RE: MUCH BETTER drowning

[Lyle H Janney <lhjanney@adpc.purdue.edu>]

Good point, Greg.  Taking John's Drowning proposal as read (i.e.,
once you start aspirating, you have HEA/2 rounds of consciousness),
how does this sound for addressing the 'holding breath' issue?

Since both Health and Swimming skill should go into the equation
for intentionally holding one's breath, I propose the following.

No preparation (you break through the ice, get unexpectedly dumped 
overboard, etc.) - 0 rounds before aspiration begins - see drowning.

Spending a round to take a deep breath - you may hold your breath
for HEA rounds, plus 2 rounds for each die by which you make your
swimming check (or should that be plus 1 round per die?)

For each round (up to 3) that you spend hyperventilating before the
round you take your deep breath, add 2 rounds to the total.

For each round that you spend performing strenuous activity (combat,
swimming > 2/3 movement, etc.) while holding your breath, subtract
1 round from your total (you _can_ swim farther under water if you don't
really push yourself, right John?)

Examples:

HEA 10, Swimming 9 (usually make it on 2 dice)
1 round to take a deep breath, just swimming - hold breath for 14 rounds
(nearly a minute) while swimming up to 14*(2/3 movement) feet (this
seems reasonable to me)

Same person with 3 rounds of hyperventilating, just swimming - hold breath
for 20 rounds while swimming up to 20*(2/3 movement) feet (also reasonable)

Same person with hyperventilation, max movement - hold breath for 10
rounds while swimming 10*(max movement) feet (yup, still cool)

Same person, 1 deep breath, wrestling with an opponent - hold breath
for 7 rounds before the lungs burn too much and you start taking in water
(still in the reasonable range to me)

Now, Joe Spiff the Destroyer, HEA 16, Swimming 5 (usually make 1 die)
Same scenarios above
Hold breath for 18 rounds, up to 18*(2/3 movement)
Hold breath for 24 rounds, up to 24*(2/3 movement)
Hold breath for 12 rounds, up to 12*(max movement)
Hold breath for 9 rounds (more than most opponents can) before you start
to take on water yourself.

Remember that after these times, you still get your HEA/2 rounds of
aspirating water before you go unconscious.

All these sound reasonable to me.  What do you folks think?

Lyle

-----Original Message-----
From:	Greg Mowczko [SMTP:mooch@ns1.cioe.com]

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