D&D votes Aristotle over Galileo! Says NO to physics! :D

[nijineko]

obviously, d&d has never been much for reality over fantasy, and in the rules are many examples easily found, but this recently actually happened in a game session, and i thought it amusing enough to share. =D

as it happens, my character drops down from a 10' ledge, grabs another character, runs back up the wall 10', leaps into the air 15', allowing the second character to toss a spell off into the ceiling (rock to sand) causing a cave-in on a large number of enemies, then dropping down 10'. (the character has a total movement rate of 45' and spring attack for the move-act-move-win.)

now various rules, and also rulings by wotc have firmly established that a character is not allowed to move more than it's movement rate under it's own power. even when jumping. which, when playing a thri-kreen, can result in you spending a full round, or more, in mid-air while you wait for your movement rate to catch up with your jump check result. lots of fun. especially if you are trying for a jump-attack from really far away and your target moves on you....

anyway, so there my character is, stuck in mid-air with the other character in his grasp until the beginning of the next round. meanwhile the cave-in promptly takes place dumping hundreds of pounds of sand on the bad guys... which sand began falling at the same time as my characters, but due to d&d rules reaches the ground before my characters do, a clear and obvious bias towards aristotle over galileo! ^^

my dm and i had a good chuckle over this, and so i thought i would share.

[tesral]

I never fail to point this sort of thing out. My Son says I enjoy killing cat girls. I just have my First Rule of fantasy.

"Never change physics more than necessary for you fantasy to work."

Sand and characters fall at the same rate. If you don't reach the ground, neither does the sand. And I am not a Nazi for movement rates.

[cplmac]

I am no physicist, but I agree with tesral on this one. Both should fall at the same time.

[Kaewin]

What is sands rate of movement anyway? I'm sure its in the Desert book somewhere.

I am going to have top agree, you should fall at the same time.

[tesral]

What is sands rate of movement anyway? I'm sure its in the Desert book somewhere.

I am going to have top agree, you should fall at the same time.

32 feet per second per second if it is falling form the ceiling. Just like a falling PC, a falling brick a falling participle or a falling anything else. Air resistance only hampers terminal velocity, not falling rate.

Excuse me, participles have a great dex and always manage to hang onto something

[nijineko]

supposedly the entire spell and its effects happen within the round the spell is cast. due to the first character being the one doing the movement and holding the second character who is casting the spell, the first character ran out of movement rate, but technically the second character hasn't taken their movement action yet. ^^ but, what with being held and all.... a pretty puzzle. =D

this unfortunate turn of events has actually been supported, in defiance of logic, by wotc. quite the amusing rules glitch, i thought.

[tesral]

this unfortunate turn of events has actually been supported, in defiance of logic, by wotc. quite the amusing rules glitch, i thought.

Well, when the rules glitch in defiance of physics, I rule in favor of the physics. "The rules" and not the be all and end all. I will break the game before I let in really stupid things like a character "hanging there" while the sand falls.

Most of the time the initiative system works OK. However there are times when it just breaks down. When that happens I fall back on simultaneous movement to resolve the issue. Realistically (damn there goes another cat girl) Things do not happen in discrete turns, but everything is happening at once.

[Sascha]

Physics is a trusty lieutenant in ye olde henchman army, but those shady characters, the Rules of Cool (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool) and Funny (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfFunny), have such silver tongues; how can one *not* listen to their reality-defying ideas?

( Naturally, both Rules' extremes are not to everyone's liking; mileage varying due to weather and road conditions, and what not ;) )

Also, 32 feet per second per second? SI units, my good sir! Too good to not use :P ('cept for humanoid height; somehow the old brain can't process metric heights as easily, blah).

[nijineko]

yeah, we are fully aware, and in a more serious game might actually do so. we left it as is because we found it funny. ^^

[Kaewin]

I know, sand has a triple move feature, it was magic sand. It comes from the faerie world.

[nijineko]

well, the character is a sandshaper. ^^