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Underwater Rpging

Underwater RPGing

Consider the Medieval scenario where your characters have to venture into the great deep. Besides magic, what are some innovative ways you have come up with to keep your character's breathing underwater?

Rpging Underwater

Well to say the least it would be very difficult to fight and hold your breath. I would say however a specifically designed underwater suit would be a logical way forward. Or if you like a magic bubble of air around your head other than that I cannot see any other way but to keep emerging to the surface for air.

Underwater Rpging Reviews RPG & Card Board

How does one create such a suit in medieval times?

Like I said, no magic.

In the old AD&D manual it showed a mask made of sheep skin / guts that gives you about three minutes of air. In primitive tribes I have seen documentaries where they use a weight and a bag made out of the stomach of a cow to get air. They inhale from the bag and use the weight to keep it down. Some have also used long bamboo shoots, but that was more for hunting still.

Rpging Underwater

I think it would have to be the Water tight bag of some sort with perhaps reeds inserted and secured into it with oil or grease applied to the holes to make water tight.

Then the same goes for the other end of the reeds, these can either be inserted directly into the mouth and inhaled only as needed.

Or perhaps this could be attached to a face mask that is secured water tight to the face.

Which ever way this happens its not a quick fix, eg you couldn't suddenly jump into water and pull the equipment from your backpack and expect to stay alive under water. There would need to be preparation involved with the sealing and applications of grease/oils etc these would effectively be on a one use basis, needing application again before use.

But for a prepared dive, say for a exploration of a lake or set area of water. I have read that a cauldron sized pot was inverted and weights attached. This was then swam to and a breath of air taken, then 3-4 divers could scout out in different directions for about 5 mins, return etc etc, then as they needed to move the cauldron was raised to the surface refreshed with air, and moved approx to where the divers had reached, and submerged again. This meant that a whole area of water could be navigated below the surface. but was immensely time consuming.

This was not really useful if the area to be explored was continuous such as a river bed or if the water was to deep the divers could not reach the submerged cauldron in one breath

Rpging Underwater

When dealing with unusual elements in rpg campaign best to take advantage of the possibilities rather then worry about the problems that could crop up. One campaign I played that dealt with the situation very well, the party celebrating a job well done at an inn in a port. There we were tricked in consuming a very special delicacy, which had an odd but pleasant taste to it. It was only the morning after did we find note revealing that as a result of the food we were slowly changing into mer-people. It went on to say we had to complete an undersea quest in order to receive the antidote, to make it all the more pressing it was time limited we only had a matter of days before the change was irreversible. At first we couldn't do much but as we changed the DM increasingly improve are underwater capabilities and we developed gills and even fins near the final stages.

It turned out to be a very successful side mission, this novel idea solved the problem of questing underwater, add new dimensions to the characters and a really good motivation.

I dont know whether this counts as magical aid, certainly the food had special (possibly magical) properties, but no spells were cast and the transformations were not merely a temporary shape change. I will leave if for others to judge

Edited: Roehug on 3rd Mar, 2006 - 2:37pm

Underwater Rpging

Roehug, that is an innovative way, however such alchemy can be considered magic, I am looking for a more conventional method.

Underwater Rpging

Have to admit short of an airtight suit designed suit akin to old fashion divers (linked to a pipe with a hand pump to supply air) I am not sure what you could do, anyway if somehow you managed to get a skilled enough artisan (dwarf master armourer for example) to make you one it would be incredibly cumbersome, restrictive and claustrophobic. Not to mention it would hardly be well pressurised.
Without magic I would think that a max operating depth would be restricted to less then 10m.

The only other option would be via some ingenious but entirely mechanical (non-magical) vessel like that in 20,000 leagues under the sea (primitive submarine). Although how on earth a party of PC's would come across one (especially one with a captain willing to help) is anyone's guess. Magical equivalents seem far more explainable in the D&D world.

One question that comes to mind is whether other of the common PC races can hold there breath longer, are Elves for example better in the water?
I think we have a problem in the line of thought we proceed on; we can only understand the question from a human point of view. Oh well not much we can do about that

Underwater Rpging Board Card & RPG Reviews

A large bamboo stick could act as a snorkel or a couple of goblets binded together with a small piece of bamboo coming out the side to act as a primitive air mask. Another way might be a sealed helmet with a bamboo stick emerging from the top to act as a air pipe.