Swords & Wizardry House Rules: Jumping

Adventurers often try to jump across a pit, from one ledge to another, or over an obstacle or hazard. Swords & Wizardry has no rules for jumping. As these situations are common and consistency is desirable, I have created the following rules:

Jumping

Strength Score	Standing Long Jump	Running Long Jump
3–4	1d4+2 feet	2d4+5 feet
5–6	1d4+3 feet	2d4+6 feet
7–15	1d4+4 feet	2d4+7 feet
16	1d4+5 feet	2d4+8 feet
17	1d4+6 feet	2d4+9 feet
18	1d4+7 feet	2d4+10 feet

• this table assumes that the jumper is bipedal and the size of an ordinary human or similar humanoids; halflings and dwarves respectively have a -1 and a -2 penalty
• similar penalties should be imposed on other creatures of smaller stature or stride; larger creatures, such as giants, should have significant bonuses and possibly larger dice
• characters with a dexterity score of 13 or better receive +1 bonus and those with a dexterity score of 8 or lower receive a -1 penalty; similar modifiers may be applied to especially nimble and clumsy creatures
• chain mail and ring mail impose a -2 penalty and plate mail imposes a -3 penalty; no penalty or bonus is applied for jumps made by those wearing leather armor or clothing
• encumbrance of 76–100, 101–50, and 151–300 pounds respectively impose penalties of -1, -2, and -4; these penalties are in addition to the penalties for armor
• if a jumper barely misses his target—e.g., someone jumping a chasm comes up a foot short—he may make a saving throw to try to grab hold of a ledge or the like

Design Note. I looked to the AD&D Dungeoneer's Survival Guide and Wilderness Survival Guide for guidance but disliked their approach. Both guides base a character's jumping ability on his level and provide for very slow advancement in ability; one's initial jumping ability does not improve until seventh level under their rules. A level-based approach perhaps makes sense for a character class that has a specialized jumping skill, like an acrobat. But an individual's general ability to jump strikes me as more of an innate characteristic unlikely to improve too much over time. In this regard, adventurers are dissimilar to professional athletes who specialize in long jumping; the former may jump with some frequency, but the latter are training for that particular event. However, if you wish to incorporate improvement over time into the house rule offered above, one possible approach would be to add a +1 bonus for every two or three levels of advancement. One might provide different rates of advancement to different classes as well (e.g., thieves might advance faster than fighters, fighters might advance faster than clerics and magic-users). I based the outer limits of jumping ability on the world records for the standing and running long jumps, and then reduced the distances for characters with lower strengths.