Page 145 - World of Darkness

yards fallen; see “Falling,” p. 179). Thirty miles per hour reducing it to six dice. Taylor gets two successes, so contact
therefore inflicts three bashing damage (the equivalent of is made. Now damage from the collision is determined. The
nine yards fallen), while 100 miles per hour (the equiva- car’s Size is 9, so that number of dice is rolled, with one
lent of 30 yards fallen) is terminal velocity — 10 lethal bonus die for every 10 mph (14 yards per turn) that Taylor’s
damage. car travels. In this case he’s going 40 mph, so that’s a +4
You can make a Dexterity + Athletics roll for your bonus. A total of 13 dice is rolled to determine damage
character to try to roll with the impact. As with falling against Vaugn. Vaugn has no armor, so no dice are sub-
damage, each success diminishes the damage by one, al- tracted. Taylor gets four successes, which are inflicted on
though there is no limit to how many points that can be Vaugn as bashing wounds. He is also subjected to a knock-
shaved off this way (unlike a vertical drop). down effect.
The nature of the surface impacted might aid or hinder Had Taylor’s Dexterity + Drive roll achieved no
your roll. Hard pavement is the standard (no modifier), successes, Vaugn would have been missed altogether.
but falling onto grass might provide +1 and falling onto Alternatively, had Taylor’s Size roll resulted in no successes,
snow might be +3. Falling onto a rocky trail might be -1, Vaugn would have escaped harm but would still have been
while falling on broken glass might be -3 (and automati- subject to knockdown. Vaugn could also have dedicated the
cally inflicts lethal damage, no matter the speed). turn to dodging (see p. 156) and made it considerably harder
Example: Luke, driving his pickup truck at night, stops for Taylor to make contact.
for a winsome hitchhiker on a lonely road. He gets a little too
fresh and freaks out when she transforms into a snarling she- If the target rammed is an object such as a mailbox or
wolf. He flings open his door and leaps from the cab, even steel door, the same combination of rolls is made: Dexter-
though the truck is hurtling along at 75 miles per hour. He ity + Drive + the Handling rating of the vehicle to see if
takes eight points of bashing damage — one point per 10 your character makes contact, and the vehicle’s Size +1
mph, rounded up. for each 10 mph (14 yards per turn) traveled to determine
damage. In this case, successes achieved on the Size roll
Luke has 3 Dexterity and 3 Athletics. Since he lands on that are in excess of the target’s Durability are incurred as
asphalt, there’s no modifier to the roll. Six dice are rolled: 3, Structure damage by the object. The ramming vehicle
4,4, 6, 8, 9 — two successes. He manages to absorb the smashes through the target, but could also suffer some
impact slightly but he still suffers six points of bashing damage of its own. Compare the successes achieved on
damage. your Size roll to the Durability of your character’s vehicle.
When he finally rolls to a halt, grimacing in pain, Luke If successes exceed its Durability, your character’s vehicle
sees his pickup truck peeling away down the road, a hirsute suffers half (rounding down) those excess successes as
shape behind the wheel. Structure damage. Damage to your character’s vehicle is
halved to account for his effort to minimize harm by hit-
Crashes ting the target just right.
If the successes on your Size roll do not exceed the
Whether by intent or accident, vehicles crash into object’s Durability, the object is hardly damage. Your
objects, each other and pedestrians. To determine if an character’s vehicle may be severely damaged, though. In
intentional collision is performed successfully, roll your essence, the vehicle hits the object and comes to a dead
character’s Dexterity + Drive + the Handling rating of halt. Compare the successes from your Size roll to the
the vehicle. vehicle’s Durability rating. All excess successes there are
If the target is a resisting person, his Defense is sub- inflicted as damage to your character’s own vehicle.
tracted from your dice pool. A single success indicates that Example: Taylor rams a storefront in order to plow
your character manages to strike the pedestrian. Damage inside. A Dexterity + Drive + Handling roll (in this case
is determined with a separate dice pool. Roll the vehicle’s nine dice) is made to see if Taylor makes contact as in-
Size rating, with a +1 bonus for each full 10 mph (14 yards tended. The roll gets two successes. Taylor’s 13 dice of
per turn) that the vehicle travels. The victim’s armor, if damage (from his car’s 9 Size and 40 mph speed) are then
any, is subtracted from that pool. Each success on the re- rolled and successes are compared to the Durability of the
sulting roll inflicts a point of bashing damage to the tar- object. The Storyteller decides that the brick-and-glass
get. If contact is made with the pedestrian, regardless of storefront has an overall Durability of 2. The damage roll
the amount of damage done, the victim is also subject to a gets five successes, which exceeds the storefront’s Durability
knockdown effect (see p. 168) by three. The wall suffers three Structure. Taylor’s car is
Example: Taylor tries to run down Vaugn. Taylor also damaged, though. The five successes on Taylor’s
drives a compact car with Durability 3, Size 9, Structure 12 damage roll exceed his car’s 3 Durability by two. That excess
and Handling 3. Taylor’s Dexterity is 3 and Drive is 3. The number is halved, for one point of Structure damage inflicted
dice pool to make contact with Vaugn starts with nine dice (3 on Taylor’s car.
Dexterity + 3 Drive + 3 Handling). Vaugn is on foot and Now, if Taylor had rammed a steel-reinforced door with
trying to get out of the way. His Defense is 3. Three dice are a 6 Durability, the door’s Durability would have exceeded
subtracted from the Drive roll due to Vaugn’s Defense, the successes achieved on the damage roll. Taylor’s car would

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Chapter 6- DRAMATIC SYSTEMS