> 2) How long does it take to:
>
> a) pass out: minutes
> b) die: minutes
In RL several minutes on both if I remember my life guard classes at all.
I'm sure Joe will beable to quanitify more, but so long as a person
doesn't panic(adventurers never panic it seems) they can hold their
breath for a significant amount of time and still function. In times
of desperation it'll be longer because ya got no choice. Also once
unconcious you have about 4-5 minutes till you are braindead/unrevivable
via CPR. Granted AQ has no CPR mechanism, so you just bang on their chest,
or do an impromptu heimlich(sp?), push their legs up to pump the
water out, ect... So make it like 2-3 minutes to revive them or brain
death occures.
Hmmm...since steve included a cute chart ;)
Round | Check | Time
_________________________________________________________
7 | 3d6Hea | 0-28sec
8-15 | 4d6Hea | 1m
16-30 | 5d6Hea | 2m
31-45 | 6d6Hea | 3m
46-60+ | 7d6Hea | 4m+
Blow the check and out you go, may be from panic? but probably not from
lack of air. Note I'm giving rounds 1-6 as freebies, a person in
fair shape(not a sedintary lifestyle) will have _NO_ trouble holding
their breath from 30sec.
If the person has not had a chance to get a breath of air before
going under, then half the round timings.
Once the person is unconcious, then the GM secretly rolls a 2d20 and adds
5. This is how long before the person dies(for whatever reason), and gives
a time from 30 sec to 3 minutes. Note the longer a person has been out
the harder they are to revive. How to simulate the difficulty of
reviving someone isn't coming to mind however. Bleh.
Wright
>
> 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
>