Reality is Unrealistic: Things Real People Can Do

[Arbane]

Speaking of weird animal abilities. Maybe we could also make a thread about weird skills humans have mastered. It's generally considered that in d20 games, 6th level characters are reaching the limits of what the human body can do and everything beyond that is superhero magic. But then from time to time, there are people who pull of what common sense would say is impossible.

A few real people who do things common sense says should be impossible:

Charles Blondin, tightrope-walker.

He especially owed his celebrity and fortune to his idea of crossing the Niagara Gorge (located on the American-Canadian border) on a tightrope, 1,100 ft (340 m) long, 3.25 in (8.3 cm) in diameter and 160 ft (49 m) above the water, near the location of the current Rainbow Bridge. This he did on 30 June 1859, and a number of times thereafter, always with different theatrical variations: blindfolded, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man (his manager, Harry Colcord) on his back, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelet and standing on a chair with only one chair leg on the rope.

Good luck doing ANY of that in Your Favorite System without getting to try out the falling rules!

Apollo Robins, world's greatest pickpocket.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, period. "Let me get this straight. You want your character to have maxed out strength, high wealth, be famous as a movie star, AND hold political office?" "He's got Disadvantage: Accent to balance it out!" "ARRRGH..."

Everyone on this list. Reality's damage rules are clearly broken.

So are the falling rules.

This guy's Driving check.

[tensai_oni]

Sounds like Fate is much better at emulating reality than DnD is. Which is funny because it's supposed to be a dramatic, cinema-like system that wants to make things interesting first and realistic second... if ever.

[Seharvepernfan]

I don't know if these two were on your list at any point, but this guy shows why bows are actually so deadly, and this guy makes movie cowboys look slow.

[prufock]

These guys deserve mention.

[Grinner]

Darn. Prufock beat me to the Tibetan monks. But yeah, they can do some insane things with the application of a little biofeedback.

[Frozen_Feet]

I was about to post the Cracked article with badass soldiers, but you already beat me to it.

Meanwhile, that archer and marksman make me giddy inside.

[BWR]

Most of these folks are amazing. Some of them seem a bit exaggerated or even faked.

[Rhynn]

I don't know if these two were on your list at any point, but this guy shows why bows are actually so deadly

No he doesn't. How far are they penetrating at any decent range? He's short-drawing. Firing that fast is not going to put a lot of power into the arrow. The length of the draw is critical there. Pretty sure this specifically was gone over in the Real-World Weapons and Armor thread.

[Frozen_Feet]

Based on what's shown on the video and a paper on arrow penetration I read, at 30 to 60 meters range his arrows are still scoring lethal hits on a human clad in single-layered chainmail.

How deadly is that in your book?

[Rhynn]

Based on what's shown on the video and a paper on arrow penetration I read, at 30 to 60 meters range his arrows are still scoring lethal hits on a human clad in single-layered chainmail.

Can you link those sources? That sounds very powerful for an obvious short-draw. How is that kind of power achieved with such a short draw length? Or is it just for the later bits, he's not speed-shooting, which show a huge difference in the draw length? (The mail shooting bit is worthless, though; butted mail without textile backing, at close range, and even so the penetration doesn't look that deep - although obviously it's hard to assess.)

It's awesome trick shooting, but I'm not buying the speed-shooting is that deadly.

[Doorhandle]

Pretty, deadly, but plate would still stop it.
C'mon guys, you haven't even gotten into mutnats yet!
Also, in my experience cracked is a pretty good guide for this sort of thing.

Cliffnotes of these articles:
Ma Xiangang = electricity immune and conductive to the point he could jam his thumb in a socket while holding a lightbulb in his mouth to get it to light up without harm. He's not the only one either.

Dean Karnazes = body has unusual amount of endurance and can basically run forever.

Stephen Wiltshire/Kim Peek Freakish memory recall, including visual. Worth noting that Peek wasn't austics but just had a different brain structure.

Wim Hof: endure elements. Enough said. possible some relation to the monks talked about earlier.

Isao Machii: excellent predictive ability, to the point he can pinpoint-hit an airsoft pellet with his sword that he cannot even see.

Michel Lotito: Can eat basically anything.

That baby that ended up double-muscled, much like a bully whippet.

Ben Underwood: mastered human echolocation. Yes, that is a thing.

Tim Cridland: pain tolerance. ridiculous amounts of it.

Masutatsu Oyama: The Godhand. More specifically, capable of beating a bear or a bull in a fight bare-handed with sheer karate skill.

Yves Rossi: Doesn't count, he has a jetpack. Worth mentioning though because hey, jetpack!

Also, looking up how magicians do certain magic tricks wouldn't be a bad idea as it shows how there misdirection is achieved. Except maybe for David Copperfield as part of his skill is how fast he can perform his tricks.

