Swimming

"My save!" -- Mitch von Malibu, probably

Swimming (HT/Easy) is the skill of swimming (whether on purpose or to keep afloat in emergencies) and lifesaving. On a success, you stay above water. On a failure, you lose 1 FP, and can roll again in about five seconds.

Default: HT-4

Other Uses

• Swimming can be used to negate fall damage when diving into water, usually with a penalty from high speed (using the Speed/Range table).
• As swimming is more dangerous in cold, choppy water, it's still a useful skill if you need to jump into dangerous water to avoid fire damage.

Assumptions

• If your voluntarily entered a body of water, and the water is relatively calm, don't bother rolling Swimming, as this challenge is likely trivial
• Rolling vs Swimming should be done in heroic circumstances--lifesaving people in dangerous lagoons, saving artifacts from sinking into the stormy seas, swimming through muck to activate an ancient puzzle. These are proper, pulpy uses for Swimming!
• Swimming can be used for races when you have an equal water Move to an opponent.

Swimming with Heavy Stuff

Take twice your encumbrance penalty while swimming.

• Light: -2
• Medium: -4
• Heavy: -6

If you were knocked into water--such as a knight being shoved by an Atlantean--you can unencumber yourself by removing your armor quickly! Roll at DX-4, or take 1 FP damage as above.

Lifesaving

Lifesaving is a Swimming technique, defaulting at Swimming-5. It cannot normally exceed Swimming+0.

When lifesaving, you can use the Swimming skill to rescue a drowning person. Make a roll at -5, plus or minus the difference between you and the person you're rescuing. (By rules as written, this can be very difficult, which explains why lifeguards use portable floatation devices to help them keep drowning victims afloat). Once you reach land, you can use First Aid.

Bodily Exceptions

• Bodyfat is buoyant! Characters will actually have an easier time swimming. +1 for Overweight, +3 for Fat and +5 for Very Fat. This normally doesn't apply to hefty sea creatures, as they have the trait below.
• If you are Amphibious or Aquatic, you do not need to roll vs Swimming when entering dangerous water. Many "vermiform" creatures (with no legs (slithers)) can swim quite well, but this doesn't come with amphibious!
• Some creatures--like robots--are simply too dense to swim, and will need to rely on transports to cross bodies of water
• Some rarer creatures, such as wooden constructs, are naturally very buoyant! This is the Cannot Sink trait. They can't drown, but they can't go diving without weighing themselves down.

When It Doesn't Matter

If you can breathe the liquid you're swimming in, or you simply don't breathe at all, swimming for self-preservation may not even be an issue. However, you may need to swim to save other people, so even a vampire or plastic robot will want to know a little about swimming.

Plot Exceptions

Plot-important characters don't always simply die after falling into the waves. Sometimes they wake up on strange shores, and reappear in the third act, with new knowledge and better swimming skills.

See Also

• You can use this skill a lot if you're adventuring underwater!
• Aquatic animals like dolphins are not just agile swimmers--they've learned aquabatics!
• There's skills for Scuba and Underwater Demolition, which may require some swimming skill for terrestrials!

References

• Basic Set, p.354