Anger boiling? Smash plates at eatery (Reuters, Mar 31, 2006)

The destruction of objects (breaking dishes, chopping down a tree, taking a tire iron to a fender) seems like a valid option for barbarians and other berserkers to work out their rage.

On a related note, a scene I have always wanted to GM is a good ol’ fashioned food fight in a tavern. Unfortunately, even if the party is disarmed, monks, rouges, and spell slingers quickly start upping the ante.
Perhaps a royal banquet, where such a activity is party of the festivities. Perhaps even a prize for the person that emerges from the ball room with the least food on them. My standard rules for impromptu weapons (such as plates of food or a drum stick) are:

• Base penalty of -4 (for non-proficiency). (I also use a feat which allows a reduction in this penalty across the board, unconventional weapons and traditional weapons/exotic weapons alike. The feat can be taken twice, each time reducing the penalty by one for any use of otherwise untrained weapons)
• In this food fight scenario, treat all attacks a touch attacks. (Pudding on your breastplate is just embarrassing as pudding on your shirt.)
• Depending on the fight either no damage is inflicted or non-lethal damage (if plates and mugs are being thrown as well.) (By the way, I am not sure if this rule is in the text anywhere or not, but I usually play that if you score a “critical hit” while using non-lethal attacks, you can choose to take the critical modifier or inflict lethal damage instead.)
• Range is also highly dependant on what is being thrown. A splashed mug of ale would have a very short maximum range (say 10 feet) but has area effect spray a few feet long at least. Solid food would go further, while plates and saucers further yet.

Here is a great resource for medieval food:
Medieval and Renaissance Food Homepage (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food.html)

Woman survives fall from 11th floor (Reuters 3/11/06)

Similar to the ability of a monk to reduce damage from falls, other (often unaccounted for) factors also could mediate damage. Here is a quick list of suggestions:

• Soft Snow, -1d6 per 12 inches (-3d6 max)
• Hard Snow, -1d6 per 12 inches (-1d6 max)
• Loose Sand, -1d6 per 12 inches (-1d6 max)
• Water, -1d6 per 3 feet (-6d6 max, unless you pass a successful swim check of 15. then no max)
• Mud, -1d6 per 12 inches (-3d6 max)
• Stage diving into a crowd, (-1d6 into an unsuspecting crown, -2d6 for a friendly crowd, and no reduction for a hostile crowd—although you would probably provoke and attack of opportunity.)
• Special training, see descriptions of monk skills and other similar feats
• Unconscious or limp, subtract (1d4-1) dice from fall damage
  (Note: Under no circumstances would the special training and unconscious bonus stack—they operate under very similar principals.)

In the case of this woman, she should have taken 11d6 points of damage from her fall. If she landed in 3 feet of soft snow, and she was only partially conscious, she could have reduced it to 5d6 points of damage. Definitely unpleasant, but it would certainly be possible to survive.

Life in the fast lane... (Reuters 3/17/06)

Lets talk about "Concentration" checks . . .
Concentration checks are another skill that is rarely used in the game, but has some very powerful potential. Often the only time it gets used is for spellcasters . . . (I have found it to be an unfortunately dilemma, by the way, that GM's who rarely use certain skills "train" players to not spend skill points in them--which makes it harder to start using them.)

In general I would say, attempting two skills simultaneously requires a successful concentration check, or you take a -5 penalty to each of the other two skill rolls.

Here are a few random situations and the DC of the required Concentration to "pull it off"--so to speak ;^)

• Driving and having sex (DC 20) (I am curious if I get any hits to this post purely because it includes the word "sex"--twice.)
• Using escape artist skills while riding a horse (Very similar to the above task, BTW) (DC 20)
• Trying to "persuade" while "grappling" (Also, not entirely dissimilar) (DC 20)
• Climbing and dodging (as per Dodge feat) at the same time (DC 15)
• Driving and talking on the cell phone (DC 10)
• Listening at a door and picking a lock simultaneously (DC 15)
• Searching for a secret passage while swimming in rough water (DC 15)
• Performing an elaborate dance while picking someone's pocket (DC 20)
• Speak an language (other than your native) and bluff (DC 15)
• Trying to tumble silently (DC 20)

Some obvious skill combinations that require no additional concentration check when used at the same time are:

• Spot and listen
• Hide and Move silently
• Spellcraft and spell casting (for identifying and countering a spell)

Ex-teacher takes 18 pupils hostage (CNN 3/9/06)

Perhaps there are some rules out there already on how to handle these kinds of hostage situations. I have yet to see anything satisfying to me . . . .

In my campaigns we make fairly regular use of the d20 3.5 Coup de grace rules. Unfortunately, these don’t seem to capture the “movie-like” tension created with the bad guy has a knife to the through of his hostage, using them as a human shield.

Allow me to elucidate: ;^)

There are traditional two levels of attacking a helpless target:
(1) Normal attack against an immobilized (bound, sleeping, etc.) target

• This requires a partial action, does normal damage (plus sneak attack if applicable).
• The target has a minus 9 to their AC. (-4 penalty, plus a Dexterity reduced (max -5) for a total penalty of -9)

(2) Coup de grace attack

• This requires a full-round and provokes an attack of opportunity. The attack of opportunity is resolved before determining the results of the coup de grace attack.
• It does provide and automatic hit, and is an automatic critical. In fact, the target must make Fortitude save vs. DC 10+total damage dealt, or die on the spot. (Quite potent really---as it should be)

The problem is with that attack of opportunity. High level characters have a good possibility of attacking and killing a villain as they try to make their fell blow.

Thus leading to the rational of:
(3) Readied coup de grace attack

• To ready a coup de grace attack, the hostage-taker must have a preliminary initiative, and take a full round preparing the attack. The coup de grace attack can be taken at any point after that (provide they are not distracted by taking other action) as a free action. The coup de grace still provokes an attack of opportunity, but it is resolved AFTER the coup de grace attack. (Very bad news for the victim.)
• In this case, the attack is not automatic—but does lower the victims AC by -9 (-4 penalty and -5 dexterity reduction, as above).
• Finally the damage dealt works the same way as a traditional coup de grace attack---automatic critical, with a Fortitude Saving Throw to determine an instant kill.

This forces players into some other creative tactics to negotiate hostage situations: bluffing, feinting, diplomacy, distractions, perhaps even (heaven forbid) giving into the villains demands.

If players still want to risk attacking the hostage taker—remember those rules about striking cover. If your villain is using their victim as a shield (i.e., standing behind them), and your players say “I was to shoot him in the eye with my bow.” Remember, the villain gets a bonus to his AC relative to how much of his body the players can see. If they miss by an amount less than or equal to his bonus (in other words—if they would have hit him if he didn’t have the bonus) they strike the target. (Also bad news for the victim.)

I imagine it only takes accidentally killing one damsel in distress before your players start thinking a little harder about those hostage situations . . .