Book 4: Physical Feats

Going Places, Doing Things in GURPS

Introduction

This Book looks at physical feats for creatures of all shapes and sizes, with detailed computations of performance statistics. They're easier than computing a plane's top speed in Vehicles, but similar in concept.

The rules on jumping and throwing look bizarrely long, but they turn out to be unusually rich topics and find application in the oddest places.

RPGs go all out with the specifics of combat, but detail in other physical actions can be fun too. This is your Book if you want to replace duels with athletic competitions once in a while. Or imagine a game of unarmed athletes thrown into a dangerous world. Can they survive without Broadsword and Polearm, on wits and athletic skills alone? Ask that Orc with the 90 mph fastball rock embedded in his forehead.

Basic Speed

Your Basic Speed (or Speed; GURPS uses both terms) is a measure of your innate quickness of movement. It's the base for both your Move and Dodge. It's an "intrinsic" score, unaffected by your size or your running efficiency, and can easily be the same for a human, an insect, and a dinosaur.

The calculation is (DX+HT)/4; other details are as per the BS.

Mobility Meta-Rules

GULLIVER's big change to movement rules is this: all forms of movement use the same rules for speed and performance. This isn't currently the case in GURPS, where running and flying Move, for example, come from Basic Speed, while swimming and climbing Move don't.

All forms of movement start with a Base Move and then modify it. You can juggle the order of these adjustments; the only important rule is that additions/subtractions to Base Move come before multiplications/divisions.

The components of mobility are:

1. Base Move
2. Adjustments to Move
   1. skills
   2. encumbrance
   3. general adaptation
   4. enhancements
   5. size
   6. speed factor
3. Final Move
4. Control rolls

The "adjustments" part looks intense, but most of those won't apply in a given situation.

Base Move

Start with Basic Speed. Don't round yet.

Some players have suggested that Base Move or even Basic Speed should be computed with ST in the equation, at least for some forms of movement (such as sprinting), to account for the effects of power.

It sounds good, but doesn't work. Try (DX+ST)/4 as a base, and you'll get slow-motion squirrels and supersonic sauropods, when the effect you want is just the opposite. As always, power itself is meaningless; it's power vs mass to be moved that matters. Natural encumbrance rules take care of that.

Adjustments to Move

Adjust for each of the following:

Skills

Skills that affect movement usually work in one of two ways:

1. Skill adds to Base Move (example: + skill/8)
2. Skill multiplies Base Move (example: x skill/5)

Note: When skill adds to Base Move, such as in Running, an interesting option is to instead replace HT or DX in the Basic Speed equation with skill level. See notes in the Appendix.

Skill level and encumbrance: Skills like Swimming and Climbing are adjusted for encumbrance. That's fine for control roll purposes, but not for Move adjustment purposes – encumbrance already takes care of the Move factor. When incorporating these skills into Move, use skill unadjusted for encumbrance.

Encumbrance

Instead of the GURPS method of adjusting Move for encumbrance, GULLIVER multiplies Base Move by Move Modifier (see Book 2).

An important point from Book 2 for swimmers or fliers: Encumbrance from positive or negative weight affects you only when you fight it (to move on a level, or climb/sink in the opposite direction). If you let yourself freely float or sink with the weight, you can recalculate your encumbrance based on zero weight.

General adaptation

GULLIVER rules that if you're poorly adapted to move in an Environment – an aquatic creature on land, for instance – you face a flat x1/10 multiplier to Move (though skill can usually improve things). Book 3 calls this a built-in five levels of Reduced Move, though the name isn't important.

Flying is an exception: if you're not adapted for flight, you don't fly at all. Finally, Book 3 introduces disadvantages like No Climbing and No Jump, which also totally remove a form of movement.

Enhancements

With equal stats, size, skills, and encumbrance, one creature may still be faster than another, thanks to design: stronger or more legs, improved wing design, whatever. This is catchall "efficiency" of movement. (For ease of discussion, "enhancements" here covers any modification, including mobility restrictions.) You don't need biomechanical calculations to handle these – just Enhanced or Reduced Move, Super Running, and so on.

Reduced Move: GULLIVER uses fractional Move multipliers for the Reduced Move trait (see Book 3), not subtractions: x2/3, x1/2, x1/3, x1/5, and x1/10, respectively, for 1 to 5 levels of the disadvantage. If you prefer GURPS' subtraction method, go for it – but make the subtractions before any multiplications.

Size

Multiply Move by Linear Scale. See Book 1 for details and alternatives. Together, size and natural encumbrance adjustments realistically simulate creature speeds.

If you don't use natural encumbrance adjustments from Book 2, Linear Scale overstates the effects of size on Move. To fix this, adjust Move as if you had only half your levels of Size, rounded favorably. For example, if you're Size -4 or -5, multiply Move as if you were only Size -2, or Linear Scale x1/2.

Speed factor

This is the catchall adjustment that establishes default flying speed as faster than running speed, etc.

Final Move

What's left after the above is your final Move. Jot it down, fractions and all; those fractions are meaningful for long-term movement, or for restating Move in terms of different-sized hexes. For short-term (per turn) movement, round the number down.

Walk, Don't Run

Your computed Move is just a game stat; you can move more slowly or quickly than that.

Notes on energy use – fatigue – are included below, but see Book 6 for more on fatigue, including the effects of encumbrance, heat, and other factors.

Step

Step doesn't mean a literal step; humans, snakes, and hummingbirds all have a "Step" distance for game purposes. It's the amount you can Move in a turn while still taking an action like an attack. For any form of movement:

Step = Move/5

Round as appropriate for the hex size in use.

Other movement

The Table below summarizes other rates of movement, with suggested fatigue costs. (The cost for brisk and very brisk movement is new; the cost for fast movement differs from the GURPS suggestion for fatigue from running. See notes in Book 6.)

The only way you can go faster than a sprint is to use Extra Effort.

Move and actions: GURPS assumes you can defend normally while running, but cannot attack. (An exception is the All-Out Charge from CII p. 56.)

The game doesn't say anything about sprinting and actions. Consider sprinting "All-Out Move", combining two Move actions (with the special effect of adding a little extra Move, not doubling it). That would leave no room for attacks or active defenses when sprinting.

Fighting gravity

Just staying aloft is tiring for a hovering bird, or a swimmer burdened with weight (see notes in Book 2). These travelers pay two fatigue costs: one to fight gravity, and one to move forward.

To fight gravity, apply 1 point of fatigue every 5 minutes, adjusted for Move Modifier, but with Move Modifier based on WSR only. This is the cost of keeping from falling, before moving anywhere. Of course, a swimmer or flier who lets himself fall freely with gravity – i.e., a glider – doesn't pay this cost.

Then pay the above costs for forward movement.

Control Rolls

When you need to hang a sharp turn, jump an iffy chasm, or pull ahead in a foot race, make a control roll against the appropriate skill or attribute. Modifiers for encumbrance are usually appropriate.

Control and Limbs

The number of appendages you have to assist in making a maneuver – feet on the ground, feet and hands on a climbing surface, fins in the water, etc. – affects control rolls. Unless rules state otherwise, use this master rule for all situations:

• One: -6
• Two: +0
• Three: +1
• Four: +2
• Five to six: +3
• Seven to ten: +4
• Eleven or more: +5

A common application is number of legs and balance rolls. A running dog receives a +2 on balance or other control rolls for four legs on the ground; a dog balancing on its hind legs receives +0 for two legs (and additional penalties for poor balance; dogs aren't made to walk upright). See Balance.

Turning

These rules are optional, as in GURPS. It's interesting to see how nimbly your flier or swimmer can zig and zag, but drop the rules if they slow down play.

Turning radius

For any form of movement, use the turning radius rules from BS p. 139: one 60° facing change every (current Move squared / 10) hexes. (If you're measuring Move in feet, divide turning radius by 9; if Move is in inches, divide by 144.) Compute for both full Move and Sprint if you're often in a hurry.

The above ignores power and weight, so divide turning radius by Move Modifier. Dragonflies will cut impossible angles while winged elephants plow straight ahead.

Minimum turn radius should also be no smaller than linear dimension, unless you're walking or standing still and can pivot in place.

Runners need friction to make turns. A slippery surface should increase turning radius by some percentage. Weight matters: even on normal ground, a very light creature's weight might not provide enough friction with the surface to turn as sharply as a human. But that's too much detail to worry about.

Control rolls

The GURPS rules call for a control roll at -4 to reduce turning radius by one hex. GULLIVER's replacement: Make a control roll at -2 to cut turning radius up to x2/3 base value, -4 to cut radius to x1/2, -6 for x1/3, -8 for x1/5, -10 for x1/7, and -12 for x1/10.

Don't modify this control roll for encumbrance; power and weight were already accounted for in the turning radius.

Optionally, let any control roll – failed or not – bleed off 10% of your speed, or even 10% per 15° turn. Lots more if you crash and roll, of course.

Advanced rules

More enterprising gamers can borrow the maneuvering rules from Vehicles 2E p. 147, setting MR equal to Move Modifier. Remember to multiply Move in yards by 2 to get mph. Modifiers to your control rolls for encumbrance, balance, etc. take the place of SR.

Fans of Vehicles and Robots can probably apply those books' rules to creatures in lots of other ways, but that's left as an exercise for the interested.

Acceleration

Acceleration is theoretically easy to figure from mass and power – but for living creatures it's complex. Remember that the encumbrance rules assume some amount of power goes into supporting weight, with only the remainder available to move mass; detailed acceleration rules would have to take that into account.

Simple rules

You accelerate to full Move instantly, and can decelerate the same amount instantly. You can choose a Move maneuver, move your full Move, and on the next turn choose to not Move at all – the normal GURPS way.

Achieving Sprint speed takes an additional second. Stopping after Sprint Move should also require that extra second.

Detailed rules

As above, with one change: Enhanced Move (or its Super equivalents) doesn't factor into acceleration. If you have Move 18 with two levels of Enhanced Move and Move 6 without, you can achieve Move 6 on the first turn you run, Move 12 on the second, and Move 18 on the third, with Sprint Move coming on the fourth. This is why horses in the game take time to get up to speed.

