Swimming In Armor Or Otherwise Encumbered

[bigdamnhero]

Still mulling this over. How does this sound for something quick & simple that doesn't have to reinvent the rules too much?

 

Swimming In Armor:

• The Character must make a CON Roll each Phase, modified by the DCV/DEX Roll penalty from the Encumbrance Table.
• If the character makes the CON Roll, the weight carried by the character is doubled for purposes of calculating Movement penalties and END costs.
• If the character fails the CON Roll, the weight carried by the character is tripled for purposes of calculating Movement penalties and END costs.

Too easy? Too hard?

[dsatow]

How about for every 1 Def of armor = 1m of swimming downward is applied?  Thus if you are in 8 Def armor, you are headed downward at 8m per phase unless you swim upwards to counteract the downward movement.  So long as you have swimming, you can push your swimming.  Thus, someone who has default swimming in 6th ed has 4m.  If they were 8 Def amor, they are sinking at 8m.  If they push, they should be able to maintain 9m of swimming for 6 end per phase.

[Durzan Malakim]

Still mulling this over. How does this sound for something quick & simple that doesn't have to reinvent the rules too much?

 

Swimming In Armor:

• The Character must make a CON Roll each Phase, modified by the DCV/DEX Roll penalty from the Encumbrance Table.
• If the character makes the CON Roll, the weight carried by the character is doubled for purposes of calculating Movement penalties and END costs.
• If the character fails the CON Roll, the weight carried by the character is tripled for purposes of calculating Movement penalties and END costs.

Too easy? Too hard?

 

Other than sounding like an SAT math question, this seems like a good balance of peril and performance. The CON roll represents controlling your breathing and not swallowing water. I suppose you could grant someone with an appropriate profession skill (pirate, sailor, diver, etc.) the option to use either a CON roll or the profession skill roll, or even give such folks two rolls if you're feeling generous. That would reward those who've fleshed out their character with a background skill while not making it fatal.

[Doc Democracy]

Ooh, it all sounds awfully bureaucratic, doubling and tripling and rolls every phase of swimming...

 

To me, that might be fine for a dramatic scene where the swimming is central to the action, it feels like a drag if it is just to get back on the boat I fell off while trying to awash my buckle....

 

Personally, I like the idea of swimming speeds being reduced by stuff - that is nice and simple. If the player is content, she can tootle around at whatever speed she can muster. I might even add an END penalty - adding ENC to the END spent while swimming while encumbered.

 

If it is important to the player to swim faster, they might make a CON roll to boost their velocity (+1m/+1 END for each point the roll is made by or +1m for every 2 the roll is made by).

 

If I was feeling nasty, I might require a CON roll modified by ENC to avoid all the extra END used while swimming being long term.

 

I think this is less bureaucratic but provides the player with choices (always a good thing IMO).

 

Doc

[Christopher R Taylor]

How about for every 1 Def of armor = 1m of swimming downward is applied? 

 

 

​I like this best as a very simple sort of solution, rather than a complicated formula or something to remember.  You can still walk on the bottom if you're totally encumbered, you just can't do more than make small hops because the weight holds you down. -1/PD seems a bit stiff though, leather armor would reduce a normal person to nearly standstill in the water.

[bigdamnhero]

How about for every 1 Def of armor = 1m of swimming downward is applied?

That's...kindof brilliant actually! It does take STR completely out of the equation - 20 STR guy in chainmail and 5 STR guy in chainmail are in exactly the same boat* - but I'm not sure that's a bad thing here. So a character with 4m Swimming wearing 3 Def or less is going to be slow but basically okay; anything over that and we're in to Pushing territory. You'd have to let most NPCs Push, something I normally restrict to PCs and major NPCs, but it's definitely doable. And any rule that keeps me from needing to consult a table is a win!

 

The downside is it only works for armor, and isn't easy to extrapolate to other gear. But armor is the specific situation I was looking for, so I'll take it - thanks!

 

 

* ...or lack thereof. [rimshot]

Other than sounding like an SAT math question...

Heh, yeah it kinda did, didn't it.

[dsatow]

The downside is it only works for armor, and isn't easy to extrapolate to other gear. But armor is the specific situation I was looking for, so I'll take it - thanks!

 

 

* ...or lack thereof. [rimshot]

Heh, yeah it kinda did, didn't it.

 

Well, you could always go by weight of an equivalent amount of armor.  So something that weighs about 3 Def armor would drag you down by a like amount.