Running Jump distance and Jumping dodge and retreat?

[Calvin]

Recently in the Ultra-Tech campaign I've been playing my character got his hands on a Ranger Exoskeleton. I spent some time figuring out my jump ranges with the Super Jump 2 that the exoskeleton grants, and I realized that I want to jump all the time ever. This led me to two questions about the jump rules:

1. Is a running/sprinting jump considered a "prepared" jump? Do you get both avoid the halving of distance and gain an increased effective move, or is it one or the other?

2. As part of a dodge and retreat could I opt to do an unprepared jump instead of simply taking a step? Would I need to make a Jump roll to do so?

[Fred Brackin]

[QUOTE=Calvin;1888912
2. As part of a dodge and retreat could I opt to do an unprepared jump instead of simply taking a step? Would I need to make a Jump roll to do so?[/QUOTE]

This is the Dive for Cover variant f Dodge. You'll get a distance of Jump/10 and round up.

You can't take an actual Move in place of a Dodge. Dodges take place as Active Defenses on your opponent's Turn. Move Actions have to be declared when you begin a new Turn.

[Calvin]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

This is the Dive for Cover variant f Dodge. You'll get a distance of Jump/10 and round up.

You can't take an actual Move in place of a Dodge. Dodges take place as Active Defenses on your opponent's Turn. Move Actions have to be declared when you begin a new Turn.

Is that Jump skill, or the calculated broad jump?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Calvin

Is that Jump skill, or the calculated broad jump?

It's however far you can jump normally. It's so expensive to buy enough Jump to substantially raise your jumping distance that I almost never see that.

[Calvin]

I can't find a reference to dive for cover that includes the possibility of using your Jump to determine the distance for the dive.

Is it not in the basic set?

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

It's however far you can jump normally. It's so expensive to buy enough Jump to substantially raise your jumping distance that I almost never see that.

A baseline character(with no traits adjusting one way or the other) has basic speed 5, right? Which translates to Basic Move five. To increase basic move(and hence jumping distance) costs 5 points. Getting Jumping at DX +2 costs 4 points. Jumping 12(DX +2, and DX 10 character, remember) is effectively move 6 for jumping, and is 1 point cheaper. That's the break point though: I think buying Basic move up is better than buying Jumping up if you really want to JUMP.

What I find Goofy though, is that there's really no reason for a jumper to be Fast AND skilled, it's either fast OR skilled. Because Jumping doesn't provide any bonus, it just replaces your basic move. Well, technically, the distance you moved before jumping matters, but I don't think it's a big deal. Currently, there's no reason to get Jumping unless it's better than your basic move. Also, Jumping 16 is enough to put you in the records for the last 100 years. And I think in the top 20 for the Olympics over the past 40. Which is, probably optimistic.

I think the Jumping rules are a bit wonky, honestly, and anything involving them is also suspect.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Calvin

I can't find a reference to dive for cover that includes the possibility of using your Jump to determine the distance for the dive.

Is it not in the basic set?

<shrug>It could be in my head as a House Rule that looks obvious to me.

Especially when Super Jump is involved. Until you have a lot of Super Jump your Move during jumping will be your regular Move anyway.

[Calvin]

Some basic checking of figures gives Super Jump 2 as the breakpoint for Jumping being worth it, at least at BM 5. Super Jump of 2 gives a movement of 11 with a running Jump. At SJ 1 you only get a movement of 5 with a running jump, and need to be sprinting in the turn prior to get to a movement of 6.

One thing to remember is that Super Jump scales exponentially, every level of Super Jump doubles jumping distance. So Super Jump 2 is four times the normal jump distance, and it only gets better as you add more levels.

It would be nice to have some sort of jumping dodge rules, even if all it does is give you a larger distance to move on a dodge and retreat.

[Gef]

Originally Posted by Calvin

and it only gets better as you add more levels.

Except that when you've paid for 4 levels, you could've bought Flight.