The x2 Move multiplier GURPS uses for flying creatures can also be left out of acceleration, if the GM chooses. It'll take a bird two turns to accelerate to flight speed from a stop, or longer to reach a top speed further boosted by Enhanced Move.

Deceleration works the same, though slick surfaces may halve or otherwise reduce deceleration. Make a balance +2 roll to decelerate by twice your normal amount without falling. (Any rider on your back may have to make a Riding -2 roll to stay on, modified as the GM sees fit for how fast the actual deceleration is. Also add the rider's Half modifier for encumbrance.)

Advanced rules

As above, but base Move on average speed over the turn. If you choose the Move maneuver to go from a stop to your full Move of 6, you move only 3 hexes that turn, and your full 6 the next. Deceleration works the same: you'll move 3 hexes on the turn you say "I stop". It's realistic, but detail-intensive.

Land Performance

Below is a look at all of the ways you can get about on land. Jumping and climbing are covered separately later.

Land Performance Skills

A number of skills help creatures get about on land:

Terrestrial creatures

• General control: Use DX and balance for control rolls.
• Short-term (running) speed boost: Use Running.
• Long-term (walking) speed boost: Use Hiking.
• Tricky maneuvers: Use Acrobatics.

Jumping and Climbing are also useful skills on land.

Non-terrestrial creatures

You require skills just to get around: Crawling or Flopping. These affect your speed on land and are also used for control rolls. Either skill is P/E and defaults to DX-4. Other land performance skills are normally unavailable to you.

Aquatic creatures like lobsters and octopi can crawl slowly with Crawling. Creatures with no legs for land movement will have to rely on Flopping, and may receive a few points for Lame when removed from water (see Book 3).

You also take a -2 on combat and other athletic actions, including Dodge.

Incompetence

Then there are the hopeless ones. If you're terrestrial, take a -4 on any of the above skills for -1 point. Or for a max -5 points, take -4 on all of the above skills.

If you're non-terrestrial, a -1 point Incompetence gives you -4 on all land mobility skills: your Flopping, Crawling, and any others the GM allows you.

Running

For most characters, running is what Move refers to.

Move

Start with your Base Move and modify:

• skills: Add Running skill/8.
• encumbrance: Multiply by Move Modifier.
• general adaptation: x1
• enhancements: Multiply for Enhanced Move (land), Reduced Move (land), and Super Running.
• size: Multiply by Linear Scale.
• speed factor: x1.

And there's your final running Move.

Running skill doesn't affect walking speed; Hiking does over long distances.

Control

Use DX or balance rolls (with Half modifier for encumbrance) for control rolls while running.

Crawling

Crawling here is abnormal movement: a human using arms, an octopus struggling on land, etc. For purposes of this discussion, normal animal movement is running, not crawling.

Move

Start with your Base Move and modify:

• skills: Multiply by Crawling skill/5 (do not modify skill for encumbrance).
• encumbrance: Multiply by Move Modifier. Without legs, multiply Load ST by x1/2 for use of one arm, x2/3 for two or more, for encumbrance purposes.
• general adaptation: x1/10.
• enhancements: Multiply for Reduced Moved (land). Other Move enhancements don't work (GM call).
• size: Multiply by Linear Scale.
• speed factor: x1.

Control

Use Crawling (with Full modifier for encumbrance) to get over small obstacles or make other control rolls.

Advanced rule

Use only x1/7 Move for adaptation, not x1/10. However, if you're not crawling with functional legs (a fish crawling with fins, a human with legs crippled), your bulk will drag heavily over the ground. Further halve your ST for encumbrance purposes!

Flopping

This is the only mode of movement for creatures unadapted to land and without arms or legs for crawling. Treat as crawling in all respects, but halve ST (quarter it with the above advanced rule). Flopping skill replaces Crawling.

If you're light enough to flop at all, you can gain a little height and maybe get over those gunwales. Treat as a high jump using your lowered ST. But on the other fin, just moving in the right direction is a trick! Roll vs Flopping every turn to move in your desired direction; roll direction randomly on 1d if you fail. Don't be surprised if you head right back toward the fisherman.

Water Performance

Water movement is three-dimensional in a way even aerial flight isn't, if you're neutrally buoyant. We think of an "up" and "down" relative to the water surface and the sea bed, but swimmers are free to think differently – divers have reported whales resting underwater pointed straight up!

All swimming movement is relative to any current; you're always carried along with it. Each turn, move your character normally from Point A to Point B. Now move her in the direction of the current at its Move, from Point B to Point C. This second movement is automatic. The actual path your character takes is a line drawn between A and C.

Good streamlining helps simply by letting you swim faster.

Encumbrance rules

Note that Book 2's simple, cinematic rules (the GURPS default) make it easy to swim carrying an anchor, treating non-buoyant weight in water no differently from weight on land. Detailed, realistic rules make it very hard, multiplying non-buoyant weight in water by 5 for the lack of support underfoot. Your choice of rules will greatly affect the encumbrance component of Move below!

Water Performance Skills

A number of skills help creatures get about in the water:

Aquatic creatures

• General control: Use Swimming.
• Short-term speed boost: Use Speed Swimming, the aquatic equivalent of Running.
• Long-term speed boost: Use Long Distance Swimming, the aquatic equivalent of Hiking.
• Tricky maneuvers: Use Swimming, or Water Acrobatics (P/H) for maneuvers that make even fellow fish say "wow": acrobatic Dodges, "walking" on water like a dolphin, flipping in midair jumps, etc. Use Diving (P/E, defaults to Acrobatics -2, Swimming -2, or Breakfall -2, takes Half modifier for encumbrance) for smooth entry into water.

"Jumping" from the water into the air is simply swimming toward the surface and breaking through; see jumping rules. Let Water Acrobatics aid such leaps in the same way Jumping skill aids terrestrial leaps.

Aquatic creatures don't use the lame paddling techniques that humans call Swimming skill – but CI to the contrary, they should have a Swimming skill that defines control over movement, just as fliers use Flight. (There's no exact land equivalent of Swimming or Flight, but land-dwellers deal with only two dimensions, not three. We'll let it pass.)

Let Swimming skill default to DX for aquatic races. It's useful in making a tight turn, threading a small gap at full speed, or recovering from a tumble in turbulent waters. But it doesn't affect Move for aquatic creatures; use the alternate skills above to go faster.

Non-aquatic creatures

You require a special P/E skill just to get around. It's called Swimming, although it's not the same as the skill used by fish – for you it's a hydro version of lowly Crawling! Let Swimming default to DX-5, and not ST. (Your ST affects performance through encumbrance.)

Take a -2 on combat and other athletic skills, including Dodge, while in water. Using long weapons will be even harder (see BS p. 91).

Other water skills are not available to you; the single Swimming skill affects your Move and determines your control in the water.

Water Acrobatics is an exception: humans do enjoy (or at least watch) displays of water ballet and synchronized swimming. But a land creature's version of Water Acrobatics would be less than the true aquatic version: an artistic Dancing skill, without acrobatic Dodges, water "walking", etc. For these, limit skill in Water Acrobatics to Swimming skill.

Incompetence

If you're aquatic, take a -4 on any of the above skills for -1 point, or -4 on all of them and any others the GM throws in, for a max -5 points.

If you're not aquatic, take a -4 to all water performance skills (usually just Swimming) for -1 point. This is a fairly common human Incompetence, and is definitely worth a character point. Our planet is three-fourths covered by water, and no adventurer is likely to avoid a dunk forever.

Regardless of what CI says, allow this Incompetence in racial designs too.

Swimming Move, Aquatic Creatures

Aquatic creatures are as nimble in the water as we are on land:

Move

Start with Base Move, and adjust as follows:

• skills: Add Speed Swimming skill/8.
• encumbrance: Multiply by Move Modifier.
• general adaptation: No modifier.
• enhancements: Multiply for Enhanced Move (water), Reduced Move (water), and Super Swimming.
• size: Multiply by Linear Scale.
• speed factor: x1.

And there's your final swimming Move. Note that aquatic creatures will swim by default as quickly as land creatures run.

The Speed Swimming skill wouldn't affect slow movement underwater ("walking" speed), but an aquatic version of Hiking – Long Distance Swimming – does.

Control

Use Swimming (with Full modifier for encumbrance) for control rolls.

Advanced rule

Consider the effects of drag on Move. See Appendix.

Swimming Move, Non-aquatic Creatures

For a non-aquatic creature, swimming is akin to an aquatic creature crawling on land. Still, high skill allows some impressive moves.

Move

Start with Base Move, and adjust as follows:

• skills: Multiply by Swimming skill/5 (unmodified for encumbrance).
• encumbrance: Multiply by Move Modifier.
• general adaptation: Multiply by x1/10.
• enhancements: Multiply for Reduced Move (water), Enhanced Move (water).
• size: Multiply by Linear Scale.
• speed factor: x1.

Swimming speed for a human becomes Basic Speed/10, times skill/5. (If you like, rearrange that to Basic Speed/5, times skill/10, which more closely resembles the GURPS rule.)

A truly proper rule would probably modify thrust itself, not only Base Move, in some manner for Swimming skill; see the following advanced rules for one such suggestion.

Control

Use Swimming (with Full modifier for encumbrance) for control rolls.

Advanced rules

Use only x1/7 as an adaptation factor, not x1/10. However, you have poor thrust in the water: halve your ST for encumbrance purposes!

With this option, a human's swimming speed works out as Basic Speed/7, times skill/5. However, your lower thrust and the Book 2 rules will reduce your mobility further; average human Move with Swimming-10 will still be about 1 in the water.

This rule will let a little weight really drag you down, and will automatically give the average human some positive encumbrance from mass underwater. It's realistic: think how hard Dodges or other quick movements should be in water. Yes, you can make ballet-like acrobatic swirls in water that you could never duplicate on land – but for an Acrobatics roll representing a quick motion, skill penalties make sense.

Example: You're a normal ST 10, 150-lb., MSR 15 human, with base Move 5 and Swimming-10. Underwater, WSR is 0. Using the advanced rule, you multiply MSR by 4 (2 for water, 2 for your human lack of flippers) to get 60. That gets you Light encumbrance in the water and a Move Modifier of x3/5.

