You need to explain right now why your character can't swim at his age.
>b-but that's a waste of points!
ROLEPLAY, DON'T ROLLPLAY
>>46136179
What the fuck kind of system are you running where you need to put points into swimming?
>>46136179
Its model is not waterproof.
>>46136179
They came from the desert asshole.
>>46136224
Engine Heart?
>>46136179
He's a dorf in the Old World.
Water is for making beer and quenching your forged creations in, maybe drowning a greenskin if your axe isn't piercing his skin.
>>46136270
Yes, that or RIFTS.
>>46136179
I get the impression that in a medieval period, most people didn't know how to swim.
I play a decent system where 'Swimming' isn't its own skill for no good reason.
Its not 20th century so not being able to swim is normal, even if you are in the navy
Having no ranking in a skill doesn't automatically mean you can't perform the skill. Skill rankings usually indicate training and experience above the norm. Anyone can swim, bash in a door, or climb something with enough time. Skill ranks just indicate where some characters can do it faster and better.
>>46136179
He can.
>>46136438
Isn't swimming a natural action?
>>46136179
Many people in the middle ages and even to this day never learned how to swim because it wasn't an important skill. Even alot of pirates didn't learn how to swim.
Source: I remember reading that somewhere.
>>46136179
She's black.
>>46136179
He doesn't like the open water, thinks it's a cesspool of germs and nasty things.
>>46136179
A 250 pound musclebound warrior isn't going to be buoyant.
Most folks know how to swin alittle bit (depending where they are from) or atleast doggy paddle, that said, swimming with clothes, gear, armor, holding weapons and so on would require a swimming skill/check. Especially in a current, tide, submerging, staying afloat or swimming for longer periods.
>>46136859
No.
Natural human response to exertion and stress is to take rapid, shallow breaths, and to move quickly. Obeying that instinct is how you drown.
He's a fucking space slug in full battle armour, how do you expect him to swim?He probably can but likely wouldn't need to try for about fifteen minutes, that suit of armour is rated for vacuum
>>46136179
He came from a poor household in the inner city. He didn't have access to reliable transportation, and as such could never get to any natural bodies of water that you can safely swim in, and the municipal pool is a dirty, overcrowded mess that is wholly unsuitable for actual swimming, and more suited to just standing in when it's really fucking hot out.
They are an alchemist, a paranoid alchemist, why train yourself when you can breath under water, or grow fins thst give you massive natural bonuses.
>>46136550
I've never met someone who can't swim that is older than 5, how does this occur?
>>46136179
It didn't occur to me during character creation that swimming was a skill he would logically know.
>>46137485
>I've never met
Because you live in 21st century.
>>46137485
>>46137440 is actually a real situation that a lot of people face. In fact, it's the main reason for the stereotype that black people can't swim, since black people disproportionately live in the inner city.
Other than that, if you don't live near a major body of water you might just never learn to swim because it doesn't seem important. When you live in the middle of Arizona drowning doesn't seem like something you really need to work to avoid.
>>46136179
Well he actually used to, being a forest hobo kinda leads to that after a few decades. It's just that ever since he sprouted those fuckhueg wings he doesn't have much faith that he won't become waterlogged. He's an elf, not awitchduck.
>>46137260
Haven't they documented babias that began swimming (bobbing) after being placed in water?
Didn't they used to teach kids how to swim by throwing them in the water? (In yew 1800s)
>>46138129
They need to do way instain mother> who kill their babias.
>>46136438
>>46136998
I tried finding a source on whether or not that's wrong, but I couldn't find any information other than an instance where there was a ban on swimming in some community, but I'm going to use common sense here. If you lived near a body of water like a lake in medieval Europe chances are you'd probably do the same thing everyone does in lakes: try to have some fun. I'm sure there were plenty of people who knew how to swim if a lake was close enough to where they live.
>>46136550
Do you have a source for this because I find it hard to believe that people serving in a professional navy wouldn't know how to at least tread water so that a man overboard isn't an instant death.
I don't know how to swim
>>46136179
He's a african american.
>>46137061
>>46137576
>>46136179
He can swim in fucking full plate if he needs to, thanks.
>>46136179
Because it's hard to swim when you're a cyborg that's more metal than man.
