Swimming (sage ability)

Swimming is an unskilled and amateur-status sage ability in the sage studies of Athletics, Beachcomber, Oceanography and Sea Life, that can be performed with a minimum of 1 knowledge point. It's not uncommon for characters to lack swimming skills, but the importance of the activity in some circumstances requires that a clear division is drawn between "able to thrash around to some degree" and actual competency be established.

Characters with less than 10 points of knowledge in the ability are considered "unskilled." Those with absolutely no proficiency (knowledge: 0), when in sufficiently deep water, are certain to drown. As described below, a swimmer with just 1 point of knowledge is able, at least, to keep themselves from sinking immediately.

Characters with 10 points more are considered "skilled."

Techniques and Sustainability

A character's survival hinges on the duration they can maintain a specific activity. Even the weakest swimmers can "thrash," which can be sustained for 4 rounds per knowledge point. Thus a character with 1 point of knowledge could slap their hands on the water's surface for three-quarters of a minute before sinking — giving at least a little time so that he or she can be saved. Those with 3 knowledge points can actually cover a meaningful distance before losing their strength to continue.

Swimmers with 4-9 points of knowledge can paddle with more proficiency, actually covering a meaningful distance by dog paddling, a slow yet straightforward swimming technique. The swimmer moves their arms and legs simultaneously in a treading motion. This enables the swimmer to keep his or her head above water, with the body remaining somewhat upright. This permits steady breathing and doesn't require the timed coordination seen in other swimming styles.

With amateur knowledge, the character masters the ability to Stroke or Race in a freestyle movement. One arm pulls underwater from an extended position in front of the swimmer's side, while the other arm recovers above water, swinging forward. The swimmer turns their head to one side during the arm's recovery to take a breath, and then rotates it back into the water during the pull. Effectively, when stroke-swimming, the swimmer cannot "see" ahead, not without stopping to bob for a moment to obtain his or her bearings, before beginning to stroke again.

When racing, the swimmer increases the stroke rate, maintaining a more streamlined body position to reduce drag. The swimmer opts for fewer breaths to maintain this position and a faster tempo. A strong racer might breathe only every five or even seven strokes.

Knowledge	Hexes per action point
	Thrashing	Paddling	Stroking	Racing
1-3	0.4	unable
4-9	—	1.6	unable
10-15	—	1.8	2.7	3.5
16-29	—	1.9	3.5	5.3
30-43	—	2.0	4.3	6.9
44-57	—	2.1	5.1	8.3
58-71	—	2.1	5.1	9.5
72-85	—	2.2	5.1	10.5
86 or more	—	2.2	5.9	11.3

Distance Travelled

The effect of these swimming styles on the progress is shown on the provided table. The maximumm number of combat hexes that characters can traverse using a specific style is given as a number per action point (AP). This calculation works much like the character's stride, except that the character is swimming.

For example, Jeremy is an unskilled swimmer with just 2 points of knowledge, who has fallen into deep water. Unable to do anything except thrash, he can nonetheless travel 0.4 x his AP — 5 AP if he's unencumbered — or 2 hexes per round. Since Jeremy can flail along this way for 8 total rounds (see above), he might save himself if he can find a solid footing within 16 hexes, or 80 feet. As a round is 12 seconds, others have a little over a minute and a half to catch him before he sinks, and at least a little more time after that if they can find him below the surface.

More able swimmers can achieve effective distances when swimming, up to 34 hexes per round, just less than 3¼ miles an hour. This is somewhat shy of speeds that modern swimmers can perform, but in a medieval world, without enhanced training, medical support or specialised clothing, these numbers are impressive.

When racing, characters expend their stamina at double the usual rate. Therefore, while a character with 40 points in swimming can maintain the stroke for 160 rounds without resting, each round of racing deducts two rounds from this maximum limit.

Resting & Exhaustion

When swimmers exhaust their endurance, they need to rest. If they can find solid ground or a floating object to hold onto, they can recuperate by resting for 5 minutes, or 25 rounds. During this recovery period, they must remain stationary and cannot resume swimming until they've completed the entire duration of rest. Once rejuvenated, swimmers can proceed — however, their effective knowledge points for determining endurance in the next segment of swimming is reduced by 20%. After a second break is taken, the knowledge points are against reduced by 20% of the character's previously adjusted total.

For example, Toby has 24 knowledge points as a swimmer when he begins the first leg of his swimming effort.

He swims at a speed of 4 hexes per round for 240 rounds, covering 960 hexes, whereupon he happens to reach a boat he can hold onto. He rests and then continues on, with his 24 knowledge counting as 12; again he swims at 4 hexes/round for 120 rounds, whereupon he catches hold of another boat, 480 hexes on. He rests again, then determinedly sets off, now with his knowledge counting as 6. With his third leg, he covers only 240 hexes; with a fourth leg, he could do no better than 120. And so it goes until Toby is completely exhausted.

