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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5887033" data-attributes="member: 42582">From the Moldvay Basic rulebook (page B60):[A] combat . . . is taking place on a ledge next to an unexplored chasm. One player suddenly decides that his character has no chance to survive combat. The player announces "My character wants to jump into the chasm to escape!" There may be a chance that he will fall to a nearby ledge or land in a pool of water at the bottom of the chasm. The DM . . . remembers that an underground river flows through some of the lower dungeon levels, so there might be a pool below. Even so, the character will fall 60', and a normal fall will do 1d6 points of damage per 10' fallen. This character has only 7 hp, and seems likely to die even if the water cushions his landing and reduces the damage. However, there should always be a chance to something nearly impossible. A player should have, at the very least, a saving throw or a stated percentage chance of a miraculous occurrence saving the character. The DM answers: " . . . A result of 99 or 00 will mean that your character lives, but any other result will mean that he will die in the attempt. Do you still want to jump?"I think the tenor of this is pretty consistent with the discussion of saving throws in Gygax's DMG, and particularly of the emphatic insistence that, even - perhaps especially - when a PC is being breathed on by a dragon while chained to a rockface, a saving throw is still permitted.For me, at least, that's part of what distinguishes D&D's action resolution mechanics from those of other fantasy games.</blockquote>

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