Falling Damage

[Mike Holmes]

The principle involved is often refered to as the Cube-Square law. If you want to be an expert on it, then please refer to:
http://www.io.com/~tbone/gurps/GULLIVER/

Yes, this is all in GURPS terms, but it is, essentially, a thesis on how physics should be modeled (Bob, you'll really groove on this).

Specifically:
http://www.io.com/~tbone/gurps/GULLIVER/B6damage.htm

Look about Half way down at the section on falling (it also refers to collisions above it). It gives thoughts about the breakfall sorts of skills that somebody mentioned, and how to handle it.

multiply damage by the square root of (your mass in lbs. / 150)

Then you'd allow toughness to reduce, as the above assumes some sort of HP-like system. In this way, you have your cake and eat it too. Complicated, but it works.

It also means that the most effective way to kill a dragon is to get it to crash. :-)

Mike

[Bob Richter]

I drooled for a couple of hours the first time I read that, and then I put it away, wary of overcomplicating things and ending up with Hackmaster.