Falling from the 10th floor is not as bad as seems...

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

With loss due to successful fright checks, maybe. If it requires a check then it's by definition pretty stressful.

HP for your brain!

Honestly, I think multiple fright checks represent PTSD well enough. You may not have a clear numerical attribute you can point at and say, "see, nutjob!" but most everyone is gonna fail a couple, and the longer they're in combat the more likely they are to suffer a large enough failure to accrue a disad. PTSD is mostly diagnosed by what caused it rather than it's effects because they are so varied, so getting a disad related to whatever pushed you over the edge fits fairly well, with the standard fall-backs of alienation, depression, exaggerated startle response, and nightmares for the unimaginative.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

HP for your brain!

Honestly, I think multiple fright checks represent PTSD well enough. You may not have a clear numerical attribute you can point at and say, "see, nutjob!" but most everyone is gonna fail a couple, and the longer they're in combat the more likely they are to suffer a large enough failure to accrue a disad.

That'd be true except that I've yet to play in a game, outside of horror, where fright checks were regularly used.

I'm guilty of this myself when I run games, I tend to only make players roll when something truly gruesome or supernatural presents itself and not enough for more commonplace reasons for fright checks, like a nasty wound, inflicted/received, death seen/caused, etc.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

That'd be true except that I've yet to play in a game, outside of horror, where fright checks were regularly used.

I have.

A PC who had failed a couple of Fright Checks was certified as mission incapable by his unit pshrink (but his superior officer buried the report and sent him anyway). His deteriotation accelerated rapidly when he acquired Post-Combat Shakes as the result of one failed Fright Check.

His mental state is now at the point where the player has made the decision to retire the character.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I have.

A PC who had failed a couple of Fright Checks was certified as mission incapable by his unit pshrink (but his superior officer buried the report and sent him anyway). His deteriotation accelerated rapidly when he acquired Post-Combat Shakes as the result of one failed Fright Check.

His mental state is now at the point where the player has made the decision to retire the character.

You may want to consider implementing Harald387's rules on crippling fright checks. Basically the results of a Fright Check may be only temporary, a la crippling wounds. Given that rotating people off the front lines of a conflict has been shown to dramatically increase the longetivity of combat effectiveness, I think an argument could be made that it's a somewhat realistic rule.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

That'd be true except that I've yet to play in a game, outside of horror, where fright checks were regularly used.
.

But that's not an issue of the game mechanics not existing. That's a matter of GMs not wanting to use the available game mechanics. It's like not using the bleeding rules. There are a whole bunch of combat events for which fright checks are appropriate and simply aren't normally used by normal GMs.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

But that's not an issue of the game mechanics not existing. That's a matter of GMs not wanting to use the available game mechanics. It's like not using the bleeding rules. There are a whole bunch of combat events for which fright checks are appropriate and simply aren't normally used by normal GMs.

Yeah, makes me wonder if we'd use Fright Checks more often if we had Sanity Points to ablate...

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

You may want to consider implementing Harald387's rules on crippling fright checks. Basically the results of a Fright Check may be only temporary, a la crippling wounds. Given that rotating people off the front lines of a conflict has been shown to dramatically increase the longetivity of combat effectiveness, I think an argument could be made that it's a somewhat realistic rule.

Meh.

I allowed earned points to be used to buy off Disadvantages as long as proper rest and psychological assistance was available.

The problem was the player deciding to disregard the medical advice he was given because he felt that it was in character. Which isn't a problem, as far as I'm concerned.

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Meh.

I allowed earned points to be used to buy off Disadvantages as long as proper rest and psychological assistance was available.

The problem was the player deciding to disregard the medical advice he was given because he felt that it was in character. Which isn't a problem, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm with you Icelander. Get the R&R and medical help and you can buy down/off the disads with cp.

[starslayer]

back to the concept of realism and falling- fortunately or not GURPS is not complex enough to model reality EXACTLY in that the detailed math required to accurately get results like 'will this given person survive this given fall with the following sub conditions', there are super-computers that could work on this problem for years and not necessarily get the right answer (and in fact the detailed math to track that much chaos may in fact be impossible!), so I most certainly don't need that much math thrown at me just to have a PC/NPC fall 30 meters.

Now since reality is unpredictable you have to decide where you are going to focus your granularity, since gurps is a game, you focus on things that make for good storytelling. Since it is in fact possible to survive fantastical drops like say; a 47 story drop from a window washing rig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfYp_EvSbIg
or from a plane;
http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffallers.html

To add to the spectrum of 'reality' those who fell from the plane did so in conditions that REQUIRED that they make falls up 1000 meters or more and hit the ground AND THEN not be in condition that would prevent them from escaping the area and at best performing makeshift first aid on themselves and in some cases were able to walk away from the site with no major injuries.

Basically my point is- absolute death from a ten storie fall is no more realistic then absolute survival, GURPS may have erred more on the side of survival to prevent having to have multiple pages of complex mathematics to determine the effects of a fall, but it is not without real world precedent and makes for better storytelling.