Re: drwoning/blue fields

[Keith Klumb <kklumb@expert.cc.purdue.edu>]

On Wed, 4 Nov 1998, Steve Ames wrote:

> > The problem with what you just wrote is you say. "Didn't make your check?
> > Your unconcious." I can't go for that. In most cases where someone falls
> > into the water and can't swim ( actually can't get air ) they stuggle/panic/
> > try to get a grip and swim to where air is. There is no way after 4 seconds
> > of not doing what was intended you fall unconcious. That is where the HEA/2
> > came into play. I'm fine with increasing the difficulty of the swimming
> > check for any attempt after that first fail though.
> 
> Yep. You want something fair but believable. Tricky stuff. Also want it
> deadly enough that people spend the few measly eeps it takes to learn
> to swim. I don't think they should be allowed a million checks.
> 
> Woa! See I confused swimming and drowning again.
> 
> All checks work like this. If you fail them, you fail them. You don't
> get to retry until you succeed. Failing doesn't mean you goofed it means
> that you _CANNOT_ do something. For whatever reason the conditions are
> such that this 2d6 swimming check cannot be made by you. You get a
> default and then the swimming (or whatever skill your using) option is
> over for you. Time to try something different.
> 
> ( greg makes the arguable point that you should be able to try again
>   next round and just roll more dice, indicating that you are trying
>   harder. I mostly agree )
> 
> So if you fail your swimming check and its default you cannot try
> swimming again (unless circumstances/conditions change in which case
> the GM will assign you a new check anyway... this happens whenever
> conditions change for the better _AND_ worse). When you fail your
> check you get that first mouth full of water that begins the drowning
> process. (and you should probably just relax and float at this point...
> unless you have so much equipment and such that you can't (which most of
> us do *grin*))
> 
> But enough for swimming. Drowning is what we're here for. Drowning 
> results from a missed swimming check. It also results from falling
> beneath the ice, getting ejected from the submarine, having Bruno 
> hold your head underwater, you tried out your new concrete slippers
> in the deep end, etc... Drowning rules might also be applied to 
> strangulation.
> 
> Drowning: As soon as the GM declares that you are drowning (usually
> 	after a failed swimming check or you are held underwater and
> 	can no longer hold your breath) you have HEA rounds before going
> 	unconscious. Once unconscious you drift with the currents and
> 	such and will be dead in HEA/3 minutes.
> 
> Quick and concise. Anything other than the above numbers is really part
> of a seperate topic and probably seperate checks.

Desive action..that works.
 
> > > 	I'm just going to try and sum up the problems that are being run
> > > into with the blue field ideas. The spell essentially takes someone out of
> > > our frame of time. Now for sake of gaming ease the planet doesn't move
> > > away from them b/c (insert good reason here). Even though in theory in RL
> > > that's what would happen, if you are taken out of time you stay still in
> > > an astonomical sense.
> > > 	Thus this whole gravity issue seems to be everyone making up a
> > > reason why you still stay somewhere over the ocean b/c that's where I blue
> > > fielded you.
> 
> Negative. The blue field itself (not what's in it) is part of our
> physical universe and, as such, falls under its rules. The simple
> method would be to just say that the field stays exactly where it is
> relative to Jaern (lets forget about space travel for a bit). 
> 
> Simple, but bad. This means I toss an area of effect blue-field at a ship.
> Its not big enough to take the whole ship but it would get just about
> everything on it... and the crew would just float away as I get my new
> ship... even if they were below decks.
> 
> The scientific method doesn't really apply here since we cannot experiment
> _OR_ observe. We can only put together pure theory and lean it in the
> direction we want to go. As such we are building the clock not learning to
> tell time.
> 
> The time spells are good spells. But we need them to function the way
> we want them to. I think what we want is for the blue field to stay
> with whatever it was moving with, but within certain boundaries (ie
> its OK to stay with a boat, but tarzan doesn't stay with his vine).
> Then we have to come up with physics to fit what we want and then those
> physics will dictate other circumstances that we haven't thought about.
> 
> That is the creation process. Tricky but the results are usually cool
> as hell.
> 
> 						-Steve

Alright..screwed up situation. We say it that the field is stationary to
something reasonable nearby. Probably means that you will stay with a
ship but not necessarily a long boat.
	What happens if your ship starts sinking/ballista bolt goes
through the deck underneath your feet. Do you stay relative to the center
of the boat or what?