CURRENT : BUOYANCY : DEEP WATER HAZARDS

Any fool can tell you that being in water and being on land are mighty different, and that simple things like moving around and breathing can become a little more complex when you're in the drink. A critter's gotta learn how to deal with a whole new mess of problems when they're out of their native element.

CURRENT: ^TOP^
STILL : SLOW : MEDIUM : STRONG : FLOOD
Water tends to move around an awful lot, and usually it's moving in a direction, whether it's straight along like in a river, or back and forth like in the Ocean. The G.M. generally decides which direction the Current flow if it's present, but mostly it will be towards the coast unless some ancient machine is interfering.

Creatures and vehicles simply floating along and allowing the Current to take them where it goes move at the Current's Movement Rate. If they are propelling themselves along in the same direction as the Current, they can add the Current's Movement rate onto their own Movement. If the subject is attempting to move against the Current, the Current's Movement Rate is subtracted from their Movement rate.

There are five levels of Current in The New South.

STILL WATERS:
In this case the water is calm and motionless, causing no alterations to a character's rate of Movement, regardless of their direction. This condition is most often found in isolated lakes, ancient swimming pools, and other areas cut off from a source of flowing water. Many dangerous plants and animals frequent these areas, and there's a greater chance of their being poisoned. ^UP^

SLOW CURRENT:
This is a gentle, lazy Current. It Moves at about a rate of 3. This type is usually found in smaller creeks and in the deltas and bayous of the great swamplands, as well as on sheltered coastlines. ^UP^

MEDIUM CURRENT:
This is a brisker, more active current found on most moderate sized rivers and streams, and on larger rivers under ideal conditions. This is also the common speed of the Tide as it moves in and out. It's Movement rate is 6. ^UP^

STRONG CURRENT:
This is a fast Current that can create a bit of whitewater on the surface. It is found in hilly terrain in rapids and in larger rivers in rainy conditions. It's Movement Rate is 12. ^UP^

FLOOD CURRENT:
This terrible, fast current can be deadly if it catches you, and is often found during or right after bouts of severe weather, such as hurricanes or torrential rain. A Flood Current Moves at a 24.
Air breathers caught in a flood current will be swept under and drowned in 1/2 the time outlined
in HAZARDS: DROWNING & SUFFOCATION. ^UP^

Buoyancy: ^TOP^
BOUYANCY CONDITIONS: ENCUMBERANCE : WATERLOGGING : CURRENT
Most things float in water, with the exception of stuff made of heavy plastic, metal or stone. Now mostly this is a good thing, since air breathers like to be headed for thier next lungful, but sometimes this can be a problem.

There are three conditions of Buoyancy.

POSITIVE BOUYANCY:
This means the subject is lighter than water. Positively bouyant objects, which includes most animal and plant life, tend to move towards the surface at a rate of 10 feet per round, until they stop at the water plane. ^UP^

NEUTRAL BOUYANCY:
This means the subject neither floats nor sinks. They will remain at the same level they started each round, unless something moves them to a different depth. ^UP^

NEGATIVE BOUYANCY:
The subject is heavier than water, and will sink at a rate of 10 feet per round, until they hit the bottom . Most machines and objects made of metal or stone tend to be Negatively Bouyant. ^UP^

BOUYANCY & ENCUMBERANCE:
Now, civilized critters tend to carry stuff with them, and the added weight of this additional equipment tends to change a critter's Bouyancy Level. An Unencumbered being remains at their natural Bouyancy Level. This is usually on the Positive side, but sometimes mutation allows for a being to be Neutrally Bouyant. An Encumbered creature shifts down one Buoyancy Level, from Positive to Neutral or from Neutral to Negative. A Heavily Encumbered subject is Automatically considered Negatively Bouyant, and will in fact sink faster by an additional foot per round for every 10 pounds over their Max. Carry score they are loaded with. (Of course, a little common sense is necessary with this rule. If the subject were carrying, say, a 100 pouds of cork (for whatever reason) or some other naturally Bouyant material, it generally will rise to the surface and carry them with it.) ^UP^

WATERLOGGING:
Certain pieces of equipment and clothing, mainly those made of porous, woven materials like cloth, tend to absorb water and counteract Positive Bouyancy. Such items, if unsealed against water, will double their weight after 1d10 rounds spent submerged. ^UP^

BOUYANCY AND CURRENT:
Moving water has an effect on Bouyancy in terms of speeding up an object's movement down or up. The Movement Rate of the Current is added in feet per round to the subject's ascent or descent to the surface or bottom. ^UP^

DEEP WATER HAZARDS: ^TOP^
DROWNING & SUFFOCATION : DEPTH & PRESSURE : DECOMPRESSION & THE "BENDS" : NITROGEN NARCOSIS

The water is an alien environment to land based lifeforms, and carries many serious, if not deadly, hazards to those willing to brave the depths. This section details some of the exotic problems deep sea explorers can encounter in their
search for riches and glory.

