Jump Skill...what the?

[dreaded_beast]

Is it just me, or is trying to figure out how jump works difficult?

I've been through many a game session where someone tries to jump and we spend around 5 minutes or so, trying to figure out how far.

At this point, I think the DM just fudges and looks at the total roll and just says whether or not they made it.

Too complicated!

 

[maddman75]

Agreed. Here's a quick house rule (even though its the wrong forum).

Roll the Jump check and subtract five. This is the number of feet jumped. The minimum of five feet and maximum of 6x height still apply.

This is only for running long jumps, which IME is about 90% of them. It will map very closely to the results that you get from the arcane calculations in the PHB. And its a lot quicker.

 

[Crothian]

I always found it rather easy personally. I mean sure it takes a little math skills but we aren't doing calculus here, just some basic adding and subtracting and dividing.

 

[MadScientist]

I agree the amount work involved with making a jump check is way too much! I'm no math slouch either, with a couple of years of college calculus under my belt.

 

[Xeoble]

roll...add modifier...subtract 10...divide by 1/2/4/8 as per jump type...add to base length/height as per jump type

 

[RedSwan78]

If you use a laptop to help you along with your games (usually the DM), you can download the electronic Aids right from this site (look closely down the left column of the main page) and they're pretty helpful, you can just plug modifiers and such in and then you just have to plug in your jump roll and it does everything for you!

Or just have a good calculator next to you and manually do the math

Those two ways are about as easy as it will get for doing it straight out of the phb.

I recently started playing a new type of PC, a Dragoon (final fantasy) that pretty much relies on jumping around all over the place. Take a little bit and sit down and completely read the jump skill and pick it apart, it makes it a bit easier to understand when you fully exlpore it and work with it a bit!

Hope that helps!

 

[Dimwhit]

Definitely helps to have a laptop. But I didn't care much for the aids available for download. Personal preference. I just created an Excel spreadsheet and did all the calculations. I play with a portable, so now it's a piece of cake. Without a computer, good luck.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I wouldn't use a program even if I brought my laptop to games; it's faster to do it without.

 

[Jeph]

The d20 Modern book puts it a lot more clearly than the PHB, and they're the same basic rules. Might want to print out a little half-page from the d20M SRD with the Jump rules and stick it between the appropriate pages.

 

[Malin Genie]

I get every character to pre-calculate their Jump distance if they 'Take 10' (unless jumping in combat, where they can't Take 10, this represents the distance they can jump safely) and the distance they can jump if they roll a '1' (this is the safe distance for jumping in combat.)

Between those two numbers you have 90%+ of all jumps covered in my experience.