To get actual swimming speed, multiply base Move by x1/7 for your human body ("Streamlining by Frigidaire") and by Swimming skill/5, and you have net Move of about 0.85. (That's close enough to 1, given the Table's rounding. The detailed Encumbrance Table in the Appendix would give you a net Move of almost exactly 1.)

Example: You board a pirate ship to join a melee on the decks, only to get a 20-lb. chain wrapped around your leg as you plunge into the drink. Multiply that weight by 10 (5 for water, 2 for your poor thrust) and divide by ST 10 to get WSR 20, and Encumbrance Factor x4. Your MSR is 17 (150 lbs. plus chain, divided by ST), x 2 for non-aquatic thrust, x 2 for water, x 4 for Encumbrance Factor = 272; you're struggling with X-Hvy encumbrance.

Drag: Again, consider the effects of drag on Move – though most non-aquatic splashers can only dream of swimming fast enough to make it matter much.

Seabed Action

Negatively buoyant creatures walking along the sea bed are essentially using land movement, though adding the rules for drag will really limit Move. Water will also affect weight, encumbrance and mobility.

But if buoyancy cuts your weight to one-fifth your mass or less, it's not easy staying put on the seabed. See the microgravity rules below, using Swimming instead of Free Fall for control rolls. Weighted boots may be a good idea.

Air Performance

Fliers operate in three dimensions like swimmers, though most don't gain the benefits of weightlessness. Wind works for fliers exactly as current does for swimmers: flight Move is relative to the air, not the ground. A tail wind adds directly to your speed over ground, and a head wind subtracts directly from it.

The below makes some distinction between true fliers with inborn flight abilities, and those who gain flying traits from technology, magic, or other means. A Super could fall into either category.

Encumbrance rules

Book 2's simple, cinematic rules (the GURPS default) make flying as easy as walking for a winged human. Detailed rules will ground many human-sized fliers, multiplying WSR in air by 5. Advanced rules multiply WSR by 10, placing a very realistic ceiling on flight ability for creatures of any real size. Your choice of rules will greatly affect the encumbrance component of Move!

Air Performance Skills

Skills to let you fly through the air with the greatest of ease:

All fliers

• General control: Use Flight for powered flight, and Flight (Gliding) or Flight (Parachuting) for unpowered flight.
• Short-term speed boost: Use Speed Flight, the aerial equivalent of Running.
• Long-term speed boost: Use Long Distance Flight, the aerial equivalent of Hiking. Migratory birds take note!
• Tricky maneuvers: Use Flight, or Aerial Acrobatics (P/H) for maneuvers that make even fellow birds miss a flap in amazement: acrobatic Dodges, artistic pirouettes, etc.

Flight defaults to DX for flying races. Flying is different from land or water movement, in that non-adaptation doesn't leave you some reduced ability. You either can or can't fly.

Most fliers are terrestrial (or rarely, aquatic) creatures with the added ability of flight. A true aerial creature finds its home environment in midair, floating with gas balloons or flapping on magical wings that never tire. There are no Earth examples.

Incompetence

If you're a true aerial creature, take a -4 on any of the above skills for -1 point. Or for -5 points, you're just plain clumsy on the wing: take a -4 on all of the above and any others the GM tosses in.

If you're not a true aerial creature (which means all Earth fliers), take a -4 on all of the above skills for -1 point.

Flying Move, Powered Flight

This is normal forward flight, using wings or some other form of thrust.

Move

Start with your Base Move, and modify as follows:

• skills: Add Speed Flight skill/8.
• encumbrance: Multiply by Move Modifier.
• general adaptation: Without some flight trait, multiply by 0 and drop like a brick.
• enhancements: Multiply for Reduced Move (air), Enhanced Move (air), and Super Flight.
• size: Multiply by Linear Scale.
• speed factor: x2 for fliers.

Control

Use Flight skill (with Full modifier for encumbrance) for control rolls.

Advanced rule

Air resistance may slow you down. See Appendix.

Flying Move, Unpowered Flight

This is forward flight using gravity to take you down and forward. You're not diverting thrust to offset weight (gliders don't have thrust!), so you're effectively in a slow free fall. Encumbrance doesn't affect forward speed – rather, weight affects your speed of descent. (Note Book 2's suggestion for figuring a glider's encumbrance: use MSR x 10 for a glider, MSR x 50 for a parachuter, to figure mobility from the glider's limited ability to maneuver through position changes.)

Forward speed is likely a factor of your mass, drag, and gravity, but for simplicity, Base Move is used below.

Move

Start with your Base Move, and modify as follows:

• skills: Skills do not affect speed.
• encumbrance: Move Modifier does not affect Move. But see descent notes below.
• general adaptation: Without Gliding, multiply by 0 and drop like a brick. If you're only a parachuter, not a true glider, multiply forward Move by x1/10 or by x0 (see Book 3).
• enhancements: Multiply for Reduced Move (air), Enhanced Move (air), and Super Flight.
• size: Multiply by Linear Scale.
• speed factor: x2 for fliers.

Control

Use Flight (Gliding) skill for gliders and Flight (Parachuting) for parachuters. Let these cross-default at -2, and the latter cross-default to Parachuting at -2. Use the Full modifier for encumbrance for either.

Advanced rule

Basing gliding flight Move on Base Move and linear dimension is a fudge that's filling a knowledge gap. For what's probably a more correct calculation, ignore all the above and let air resistance determine forward movement: gliding Move is ftv (see Appendix).

Taking Off

Going from a resting position to flight should require require a Change Position maneuver, which may take time for heavily encumbered fliers (use aerial encumbrance).

Takeoff difficulties really come into play for creatures that rely on airfoils, which let a too-heavy design fly (see Book 3). You don't get lift without forward speed – but how do you get that speed when you can't gain the lift to fly? Do what heavy birds do: dive from a high cliff, reach flight speed, and pull out. A good flier design can also run fast enough to give the wings lift for take off. Facing into a strong wind helps too (remember, it's speed relative to air speed that counts).

Rate of Descent

A powered flier normally resists descent. An unpowered flier, or a powered flier diverting all thrust to forward movement and none to staying aloft, falls freely. See the Appendix to compute your terminal velocity (tv), which will be about 50 yards per second for a human.

Parachuting or Gliding abilities reduce speed of descent; see flight rules in Book 3.

Air brakes

Even if you're too heavy to fly, powered flight can at least let you fall more slowly through wild downward flapping.

At WSR 45 you apply just enough force in the upward direction to stay aloft (if not actually move anywhere). Set this upward force equal to (your weight x (45/WSR)); subtract it from your normal downward weight, and use this net weight to compute terminal velocity.

Sound awful? It is, so here's the work done for you:

Multiply tv by x1/7 at WSR 46, x1/5 at WSR 47, x1/4 at WSR 48, x1/3 at WSR 50, x1/2 at WSR 60, x2/3 at WSR 80, x3/4 at WSR 100, x4/5 at WSR 120, x9/10 at WSR 240, and x1 (i.e., no reduction) at WSR 480 or greater.

Flight rolls may be necessary to properly control your overfed-turkey descent and fully realize any tv reductions, as the GM decides.

Climbing and Diving

Steal rules from Vehicles p. 155. On a dive, you'll keep gaining speed until you reach the faster of your diving terminal velocity or your weightless forward flight speed. If terminal velocity is the faster of the two, trying to flap your wings for additional speed will only slow you down.

Spread wings will also slow your tv through drag, if you're using that level of detail. For a really fast dive, make like a falcon and stow those wings.

Hovering

Most fliers can "turn off" forward thrust and send just enough downward to stay aloft. That's hovering. Whether that's easy or hard for you is a matter of encumbrance. Larger birds may have encumbrance too high to fly without airfoil lift gained from forward movement; that removes the option of hovering.

Only a flier that can hover can move backward. Use the usual rule: double cost to enter a rear or side hex. See Book 3 for variations on direction and movement.

Soaring

Soarers efficiently use warm-air "thermals" and other air currents to gain or maintain altitude with no significant effort. Book 3 makes Soaring a 5-point advantage for any flier.

If you need to maneuver, use the appropriate rules above for powered or unpowered fliers.

Assume a typical thermal will lift you two yards per second. Subtract your rate of descent from that; the remainder is the amount by which you actually rise. (Fast-falling gliders will simply have their rate of descent slowed by soaring on thermals, with no net rise.)

Even non-soarers should be able to benefit from thermals, but they're not optimized to take advantage of it: cut the amount of lift to half or less, and remove the innate ability to locate thermals.

Landing

A Flight roll should let you land safely in tricky conditions. Failure means you tripped and rolled, missed the perch, etc.

If you come in for a landing at high speed, you'll have to run with it. Make a balance roll to keep standing, at -2 if landing speed equals or is greater than your Move, -4 if twice as large, etc. Your legs can only decelerate so fast, too, so you may have to run and make rolls for a couple of turns. But a good flier does this all smoothly: make a Flight roll upon touchdown, and add the amount by which you succeeded to those balance rolls.

Other Actions

BS p. 139 offers fliers a +2 on Dodge, presumably for use of the third dimension. Change that to a bonus based on encumbrance-adjusted Flight skill: +1 Dodge per full 8 levels of skill, maximum +3.

There are also serious penalties on weapon use, Parries, and Blocks unless Flight skill is very high. Apply those penalties to fliers relying on technology (including magic spells), and ignore them for true fliers (those with flight traits).

Accuracy bonuses for aiming should be limited to Flight skill (or half Flight skill for strict GMs). Whether additional seconds of aiming gain a bonus or not is up to the GM; it's reasonable if the flier can hover smoothly (meaning No encumbrance or better and no wind).

Use the GULLIVER Step rules for fliers (Step = Move/5). Change Position is a free action in midair. Encumbrance for fliers uses the encumbrance rules from Book 2. Flight ceilings are discussed on BS p. 139; see Book 3 for help going higher.

Space Performance

Low gravity and vacuum are two features of space, but each exists fine by itself as well. The two are handled separately below. Combine the microgravity performance and vacuum performance rules, and you have space performance rules.