[Mr Beer]

Arnold Schwarzenegger, period. "Let me get this straight. You want your character to have maxed out strength, high wealth, be famous as a movie star, AND hold political office?" "He's got Disadvantage: Accent to balance it out!" "ARRRGH..."

In GURPS terms I'd say he'd have the following when bulked and governating:

ST: 15 [50] / Lifting ST: 17 [6]
Wealth: Multimillionaire [75]
Status 6: Governor [15] (3 levels from Wealth)
Reputation +2 [10] (famous movie star)

That's only 156 points. He'd have decent IQ, probably Charisma and various skills but you can be Arnie for 250 points easily.

[Grinner]

Ben Underwood: mastered human echolocation. Yes, that is a thing.

Stevie Wonder has something similar, if that biography I read in middle school is true.

[valadil]

http://youtu.be/3_FLTcjGbG8 Arrow catching. I'm still having trouble accepting it.

[Arbane]

In GURPS terms I'd say he'd have the following when bulked and governating:

ST: 15 [50] / Lifting ST: 17 [6]
Wealth: Multimillionaire [75]
Status 6: Governor [15] (3 levels from Wealth)
Reputation +2 [10] (famous movie star)

That's only 156 points. He'd have decent IQ, probably Charisma and various skills but you can be Arnie for 250 points easily.

Sounds about right.

Thing is, a depressingly large number of games think it would be 'unrealistic' to have a PC as competent as Arnie, or Sir Richard Burton (the explorer, not the actor).

[Hiro Protagonest]

http://youtu.be/3_FLTcjGbG8 Arrow catching. I'm still having trouble accepting it.

It was his ninth attempt. Assuming it's the same archer, with the same bow, he likely anticipated the timing based on the previous attempts.

[Frozen_Feet]

Can you link those sources?

I don't have a link at hand, but the article was brough up in the "real weapons & armor" thread some months ago. It was about a man testing various arrows against various armors.

[Grinner]

http://youtu.be/3_FLTcjGbG8 Arrow catching. I'm still having trouble accepting it.

Criss Angel did something like that once. Not spectacularly, mind you, but it can be done.

And speaking of Criss Angel, he once did a show on Hellstromism, also known as muscle reading. The concept of Hellstromism is that you can get a general idea of what someone's thinking by feeling up their muscles.

[valadil]

It was his ninth attempt. Assuming it's the same archer, with the same bow, he likely anticipated the timing based on the previous attempts.

I've seen better videos. Picked that one because it was short and to the point.

I agree that they're all based on the archer putting the arrow in the right place though. I'm not sure you could use that defensively, especially since all the catches are near the fletching and the tip would have already hit if aimed at the body. But if you're running a game that is exaggerated past the point of realism, it becomes a plausible technique.

[Rhynn]

That's only 156 points. He'd have decent IQ, probably Charisma and various skills but you can be Arnie for 250 points easily.

Normal people are 50 points... normal heroes are 100 points. 250 is mild superhero level.

[Flickerdart]

Normal people are 50 points... normal heroes are 100 points. 250 is mild superhero level.

What value did you expect for the Terminator and Mr. Freeze?

[TheCountAlucard]

Arnold is also a master manipulator, and was so even in his youth. It's not unlikely he was a student of psychology.

[Mr Beer]

Normal people are 50 points... normal heroes are 100 points. 250 is mild superhero level.

Yeah, allegedly. Personally I think about 150 points is a good starting point for fantasy characters, unless we go really gritty. 250 points is about right for realistic human limits, so by that measure Arnie is about as good as you can get.

Bill Gates is probably another such character, I guess. I'm not 100% sure about Multimillionaire but I assume he's MM3 [125] and IQ: 16 [120]. So that's 245 points right there.

EDIT

Ooh, probably Bruce Lee too. DX: 16 [120], Very Fit [15], Wealthy [20], Reputation +3 [15] and at least [20] points in martial arts skills of various kinds. That's 190 points.

[Seharvepernfan]

No he doesn't. How far are they penetrating at any decent range?

Probably through the eyeball and into the back of skull?

[Mr. Mask]

A few real people who do things common sense says should be impossible:

Charles Blondin, tightrope-walker.

Good luck doing ANY of that in Your Favorite System without getting to try out the falling rules!

Apollo Robins, world's greatest pickpocket.

This guy's Driving check.

[/QUOTE] Yeah, DnD's skill system doesn't work out. Fusing non-combat skills with combat level makes this hard to accomplish.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, period. "Let me get this straight. You want your character to have maxed out strength, high wealth, be famous as a movie star, AND hold political office?" "He's got Disadvantage: Accent to balance it out!" "ARRRGH..."

