drowning

[Steve Ames <steve@ns1.cioe.com>]

How long does it _really_ take to drown and what rolls/adjudications go
with it?

I've seen a large range of rulings on this ranging from "you die" and
"5d6-vs-HEA or die" to upping the d6 every round until you miss and
die. I think on a mostly water world, drowning should really be defined.

1) Under what circumstances do drowning rules even come into play:

	- trapped underwater and you don't breathe water
	- can't swim, fail the default and have no flotation devices

2) How long does it take to:

	a) pass out
	b) die

3) What are the appropriate checks if the above times aren't absolutes
   (and from a roleplaying standpoint they shouldn't... people like
   rolling dice).

I'd suggest the following:

Drowning. On a water based world most people are proficient swimmers. However
there are still times when drowning will occur. Following are rules to handle
this occasion.

If a person becomes trapped underwater (or is unable to remain afloat for
other reasons such as not being able to swim) that person is in a world of
hurt. They have two rounds in which the only actions they can take are to
try to survive (a WIL check may be permitted to avoid this panic and perform
actions other than saving your own skin... the number of dice is usually 4 but
may be modified by circumstances). After these two rounds the player must
make a HEA check every round to stay conscious. This HEA check should start at
3d6 and increase by one die every two rounds:

	rounds	action
	-------|-----------------------------------
	1 - 2  | Attempt to get air
	3 - 4  | 3d6 -vs- HEA to remain conscious
	5 - 6  | 4d6 -vs- HEA to remain conscious
	7 - 8  | 5d6 -vs- HEA to remain conscious
	etc...

Once unconscious the adventurer will die in 2d4 rounds (to be rolled
secretly by the GM).

Now I'm just spewing rules so that people can pick them apart and we
can get moving on this... But that last die roll (the secret GM roll)
I view as a good one. It gives players a good chance to blow luck amulets
and they won't know if their efforts to save their friend are going to
succeed until they get him to the surface and revive him. Good stuff
there, high tension and all that rot.

A really healthy person will fail at the 7d6 (impossible) check at
round 11 (44 seconds into their adventure) and pass out. 2d4 rounds
later (average 20 seconds) they'll be dead. So I guess I'm saying about
a minute. *shrug* Having never drowned, trained as a lifeguard or EMT
or any other qualification, I'm calling it as I see it.

						-Steve