Microgravity Performance

For simplicity, a gravity of 0.2-g or less is microgravity. That doesn't necessarily mean vacuum – a 0-g space station will (one hopes) have atmosphere.

A creature in respectable gravity and atmosphere but with weight reduced to one-fifth or less by static lift also uses these rules! That's the problem with gas-bag dragons: they're okay on the wing, but goofily bouncy when trying to go about on foot.

A big effect of microgravity will be, of course, lower weight and encumbrance. That's a boon to many creatures – until they launch themselves off the microplanet's surface. Read on:

Microgravity Performance Skills

Athletic DX in microgravity is limited by Free Fall skill. As CII p. 142 relates, athletic actions will also require a control roll vs Free Fall skill to avoid leaving the ground. Whether you come back down or not depends on how strong that gravity is, but the GM can rule that you're hanging free for any length of time, from a few seconds for an unintended bounce in low gravity, to infinity if you mistakenly launch yourself off your asteroid.

Creatures floating and unable to fly can't maneuver. Athletic actions will suffer a -4 or worse penalty, or be impossible. See CII p. 143 for some drastic measures that will allow you to maneuver in space.

All creatures

Free Fall is the skill for both control and tricky maneuvers. There are no specific speed boost skills available, though Jumping helps you push off a surface at high speed.

Incompetence

For any creature that will spend some game time in space, an Incompetence with Free Fall is worth -1 point.

Microgravity Move (free movement)

If you can fly in atmosphere or in vacuum, refer to the appropriate rules on flying or vacuum performance. Otherwise, air or space Move in microgravity is the speed at which you jump from or otherwise leave some massive object (but then what do you do?). See the jumping rules.

Microgravity Move (along surface)

To pull yourself along a surface, you need to be able to grip it with arms or legs. Use an appropriately slow (but safe) Move. If you have to hurry, compute Move as below.

Move

Start with your Base Move, and modify as follows:

• skills: none apply.
• encumbrance: Multiply by Move Modifier. (This should be improved by the low gravity!) If you're moving with arms instead of legs, multiply ST by x1/2 for one arm, or x2/3 for two, with +10% per additional arm.
• general adaptation: Halve Move for use of arms instead of legs.
• enhancements: Enhancements for land movement or climbing may apply, depending on how you move.
• size: Multiply by Linear Scale.
• speed factor: x1/2 for the nuisance of gripping and releasing the surface with each step. Use the same speed factor for magnetic boots, or x1/3 for magnetic boots with no Vacc Suit skill.

Control

Use Free Fall skill (with Half modifier for encumbrance). Modify skill by -6 for only one appendage keeping you anchored, no modifier for two, bonuses per Extra Legs for three or more appendages.

Vacuum Performance

Flight in vacuum will be impossible – or more likely, irrelevant – in most games. But a space opera game can have mobile "space-wyrm" PCs.

Simple Rules

For great cinematic fun, treat flight through vacuum exactly the same as flight in air. You'll turn, wheel, and dogfight just as you do in blue sky.

Despite the lack of gravity, cinematic space has an "up", at least when you meet up with other travelers. An approaching starship or fellow flier will always be seated on the same flat, invisible plane you're on (with the third defining point of said plane located somewhere in Hollywood).

You'll have a maximum Move that can't be explained (but so what). This is your normal flight Move, with weightless encumbrance. Huge bioships that could never fly in a gravity well will be able to fly (slowly) in space.

Detailed Rules

Realistically, you don't have a maximum Move in vacuum; you have acceleration. Your Move is unlimited, given enough time to accelerate. See Book 3 or Bio-Tech p. 136 to buy acceleration, which will be expressed as a multiple of g, such as 0.01-g or 2.0-g.

If there is gravity, you'll waste some power fighting it: use the Encumbrance Table to find your Encumbrance Factor from WSR, and divide acceleration by that.

Maneuverability is more tricky. Start with MSR 50, divide this by your acceleration, and look that up on the MSR column of the Encumbrance Table. For example, if you have 0.2 g acceleration, look up MSR 250 on the table: the equivalent of Extra-Heavy encumbrance. This won't affect your Move (you don't have a top speed, just acceleration), but it gives you modifiers for Dodge, quick acrobatic maneuvers, etc.

Vacuum Performance Skills

Creatures able to maneuver freely through space can use Free Fall as fliers use Flight skill and swimmers use Swimming skill; those native to space will have it at DX level by default. Adjust skill by the Full modifier for encumbrance when flying free.

Space Move (free flight)

Creatures that can accelerate in space will have whatever Move they can achieve through acceleration.

Move

Your Move is your acceleration times the number of turns spent accelerating. Nothing else comes into play. You also get to ignore any effects of drag from air!

The big problem: you can only decelerate at the same rate. Make sure you reverse thrust and start slowing at the halfway point of your journey.

Control

Use Free Fall skill (with Full modifier for encumbrance) for control rolls.

Other Actions

Creatures able to maneuver in vacuum should receive a bonus on Dodge, as aerial fliers do. Use a bonus based on encumbrance-adjusted Free Fall skill: +1 Dodge per full 8 levels of skill, maximum +3.

Climbing

There is no universal "climbing" action. For an insect, a wall is just another surface to run on. For a human, wall-scaling requires a complete change of posture and a shift to using arms. The rules below determine climbing performance based on what's actually going on:

Simple Rules

If the speed of a climb matters, convert the times given in GURPS to a Move score. Now multiply climbing that Move by Base Move/5, by Move Modifier, by Climbing skill/10, and by Linear Scale. Also double speed if you climb maintaining your normal posture (a squirrel, insect, etc.). Climbing speed may not be faster than running speed.

That adds much more variety to GURPS' climbing speeds, but won't necessarily give realistic results for very large and small creatures. When the numbers don't seem right, make arbitrary rulings, or head for the detailed rules.

Detailed Rules

These rules offer realistic handling of weight's role in climbing, but you'll want to use something quicker when the whole party starts climbing.

Climbing skill

Climbing skill is used for control rolls and can also affect your speed. Base skill (including defaults) on DX, not ST. Your ST already plays a very important role via encumbrance.

Move

Start with your Base Move and modify:

• skills: If there is a Move penalty for posture (see general adaptation below), multiply Move by Climbing skill/5 (skill unmodified by encumbrance). Otherwise don't adjust Move for skill – the climb is mundane running to you.
• encumbrance: First increase effective WSR for approximate slope (most climbing will be 45° or greater):
  • x1.2 for a 15° slope
  • x1.4 for 30°
  • x1.6 for 45°
  • x1.8 for 60°
  • x1.9 for 75°
  • x2 for 90°
  • x3 for worse than 90° (overhang)

  Now multiply WSR for holds:

  • Excellent holds (ladder): x1
  • Good holds (tree, rock pile): x1.1
  • Moderate holds (stone wall or rope-up): x1.2
  • Poor holds (modern building with minimal footholds): x1.5
  • Very poor holds (building, only narrow finger-cracks): x2
  • No hold (sheer surface): no climb!

  Examples of holds are for humans; an insect would have excellent holds on any of above.

Multiply Move by your Move Modifier for your new encumbrance.

• general adaptation: Multiply by x1 to x1/20 for an obvious change in posture or step. A lizard on a wall has no change in normal posture, for x1. A human on a ladder retains his natural upright orientation but has to step clumsily, for x1/2. A tree or rock pile requires form very different from human running, for x1/5; a vertical wall, x1/20.

  Multiply by another x1/10 if you're not terrestrial!

• enhancements: Multiply for Enhanced Move (climbing) and Poor Climber. But use regular land movement enhancements instead if you have no penalty for posture, or as the GM decides.
• size: Multiply by Linear Scale.
• speed factor: x1.

Control rolls

Roll vs Climbing -2, with Full modifier for encumbrance. But also modify for number of limbs used, per Extra Legs: +0 for two, +1 for three, +2 for four, +5 for five or six, +6 for seven to 10, and +7 for 11 or more. A human using four limbs gets a +2.

Even the lightest insect will always be slightly less maneuverable than it is on the ground, as it always needs to maintain grip on the surface. No matter how good a climber you are, lose contact with the surface and you will fall.

Extreme maneuvers, including attacks and active defenses, force a Climbing roll to avoid falling if the slope is 45° or more, at -3 for every full 15° greater. That goes for surfaces between 90° and 180° too, in which case you're dangling from an overhang.

GURPS suggests control penalties for the type of climb, but these rules already take care of that through encumbrance and the above control penalties. Add other modifiers as appropriate: say, a penalty for dress shoes instead of proper footwear.

Grip and form

A bare tree provides no holds for a dog, poor holds for a human (shinnying up), good holds for a squirrel's tiny paws.

On some surfaces, human hands might be able to grip, while feet couldn't gain purchase – unless those feet had claws. Considerations like this replace GURPS' +2 on Climbing for claws.

Limbs

Steep climbs involve a combination of pushing and pulling. Climbs may suffer large penalties or be impossible if your limbs can only push you, not pull you. Even easier climbs may be hard without limbs "on top" for balance, guidance, and pulling.

Solid Footing

The above rules assume precarious footing. If weight is able to rest on sturdy footing below, such as a human on a ladder or stout branches, halve any increases in encumbrance level. Extreme maneuvers take a +3 bonus on control, instead of the penalties above.

More on encumbrance

Adjusting WSR for slope realistically slows light creatures little, heavy creatures a lot. Even walking up a slope is a bear for big creatures.

Humans in vertical climbs have to rely on finger and toe power instead of leg power – hence the adjustment to WSR. At Super-Heavy encumbrance you're trembling and running out of power quickly; at Extreme, you can't hold on.

But with two multipliers to work with, just eyeball a level of encumbrance with no calculation if it's a tense game moment. And any time it seems a character should be able to make a climb despite a too-high WSR, call it Extra-Heavy or Super-Heavy encumbrance and get on with it.

Climbing and running

Climbing Move should not exceed running Move. Note that if you have good footholds and no posture change, you essentially are running: you use regular running enhancements instead of climbing enhancements!

