[d20 Modern] Skydiving?

[Ranger REG]

Tumble with a houseruled Paradrop feat.

 

[FraserRonald]

[threadjack]Blame Committed Hero!

Fraser, were you happy with the outcome of Saturday's hockey (one can never be sure with a Canadian fan...)?

I'm not a huge hockey fan, but since the win means huge parties in Ottawa, hells yeah I'm happy. My father, on the other hand, absolutely adores hockey. Were there a church, he'd be worshiping at it. And he doesn't care who wins. His philosophy is, since he doesn't go to the actual games, and has to watch them on TV, whoever wins is irrelevant, as long as the games are broadcast.

Something very Zen about that . . . or maybe not Zen, but certainly something philosophically profound in an uber-cool kind of way.
[/threadjack]

 

[pspahn]

[threadjack]Blame Committed Hero!
[/threadjack]

That's OK. I'd be more likely to join in if my Rangers hadn't tanked in the second round. You'd think for all the money Jagr's getting he'd be able to score more than one meaningless goal in 6 games. They might as well bring Messier back (again).

 

[Vigilance]

Thanks everyone. I just thought it was an odd omission. A feat is probably the best way to go, but it seems sort of low powered for a feat. Maybe it can be combined with something else?

Pete

Id allow anyone to make the Tumble check at -4, with the feat taking away the penalty (this is what I did in Blood and Guts).

The Tumble skill check would determine how close to the target you landed.

In other words, anyone can bail out of a plane or drop into unfriendly but if you want to make precise, coordinated landings, then you need a feat.

But since everyone can pull the rip cord, my method doesn't force anyone to spend a feat if they don't want to.

 

[Vigilance]

I think Tumble gets to many uses, and I take "Jump". The only weakness of this solution is that Jump is a strength-based skill, which probably doesn't fits for "precise falling".
A alternative might be Balance.

Balance gets a little hosed, but since martial arts for Blood and Fists is all over my campaign, and since Balance lets people avoid Trip attacks there, and since anyone using those rules can Trip like a mother- *shut your mouth* I usually don't have a problem with people not wanting Balance

For the record, I picked Tumble because most skydiving actually *is* a controlled fall (if you look at competitive skydiving, and then look at someone diving into a pool, you can see a lot of the same types of movements).

Also, if you've ever seen jump school exercises, they usually start by jumping off a base, and rolling when they hit the ground, which again seems like Tumble to me.

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

For the record, I picked Tumble because most skydiving actually *is* a controlled fall (if you look at competitive skydiving, and then look at someone diving into a pool, you can see a lot of the same types of movements).

Also, if you've ever seen jump school exercises, they usually start by jumping off a base, and rolling when they hit the ground, which again seems like Tumble to me.

It's been awhile but IIRC the jumpmaster said to kinda roll with it when you hit or else you'll end up twisting your ankle (or worse). A "Duh" moment I know. I soon realized that gravity truly is a harsh mistress. But I was more concerned about the chute opening before I got to "3 Mississippi" (no ripcord, static line but the ripcord was Plan B). I think there was also a safety device that deploys the chute (if it hasn't already) when you get to a certain altitude. But dad (former Army Jumpmaster among other things) said they'd strap a reserve chute onto a dog and out they went (static line probably) and they'd land without much of a problem. Which made my less than graceful landing all the better.

Oh yeah. The thread!

As for targeting a certain spot, there's something else that takes care of that. Pull the left cord and you rotate left, right cord and go right, pull both and you have a steeper descent. A basic Hit roll using Int or Wis bonuses instead?

I'll say Navigate while in the air with a Reflex save to land right.

 

[JediSoth]

I wrote a skill called "Skydiving" for a D20 Past campaign I was working on (set in WWII). It was for a one-shot game I still haven't run.

Skydiving (Dex)
Use this skill when operating a parachute, such as you might when jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.
Check: Under normal circumstances, it will allow you to jump from a plane (or any sufficiently high object, deploy a parachute canopy and float safely down to the ground. Steering ability is very limited. Parachute DCs assume you jump from a height sufficient to allow the canopy to fully deploy.

Conditions DC
Calm 5
Light Wind 10
Windy 15
Gale 20

If you fail the check by less than 5, you’re blown 100-400 yards off course. If you fail the check with a natural 1, there is a 10% chance of a mishap. Jumping with a static line (as most military paratroopers do) reduces the chances of a mishap to 1%.

Skydiving Mishaps
Roll %
Roll Mishap
01 You become tangled in your lines. Take falling damage from the height you jumped.
02-25 You get your lines tangled but are able to recover; you have a hard landing, take 2d6 damage (reflex for half).
26-35 Your main canopy deploys late. You make a hard landing, take 2d6 damage (reflex for half).
36-100 Your main canopy fails to deploy. If you have a reserve chute, make a DC10 skill check to deploy it. You make it down safely, 100-1000 yards off course. Otherwise, take falling damage from the height you jumped.

If you succeed on the check, your canopy deploys as it was supposed to and you float gently to the ground.
Jumping under a height of 200’ will not give the parachute sufficient time to fully deploy. Characters jumping from such a low altitude will take 3d6 damage from the hard landing (reflex for half).
Try Again?: No.
Special: If you have 3 or more ranks in Jump or Tumble, you receive a +2 synergy bonus to your Skydiving skill check. If you have 3 or more ranks in both Jump and Tumble, you receive a +4 insight bonus to your Skydiving skill check. If you have the Acrobatic feat, you receive a +2 synergy bonus to your Skydiving skill check.
Time: Opening a parachute is a move-equivalent action. Characters descend at the rate of 100’ per round. They cannot alter the rate of descent, but they can fire weapons while descending, suffering a -4 to hit penalty in addition to range penalties if they do so.

JediSoth

 

[pspahn]

I wrote a skill called "Skydiving" for a D20 Past campaign I was working on (set in WWII). It was for a one-shot game I still haven't run.

Hey, that's a great write-up. Actually, this question arose while I was statting out PCs for WWII: Operation Jedburgh (in sig). It was one of the reasons I decided to start the scenario just after the drop rather than during.

Pete