg Fast Heroes) would find it easier to pass the course. (You can picture a paratrooping "element" with a number of Fast heroes, along with a higher-level Tough/Charismatic hero, etc). Perhaps, if they're all the same level, the Fast heroes would be the jumpmasters.

The Military occupation gives you Pilot as a class skill.

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Part of what I want to avoid is having all the characters take just one or two classes in order to get the necessary skills to qualify as paratroopers. A soldier can be of any basic class - there's no good reason I can see to encourage or even require the players to select just one or two possible occupations or basic classes for the game.

In fact, I think a diversity of classes would be preferable, given the counterinsurgency mission of the game I have in mind. Smart and Charismatic heroes may be just as important as Fast and Tough characters.

Christopher Lambert said:

It's probably reasonable to demand a rank in at least one of the skills. (Despite Rich's answer, I can't see demanding a rank in Pilot as being reasonable. But that's just me.)

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I reread the descriptions of Pilot and Aircraft Operation a couple of times since last night, and I'm starting to think that maybe Rich had an off-day when he answered that question. To say that every character who can pack a 'chute can also fly a Cessna seems a bit much, even with the overall design principle of trying to group bodies of knowledge and like skills that was used in creating the Modern rules.

I'm leaning toward making Jump the only required skill, with a skill synergy bonus for Pilot. There is precedent for this elsewhere in the rules, actually - bicycles and skis are both covered under the Balance skill, so folding parachuting into Jump doesn't seem that far off.

(Of course, the question then comes up, does Balance also cover waxing your skis and Jump packing a parachute? Ugh...)

*sigh*

I was hoping this would be easier than it's turning out to be.

The Shaman said:

My question is this: if the player characters are paratroopers, is it reasonable for me to allow Jump and Pilot to be class skills (regardless of starting occupation or base class) and require the players to put at least one rank each?

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I wouldn't. Like I said, a Dex check to avoid obstacles and a Jump check to land with low DCs (around 8) for jumping in decent conditions. Since Jump can be used untrained, its not really necessary for them to actually have ranks in it. Requiring Pilot ranks is too much. Do you required Drive ranks to ride a bike or drive a car?

The PCs are low level and (I assume) doing their first jump, they shouldn't expect to be jumping into extremely difficult situations. Leave that for when they've gained a few levels.

Since the jump master is a specialist, I see no problem requiring him to have a proper skill. Knowledge (paradrop) would work for me.

Believe me, I feel your pain. Its hard to want varied characters and still require all of them to have the same skills and feats.


Aaron

Blood and Circuts has revised the Blood and Guts rules about having a skill dedicated to paradrops.

IIRC, there was no specific 'class' that was all about paradropping and nobody else could do it.

They had a feat as well that gave a bonus to the paradrop skill (a new skill they presented).

In B&C they revised things to fit under the tumble skill. I would use tumble checks for landing, and if you wanted them to do steering, then pilot would be good as well.

as for giving away free skills, why bother? they have the chance to select occupations that will give them the ability to select them as class skills or not. it's their choice as players as to how much skill they wish to invest in it. If they want to invest a few cross class ranks, that's fine. if they don't want to invest any ranks, have them make checks anyway and they will likely get separated from the landing zone or some other consequence...but don't give things away free. if you're going to do that, you might as well take the advice of another poster and just say 'you land safely.'