Clinging

Let Clinging confer Good holds on any surface, even glass. Your Climbing automatically defaults to DX or to 16, whichever is higher. The worst Move adjustment you face for adaptation is x1/2! See Book 3.

Brachiating

Swinging from your arms requires proper body form and at least two gripping limbs of decent length. Use x2 as the WSR multiplier for slope. Move multiplier for general adaptation is x1/5. Control rolls are as above; with only two limbs used, that means -2.

The Brachiator advantage makes things much easier. Change the Move multiplier for general adaptation to x1/3. Control rolls are at +2 when swinging (i.e., base -2 for Climbing control roll, +2 for Brachiator, +0 for two limbs, equals net +0). You also get Climbing at DX and Acrobatics at DX-2 for free.

A master vine-swinger will combine Brachiator, a good WSR, extra gripping limbs for better control rolls, and Enhanced Move (climbing) for additional speed. Long arms would explain the Enhanced Move.

Animals and climbing

Climbing skill includes the ability to climb ladders and rappel down walls – things a mountain goat, renowned as a climber, could not do. Many climbs are simply out of reach if you don't have gripping limbs.

Much of what we call "climbing" in nimble animals is simply walking up slippery slopes and jumping from rock to rock. A mountain goat doesn't rely on Climbing skill so much as it does on strong legs for good jumping distance and light natural encumbrance, good Jumping skill, Sure Footing (rocky ground), Improved Balance, and plenty of Survival (Mountain) to judge what is and isn't safe.

Jumping

The jumping rules on BS p. 88 give quick answers, and that's good. But they don't work at all for low ST scores. How far can your Cidi jump? He can't jump at all, period.

Weight and size, important factors in real-life jumps, are left out of the rules. There's an option for working encumbrance into the equation, but it penalizes a low ST a lot and a high ST a little, even though the effects of an equal level of encumbrance should be proportional in either case.

But then Jumping skill throws out ST anyway: if both have Jumping-16, a ST 4 weakling and a ST 15 Olympic powerhouse will jump the same distances. Give the weakling a skill of 17, and he takes the match.

You get the idea. Below is an improved (and very accurate) look at how creatures jump.

Simple Rules

Below is a simplification from the detailed rules – not too precise, but good for a quick gaming style:

Standing jumps

Broad jump: Your base jumping distance in yards, Jd, is Move Modifier x Linear Scale x enhancements. (ST doesn't appear here; it's already figured into your Move Modifier.)

Enhancements include appropriate multipliers for Poor Jumper, Enhanced Jump, and Super Jump.

High jump: As above, but jumping height is half Jd.

Running

If you run, add 1/2 forward speed to broad jump distance, or 1/18 your forward speed to high jump height (that's 2" per yard of Move), using the same units.

You need to run for a second to achieve full speed, or longer to achieve sprint speed. For humans, the above rule will generally let a sprint double your jump height, and almost double distance.

Leg length

Add your leg length (a yard for a typical human) to broad jump distance. Add half your leg length to high jump height – not for purposes of reaching higher (as in dunking a basketball), but for purposes of clearing an object below.

Units

Multiply distance or height in yards by 3 to get feet, by 36 to get inches.

Example: An average human has Move Multiplier x1 and Jd 1, for a base standing broad jump of 1 yard. Add a yard for leg length, for a 2-yard jump. If running at Move 5, add 2.5 yards to base distance, then a yard for leg length, for a 4.5-yard jump.

Base standing high jump height is half Jd in yards, or 18". Add half a yard for leg length: you can clear a 36" height. Running, you can clear a height of 46".

Example: As above, but with Heavy encumbrance and Move Multiplier x2/5. Jd is only 0.4, for a base standing broad jump of 0.4 yards. Leg length adds a yard, for 1.4 yards. If running at Move 2, add half Move for a 2.4-yard jump.

Base standing high jump height is half Jd in yards, or about 7". Add half leg length to clear a 25" height. Running at Move 2, add another 4" for Move, to clear a final 29".

Example: A 2" PC is one-thirty-sixth human height with Move Modifier x7 from negative encumbrance. The player jots down a Jd of 7 x 1/36 – roughly 0.2. With no running start the PC can jump 0.2 yards or 7.2 inches long, plus an inch for leg length, for 8.2 inches. Or he can clear an obstacle 4.1 inches high. Either result is very impressive in relation to height!

Extra distance

Borrow the rules for Extra Effort and the Jumping skill from the detailed rules below.

Really simple rules

For quick gaming, simplify all jumps into three types: those that obviously succeed for the character, those that obviously fail, and all "iffy" jumps in between. Resolve the iffy jumps as a simple yes or no: success or failure on a Jumping, DX, or Extra Effort roll. This plays quick and fun.

Detailed Rules

Default conditions

As in the throwing rules that follow, GURPS combat conditions are the default for these rules: you hold back a bit, keeping yourself ready to defend yourself or otherwise act immediately following the jump.

But you'll more often want to put your full effort into a mighty leap. You can't hold anything back when crossing the Chasm of Doom; nor do track and field contestants need a semi-defensive posture for the high jump!

The rules below take care of this with a simple bonus to your distance for All-Out action, in which you spend your whole turn jumping and don't get an Active Defense. Keep the choice in mind when making your jumps.

Determine base jumping ability

Jd is your base jumping distance in yards. It's how far your center of mass moves in a jump, and is calculated very realistically as follows:

Jd = lower of:

 

Load ST x Linear Scale x 15 x enhancements / mass

or

Speed x Linear Scale x enhancements

The second equation places an arbitrary maximum speed on muscle contraction and resulting distance; see the Appendix for details. It will usually come into play only for very small creatures.

Jd is 1 for an unencumbered average human, 0.9 for a human approaching Light encumbrance. For heavier loads, Jd is roughly equal to Move Modifier from encumbrance, if you want quick approximations.

Example: A Speed 5, ST 12 human PC weighing 180 lbs. and lugging 45 lbs. of gear computes Jd as the lower of 12 x 1 x 15/ 225 = 0.8, and 5 x 1 = 5. Use Jd 0.8.

Enhancements: Enhancements refers to multipliers for Poor Jumper, Enhanced Jump, or Super Jump; these represent mechanical efficiency, unusually strong or weak jumping muscles, or even magical aids.

Linear Scale: Book 3 offers Long Legs and Short Legs, but for simplicity these don't automatically affect jumping distances; use overall Linear Scale. If you want to account for the effects of odd leg lengths, add Enhanced Jump or Poor Jumper.

Bonuses

Below are several factors that add percentage bonuses to Jd. These are additive: a 20% bonus for Jumping skill and a 30% bonus for All-Out action combine to a 50% bonus.

Increase Jd for skill

While the rules use your full ST stat and precisely-measured angles to determine distance, they also assume that actual performance falls short of potential. Jumping skill simulates optimal timing, angle, and power.

Add 10% to Jd for every 2 full levels of skill over 10.

Don't adjust Jumping skill for encumbrance here; weight and ST were already fully accounted for in basic distance.

Rolling: If you prefer, make the above a roll vs Jumping. Success by 2 or less increases Jd by 10%, and every additional 2 full levels of success increase Jd by an additional 10%.

Failure offers no bonus. A critical failure means you slip or fall. (Taking the automatic bonus is far more certain, but rolling is the way to go when shooting for a record jump!)

Skill and ST: Don't substitute Jumping skill for ST, here or anywhere. Don't base Jumping skill on ST, either. Jumping represents the coordination and technique to eke the most distance out of a jump. ST is already properly accounted for on its own terms.

Default: For any use of Jumping, let the skill default to DX -4 or Acrobatics -4. Do not default to ST.

Increase Jd for All-Out action

If you're not in combat or otherwise don't need to maintain a defensive posture, put everything into the jump. That's the normal way to jump, whether you're on the sports field or leaping a dungeon chasm.

Add 30% to Jd for All-Out action.

Just as in an All-Out Attack, you use your whole turn and do not get an Active Defense.

For quick play, just tack an extra one-third to base jumping distance, or replace the x15 in the Jd equation with x20.

Increase Jd for Extra Effort

Beyond All-Out action, GURPS allows Extra Effort. In the GULLIVER rules, Extra Effort allows a roll vs HT, modified for Will:

Add 5% to Jd for every -1 taken on a successful Extra Effort roll.

Multiply Jd for angle

Angle affects your distance and height:

Long jump: The best distance you can achieve is often with a 45° angle broad jump. Base distance in yards equals Jd. Height will be one-fourth that.

High jump: The best height you can achieve is with a vertical (90°) high jump. Base height in yards equals half Jd. You achieve no horizontal distance.

Jumps to clear an object do require forward momentum, though. Assume 60° if you care for the extra detail.

Any angle: To take all jumps into consideration, multiply height and distance as follows:

Jumping Table

angle	description	height	distance
90°	optimal height	x1/2	x0
75°	near vertical	x9/20	x1/2
60°	steep	x3/8	x9/10
45°	optimal distance	x1/4	x1
30°	low	x1/8	x9/10
15°	near flat	x1/20	x1/2
0°	flat	x0	x0

  

Example: With Jd 0.8, the above encumbered PC can broad jump 0.8 yards (2.4 feet), or high jump half that. Sounds too low? Read on:

Add distance or height for movement

This is the classic way to boost distances, although it's hard to convert the kinetic energy upwards. Increase your performance in one of the following ways:

Distance: Add your forward Move x 1/2 to distance;

or

Height: Add your forward Move x 1/18 to height. (That's 2" per yard of Move.)

Add distance or height for body position

For standing jumps, heights and distances computed so far appear too low. That's because they estimate how far your center of mass moves, and they're good estimates at that.

But we measure jumps for ourselves differently, placing importance on body position. Even without a jump, a big stride alone will carry you a yard or more! Long jumpers take off with feet far to the rear and bring them far forward for landing; this footprint-to-footprint distance is what we measure. Likewise, lifting your legs up doesn't raise your body any higher, but does let you clear more height below when jumping over something.

You can add part of your leg length (call it a yard for a tall human) to your height cleared or distance:

Add your leg length to distance, and half your leg length to height cleared.

