Realistic lightning damage

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by JazzJedi

I think I'll roll 1d for the number of dice of damage of an "average" lightning strike. I'd roll 2d for a powerful strike, and 3d for an immense one. Maybe 1d-2(minimum 1) for a weak strike.

That's a way to do it. I had thought of (1d-2) x 6d, minimum 1 x 6d; that lets you avoid rolling more than 6d, but it goes a little higher than your system does.

[Racer]

As the damage from a single strike can be so random , perhaps let the GM decide what the total damage for a given situation is ?

A relative was struck whilst mounting his motorbike about 40 years ago . Only damage was a small surface burn on his knee .

Killing an established Character with a random bolt - while realistic - would aggravate many Players ... unless played for comedy .

[AlexanderHowl]

Perhaps you could have lightning increase its damage by its level of success on a to hit roll? Let us say that when the probability of being hit by lightning is reached (a character rolling of '18' on a chance roll during a normal thunderstorm), lightning attacks with an effective skill of 12. It would deal (2×[margin of success+1])d of burn surge damage to an area around the target with a radius equal to (margin of success) yards, meaning that it would deal 2d burn surge damage to a single target on a roll of 12 and 18d burn surge damage to everything within 9 yards on a roll of 3 (plus the effects of a critical success). 2d burn surge damage would give a lucky person mild burns while 18d burn surge would probably be enough to kill an elephant, and with a 9 yard radius, would probably take out a small herd sheltering together against a storm.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Racer

Killing an established Character with a random bolt - while realistic - would aggravate many Players ... unless played for comedy .

Random is the key here. Not very many people are actually hit by lightning. A major lightning storm should be treated like any other potentially dangerous situation - you don't say "Oh, well you went west, so you met a dragon and take 6d burn damage from fire breath." That's pretty much the same as "Oh, you went west, so there was a lightning storm and you take 6d burn surge damage from a lightning strike."

Players expect a chance to see the dragon coming (or signs of the dragon living there), a chance to turn around and head home, and rolls to hide from, dodge, parlay, seduce, bribe, or whatever in order to not be torched by dragonfire. They should also be given a chance to see the storm gathering, and to be able to take actions like seeking shelter and not standing on top of bald mountains while holding a copper rod and yelling "All gods are bastards!" Or to go and do the mountain thing, I won't judge. Even with the mountain thing (unless you have active divinities) you aren't guaranteed a lightning strike... although it's a really good way to improve the chances.

I wouldn't call it a "to-hit" roll per ce, the lightning isn't going to be taking penalties to hit you from lighting conditions for example. But rolling to see if you get hit is I think generally the best approach. Once per storm, or once at a very low chance per 10 seconds or something if you're having an extended fight out in it or something - either way the chance of strike should be modified by circumstances, and using MOS to determine dice seems like a plan.

[Bruno]

Basically, lightning is an environmental hazard and of significant danger that it should be played out in detail to give players agency.

Unless dispensed by a wrathful deity at which point getting smote after screaming on the tops of mountains may be unavoidable and is pretty justifiable... but I'd give them a GM-to-player warning about the likely outcome of their actions, as well as some in-universe threatening earth shakes or near misses or something before just zapping the offender.

[Racer]

Originally Posted by Bruno

... standing on top of bald mountains while holding a copper rod and yelling "All Gods are bastards!"

You forgot wearing wet Copper Armour ;-)

But you got the precise point I was making . In all my 35 years of gaming , I can recall only one natural lightning strike : playing AD&D & using the Wilderness Survival Guide , a Ranger in our Party was struck whilst we crossed a Plateau . Think the DM stated he rolled a natural 01 on D100 , but I could be mixing this up with another incident .

Don't recall 'Call Lightning' Spell being used very often either ? Twice I think between 1983 and 1996 ?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Racer

You forgot wearing wet Copper Armour ;-)

That's SO much more safer though. You'll probably get burned by the armor heating up in sections, but it'll generally prefer the armor.

The copper rod on the other hand, assuming it's not a big staff that's touching the ground, encourages the lightning towards the rod, and then from there the path to ground is through your hand, torso, leg, foot. Your heart and other favorite organs are in your torso, so that's pretty dang bad.

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Racer

You forgot wearing wet Copper Armour ;-)

Metal armor acts like a Faraday cage, channeling the current through the highly conductive armor rather than your body. If I had to be standing out in a thunderstorm where I was going to be hit by lightning, I'd far prefer to be in a full body suit of highly conductive armor (especially with some good padding between me and the metal to act as thermal insulation - as Bruno mentioned, the metal is likely to be heated by the current).

Luke

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

Metal armor acts like a Faraday cage, channeling the current through the highly conductive armor rather than your body. If I had to be standing out in a thunderstorm where I was going to be hit by lightning, I'd far prefer to be in a full body suit of highly conductive armor (especially with some good padding between me and the metal to act as thermal insulation - as Bruno mentioned, the metal is likely to be heated by the current).

Linemen working on high power lines sometimes wear what are called Faraday suits for rather similar reasons.

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Racer

As the damage from a single strike can be so random , perhaps let the GM decide what the total damage for a given situation is ?

A relative was struck whilst mounting his motorbike about 40 years ago . Only damage was a small surface burn on his knee .

Yeah, I'd use 2d-2 as a base roll and multiply it to represent the highly random nature. So a 6d hit would become a 4*(2d-2)