Any rules for catching a falling character?

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I kind of like the idea of rolling thrust (perhaps at +1 per die for a relevant skill like Acrobatics, Climbing, or suitable Sports at DX+1, and maybe +2 per die for DX+2 or better) vs. falling damage, with a higher roll allowing a catch and anything else just meaning collision damage for all. This will largely make one-on-one catches of ordinary people by other ordinary people impossible from any meaningful height; e.g., a ST/HP 10 person with thrust 1d-2 trying to catch another ST/HP 10 person would have to beat 1d-2 from 1 yard, 1d-1 from 2-4 yards, and it gets worse from there. That fits with my experience; I'm no weakling, and even catching my tiny girlfriend jumping off the sofa is challenging.

I like that. Combined with my previous idea of reducing damage, it almost makes a catch a reverse punch. If you reduce damage to zero, you catch them (or at least set them down gently). Otherwise, you might at least turn splat into thud.

[Plane]

You can intentionally target someone with a falling object using the "Dropping" skill instead of the usual "Throwing" skill I think.

They would presumably be able to either dodge or parry it.

A parry which is a "Hand Catch" (MA) or "Grabbing Parry" (TG) presumably would halt the falling object in your grasp, like you'd halt a thrown rock or shuriken. In Basic Set this was also an option for a critical success on parries v. thrown.

If you are not the original target of a Dropping attack, probably the usual Sacrificial Dodge (get hit by falling object instead of original target) or Sacrificial Parry (deflect the falling object) rules could be used.

If something's not being dropped on anything in particular, you could probably just treat the ground as the target, and use a sacrificial parry to protect the ground?

This type of response can also work against Slams I think? Except slams just operate like weight = ST instead of weight = weight when it comes to assessing what you can parry by how it compares to Basic Lift.

Even when a collision isn't a slam (falling on someone, getting thrown at someone) I'd imagine you could use all same countermeasures.

If one were to allow Telegraphic Attack for thrown weapons (I don't think you can officially but kinda feels right, but maybe at +2/+2 instead of +4/+2 ?) then parrying/dodging accidental collisions could be given a +2 since we could assume you don't make effort to avoid telegraphing accidental hits.