[d20 Modern] parachuting? AIRBORNE!

[bwgwl]

what would be the best way to handle parachuting in d20 Modern? (i'm starting up a d20 Modern WWII game, so i know i'll have some airborne operations at some point in the campaign...)

i don't want to allow just anybody to do it, because it obviously does take some amount of training to do it well -- i.e., hit your LZ and not injure yourself.

but should it be a skill? feat? something else?

that's what i'm wondering.

 

[Crothian]

I'd make it a feato to use tumbling to absorb the fall. If you don't have the feat you recieve a -5 penalty to the skill check.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'd make it a skill rather than a feat - feats are too far apart and hard to come by.

In fact, I'd probably just factor it in as jumping skill check to land properly (assuming that anyone parachuting has been told how to do it). DC10 seems fair.

Cheers

 

[Jeph]

I'd just use the standard Jump/Tumble checks to avoid falling damage--but treat the fall as always being 20 feet (so that a successful check from each skill completely negates the damage, but if you fail a check or 2, the couple of d6s can be lethal to low-level characters). Maybe have a feat that gives +4 to Jump and Tumble checks to avoid falling damage from parachuting, if you really want.

 

[Ranger REG]

Parachute should give you an equipment bonus to your Tumble skill check to make a controlled descent and landing.

BTW, what is the rate of descent? Not the same as the effect of feather fall, is it?

 

[Katowice]

Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine has a feat called Parachute Proficiency. I think there's a DC for the landing based on your Dex (or Tumble). Not having the feat makes you incur a -4 penalty.

 

[bwgwl]

thanks guys.

i think i like Jeph's and Plane Sailing's idea of just using the existing jump/tumble rules -- means i don't have to make up anything myself.

i thought about throwing in a feat like Katowice describes, but i figure the PCs are only going to be doing airdrops maybe 4 or 5 times over the course of the campaign, so i doubt anyone would "waste" a feat on it.

i'll just make sure my NPC Fallschirmjägers have decent Jump and Tumble checks. (even if it does feel kinda weird giving them the Acrobatic feat for the +2/+2...)

so, any ideas on what kind of skill check to make sure they hit their LZ?

 

[Morgenstern]

The Soldier Wheelman Class Guide for Spycraft goes into skydiving at some length, with DCs for targeting an LZ (how much to land on the roof of a moving car again?), packing your chute, sabotaging someone else's, aerial acrobatic in mid-air, HALO and base jumping, and using your chute to bdag that poor bugger above you.

Basically, a graceful landing is handled with Jump, the mid-air stunts with Tumble, and Sport (Skydiving) covers gear knowledge and exotic tricks. Full descriptions of the skill checks for each.

You might want to flip through it at your FLGS .