[Rq-rules] Knockback domino

[Tom Cantine]

My knockback house rules provide for this. I calculate basic knockback 
as the rolled damage bonus of the attacker (or original impactor) plus 
current movement rate in m/SR, minus the rolled damage bonus of the 
target, to a minimum of zero. In the case of secondary knockbacks, I 
treat the current movement rate as however many meters remain unspent 
of the current knockback.

So, applying this to your example, here's how it goes.

Giant's damage bonus is 20d6. We'll assume person A has a damage bonus 
of +1d4. The Giant has not taken a running charge at this, so his 
movement rate is zero. That gives us a knockback for person A of 
20d6-1d4, or about 67 meters.

Now it becomes relevant just how far apart A and B are. Let's say 5 
meters.  Let's also assume B has no damage bonus. A therefore strikes  
B at an effective speed of 67-5=62 m/SR. Add 1d4 for A's damage bonus, 
and subtract nothing for little B's lack of a damage bonus, and the 
knockback for B is about 65 m.

However, that's a pretty elastic collision. They're not likely to 
bounce that much. So we convert some of that kinetic energy into 
damage. I once calculated, for fun, the approximate amount of damage 
someone would suffer on impact if launched from a trebuchet against a 
solid stone wall, and got something like 100d6. (Looking it over now, I 
think it should have been about 60d6. 60 m/s is about the speed you'd 
be moving after falling from a height of 180 m, and RQ3 says you take 
1d6 for every 3m you fall.) So, probably the impact between A and B 
should soak up more than half the kinetic energy, giving each about 20 
or 30 d6 worth, and reducing the distance they travel accordingly.

Actually, I would probably rule that A is no longer an intact 
character, and B takes damage from flying bits of A. No, wait. 5 m is 
still within Giant's follow-through, so they both end up smeared across 
Giant's fist.



Anyway, let's reverse it, and look at the domino part. The thing about 
knocking over dominoes is that you knock down a potentially unlimited 
amount of stuff for a very small initial force. So let's say David (SIZ 
10, no damage bonus) shoves Goliath (SIZ 20, +1d6 damage bonus) and 
gets a special success on knockback. 0-1d6 gives us zero distance, so 
Goliath just sort of falls over. But Big Butch (SIZ 22, +1d6 damage 
bonus) is right  next to him, and doesn't get out of the way. 0 + 1d6 - 
1d6 can range from zero to 5, so Big Butch can be knocked back into 
Large Larry, and so on, assuming nobody makes a DEX check to get out of 
the way.

On 22-Jul-06, at 12:50 AM, perala at cc.joensuu.fi wrote:

> I had another moment of Munchkinism. Here is the question: Can 
> knockback into
> people cause a chain reaction?
>
> For instance, lets say that a Giant (STR 170, SIZ 170) is cranky and 
> punches
> person A (SIZ 12) in face. He recieves 72 (d3+20d6) points of damage 
> and flies
> into person B (SIZ 11). Flight is 60 meters and according to Knockback 
> into
> people-rule both recieve d6 points of damage per 5 meters or fractions 
> flown.
> That means 12d6 points of damage, on average 42 points. Now, does it 
> end here,
> or does person B also take flight for the damage he got into person C 
> (SIZ 14)?
> That would mean 6d6, or 21 points of damage to C and 7 meters of 
> flight into D
> (SIZ 18), who gets 2d6 damage and no further knockback. For the sake of
> argument lets assume all of Giant, A, B, C and D are correctly 
> positioned for
> this effect to be possible.
>
> I'm for domino - effect, since I found no rule to forbid it, but I 
> might be
> missing something essential. Comments?
>
> Furthermore if domino - effect was possible, could it be done on 
> purpose with
> aiming and all (like in biljard)? And if it could be done, what would 
> it take
> (an aimed blow perhaps)?
>
> Marko Perälä
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