Rich McGee

Physics doesn't work that way.  Your downward acceleration from gravity will certainly make you fall faster and faster, but the only thing reducing your horizontal momentum from running off the roof is wind resistance.  In most cases involving even superhuman physiques you'll likely hit the ground before your horizontal movement comes to a halt - although capes and patagia and whatnot might change the math some.
 
Not really worth worrying much in a game, but (for example) the fact that a bomb only slowly diverges from the horizontal vector it shared with the plane it dropped from is pretty much the basis of the science of putting falling ordnance on target.    

There's a defunct youtube channel - Society of Virtue, IIRC - that has a superhero whose whole schtick is pretty much that, beating bad guys by punching their GI tract from within over the course of days or weeks.  Think he was called the Tapeworm or somesuch.

That sort of thing is why they don't make flashcubes any more. 
 
Or better yet, one of those old-timey cameras where you put the flash powder in a pan loose. 
 
"Beware my doomsday device, you Gen Z slackers!  Its technology is far too outdated for you to even comprehend!"  - the Sesquicentenarian

That sort of thing is why they don't make flashcubes any more. 
 
Or better yet, one of those old-timey cameras where you put the flash powder in a pan loose. 
 
"Beware my doomsday device, you Gen Z slackers!  Its technology is far too outdated for you to even comprehend!"  - the Sesquicentenarian

Physics doesn't work that way.  Your downward acceleration from gravity will certainly make you fall faster and faster, but the only thing reducing your horizontal momentum from running off the roof is wind resistance.  In most cases involving even superhuman physiques you'll likely hit the ground before your horizontal movement comes to a halt - although capes and patagia and whatnot might change the math some.
 
Not really worth worrying much in a game, but (for example) the fact that a bomb only slowly diverges from the horizontal vector it shared with the plane it dropped from is pretty much the basis of the science of putting falling ordnance on target.    

As a more specific answer to this question; Flash does not deal any body damage, its not actually using the damage rules at all, it has a separate mechanic which uses the normal damage rules to count body, but only to determine the effect.  Its like flipping a coin doesn't actually involve any payment or wealth, its just a device to determine an outcome.

Enthused by this news, I went back to Space Gamer #48 (February 1982), which includes that first article by Aaron Allston about his Strike Force Universe for Champions. I still have my childhood Champions 'stuff' from the 1980s, including this article (and the cover), which I had ripped out of the magazine at some point. I know I didn't buy this issue when it was originally published, but likely a few+ years later in a back issue box in a comic book store (in those pre-Internet, pre-ebay days).  Rereading it again now, I was surprised by how short it was, and by how it seemed to be, in part, a very calculated back-door advertisement for Steve Jackson Games' Cardboard Heroes product. That said, I remember really liking the cover (by Denis Loubet) and the name "Lightrune," but being underwhelmed by Allston's detailing of the PC's 'low rent' early days, and wishing that Allston had added more details about some/all of the PC's that he merely enumerated in tabular form.  Nonetheless, it was definitely enjoyable to revisit. 

In honor of Martin Luther King Day--
 
I Dream A World
By Langston Hughes
 
I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world!
 

"Defense is Resistant Flash Defense or being one of the Three Stooges."

"Defense is Resistant Flash Defense or being one of the Three Stooges."

That sort of thing is why they don't make flashcubes any more. 
 
Or better yet, one of those old-timey cameras where you put the flash powder in a pan loose. 
 
"Beware my doomsday device, you Gen Z slackers!  Its technology is far too outdated for you to even comprehend!"  - the Sesquicentenarian

That sort of thing is why they don't make flashcubes any more. 
 
Or better yet, one of those old-timey cameras where you put the flash powder in a pan loose. 
 
"Beware my doomsday device, you Gen Z slackers!  Its technology is far too outdated for you to even comprehend!"  - the Sesquicentenarian

That sort of thing is why they don't make flashcubes any more. 
 
Or better yet, one of those old-timey cameras where you put the flash powder in a pan loose. 
 
"Beware my doomsday device, you Gen Z slackers!  Its technology is far too outdated for you to even comprehend!"  - the Sesquicentenarian

Yeah its going to be a really, really rare circumstance, but maybe some villain creates the flash gun that does killing damage to anyone without resistant flash defense.  As a GM I would probably bop with a nerf bat any player who tried to buy that sort of build, but its theoretically possible.

Rich, thanks for the RL examples. I've got enough so I'm done here.

Normal gravity is also irrelevant unless the hero is non-buoyant.  It's actually easier to ascend when underwater than descend, so the medium is aiding them here.  With Leaping and Flight the medium you're moving through isn't providing support, leaving you to fight gravity unassisted.  If you're on some alien planet that could be very different, but I'm not opening that can of worms.
 