Ideal form: If you can meet three conditions – All-Out action, significant forward momentum (Move at least equal to twice Linear Dimension), and an extra Jumping roll to fine-tune your position – you can achieve even better form:

Broad jump: Make a Jumping skill roll to really stretch yourself. Success boosts the distance bonus for position to leg length x 1.5. But also roll vs Jumping or balance upon landing to avoid falling on your rear.

High jump: Make a Jumping skill roll to achieve the classic, flat-on-back high jumper's pose. Success boosts the height cleared bonus for position to full leg length. But also roll vs Jumping -4, balance -4, or Acrobatics -4 to keep from landing on your back.

Add skill modifiers for encumbrance to these Jumping rolls for proper position and landing.

Keep units straight

Be sure to be consistent with units! When measuring base distance in yards, adjust for Move and leg length using yards. Or convert Jd to feet, and make adjustments using feet.

Examples

Below are examples, rounding small fractions:

Example: The above PC with Jd 0.8 can perform a standing broad jump of 0.8 yards. But he'd normally use All-Out action, boosting his Jd 0.8 by 30% to 1.04 (let's call it Jd 1).

To either of those base distances, he can add a yard for leg length.

A running start will further help. Assume Move 4. Start with the above Jd 1, and add half Move (2 yards) to get 3 yards. Add an extra yard for leg length to get 4 yards, or a yard and a half with ideal form (don't forget the required Jumping roll) to get 4.5 yards.

Example: The same PC makes a high jump. Start with that All-Out Jd of 1: he can jump half a yard high.

To jump over a table, let's get detailed and assume a 60° angle: the PC can only jump x3/8 yard, or 13.5 inches high, plus another half yard of leg length to clear 31.5 inches.

With a running start, he can add another Move/18 to height, or 8 inches. Total height cleared: 39.5 inches.

Example: A 2" microhuman weighs about 5 thousandths of a pound and has a Load ST of about 0.01. Linear Scale is x1/36. Speed is 6 and Move is 1.

Jd is the lower of 0.01 x 1/36 x 15 / 0.005 = 0.83, or 6 x 1/36 = 0.17. Go with Jd 0.17. Adding 30% for All-Out action, the tiny man's standing broad jump is just under 8 inches, plus an inch or so for leg length. With a running start, he'll make a leap of over two feet.

You can easily eyeball his vertical high jump. If his standing broad jump is 8 inches, height with vertical jump will be half that, or 4 inches. Add Move/18 = two inches height for a running start. That's six inches high, something like 6 yards for a normal person!

If leaping over an object, the microhuman would use a flatter angle (say, 60°), and add half an inch clearance for leg length (or add a full inch with a Jumping roll and ideal form).

Example: You're an Olympic-class jumper: ST 16 (at least in the legs), 175 lbs., Move 7.5 (9 sprinting), and Jumping-18. Legs are a yard long. Your Jd before skill is 1.37.

You're shooting for the gold. Your jumps naturally take the 30% Jd bonus for All-Out action. You also roll vs Jumping for a boost from skill: say, a 50% bonus for rolling under your skill by 10 . And let's say your Extra Effort roll adds another 20% for phenomenal exertion. Total bonus: 100%. Your Jd becomes about 2.75, which for a 45° angle means 2.75 yards so far.

You run your fastest and add 4.5 yards (half your sprint Move) to distance. A successful Jumping roll for ideal form lets you add another yard and a half for leg extension. That brings you to 8.75 yards. Not the world-record 9.4 yards (8.6 meters), but getting there!

Example: Now you go for the high jump. Let's use the same über-boosted Jd of 2.75.

Assuming a 60° angle is what's needed to clear a bar, multiply Jd by x3/8 to get a height of 1.03 yards, or 37 inches.

Your Sprint Move adds 9/18 yards, or 18 inches, giving you 55 inches. A Jumping roll and ideal bar-clearing form give you an extra yard for leg length, for a final 91 inches – very impressive, though a bit short of the world-record 96.5 inches (2.45 meters).

Keeping it simple

The above is all pretty involved, but once you have Jd, you can quickly compute basic high jump and broad jump distances, add free bonuses for leg length, and write those down as distances you can always make without Jumping rolls.

You won't often need to know your exact performance involving Jumping rolls, running Move, and other bonuses; if you do, jot the results down for recycling.

Special Jumps

When making sports jumps, don't forget all applicable bonuses from Jumping skill, All-Out action, Extra Effort, and Move (sprinting is preferable). Also use the added Jumping roll for ideal form, letting you get maximum leg extension in a broad jump or flat-on-back position in a high jump.

Maneuvers

Some jumping actions can be treated as maneuvers. Examples are Pole Vaulting and Triple Jump (below). The rolls to achieve ideal form (and max leg length bonus) in regular jumps can also be treated as a Hard maneuver (use separate maneuvers for ideal form in a high jump and ideal form in a broad jump), limited to Jumping skill +4.

Pole vaulting

Pole vault rules might work something like this:

Pole Vaulting is a Hard maneuver defaulting to Jumping -4 and limited to Jumping skill. Take a good running start, plant the pole, and make a basic high jump. If that jump plus your height equal a certain percentage of the pole's length, you achieve "lift off".

Unlike a regular high jump, vaulting converts forward movement to height well. Going "over the top" would require a Pole Vaulting roll, and presumably some combination of forward speed and initial high jump distance sufficient enough to carry you the height of the pole. A properly flexible bar makes all this easier. Add the leg position rules for high jumping to clear a bar. After that, you just need to survive the trip down.

Not only do you gain great height with a vault, but your ground distance will cover up to twice the length of the pole, plus the extra leg length from the broad jump rules.

Turning this into workable rules is left to gamers with experience in vaulting.

Triple jump

The triple jump is a series of three running broad jumps. Momentum is lost between jumps, and the net distance is about twice that of one jump.

For more detail, make Triple Jump an Easy maneuver of Jumping, defaulting to Jumping -2 and limited to Jumping. Make your first jump normally. Subsequent jumps use Triple Jump rolls to boost Jd, but reduce distance to x2/3.

Total the distances for the three jumps, and see whether you won the meet.

Slam dunk

Can you can dunk a basketball? Take your own height, plus about two-thirds your arm length, and add running high jump height (without any leg length bonus; we're not measuring height cleared underfoot). Is the result a good foot higher than the rim? SLAM!

No special maneuvers are needed for the jump, but a Basketball skill roll ensures that you slam the net and not the rim. Roll at +2 if your hands are large enough to "palm" the ball.

Miscellaneous Topics

Jumping and landing speed

You won't often care what the speed of a jump is, but there are situations where it's an interesting bit of trivia.

Compute jumping velocity, Js, as the square root of (Jd x 10). Js is in yards per second. Multiply by 2 for mph.

The average human will have Js of about 3.6 (using All-Out action), which matches observations.

Your vertical speed upon landing is the same as it was at takeoff. GURPS assumes that any jumping ability you have lets you take the shock of both takeoff and landing, which implies that you can "absorb" a fall of velocity Js (or a fall of height equal to your maximum high jump) if you can land on your feet. A Jumping roll may help you do that.

Whether the surface you land on can withstand the impact of your super-leap's abrupt end is another matter.

Acceleration

Your acceleration in a jump is roughly Jd / Linear Scale, expressed in gravity (g). That's about 1.3-g for the average human (using All-Out action), 1.5-g and up for a more athletic individual.

Acceleration is incredible in tiny jumpers – and thanks to great power-to-mass ratios, they have no trouble handling it.

Hang time

How long will Captain Cricket be in the air during a city-spanning leap? Say Cap leaps 1000 yards in a standing broad jump, hitting a height of 250 yards. The distance an object falls in yards in a given length of time, ignoring air resistance, is equal to

distance fallen = 0.5 x acceleration x time^2

where acceleration is about 10 yards/sec/sec in earth gravity and time is measured in seconds. For jumps, start with falling distance and solve for time:

time = square root (2 x distance fallen / acceleration)

Time spent in the air will be twice that, as it takes the same amount of time to go up.

Cappy C's fall of 250 yards takes about 7 seconds – so our hero must have spent 7 seconds going up and 7 down, and during those 14 seconds had a speed over the ground of about 1000 yards/14 seconds = Move 71!

Cap has a Jd of about 1000, and a Js of 100. The hero's many levels of Super Jumping apparently confer the ability to resist the 1000 or so g's he pulls in a leap. (It's up to you whether that lets him survive the same obscene acceleration in a malfunctioning warp cruiser.)

Note that the above results aren't entirely realistic, as a fall of over 100 yards or so should take air resistance into account. Of course, that same air resistance should also work against Cap making that 1000-yard leap to begin with. See the Appendix if you really want to play with drag, but it's detail overkill in a highly cinematic game of half-mile hops.

Gravity and jumping

Takeoff speed is unchanged by gravity (you still accelerate the same mass), but the distance you travel will vary greatly. Divide distance and height by local gravity. ("Hang time" will change too, when you recalculate using new distance fallen and new acceleration. But you'll get the same result by dividing 1-g hang time by the new gravity.)

In zero-g, you can jump off from a wall or asteroid with a Move equal to Js – and with an infinite jump distance, you'll go forever unless something stops you! Be careful, spacefarers.

Sustained jumping

You can make a few good jumps in quick succession through special techniques, such as the triple long jump. But otherwise, try hopping all the way down the street. It doesn't really work, does it? It's very fatiguing, and decent jumps seem to require a second or so between leaps to get into position.

Without those readying periods, let's say the best you can do is half-distance jumps, with extra distance or height for leg positioning halved as well. Treat as sprinting for fatigue purposes.

Book 3 offers a Jumper advantage for 5 points, equipping you to jump continually without readying yourself between leaps. This is appropriate for creatures like a kangaroo, which efficiently regains much of the energy of a jump upon landing, stretching powerful elastic tendons and leaping again right away.

Combat jumping

You can't change course or stop in mid-jump (unless you can fly!), so you're not very maneuverable. Enemies may have a hard time hitting you if you jump fast and far, but if they do draw a bead, you Dodge at -4. (Unless you jumped with All-Out action; sorry, no defenses.)

