RE: MUCH BETTER drowning

[Greg Mowczko <mooch>]

> From: Steve Ames <steve>
>
> > Nope, sorry, don't like it.  John's proposal is _not_ about holding one's
> > breath.  His very first sentence describes the situation; "A character
> > begins to drown when he begins aspirating water."  So, sorry, Mickey,
> > you've already begun breathing water and your lungs are starting to
> > burn, aren't they?  You should be glad that your tremendous health
> > will keep you conscious 12 seconds longer than the average Joe.
> > Your friends might be able to save your sorry a$$ by then (but then
> > again, with this crew, don't count on it    ;-)    ).
>
> Good point. If you say your prepared and get a deep breath then maybe
> you should propose "how long can an adventurer hold his breath" rules.
> Drowning starts after that. So yeah, if you are prepped and deliberately
> swim under the water you can go longer without drowning. I think we'd
> all agree with that.
>
> Prepped is not a judgement call. Rules would have to be pretty precise
> and I think the underlying theme would have to be intent. If you planned
> on going under you can hold your breath. If you fall through the ice, NO.
> If Bruno grapples to hold your head under water, NO.
>
> 							-Steve

Steve brings back up how this started again. The whole drowning issue
started with how long can someone hold their breath and being under
water was the example that started the snowball.

The concept we are looking for is 2 parts 1. How long can one stay
under when prepped and 2. How long before unconciousness rolls are
started after your breath is no longer being held. If John is saying
that the HEA/2 is after you loose your breath I might be okay with
that but if people read it as the total time for both part 1 and 2
I have a problem.

This last week I was subject to a possible drowning scenario. Zwyc (my
adventurer ) with a HEA of 10 was tackled overboard. For some screwy
reason my opponent managed to grapple me before we hit the water. He
also was swimming while grappling me. As he was only trying to keep
afloat ( not even trying to hold me under ) I didn't care much. I then
( after failing to break free ) took a deep breath and tried to make
us sink ( I was wearing armor so... ) after 2 rounds we hit bottom (25 ft).
Opponent let go and went up for air. I tried to go but missed my swimming
check to get off the bottom. I spent the next 2 rounds removing my armor.
At this point (5 rnds or 20 sec) Matt had me roll 1d6 vs. HEA or pass out.
I started swimming up and got hit with a 2d6 vs HEA. Now this was were I
thought this really sucks since my HEA is only a 10 I'm screwed ( by the
way my swimming is an 8 ). The next round Matt allowed me to finish my
swim without the 3d6 check since he was trying to stab me with a maroglave.
I think HEA/2 is too low since that is only 24 secs on average. The
increase in HEA checks every round was also a bear. I would have had
little problem with the timing IF I wasn't the one who forced themselves
under. But I felt that prepped and no strenuous activity should have
allowed me more that 6 rounds of guarenteed breath.

					Greg