Once complete exhaustion has occurred, the character must emerge completely from the water and wait one full hour — whereupon he or she can begin the process again, starting from half-knowledge points. Characters with amateur swimming must stop swimming for the day when they are completely exhausted for the second time. Only six hours of sleep can restore them again.

If a character reaches a place where they must rest, and no rest is available, they drown.

Treading Water

At any time, amateur swimmers may tread water for 20 rounds per knowledge pt. This does not count as "rest!" Treading water allows the character to take stock of their position or wait for aid, should it be available. Should a character not know where he or she will rest when they reach exhaustion, it's well for them to hold back some energy for treading water, in case they're able to see a place to rest that was previously hidden by waves or distance. Remember that a "place to rest" can include floating debris, which might be all around the character but invisible while actually swimming.

Amateur characters cannot "drownproof." They have never been taught to do so, and it's worth remembering that the practice did not exist historically until 1940. However, characters with better swimming skills do possess this skill.

Background

Unless a character possesses a certain background or the sage ability, they cannot swim at all. Backgrounds are determined by the character background generator, which could indicate the character was raised by fisherfolk, sailors, boaters, explorers, shipwrights or buccaneers. Those raised by pirates often cannot swim, as most who become pirates receive no training as such.

Encumbrance

When swimming, so long as a character's arms and legs possess complete freedom of movement, and the hands and feet are bare, encumbrance may be pressed to just shy of losing 1 point of AP without affecting the character's ability to swim. However, if the character loses 1 AP due to encumbrance, then he or she counts a loss of 2 AP towards their ability to swim. A second point of AP due to encumbrance counts as a loss of 4 AP in swimming. Thus, if a character needed 2½ AP to swim a single hex, he or she would be unable to do so, even while paddling.

Normally, characters with 5 AP due to encumbrance will float; but the loss of a single AP causes the character to sink, so that much of the character's effort is required to remain on the water's surface. A character lacking 1 AP due to encumbrance cannot tread water at all.

If the character can breath water, whether as a spell or an ability, then it may be possible for an encumbered character to sink to the bottom and move along, without fear of drowning.

Currents & Wind

Natural currents and wind have their own affects on swimming, making it difficult for swimmers to maintain their equilibrium or keep on course.

Currents

Rivers can flow at speeds up to 120 ft. per round, whereas rip tides in the ocean can move up to 96 ft. in the same time period. When swimming in currents that move faster than the swimmer, there is a high risk of the swimmer being overpowered by the water. If this happens, a swimmer can be dragged into whitewater that makes it impossible to reach the surface, or thrown against rocks and ledges in and along the river bed. With a rip tide, the swimmer can be put so far out to sea that it's impossible to swim back. This is why swimming in any current faster than 12 ft. per round is very dangerous.

Remember to take into account the movement of the current when calculating the swimmer's vector across a water's surface. Once a swimmer has been overpowered, they can be saved only by outside assistance or by chance. Generally, allow a 1 in 6 possibility each round that the swimmer chances to grasp a rock or some other surface that allows them to arrest their downward passage. Each failed roll causes 4-10 damage from being pummeled upon the stream's bed or strain on the character's lungs. Even if purchase is somehow found, the overpowered swimmer must be saved by outside means, since he or she will be too weak, cold and wet to climb out with their own strength (no matter how strong they are!). If they are not saved, sooner or later their grip will falter and they'll be dragged through the river again, sure enough to die eventually.

A 1 in 10 chance of the character being thrown on to a tiny beach or a rock bench, where they can rest or lay without straining themselves, is a reasonable possibility. The DM can increase this chance, but a happenstance like this is probably more of a 1 in 100 chance rather than 1 in 10.

Winds

Note wind forces of 3 or greater

Similarly, winds that blow faster than 8-12 miles per hour (F-3) create large wavelets, as crests break on the surface. This adds an additional a movement cost of +½ AP when swimming. With greater force (F-4), frequent white horses occur, with a movement cost of +1 AP. As a fresh breeze takes hold (F-5), anything beyond paddling is impractical, while a strong breeze (F-6) disallows any swimming at all, though it's still possible to tread water. An F-7 wind, a near gale, makes even this impossible. Those caught in the water in a near gale without some physical means of staying afloat will drown within 2-5 rounds.

See also,

• Beachcomber (sage study)
• Cliff Diving (sage ability)
• Diving (sage ability)
• Free-diving (sage ability)
• Oceanography (sage study)
• Progenitors
• Sea Life (sage study)
• The Adventure
• Underwater Adventures