A good jumping ability can help a tiny creature avoid the stomps of large foes. See Book 5 for rules.

Fish jumping

Swimming fast and breaking through the surface of the water isn't really a "jump", but the effect is the same. Use the detailed jumping rules, with this easy (and accurate) simplification:

Js is your Move in yards at the time you leave the water. Jd is (Js squared) / 10; figure your height and distance normally from Jd and your angle. Jumping skill won't help (although Extra Effort rules do allow you to increase Move, which will help here). Don't add distance for movement (that's already the base for the leap). Body position, too, won't matter for a leaping fish.

That's about it. If you're a flying fish, spread your fins and enjoy the glide down.

Advanced Rules

Extra distance from Move

As described above, forward movement is a great way to add to either your distance or height in a jump. Further complications:

Splitting Move: Go ahead and split your forward Move between extra distance and extra height to get precisely the jump you want. For example, you might split a Move of 7 into Move 4 for extra distance and Move 3 for extra height, resulting in an extra 4 x 1/2 = 2 yards of distance, and an extra 3 x 1/18 = 3/18 yard or 6 inches of height.

Calculating distance: Adding half Move to distance is a simplification. A correct calculation would determine additional forward distance by multiplying time spent in the air (twice the time required to fall from height of jump) by forward Move.

Boosting distance by (Move x 0.9 x square root of jump height), where Move and height are expressed in yards, is a fairly accurate approximation. You'll notice that using this rule, a jump steeper than 45° may provide optimal distance in a running broad jump!

Combined with the above suggestion for splitting Move between extra height and extra forward distance, you can really get some use out of your calculator. Save it for adventures surrounding athletic meets.

Detailed leg length

Lumping all PCs into "Linear Scale x1" works against the tall ones. For ultimate detail, come up with exact leg lengths for use in high jumps and long jumps, and use "leg length in inches / 34" or some such number in place of Linear Scale. (Check your Levi's if you're not sure of length.) It's overkill, but fun if two PCs decide to settle a score through a mini-Olympics.

Air resistance

Any jumper loses a bit of efficiency to drag, though there's no need to worry about this unless the effect is big – which it is for really tiny jumpers. If you want to factor it in, see the Appendix.

Throwing

GURPS' rules for throwing (CI p. 11) compute distance as ST times some multiple, and that multiple itself varies with your ST. This double-counting of ST isn't quite right. Further, the rules don't mesh with GURPS' rules for weapon ranges, which use ST times a fixed multiple.

Below is one set of rules that handles spears, sacks of concrete, two-handed lobs, or blazing baseball pitches, while remaining very simple for typical combat throws.

The rules use the same basics as the jumping rules. Power vs the mass to be moved determines the acceleration of the arm, and the arm's length the distance over which acceleration occurs. These determine the speed and distance of the released projectile.

Penalties

When rules below call for penalties on throwing actions, note the distinction between TH penalties and skill penalties. A TH penalty only affects TH; a skill penalty affects TH and anything else determined by skill level, such as bonuses on distance.

Simple Rules

The GURPS rules work fine for human ST ranges. However, the detailed rules below are arguably simpler! For most situations – human-sized characters throwing typical weapon-like weights – they boil down to this:

Max distance = (ST x 10) / (weapon weight + 3 lbs.).

There's your maximum distance in yards – no separate range multipliers for each and every weapon, no turning to CI tables for other objects.

Detailed Rules

Arm mass

The following rules make arm mass part of the performance equation, just as body mass is in jumps. Arm mass sets an important limit on how fast you can hurl a tiny rock.

Only a small portion of arm mass matters here, not the whole limb, and approximating that portion from body mass is fine.

Simple mass: Use 3 lbs. for any human-sized character. For other Sizes, multiply 3 lbs. by Volume Scale.

Detailed mass: Base arm mass on total body mass:

Use (body mass / 50) lbs. as arm mass.

Round to the nearest pound, or to the nearest half pound (or other significant fraction) for small beings. For the average human, it's an easy 3 lbs. Mass of carried items won't matter here (except mass of the arm's armor, gloves, etc., if you really want to overdo the detail).

Advanced mass: As above, but take a good guess at mass for short or long arms. Multiply mass by the arms' Linear Scale (relative to the character's) if they're long or short in one dimension only. That's unlikely, though; assuming some change in thickness too, multiply by the square of that Linear Scale difference, or its cube(!) if the arm is equally scaled in every dimension.

Determine base throwing ability

Compute Td, your base throwing distance, as follows:

Td = lower of:

Load ST x Linear Scale x 10 / (arm mass + object mass)

or

Speed x Linear Scale x 10

The second equation places an arbitrary maximum speed on muscle contraction and resulting distance; see the Appendix for details.

Unfortunately, Td isn't as useful to jot down on the character form as Jd was. That's because the weight of what you throw will often change. But do write down Td for any items the character will throw often, like favorite weapons or one-pound rocks (gosh, they're everywhere!), to avoid calculation during play.

Example: Your human PC throws a 1-lb. rock. Use the typical human 3 lbs. for arm mass. With ST 10 and Speed 5, Td is the lesser of (10 x 10 / (3 + 1)) = 25, or (5 x 1 x 10) = 50. Use Td 25.

Enhancements: Enhancements are left out of the above formulae, as these are rare in throwers. If you like, though, let Poor Thrower, Enhanced Throwing, and Super Throwing have the same distance effects and cost as their jumping counterparts. A level of Enhanced Throwing would multiply Td by 2.

The power of an arm to throw is generally the same as its power to strike. If you bought an arm with weak striking power, it will automatically have low ST available for throwing, without any addition of Poor Thrower.

Linear Scale: Book 3 offers Long Arms and Short Arms. The latter decrease throwing distances, but for simplicity, Long Arms don't automatically boost distances. Add Enhanced Throwing if they do.

Two-armed throws: One arm can only throw weight up to your maximum one-handed lift, or Load ST x 6 lbs. Two arms let you pick up and throw an item of up to Load ST x 25 lbs., per GURPS.

To calculate Td for two arms, use the method above but give Load ST a 50% boost in the first formula. (For simplicity, continue to use the mass of one arm.) On the other hand, speed suffers a lot. Divide the second formula's value by 5.

Example: That same PC throws a 1-lb. rock two-handed. Td is the lesser of (15 x 1 x 10 / (3 + 1)) = 37.5, or (5 x 1 x 2) = 10. Use Td 10.

That's a dumb way to throw a small rock, but a 20-lb. weight will fly farther with two hands than it would with one. Td is the lesser of (15 x 1 x 10 / (3 + 20) = 6.5, or (5 x 1 x 2) = 10. Use Td = 6.5.

More arms: If you have more than two arms that can get in on the throw, add another 10% to Load ST per extra arm in the first formula, but reduce Speed by another 5% per extra arm (down to a minimum of 10% remaining). You're better off not using those extra arms unless the load is really heavy.

Maximum lift with many arms is Load ST x 25 plus 10% per arm above two.

Example: The above PC sprouts two more arms to throw a 50-lb. rock. Load ST is boosted a total of 70% to 17; Speed is reduced another 10% to 0.5. Td is the lesser of (17 x 1 x 10 / (3 +50)) = 3.2, or (0.5 x 1 x 10) = 5. Use Td = 3.2.

Bonuses

Below are several factors that add percentage bonuses to Td. These are additive: a 30% bonus from skill, a 30% bonus from All-Out action, and a 10% bonus from Extra Effort combine to a 70% bonus.

Increase Td for skill

As with jumping, assume that calculated Td is for a less-than-optimal throw. Throwing skill will raise Td.

Throwing skill: GURPS' bonus of skill/6 to ST doesn't scale well over the power range. Percentage bonuses do. It's also more realistic (and simple!) to give bonuses only for significant skill levels, not beginning at a measly Throwing-6. GULLIVER's rule:

Increase Td by 10% for every 2 full levels of skill over 10.

The Throwing skill covers a very wide range of techniques, hence the P/H rating. All other throwing skills are P/E.

Rolling: If you prefer, make the above a roll vs Throwing. Success by 2 or less increases Td by 10%, and every additional 2 full levels of success increase Td by an additional 10%.

Failure offers no bonus. A critical failure means you slip or strain yourself! (Taking the automatic bonus is far more certain, but rolling is the way to go when shooting for a record toss!)

Other skills: The GURPS rule is that only Throwing skill lets you boost distances, as well as roll TH to throw any object. Other combat throwing skills only let you roll TH with the appropriate weapon. That's easy to play, but provides very poor incentive for learning any throwing skill except Throwing.

It's more fun and realistic to do the following:

Let any throwing skill boost distance in the same manner as Throwing, for the appropriate thrown object.

This means that unless specified otherwise, combat throwing skills (Knife Throwing, Spear Throwing, etc.) gain the same Td bonuses as Throwing when used with the appropriate weapon. (Throwing skill still remains a heck of a bargain, though, as it covers any object.)

Increase Td for All-Out action

GURPS disallows AOA with throws. That means that instantly after any throw, you're fully recovered and ready to nimbly defend against attacks – which doesn't sound too likely when you're hurling your hardest.

Allow All-Out action with throws. Disallow the +4 TH option, and the two-attack option (unless the thrower has knives in each hand, or a magic spear that "reloads" instantly). But you should be able to throw harder with an all-out heave – the equivalent of the damage bonus option. The rule:

Increase Td by 30% for All-Out action.

For quick play, call this a one-third bonus to base distance.

Increase Td for Extra Effort

Beyond All-Out action, you can further increase range through Extra Effort. In the GULLIVER rules, this allows a roll vs HT, modified for Will:

Add 5% to Td for every -1 taken on a successful Extra Effort roll.

Multiply Td for angle

"High throws" and "broad throws" aren't an issue. You'll generally use your optimal angle, about 45°. This gives you maximum distance, which is Td yards. Height of the throw, should you need to know, will be one-fourth that distance.

A rock thrown straight up will achieve a height of half Td in yards (or less, as we're not built to throw that way), and no horizontal distance.

If angle does matter, use the trajectories from the jumping rules.

Example: With Td of 25, you can throw that rock 25 yards out, or about half that distance straight up. All-Out action will raise distance another 30% to almost 33 yards; skill will raise it even further.

