When a character falls or jumps from a high place, they risk serious injury. The level of risk depends on how far the character falls and the outcome of a Coordination Check. The standard abstract distances used in the Core Rules, however, are too broad for determining the risk of damage from a fall, so measured distances are used in these situations.
Avoiding Fall Injury #
Falling characters must make a Coordination Check to avoid taking damage when they hit the ground. The base Difficulty Score is 0 if the character purposely jumped or 2 if the character fell unexpectedly. For every yard the character fell, add a Drawback to the Difficulty Score.
Ezarel and Spyder are fighting a fiendish giant ape near the edge of a 15-foot cliff. The ape slams into Ezarel and pushes them off the cliff. Ezarel must make a Coordination Check to avoid injury, but since they weren’t expecting to go over the cliff, the base Difficulty Score to avoid damage is 2. Since they are falling 5 yards, the Adventure Guide adds 5 Drawbacks to the Difficulty Score for a final Difficulty Score of 7. Spyder, not wanting to remain alone on the cliff, decides to leap off the cliff. Spyder makes a Coordination Check AS well. Since Spyder is purposefully jumping off the cliff his base Difficulty Score is 0, but Spyder still has 5 Drawbacks for the height, giving him a final Difficulty Score of 5.If the Coordination Check succeeds, the character lands safely and avoids injury. If the Coordination Check fails, the character loses a number of Body Points equal to the amount they rolled under the Difficulty Score. Only Armor with the Padded trait reduces falling damage. Characters reduced to 0 Body Points suffer a Wound normally. When the character makes a Death Check, apply a number of Drawbacks to the Death Check’s Difficulty Score equal to the number of yards the character fell.
Stunts: Assisting the Check #
One way to avoid injury from a potentially deadly fall is by performing a Stunt AS an Assist to the character’s own Action Score for the Coordination Check (see Assist in Appendix B: Action Library). AS with all Stunts, the player must describe an Action that is plausible, even if it is highly improbable. Examples include aiming for branches to break the fall, using a sword to cut through a ship’s sail to jump safely from the crow’s nest, bouncing off an awning, or landing in a pile of straw. A success increases the Action Score for the character’s Coordination Check, but the character must still make the Coordination Check.
Stunts: Stopping the Fall #
Characters may also use Stunts to arrest or prevent the fall. These include Stunts performed by the person falling, such AS grabbing a protruding ledge AS they fall past, or by other characters, such AS swinging out with a Rope to Grab the falling character or dashing over and grabbing their hand at the last moment.
If the character is performing a Stunt to stop their own fall, the Adventure Guide sets the Difficulty Score based on the Action the character describes. If the Stunt succeeds, their plan works and they stop their fall. If the Stunt fails, the character suffers the normal loss of Points for a failed Stunt. In addition, the character may not make a Coordination Check to slow their fall.
If another character performs a Stunt to stop the falling character’s fall, on a success the Stunt succeeds and the fall is stopped. If the Stunt fails, the character making the Action Check suffers the normal loss of Body Points. The falling character, however, may still attempt their own Stunt to stop the fall or Assist their Action Check if the Adventure Guide approves. In addition, the falling character may still make their Coordination Check at the end of the fall if another character’s Stunt to stop them fails.