Arnold isn't the best example (specially considering he's been forced out of politics recently). For better examples, look at Musashi who won over sixty duels--then, after that, he claimed that he had been a foolish youth who didn't understand strategy, and wrote his book of Five Rings.

Look at Einstein, Tesla, Da Vinci, Genghis Khan, Alexander, and many other famous people.

The only equivalent in DnD, would be the DMPC (and the occasional Gandalf).

Everyone on this list. Reality's damage rules are clearly broken.

So are the falling rules.

I think you linked to the wrong article. That one is about the heroic achievements of various soldiers. I suggest looking instead to this one: http://www.cracked.com/article_18429...erminator.html

HP is based on the premise of pain tolerance and bleeding. The problem being that the similarity is poorly modelled (like the -10 HP death system of DnD), and that pain tolerance is incredibly random. Many people will be dropped by a single bullet--and at the same time, the police encounter people who need countless rounds of shotgun blasts before they finally drop. The only ways to certainly drop a person is by absurd force, proper destruction of the brain, or proper destruction of the spine/nervous system.


With falls, did you know cats can be thrown out of planes?--and survive? Providing they don't land on something hazardous, cats are actually safer dropping from absurd heights way above, than they are at shorter distances like a few stories high (the reason is that the cats need time to prepare for the fall). Chickens, on the other hand, will die if thrown out of planes (poor chicken), because they have trouble controlling themselves in the air when tossed out of a plane.

Humans are more dependant on trees and snow, but I think the body prepares itself for the fall in a way reminiscent of cats.

Thing is, a depressingly large number of games think it would be 'unrealistic' to have a PC as competent as Arnie, or Sir Richard Burton (the explorer, not the actor).

Are you certain they didn't just think it was unfair/overpowered? Partially, it depends on what point the character is starting their career, also. Arnold still looks young, but he's actually 65 years old. In most games, the starting age is generally in your twenties.



Seharve: I actually got to see that archery video recently, and looked into it. It was pointed out that the bow he is using is a very light one, which makes things a good deal easier (which means more accurate). Managing to do that with bladed arrow heads, I was also told, would be quite challenging without cutting your bow string.
In the Real Weapons and Armour thread, its ability to be used to any effect in fighting was disregarded, as it would have little penetrative power. I did hear one reasonable argument from another source that it could be useful for short range and was likely used.

Have also seen the quick-draw shooter you mentioned, in an episode of Stan Lee's Super Humans (I don't feel like recommending the series, however). When he gave a two-shot demonstration... I was left waiting for the second shot. Quickly, I realized the two shots were so close together, the bangs intertwined into one sound.

[Rhynn]

Probably through the eyeball and into the back of skull?

Are you serious?

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Louis Cyr. Arnold ain't got nothin' on this guy!

While several of Cyr's feats of strength may have been exaggerated over the years, some were documented and remain impressive. These included lifting a platform on his back holding 18 men, lifting a 534 pound (242.72 kg) weight with one finger and pushing a freight car up an incline. He also beat Eugen Sandow's bent press record (and therefore the heaviest weight lifted with one hand) by 2 pounds to a total of 273 pounds (124 kg).

Perhaps his greatest feat occurred in 1895, when he was reported to have lifted 4,337 pounds (1,967 kg) on his back in Boston by putting 18 men on a platform and lifting them. One of his most memorable displays of strength occurred in Montreal on October 12, 1891. Louis resisted the pull of four draught horses (two in each hand) as grooms stood cracking their whips to get the horses to pull harder. A feat he again demonstrated in Bytown (now Ottawa) with Queen Victoria's team of draught horses during her 'Royal' visit. While in Bytown(Ottawa) he volunteered with the police when they took deputees to round up a local gang of miscreants, they turned him away claiming he would be too slow due to his bulk. He challenged the regular officers to a foot race, beating the majority and they took him on.

Minmaxing Munchkin, amirite?

[Doorhandle]

lifting a 534 pound (242.72 kg) weight with one finger

Heavy load, 23 strength: 401–600 lbs.

...Okay, that's pretty impressive.

[John Campbell]

http://youtu.be/3_FLTcjGbG8 Arrow catching. I'm still having trouble accepting it.

I've used a greatsword to parry bird blunts shot at me while I was in the middle of a fight with someone else. It's easier in some ways than parrying melee weapon attacks, because, while the arrow's moving faster, it's generally coming from farther away and moving in a predictable trajectory. You know it's not going to weave around your block at the last moment, so all you need is good hand-eye coordination and reflexes. Catching them shouldn't be notably more difficult, except that you've got to be more careful about keeping your hand out from in front of the point.

[icefractal]

...Okay, that's pretty impressive.

Even more than that, actually. To lift 4000 lbs off the ground would require a Strength of 32.