cheezewizz2000
2010-12-01, 08:22 AM
So I don't derail the main thread yet again, I'll post this here (you'll appreciate the pun in a minute).
I've been thinking a lot about the hobo and his jumping on and off trains. Trains are pretty big things, and these old steam trains could pick up a pretty fair lick of speed. That said, jumping off a train and having your character die from 1d6/10' of travel distance damage when the train is going at 15 mph (~130'/round) isn't fun. If anyone can point me towards how trains work mechanically in eberron that would be very helpful, otherwise this will do as a starter. So, in my first of many "how trains work" posts we will first need to define how much damage you take based on how fast you're going, or more specifically, how much damage you take when you stop going fast very suddenly. This is broadly based on your speed when falling and I've calculated it based on this equation:
v = SQRT(2ad) where v is velocity, a is 9.81m/s^2 and d is the distance you fall (10 feet, 20 feet etc). This has produced this table (with rounding producing some errors):
{table=head]feet fallen equiv.| Speed in feet/round|mph equivalent| d6 damage
10|160|20|1
20|210|25|2
30|260|30|3
40|310|35|4
50|360|40|5
60|400|45|6
70|440|50|7
80|480|55|8
90|520|60|9
100|550|62|10
110|580|65|11
120|610|70|12
130|640|72|13
140|660|75|14
150|680|77|15
160|700|80|16
170|720|81|17
180|730|82|18
190|740|84|19
200|750|85|20
[/table]
This starts to get a bit shakey at the upper end because damage and distance fallen scales linearly wheras speed with distance fallen does not.
I will assume that your standard locomotive goes at about 30 mph, so when a hobo uses his ability to slow the train down to half speed (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9868267&postcount=249), he will not take falling damage. Doubling the speed of the train makes pushing a guy off nearly fatal (only the truly hardy can take 9d6 of damage in an E6 system) and quadrupling the speed will max out the falling damage. Given that no-one can really be expected to survive a 120mph collision, this does not seem too outrageous (though the ability to quadruple the speed of a train may be).
EDIT: NEW TABLE! For more fatal train jumping!
{table=head]Train speed (mph)| Train speed (ft/round)| Damage (# of d6s)
5|45|1d6-3 (minimum 1)
10|90|1
15|130|2
20|180|3
25|220|4
27|240|5
30|260|6
33|290|7
35|310|8
37|330|9
40|350|10
43|380|11
45|400|12
47|420|13
50|440|14
53|460|15
55|480|16
57|500|17
60|530|18
63|560|19
65|580|20
[/table]
Feel free to discuss this one. Old one left for comparison and will eventually be removed. Differences in mph and ft/round are the result of rounding and a desire to keep numbers as round numbers. ft/round should only really be used in rare situations where some characters on a moving train are interacting with characters that are not. Otherwise mph should be estimated by the GM and used.
Also, we need to discuss how much damage being HIT by a train does. Coyote knows it will come up in a game...
I've been thinking a lot about the hobo and his jumping on and off trains. Trains are pretty big things, and these old steam trains could pick up a pretty fair lick of speed. That said, jumping off a train and having your character die from 1d6/10' of travel distance damage when the train is going at 15 mph (~130'/round) isn't fun. If anyone can point me towards how trains work mechanically in eberron that would be very helpful, otherwise this will do as a starter. So, in my first of many "how trains work" posts we will first need to define how much damage you take based on how fast you're going, or more specifically, how much damage you take when you stop going fast very suddenly. This is broadly based on your speed when falling and I've calculated it based on this equation:
v = SQRT(2ad) where v is velocity, a is 9.81m/s^2 and d is the distance you fall (10 feet, 20 feet etc). This has produced this table (with rounding producing some errors):
{table=head]feet fallen equiv.| Speed in feet/round|mph equivalent| d6 damage
10|160|20|1
20|210|25|2
30|260|30|3
40|310|35|4
50|360|40|5
60|400|45|6
70|440|50|7
80|480|55|8
90|520|60|9
100|550|62|10
110|580|65|11
120|610|70|12
130|640|72|13
140|660|75|14
150|680|77|15
160|700|80|16
170|720|81|17
180|730|82|18
190|740|84|19
200|750|85|20
[/table]
This starts to get a bit shakey at the upper end because damage and distance fallen scales linearly wheras speed with distance fallen does not.
I will assume that your standard locomotive goes at about 30 mph, so when a hobo uses his ability to slow the train down to half speed (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9868267&postcount=249), he will not take falling damage. Doubling the speed of the train makes pushing a guy off nearly fatal (only the truly hardy can take 9d6 of damage in an E6 system) and quadrupling the speed will max out the falling damage. Given that no-one can really be expected to survive a 120mph collision, this does not seem too outrageous (though the ability to quadruple the speed of a train may be).
EDIT: NEW TABLE! For more fatal train jumping!
{table=head]Train speed (mph)| Train speed (ft/round)| Damage (# of d6s)
5|45|1d6-3 (minimum 1)
10|90|1
15|130|2
20|180|3
25|220|4
27|240|5
30|260|6
33|290|7
35|310|8
37|330|9
40|350|10
43|380|11
45|400|12
47|420|13
50|440|14
53|460|15
55|480|16
57|500|17
60|530|18
63|560|19
65|580|20
[/table]
Feel free to discuss this one. Old one left for comparison and will eventually be removed. Differences in mph and ft/round are the result of rounding and a desire to keep numbers as round numbers. ft/round should only really be used in rare situations where some characters on a moving train are interacting with characters that are not. Otherwise mph should be estimated by the GM and used.
Also, we need to discuss how much damage being HIT by a train does. Coyote knows it will come up in a game...