"grabbing" strike rolls?

[PalladiumBrony]

Are there any rules (or rules of thumb) suggested anywhere for grabbing objects/terrain/people, beyond the standard combat grapple ("roll a 4 or more, and as long as they don't roll better to parry, they're grappled")? I'm looking to cover the following situations and not quite sure how would be best; Each one could probably be covered with a basic strike roll, but what do you guys think should be the thresholds?

• Catching someone before/as they fall off a cliff or ledge: if you're within 1 action's worth of sprinting distance, you can try and dash over to grab them before they fall, and then pull them up (should this just automatically succeed as long as you're strong enough?
• Catching someone as they fall past/towards you: If you're lower down than someone falling, you can try and catch them as they fall past you, either to prevent them falling further, or just to try and cushion their landing if you're on the ground and they're falling down towards you. I feel like this ought to only be possible if the other character is significantly smaller and lighter than you? Or you're just gonna get a dislocated arm, or dead-weight tackled into the floor!
• Trying to "catch" yourself when leaping a long distance: RAW states, if I understand correctly, that a character's leaping distance is the distance they can leap and plant their feet firmly on the ground at the other end (about 4 feet laterally and 3 feet vertically, for an unaugmented human with no special skills or tools like a pole; Add 50% if they have a running start). I've decided that they can, if they wish, increase this distance by 1.5x their height/length - because arms are typically 1/3 as long as a humanoid character is tall, but the shoulder is below the top of the head so I guess with the hands raised above the head it equals out to about 1.5? But reaching for a difficult leap like that should, I guess, require some kind of stat or skill check, or a strike roll against some threshold?
• Snatching an object (by hand or, for example, with a whip) against time pressure. Think when Indie grabs his hat in Temple of Doom (I believe it was), only VERY narrowly missing having his hand and arm crushed by a stone door sliding shut on it.

While I think of it, are there any examples of leaping (cyborgs/folks with cybernetic limbs etc) that differ significantly from those listed in the After the Bomb main book (the only real place I can recall seeing leaping distances covered)?

[Veknironth]

Well, I'll address these in order.

1. You'd go with a simple strike roll to grab. Although, you wouldn't be able to sprint and then grab. You'd need to sprint, stop, and then grab so maybe something like half of their maximum sprint distance.
2. Catching someone as they fall past you would need a called strike roll. And the further they've already fallen the higher roll they need. The acceleration of gravity is no joke and things are moving REALLY fast with even a short fall.
3. Catching yourself sounds like balance to me so I'd go with a Physical Prowess check. Either do a straight d20 or multiple the score by 4 and roll under it on a d100.
4. Either a called shot, or a straight roll against the door.

In all of the catching examples, you'd need to also roll a Physical Strength check.

-Vek
"Or, just theater of the mind."

[drewkitty ~..~]

Grabbing a moving object would be like hitting a moving object.

So maybe strike roll vs 8-16.....depending how fast the object was going

[kiralon]

Catching someone before/as they fall off a cliff or ledge: if you're within 1 action's worth of sprinting distance, you can try and dash over to grab them before they fall, and then pull them up (should this just automatically succeed as long as you're strong enough?
Depends if they are actually falling or not, if they have already started falling its adios. If they are hanging there and you make it you grab them.
If they are sliding I will make a difficulty number that they have to get to hit with to actually grab them in time.


Catching someone as they fall past/towards you: If you're lower down than someone falling, you can try and catch them as they fall past you, either to prevent them falling further, or just to try and cushion their landing if you're on the ground and they're falling down towards you. I feel like this ought to only be possible if the other character is significantly smaller and lighter than you? Or you're just gonna get a dislocated arm, or dead-weight tackled into the floor!
Unless they were a lot smaller than you, you would have to have one hell of a grip, and as they say its not the fall that hurts but the sudden stop. I'd have both sides take 1/2 fall damage and have to make a strike to grab, and then a strength check modified by the damage taken to keep hold. Good Luck!!!

Trying to "catch" yourself when leaping a long distance: RAW states, if I understand correctly, that a character's leaping distance is the distance they can leap and plant their feet firmly on the ground at the other end (about 4 feet laterally and 3 feet vertically, for an unaugmented human with no special skills or tools like a pole; Add 50% if they have a running start). I've decided that they can, if they wish, increase this distance by 1.5x their height/length - because arms are typically 1/3 as long as a humanoid character is tall, but the shoulder is below the top of the head so I guess with the hands raised above the head it equals out to about 1.5? But reaching for a difficult leap like that should, I guess, require some kind of stat or skill check, or a strike roll against some threshold?
I'd do the same as catching someone, if you fall far enough to take damage, damage will be taken, and the more damage taken the harder it is to catch yourself if its a sudden stop, leaping out to a rope/something that gives would be a different matter, but catching a ledge that you leap and slam into would be distance dropped plus forward speedish damage.

Snatching an object (by hand or, for example, with a whip) against time pressure. Think when Indie grabs his hat in Temple of Doom (I believe it was), only VERY narrowly missing having his hand and arm crushed by a stone door sliding shut on it.
I would assign an Initiative number to show the difficulty of grabbing it and then assign a needed number to roll to strike to grab it.
If you miss the initiative you can still try to grab it but the grab difficulty is modified by the amount the initiative is failed by.

