Counts as a 10 metre fall per degree of failure? That's 1d10+10 damage minimum on a base fail!

Given that a stock drop-troop soldier probably has an Agi of about 34, and +20 from the chute, that will mean that on a drop, about 54% of the regiment is fine, 10% are critiically injured, and 36% are nothing more than bloody smears on the planets surface. Even with the catfall talent (not that drop-troops start with acrobatics anyhow) that is still a huge amount of cassualties.

The fall damage of a failed grav chute roll needs to be reduced significantly. 3m per degree of failure should be about right. Still very dangerous on a mega-fail, but not outright lethal with a minor fail.

Fall damage has always been a bit weird in FFG 40k games, there was a meme on /tg/ for a while about how a truly crafty demon or xenos would force the marines to climb a flight of slippery stairs to reach him. A simple fall could kill a Deathwatch marine, I kid you not and I've had it happen.

In real life, I work in a trauma hospital, so I have no qualms about how deadly falling can be.

I do have a problem with the grav-chute. A 10m fall per degree of failure is way to much! May as well tell half the players not to bother turning up for a game because you are going to be dropping into a combat so half the party will impact on the surface.

Agreed, even more so once you remember that falling damage isn't mitigated by armor; planets are power weapons apparently . So power armor that can stop missile rounds can't soak a flight of stairs. Screw basilisks, if you want a TPK cover the hill they're assaulting in Astroglide.

Ok, I'm being silly and over-dramatic but I'm tired so bleh. The falling damage in general needs to be reconsidered; a ~30 foot fall can be painful (broken bones) but is not always deadly. The base damage comparison puts a plasma gun to shame and that's more than a little ridiculous. I'd suggest a mishap chart (scattered by wind, stuck in a tree) to soak the first few flubs and then start adding damage on.

While I think fall damage is about right (for 10 metres, at least - depending on how you fall, that can be quite deadly), the test for the chute is either too hard or the punishment for a miss is too great. I'd suggest making the Aeronautica check +30 and handing out 1d5 damage (no armour) for up to 2 DoF, 1d10 (no armour) for up to 4 and 2d10 (no armour) for more than 4 - and getting more than 4 should be next to impossible for anyone who actually knows what he is doing and has Operate (Aeronautica).

Alternatively, the DoS might simply indicate deviation from target.

If we look at the TT game, units only have the possibility of damage if they land on difficult or dangerous terrain. The agility test should be left for this circumstance.

A grav chute itself such be at least as good as a modern parachute imo. If you are trained and land in an area without hazards, you should be find >99% of the time. Unless they are poorly made or maintained…

I'd rule em something like this:

• Test is at +30
• 1-4 DoF on Test = Deviation of (DoF)d10 meters
• 5+ DoF on Test = Deviation + Falling damage of 1d10+6 (or so).

I wouldn't mind them taking damage if the scatter into the side of a building or a forest etc. Air insertions really only incur damage from environmental hazards or equipment failure, possibly AA fire. But the failures should be more scatter, less splatter.

Big thankyou to FFG for listening to us about this issue in beta week 6 update! Now at least most of the cassualties from a drop should come from enemy fire rather than bad cases of dirt-poisoning!

Now I have much less guilt having my PC's do a drop while being strafed by ork Fighta-Bommaz!

Darklordofbunnies said:

I work at an Army hospital and after every training drop we get one or two guys with tib/fib fx and that's in forgiving terrain and (fairly) good weather. Most of these are NOT from equipment failure - they are from the IRL equivalent of failing the Skill Check. Still, I wouldn't expect numbers like the 30%+ death rates posted above unless we were asking them to jump with chutes packed in China.

HappyDaze said:

Even in the old days when airmen packed their own chutes and you'd get things like snakes and stuff in them you didn't have that sort of failure rate.