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> Skimming Stones, Skim, Skim, Skim, Skim, Skoosh
Lilt
post Sep 25 2004, 05:44 PM
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If a character (or anthroform drone) falls from a fast speedboat, what happens? The closest rules I can find to this are in rigger 3 regarding side-swiping barriers, but they assume that a vehicle goes through a barrier if it does sufficient damage to break through, which is kindof the opposete effect from what we want.

Now, I'm aware that unless the character is particularily skillful (and wears jet-skis or similar) they're probably dead and everything else is just GM's description. But what about characters who are wearing jet-skis and are that dammn good?

My answer: If you do side-swipe the water, reverse the rules about breaking through it. If you *do* do enough damage to break through, you in-stead are skimming on the surface. If you don't do enough damage to break-through, you have slowed enough and no-longer skim. Seem fair? The problem is: What should the effective collision power be? What should the barrier rating of the water be?

Anybody care to help me complete this example?
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Flash is piloting his Large Anthroform Drone, which is presently being lowered from a tilt-wing in an attempt to fasten a winch cable to the escaping speed-boat. The whole chase is happening at speeds in excess of 200Mph. He drops the last meter onto the speedboat, which lurches downwards with the extra weight, as Flash latches-on for dear life. The speedboat lies lower in the water with the added weight of the anthroform, kicking-up a hail of salty water each time it hits a wave, not to mention the effects of the tilt-wing's propellers above.

At this point the GM makes Flash's player make a crash test, applying most of the negative modifiers in the book. By the skin of his teeth, flash succeeds and manages to attach the winch hook to the speedboat on his next action.

Realising what is happening, the speedboat driver swerves to try and shake the unwanted passanger off. The GM now makes flash make another crash test, this time applying all of the negative modifiers in the book and a whole new set of modifiers he made-up on the spot. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Flash fails this test and is sent flying off the side of the boat at the staggering speed of 240M/turn.

Flash makes an athletics test to try and hit the water safely, and succeeds dispite the "You're so dead now" modifiers the GM is giving him. Giving the water a barrier rating of X, for an effective body rating of Y and a damage code to the anthroform of Z, the colission power is sufficient to skim the drone allong the surface, reducing the drone's speed by X*10. This is repeated until the drone fails to carry enough power to skim across the water, at which point it plunges into the icy depths.


Any ideas for what the variables X, Y, and Z should be?
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blakkie
post Sep 25 2004, 05:56 PM
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Anything that falls onto the water will press into it, more or less. It has a LOT to do with the shape and texture of the object. There will be a drag per surface area touching that related to the angle at which the surface is towards the direction of travel and the material and surface properties of the object. The angle and amount of surface are determined by mass, shape, and position of the object as it hits.

So basically giving a fix factor of any valve in the place of "*10" [EDIT: or for X, Y, or Z] is an order of magnitude or more bulldrek than the SR explosives calculation formulas. Just watch some waterski jumping sport, powerboat racing, or the like to get a feel for how humans and objects look and they crash. Then make it all up in a fair way that makes the game fun. Then pat yourself on the back for doing your GM job helping people enjoy the game.
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Edward
post Sep 26 2004, 11:58 AM
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Personally I would just make a statement. He skims for 70 meters and dam the mechanics.

If you really want the mechanics remember, a more regularly shaped object will skim longer (skipping stones need to be flat), density is just as important as mass (large light stones work better than small heavy ones), angle of incidence is very important (and I think the coision rules make power less with a low angle), waves make skipping unlikely)

The way I would do it if I was going to would be divide the objects movement into 2 parts, horizontal and vertical. The barer rating is determined by a formula based on forward motion speed, use down wood speed (quite slow in your example) to determine impact power. Damage level will be modified based on object shape and water movement (the more regular each is the lower the damage code.) now apply the rules as stated in R3 and you should get the effect you want

Edward
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