[The Dark Elf]

Well, I'll address these in order.

There's no such thing as attribute checks. And what number would these strike roles be against-just above a 4?

Another house rule we add (I say another cos the first house rule is attribute checks, lol) is - in Rifts you can move and shoot at -6. So we allow a "wild strike" to move and strike at -6 in all the Palladium games.

[Library Ogre]

For "catching yourself"? I'd probably go with roll with punch/fall.

[Prysus]

Are there any rules (or rules of thumb) suggested anywhere for grabbing objects/terrain/people, beyond the standard combat grapple ("roll a 4 or more, and as long as they don't roll better to parry, they're grappled")? I'm looking to cover the following situations and not quite sure how would be best; Each one could probably be covered with a basic strike roll, but what do you guys think should be the thresholds?

Greetings and Salutations. For the record, I'm not convinced that a strike roll is always the most appropriate.

Catching someone before/as they fall off a cliff or ledge: if you're within 1 action's worth of sprinting distance, you can try and dash over to grab them before they fall, and then pull them up (should this just automatically succeed as long as you're strong enough?

My mind goes to Rifts Game Master Guide (RGMG) and their example of trying to snatch an object during combat. In this example, it's about attacking a small character or grabbing an amulet worn by another. While maybe not perfect examples, I think it's close enough.

To it would probably be a Called Shot with a -3 or -4 penalty. Depending on distance and other circumstances, the penalty might go up (max sprinting distance) or down (standing directly next to the person and already within arm's reach). If I want tension, I might do something like roll a straight D20 as the target to beat. The other person either trying to avoid being grabbed or reaching out their hand may also play a factor in the numbers.

Catching someone as they fall past/towards you: If you're lower down than someone falling, you can try and catch them as they fall past you, either to prevent them falling further, or just to try and cushion their landing if you're on the ground and they're falling down towards you. I feel like this ought to only be possible if the other character is significantly smaller and lighter than you? Or you're just gonna get a dislocated arm, or dead-weight tackled into the floor!

That probably depends on how far they've fallen. If it's just a foot or two, see above. However, if they're already falling, probably similar rules to above, but it will only cushion the impact. I'd probably consider it the equivalent of Roll With Impact and apply half damage to BOTH characters. I'd probably allow them to actually Roll with Fall after to further reduce the damage. Really depends on the situation and how nice I'm feeling, but if it only reduces the damage to half (and the other person is also taking half), the Roll with Fall option makes the sacrifice kind of pointless, so allowing a chance to further reduce the damage at least gives it a purpose.

Trying to "catch" yourself when leaping a long distance: RAW states, if I understand correctly, that a character's leaping distance is the distance they can leap and plant their feet firmly on the ground at the other end (about 4 feet laterally and 3 feet vertically, for an unaugmented human with no special skills or tools like a pole; Add 50% if they have a running start). I've decided that they can, if they wish, increase this distance by 1.5x their height/length - because arms are typically 1/3 as long as a humanoid character is tall, but the shoulder is below the top of the head so I guess with the hands raised above the head it equals out to about 1.5? But reaching for a difficult leap like that should, I guess, require some kind of stat or skill check, or a strike roll against some threshold?

If you don't fully make the leap but you're trying to grab onto the edge and catch yourself, my instinct is to go with a Climb check. Part of the Climb skill is for a character "to regain his grip" after a fall. So it seems fitting.

Note: I like promoting teamwork, so I'd go with this option. If I wanted to be more realistic, both should probably just take full damage (barring special abilities) and then both could Roll with Impact/Fall to reduce it to half. This would be rather harsh though, and I'd rather encourage teamwork than punish it.

Snatching an object (by hand or, for example, with a whip) against time pressure. Think when Indie grabs his hat in Temple of Doom (I believe it was), only VERY narrowly missing having his hand and arm crushed by a stone door sliding shut on it.

In the case of Indiana Jones, I'd probably apply a strike roll to the trap (crushing door), and then require the player to Dodge. So, the door might have a default Strike of 14. If they don't succeed on their Dodge, either they go to reach for it or they grabbed it but don't make it back out in time.

While I think of it, are there any examples of leaping (cyborgs/folks with cybernetic limbs etc) that differ significantly from those listed in the After the Bomb main book (the only real place I can recall seeing leaping distances covered)?

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=79337&p=1574325&hilit=Jump#p1574325

Now, I'll note they reference ranges for leaping with "Super Brawling Rules" and that post misrepresents the rules. The distances provided in that section are for mindless, rage based jumps. In normal situations, the HU GM Guide actually mentions to reduce it by 40% (HUGMG, page 57), which is a separate reduction from the standing position reduction (which I didn't actually see listed in HUGMG). Now, setting all that aside, HU doesn't have different strength categories: Normal, Extraordinary, Superhuman, and Supernatural. Rifts Conversion Book One, Revision (page 45) states Extraordinary P.S. is equivalent to "Augmented/Cyborg" strength, and Extraordinary is equivalent of "Robotic" strength. Of course, I'm combining two different settings to apply to a possible third setting. I'm not advocating anything for these rules or how they interact, but providing information so that you may make an informed decision.

Hope some of that helps. Farewell and safe journeys.