Running into an invisible wall?

[RangerWickett]

As much as I am loathe to endorse them, the d20 modern rules cover collisions. I'm just bitter because my GM ruled that ramming a horde of zombies with an SUV did damage to the SUV for each zombie hit, as if they were as solid as steel pillars, rather than being squishy and fleshy. Plus at low speeds the damage is pretty minimal, so we had to ram those bastards back and forth, back and forth, back and forth until finally they went down. In the process, we nearly destroyed the SUV.

That was silly.

 

[2nd Ed Paladin]

I already have such a rule: You don't take any damage from running into immovable objects. That covers everything and it's pretty darned short. I'm in the dark why you'd want to do anything different.

Does this happen a lot? Are creatures running into invisible walls very often in your campaign?

I wouldn't want a rule like yours because running into walls is funny and I want an effect resulting from it.

No it doesn't happen a lot. That is why I suggested making a ruling on the fly so you obtain a reasonable result from the impact. There are situations where your rule would be appropriate and others where I don't think it would be.

 

[Venator]

Pictures and a short video:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=198881

 

[accipiter]

As much as I am loathe to endorse them, the d20 modern rules cover collisions.

Now that's an idea. Don't know why it didn't occur to me before, since one of the players in my d20 Modern game was pretty fond of that tactic. If I remember rightly, I just used the d20 Modern rules for crashing into stuff pretty much as is, but I was pretty lenient on the damage to the car and its occupants as long as it was a ballsy or dramatic move.

I remember that it didn't make sense to me that the PCs and the car would take as much damage ramming a demon as they did ramming heavy wooden church doors. I seem to recall that the collision rules make it pretty unlikely the driver will survive, too, and that struck me as somewhat un-cinematic.

 

[danzig138]

I already have such a rule: You don't take any damage from running into immovable objects. That covers everything and it's pretty darned short. I'm in the dark why you'd want to do anything different.

Because not everyone follows the One True Way? I can't figure out why you'd have a poor ruling that running into immovable objects doesn't deal any damage. IMG, if someone is running full tilt and hits a wall (invisible or not), they will take some damage, and their speed will be a factor (contrary to another poster, a high speed in usually a bonus - ignoring it is flawed thinking though).

What if someone throws a creature into a wall? Does the creature not take any damage then?

In my experience, striking immovable objects (walls, cars, doors, etc) hurts like hell. To ignore this in the game would seriously damage my suspension of disbelief.

I would love to play a superspeedster in a supers game if you were running though, assuming you're consistent in your ruling.

 

[Goreg Skullcrusher]

What if someone throws a creature into a wall? Does the creature not take any damage then?

For what it's worth, there is a precedent set for smacking a creature into a wall. Awesome Blow from the MM sets it at a flat 1d6 damage.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I probably wouldn't argue with his calculations, BUT the tone of "why would this ever come up what are you a moron" was a bit over much.

Indeed, if I knew I was facing a charge monkey, I would seriously consider a readied wall of force. And in the STAP my character had "turn to lure them into a ram and ready WoF" as one of her prepared strategies for certain types of naval conflict. (never got to use it, more's the pity.)

But I'm acustomed to the fact that the Sage, well, isn't.

There's also a sad lack of rules for bull rushing people into walls in the SRD at least.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

It's not uncommon for baseball players to develop concussions from running full speed into walls that are padded and that they know exist. Some miss large chunks of playing time (Ryan Freel is a current example) due to the effects of the concussions. There are even cases of players dying by running into fellow teammates during a game.

So, it is possible to get your bell run MUCH harder than 1d3 or subdual damage, however it's ultimately up to the GM to decide exactly how it will work in their game.

DS

 

[Kahuna Burger]

It's not uncommon for baseball players to develop concussions from running full speed into walls that are padded and that they know exist. Some miss large chunks of playing time (Ryan Freel is a current example) due to the effects of the concussions. There are even cases of players dying by running into fellow teammates during a game.

A good point of reference. People really have very few real life examples of a full grown person running full tilt into a solid object, so we get comparisons to toddlers (light and slow moving) or a mental idea of "that time I came around to corner too tight and bumped by shoulder."

(and speed matters. The idea that something that we treat as a bonus must never be a detriment in any situation just seems odd to me.)

 

[pawsplay]

An armored person running full-tilt into a wall is not likely to suffer any permanent damage.

Why don't you try it sometime? That sounds like a recipe for a concussion or broken ribs to me. It could probably kill you.