DROWNING & SUFFOCATION:
Well, breathing is a pretty good thing to do, and this holds truewith critters from either side of the water line. If a character is cut off from oxygen, either as air breathers stuck under water or water breathers trapped on land, they can function for as many rounds as 1/2 their Constitution Score or Hit Dice. After this they pass out, and will die in 1d4 rounds. Mutants with ENLARGED LUNGS get to double this time, and those with MULTIPLE LUNGS get an extra round per lung. ^UP^

DEPTH & PRESSURE:
Critters born and bred on land are pretty much used to only a certain amount of pressure, which to scientific types is the weight of the air above them pushing down on their bodies. Under the water things tend to get more intense due to the added weight of water pushing down on the subject. For every ten yards of water, an additional atmosphere worth of pressure is active on the body.

This can cause problems the deeper a living being gets. Starting at around 60 feet down, divers from the surface begin to feel some physical effects from the pressure if they are swimming unprotected. Their lungs are being compressed by the weight, and are thus unable to draw in as much air (this is, of course, provided they have some kind of air supply. If they don't they've got themselves a whole other raft of problems) and gasses present in the body begin to behave differently. The cumulative effect of all this is a -2 to all Attacks and a +2 to all Attribute Checks for every 30 feet below 60.

Intense pressure can cause some structures, like the ears, sinus', and even lungs to collapse.A being can withstand their Constitution level in feet X 10. Thus a creature with a Hit Dice of 12 could stand 120 feet without protection. Below this depth a creature takes 1d6 points of damage per round per 30 feet below their limit. ^UP^

DECOMPRESSION & "THE BENDS"
As if being that deep weren't bad enough, you have to be careful how fast you come back to the surface after an especially deep dive. The problem comes from having to breathe pressurized air, specifically pressurized air with nitrogen in it. Normally, the nitrogen in the earth's atmosphere is aborbed into the body and taken care of gradually, but when a body's under severe pressures it doesn't eliminate the gas as readily, so it kind of builds up. When it's brought back to normal pressures, all that loose nitrogen pops out into the bloodstream and tissues as bubbles, which can cause a lot of damage. This kind of thing doesn't happen to fish, which take their oxygen right out of the water thru their gills, and it doesn't happen to certain aquatic mammals since they have special agents in their blood which control the absorbtion and release of gasses.

So to make a long story short, it's generally a good idea to come up from a great depth slowly. In dives below forty feet deep, a diver should spend a minute readjusting for every ten feet traveled back up from the deepest part of their dive. If they fail to do so, they are effected as if by a Poison Intensity Level equal to the depth dived divded by ten. Thus an uncontrolled ascent from a 100 foot dive will hit the victim with Bends equal to Level 10 Intensity Poison. If the diver makes some stops and not others, the G.M. should count the number of missed decompression stops and hit the being with that level of Intensity of the Bends. Time has as much effect on The Bends as depth, and it's usually a better to only dive to great depths no more than twice a day if possible. Every time beyond that adds 1 point to the Intensity Level of the Bends.

Symptoms range from extreme pain to temporary Paralysis, equal to 1d20 minutes during which the victim can do nothing but suffer. Some artifact drugs and devices serve to cure or eliminate these effects. The only treatment available to most low tech types is to take the victim down to a suitable depth and bring them up slowly. This is very dangerous to the victim, who must roll a Constitution check upon attaining the final depth or die instantly. It's better than nothing. ^UP^

NITROGEN NARCOSIS:
Nitrogen is a funny gas underwater, a lot more exciting than when it's just sitting there in the atmosphere. At depths below 100 feet, it reacts in a wierd way with the nervous systems in some folks, causing them to go a little crazy. The subject should roll a Constitution Check. If this is failed, the victim suffers a -2 reduction in Mental Strength and Perception for every 10 feet deeper they go. On a Critical Failure, the subject is affected temporarily with a randomly rolled BRAIN DEFECT(D) symptom. This effect passes away rapidly when the subject is brought to shallower depths. ^UP^

BESTIARY : CYBORGS : HYDRAULICS

THE NEW SOUTH HARBOUR