If you're just trying to guesstimate to get a "feels about right" number, I'd go look at the reams of data on aquatic animals breaching the surface and compare actual speeds and leaping heights.  For a human-ish mass hero one of the dolphin species is probably a decent choice.  I don't know what "40m Swimming" translates to in real units of measurement (is that per phase or segment?) but you should be able to work out kph and work from there to get something good enough for a game.
 
A quick look tells me common dolphins (the fastest recorded species, slightly ahead of orcas) reach 55-64kph at top speeds and can manage 5m leaps in the wild.  Bottlenose dolphins are slower (~35kph, but there seems to be some disagreement about sprint speeds) but trained specimens can easily reach 6m leaps.  The world record is from a bottlenose at 7.92m, FWIW.  Orcas (if your hero does Growth) can reach ~52kph and leap between 3-5m, and I strongly question if they couldn't do better if they wanted.  Lot harder to motivate an orca than a dolphin, and far fewer in captivity for lengthy observation.
 
So figure out what your IRL speed is using that movement rate and work from there.  Or just pick a number from thin air, as long as you're consistent about it.

Anyone who has his digital file archive can find the files I am thinking of. I would need to get the file name, however.
PS: The Blood is at over 14200 words and I am about 1/3 way though the assorted NPCs. Then comes some scenarios, and then on to the Circle.

Somehow that didn't occur to me. I could change it...but nahhh. 😀
 
Maybe that refers to a mission where she was accidentally swallowed by someone and her subsequent exit was unpleasant for both parties.

I'd hate it even more when it's abbreviated.  Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a thing.

I.B.S(Itsy Bitsy Spider)
 
Rani Kapoor owned a small electronics firm that was driven out of business by Millstone Mechanical Systems. She broke into one of their facilities to commit sabotage, but ended up stealing plans for a protype four armed exoskeleton. She modified it and began a campaign of revenge against MMS. Satisfied after damaging the company she became a thief known by the name Steal Spider.
 
One of her jobs for the criminal organization The Commission saw her acquire a size changing device. She decided to keep it for herself and incorporated it into her exoskeleton. The Commission did not take kindly to this and she ended on the run for her life. She joined Nursery Crimes to give her safety and strength in numbers.
 
She can shrink herself down to the size of a small spider and was this renamed Itsy Bitsy Spider, a name she loathes. She acts as the team's infiltration expert and spy. Her exoskeleton has cable launchers, can climb walls, have great strength, and a variety of other gadgets to aid  in her operations.

I just watched (and enjoyed) your recent interview on the BMF Podcast about this project, and enjoyed that as well!
 
I had been hoping since the Kickstarter for Aaron Allston's Strike Force was completed years ago that more might eventually be done with his Strike Force Universe based on the writings he left behind.  I had forgotten until you mentioned it on the podcast that this Strike Force Organizations project was originally a stretch goal for that Kickstarter that wasn't met, unfortunately. I remember now being disappointed by that at the time.  With every year that passed since then, that seemed to me increasingly unlikely. So this is really welcome news. 
 
(That said, it was disappointing to learn from this podcast that Aaron Allston's handwritten notes are apparently impossible for anyone else to decipher.  I assumed from that that maybe there was a little less in his posthumous files to 'work with' than I initially hoped/assumed from a distance.)
 
For whatever it's worth (if anything), I think it's an excellent idea to also add stats for Prowlers & Paragons (or any other super hero RPG) to this project to increase the potential audience/customer base.
 
I was also interested to learn that it hasn't yet been decided how/when this Strike Force Organizations project will be funded/published, and that that will be decided by Jason Walters after the manuscript is completed  and submitted to him (the goal for that being the next few months, apparently). Having just Googled Aaron Allston's name, I see that the 10th anniversary of his untimely passing will be in February.  Perhaps this project may be a way to mark that, and keep his creative work alive.

Blood aren't gods, or extra-dimensional entities. They're like a mutant offshoot of humanity, from a lineage that originated on Earth but emigrated to a world in another dimension many millennia in the past. The Blood on Earth are descended from a family that returned here over a century ago.

Yet another update! The Blood is at 5,000 words but work has slowed slightly as I puzzle out who is who. To explain, the Blood seen in Org Book 3 are not exactly the Blood as they appear in Aaron's game. I don't want to go into too many details (it will spoil the fun of discovery) but the Affrighter's true history reads like something you'd expect of the typical X-man.

You and me both.  Good times back in the day.

These really hit the nostalgia button.