Example: Grunt, a Size +2 Giant, throws a 10-lb. hammer one-handed using Axe Throwing-14. With Speed 4, Load ST 52 and arm mass of 1360/50 = 27 lbs., Td is the lower of 52 x 2 x 10 / (27 + 10) = about 28, and 4 x 2 x 10 = 80. Use Td 28.

Add 20% for skill, to get a Td of 33.6. That hammer flies about 34 yards.

If Grunt hurls hard instead of cautiously, he can add another 30% to Td for All-Out action, for a total bonus of 50%. That boosts Td from 28 to 42, for a 42-yard throw. When a 10-lb. hammer comes flying nearly half the length of a football field, surviving PCs will learn to stay far away from Giants.

Angles and combat

Angle is important in one arena: combat. Chucking a javelin at a nearby foe will mean a very flat angle, and a miss won't fly far.

A 15° throw has only half the range of an optimal 45° throw. Call this halved, flat-angle Range your 1/2 Damage Range.

1/2 Damage Range is half maximum range, and allows throws at a 15° or flatter angle.

Targets at 1/2 Damage Range or closer can be hit with fairly flat throws. Targets outside your 1/2 Damage Range require a higher angle. That turns the attack into indirect fire, which is why you lose your Acc bonus! Lobbing a weapon high and hoping it comes down on your foe is not an easy task. The rule:

For throws steeper than 15°, drop Acc and take a -1 TH per additional 15° angle.

This is in addition to normal penalties for distance or other factors. (It may be possible to reduce this penalty via a Hard "Indirect Fire" maneuver, if the GM allows.)

Example: Your throw has a maximum distance of 20 yards. A flat throw of 10 yards or less suffers no penalty.

Any farther throw is outside 1/2 Damage Range and requires a high arc, losing Acc and taking a TH penalty. A full 20-yard throw requires a 45° angle, taking -2 TH with no Acc.

Note that there are no rules for determining the distance at which air resistance would actually halve the impact and damage of a missile; for simplicity's sake only, GURPS takes the distance at which Acc is lost from a high angle, and gives it double duty as 1/2 Damage Range.

Misses: How far does your missile fly if you miss your target? If it matters, use this quick rule of thumb: Any miss will fly twice the target's distance from you, but not more than that throw's maximum distance and not less than half its maximum distance.

Example: Your spear has a maximum distance of 20 yards. Since your target is within 1/2 Distance Range (10 yards), you use a flat (15° or less) throw with a maximum range of 10 yards.

Where will the weapon land if you miss? It'll sail twice as far as the distance to the target, but not less than 5 yards, and not more than 10 yards.

Add distance for movement

You'll hurl that javelin farther by running. This doesn't boost Td itself, but rather the speed your missile flies in the direction of your movement. For simplicity, this consideration is best gamed as an easy distance bonus. The rule:

Add twice your Move to distance, using the same units, up to double distance.

If you only Step and Attack, you may add twice your Step distance to throwing distance, if that little bonus is worth considering.

Skill penalties: GURPS looks down upon full Move followed by an attack. This should be possible with a throw, but difficult: apply a -4 skill penalty for all purposes, including TH and distance bonuses. (Some throwing skills, like the Javelin Throw of track and field, can run and throw without loss of distance.)

You can throw this way while running at full Move, but throwing from a Sprint should be an uncoordinated mess. Apply an additional penalty of -2 or more.

Special Throws

When making sports throws, don't forget all applicable bonuses from Throwing skill, All-Out action, Extra Effort, and possibly Move (but not sprinting; the skill penalties are very high).

Grenades and rocks

It may or may not be in the rules, but allow Grenade/Rock Throwing as a combat throwing skill for any small, roundish object, whether rock, grenade, or baseball. (That's for a "generic" throw, not a pro-league wind-up and pitch.)

The Throwing skill works here too, of course, but Grenade/Rock Throwing is a legitimate skill. A soldier is likely to learn to throw grenades – or a country boy, toss rocks – without mastering javelins, axes, and shuriken at the same time.

Football (US style)

Quarterbacks use a versatile throwing skill allowing quick, flat passes or the long-range "Hail Mary". A Football Throwing skill, similar in all ways to a combat throwing skill, works well.

Specialized distance skills

Distance throwing competitions can involve very specialized techniques designed for maximum speed and optimal angle. In general, treat these as unique P/A throwing skills, with larger distance bonuses than those from combat throwing skills or Throwing. The rule:

For specialized distance skills, increase Td by 10% for every level of skill over 10.

Rolling: If you prefer to roll vs skill, every point of success increases Td by 10% (treat success by 0 as success by 1). Failures work per other throwing skills.

Drawbacks: Specialized distance skills rely on lengthy spinning or other routines, and users train only to achieve fixed angles, not to hit targets. In short, the skills aren't made for combat (except in cinematic games!). Require a second of Readying to use the skills, and apply a flat -4 TH when aiming at targets. Instead of regular rules for angles and TH, this -4 TH penalty assumes a throw at the roughly 45° angle that the skill specializes in; use an additional -1 TH per 15° higher or lower.

Full-body freedom of motion is vital to these special throws, more so than with a simple knife or axe chuck. Apply the Half modifier penalty for positive encumbrance.

Spinning: Examples of specialized distance skills include Discus Throw and Shotput, with their twirling routines, or the spinning, two-handed Hammer Throw (totally different from the beloved Axe/Mace Throwing). Spinning disallows forward Move during throw. (Limiting effective skill for distance purposes to Speed x 3 is also a nice, advanced touch.)

Javelin Throw: Call the track and field Javelin Throw a specialized distance skill that requires you to run for a full second or more. There's no Javelin Throw skill penalty for throwing on the run – i.e., no loss of distance – but there is the -4 TH penalty for movement if you try to hit a target on the run, in addition to the -4 or greater TH penalty for specialized distance skills described above.

Example: You're a powerhouse track and field challenger, with ST 15, Speed 7, Move 8, and Javelin Throw-17. Assume a 3-lb. arm mass and a 2-lb. javelin. Can you approach the world record of a 103-yard toss?

Td is the lesser of 15 x 1 x 10 / (3 + 2) = 30, or 7 x 1 x 10 = 70. Use Td 30.

Let's say a great skill roll succeeds by 10 and increases Td by 100%. Add another 30% for All-Out action and, say, 20% for Extra Effort. That's a 150% bonus, taking Td from 30 to 75.

That's your base distance in yards with a long throw. Of course, you throw at a fast run: add twice Move to distance, for a toss of 91 yards. Good enough for the bronze, maybe.

Pitching

You can toss a baseball with Throwing or Grenade/Rock Throwing, but the scientific wind-up and release of a pro's pitch is a unique animal.

Make Pitching a separate Hard throwing skill, and let it add lots to throwing speed. Boost Td by 20% (!) per level over 10, and raise the Td bonus from All-Out action to 50%. Also let that explosive Step count as added full Move. (That adds Move x 2 to distance, per the above rules for distance bonus from Move.)

The difficulty of mastering a blazing hurl isn't its only drawback. You need to Step and throw, after taking a full second to "wind up". (GMs with a bent for mental play may require a Will roll to get that enhanced All-Out action bonus.) Like other specialized distance skills, Pitching is affected by encumbrance. Unlike those skills, though, a pitch suffers no penalties for aiming at targets, or for flat (up to 15°) throws. Rather, apply a full -4 skill penalty to throws made at greater angles, in addition to normal TH penalties for angle.

But if you've got the time to prepare and the accuracy to make a head shot, Pitching can be a deadly combat skill! Baseball-loving GMs can also create Hard maneuvers of Pitching for sliders, curveballs, fastballs, and so on. As an example, the Fastball maneuver might default to Pitching -4, but boost the Td bonus to 25% per skill level.

Example: How do you throw a 100 mph fastball? Start with phenomenal stats: a ST 16 arm, Speed 7, and Fastball-20. Td is the lower of 16 x 1 x 10 / (3 + 1) = 40, or 7 x 1 x 10 = 70. Use Td 40.

Now add a 250% Td bonus for a great Fastball roll that succeeds by 10, and 50% for All-Out action, increasing Td by 300% to 160.

If you want to know how far that ball goes, start with your Td of 160, and halve it for a flat throw: 80 yards. Now add twice your Move: total 94 yards.

If you want to know how fast that ball travels, see the calculation for Ts below. Your Ts is 40; add your Move to that to get 47 yards per second, or 94 mph. Keep working at it!

Maneuvers

You can invent specialized maneuvers for throwing skills. One of the most likely would be Range, a Hard maneuver that adds to skill for purposes of Td bonus only. Limit the maneuver to Skill +4. It's useful for building world-class distance throwers – or baseball pitchers with more speed than accuracy.

As mentioned earlier, Indirect Fire could also be a Hard maneuver to reduce the TH penalty for high-angle throws.

Two hands

Most throwing skills are used one-handed. The above sports throwing skills are all exclusively one-handed (Pitching) or two-handed (Hammer Throw).

It's up to you whether the general Throwing skill allows its bonuses when used two-handed, or whether a separate Two-handed Throwing skill (cross-defaulting to Throwing at -3) is needed. The latter is more realistic.

Either way, take the version you prefer, add some individual skills like Caber Tossing, and you're off to the Highland Games.

Miscellanous Topics

Throwing speed

You can compute throwing speed upon release, Ts, as the square root of (Td x 10). Ts is in yards per second. Multiply by 2 for mph.

Forward movement when throwing also adds a speed vector, in the direction of movement. If you throw at a flat angle, Move in yards adds directly to Ts.

Flight time

Clever players with a burning need to know the flight time of a spear can borrow notes from the jumping rules' Hang Time section. For a throw with a max height of 5 yards (ignoring starting height), this will be a second going up and a second going down, or two seconds total. A throw with a max height of 20 yards will spend a whole four seconds in flight. (It's useful to remember that max height for a 45° throw is one-fourth distance.)

Of course, most GMs will play all thrown attacks as instantaneous, for simplicity. Playing out real flight times puts strange "time delay" attacks into combats – but that is how missi