Jumping - Todd E. Schreiber 1. Broad Jump A broad jump is any jump where a character does not take a running start to make a jump. One or two steps make little difference in the distance actually cleared. A successful broad jump can be completed without tripping or falling, and needs only one step for recovery room where he or she lands. A player needs only room to plant his or her feet to make a standing broad jump. 2. Long Jump A running long jump requires a good deal of running room to gain the maximum distance. Both a runway and landing strip are required for long jumps. The runway should be equal to twice the distance attempting to be cleared, and the landing strip should be equal to the distance jumped. 3. Jumping Distances An average character can make a standing broad jump a distance equal to their height plus 6", and a running long jump equal to twice the broad jump distance. Modifications to this are based on higher and lower than average Physical Strength and Agility scores. Add 3" to a characters height for each point PS or Agility are over 15, and subtract 3" for each point under 15. Use modified ability scores to determine a character's ability in armor and with the items he or she is carrying. Example Bud has a PS of 24 and a Modified Agility of 11 in his armor. He is 4' 3" tall, so he can broad jump 4' 9" + Strength (9 x 3") and - Agility (4 x 3") for a total of 6'0". His long jump would be 12'0". 4. Extending for that extra distance Extra distance can be added to a broad jump by diving forward. You can gain up to half your height in this fashion, but an agility check should be made. If for example Bud were broad jumping a 7' pit, he would have to dive, and catch onto something. Increase or decrease the agility roll depending on what there is to catch on the other side. If for example there were a handrail built into the edge of the pit, he should have a fairly good chance of catching it, say 5 times agility. Two types of extensions can be attempted for a long jump, the leg extension or the dive. Leg extension landings, similar in fashion to olympic long jumping, can add half of your height to a jump. If you extend in this fashion, you come to a crash landing, and take 1 fatigue point of damage, if no fatigue, then endurance. Diving forward at the end of a long jump is a very dangerous maneuver. If attempted, a character should suffer damage similar to a fall of the same distance jumped. Like falls, the surface landed on can reduce or even eliminate any damage. In the case of a dive, the player must catch on to something similar to a broad jumping dive. 5. Short Runways and Landings There are often times when the runway is not the required two times the distance to be jumped. A runway must be longer than the character's height who is attempting the jump, only broad jumps may be made if the runway is less than the jumpers height. In the case of a short runway follow these procedures to determine jumping distances. Lets say Bud, in armor, needs to clear a pit that is somewhat less than 10 feet across, but he has only a 10' runway. Divide the runway distance (10') by Bud's maximum long jump runway distance, (12' x 2 = 24 feet) the result is 42%. Multiply this by Bud's broad jumping distance (.42 x 6' = 2.5') then add it to his broad jumping distance (6' + 2.5' = 8.5') to see how far he can jump with the short runway. He may jump 8.5' with the 10' runway. Only dive extensions are available for short runway jumps. In this case, Bud can either dive to make sure he clears that pit, or remove his armor and weapons, and throw them across before jumping. If the required amount of landing strip is not available, there are two options. In the case where a player is attempting to jump a 15' pit in a passageway, but the passage turns 10' after the pit, the player will end up slamming into the wall before coming to a controlled stop. The player should roll for falling damage of Required Landing strip minus Available Landing strip. In this case it would be a 5' fall, which would usually not end up in any damage. If a player were jumping a 15' pit and were trying to land on a 3' ledge, ouch! Essentially the player would be running full speed into a wall, that can really hurt. The second option is the case where the landing strip ends into open space. If you are jumping from rooftop to rooftop, and you end up jumping a 15' gap and landing on a small roof area, with only 10' of landing space, you will need to dive onto the roof to avoid sailing over the edge. In this case you can continue your jump to another roof, hope one is near by, or do a fall and roll, take damage similar to hitting the wall. If the rooftop is even smaller, you'll have to make a dive or leg extension landing, and take appropriate damage. 6. Pole vaulting and High Jumping What are you running a medieval track meet? Pole vaulting and high jumping skills are not going to be discussed, as they do not have any practical applications in the fantasy role playing game. Pole vaulting requires an extremely flexible pole, of which the technology in fantasy times does not exist without the aid of magic to make. You also need to plant the pole in a small hole to launch. OK, maybe you could try and leap over an 8' foot fence with a pole, but the average pole will snap into splinters if treated in such a fashion, and don't forget, that there is no padded landing pit on the other side for you. Plus who walks around carrying a 10 foot pole? If it is your pike, then you just left it behind you at the fence, as you do have to let go of it to complete the jump. High jumping is a skill everyone possesses to a degree, but like pole vaulting it has no practical game time application. Of course you may want to jump over something, but since you can usually touch whatever it is you are jumping over, you can simply grab the top of the 8' fence, and swing your legs over it. You would look pretty dumb making a great effort to clear the same fence, and then crashing on your head on the other side of it, while your companions simply grab the top, swing their legs over and continue on there way.