>>46136225
>the desert asshole
Now I'm just imagining some giant anus in the planet's crust that continuously farts out sand, and they call it the desert asshole.
>>46138977
Don't you know anon? Fun didn't exist before the 20th century.
>>46136179
The same reason I can't swim in real life, aquaphobia.Seriously, even a bath makes me nervous, showering is only fine because it's droplets.
>>46137485
Hell, even ship crews back in the day often didn't learn to swim. It was seen as tempting fate/ a demonstration of hubris and thus the sort of thing that would lead one to need the skill and thus end up drowning.
Basically, when every second body of water houses a god or a spirit you come to the thought that drowning is their will so if you're meant to drown, you'll drown. This is the logic I use for medieval equivalent games anyway.
If you didn't live near a significant body of water, you probably don't know how to swim
If you DO live near a significant body of water, but have superstitions about it, you probably don't know how to swim, at least beyond floating/treading/dog paddle
If your life path pushes you towards a physical regimen of swimming-incompatible activities (like armored combat), you probably don't know how to swim beyond, at best a "play in shallow water" level
Swimming is not a default skill. Not drowning in relatively calm waters can usually be achieved on your stats alone if it even takes a roll. Going above and beyond to "swim fast" or "make headway in less benevolent conditions" needs a reason why and a source for technique instruction.
>>46136998
I can back you up on the Pirate point. A lot of cultures with pantheons of gods viewed swimming as an affront to Poseidon, or their equivalent.
>>46136179
I can't swim.
but i have 9 ranks in swimming
>>46136179
My character is black.
>>46141877
It is true that Romans were really good at drowning. Insisting on wearing heavy armor during naval combat probably had a lot to do with it.
>>46136179
She can. Pretty well too.Swim, sprint, climb, jump, andgrappleall key off of the same skill.
No real need to swim when you just sink like a goddamn stone and don't need oxygen.
>>46136179
He's a city slicker. More accurately, a megacorp controlled megacity slicker
>>46136179
I couldn't swim until the age of 19. And even after I learned to, I never actually needed to. It's decent sport / passtime activity, but it's hardly a necessity. Much like skiing or riding a bike.
>>46143875
Often, you pray you don't find yourself in positions where your ability to swim or not is life or death, but if that time comes, it's good to know how. Sort of like fire extinguishers.
It's mandatory in our school system, so most kids at 10 can swim decently. I find it a nice form of exercise, but that's just subjective.
>>46136179
Because athletics is a waste of a dot, and he's never liked water.
>>46142023
That was probably just ancillary.
The proper culprit is likely their strategy of turning naval combats into boarding actions and therefore melee soldiery actions. They used the corvus (a long spiked column on a hinge, hold it up to the mast when not in use, drop it on an enemy ship to pin them close and form a boarding bridge) to engineer that.
The problem with a long iron pole sticking up on your ship was that it made it pretty top heavy, and highly vulnerable to storms. Capsizing was a real problem.
The Romans also had a very bloodminded "You destroyed a legion? We'll send two legions this time." That worked great, right up until they were coming into conflict with nature. Neptune doesn't care how many legions- or in this case, fleets- you send. The punic wars involved the worst naval disasters in history (by lives lost) barring the Mongol invasion of Japan- and they were probably better recorded/less suspect.
>>46137485
I recall reading at one point or another that in witch trials they would sometimes throw you in a river or similar body of water, and if you drowned, you were innocent. And if you swam to shore or otherwise did not drown, you were guilty of witchcraft. And were summarily burned.
Swimming was supposedly seen as unnatural, and not something humans were capable of doing. So being able to do so was evidence that you were up to no good
>>46144105
Thats not entirely accurate.
What they usually did was dunk you, which means in some manner attempt to forcibly drown you, and if you survived you were obviously a witch.
Some suggestions are youd be tossed in tied up, though its also recorded that during georgian times someone had their head held under water until they died because some villagers got too into it. A while later, a local miller was apparently called upon to dunk an old woman suspected of witchcraft and refused to do it in public because of this.
It wasn't a guaranteed death sentence though, in theory if you were seen to be struggling you'd be pulled in to safety under an assumption of innocence. Most actual drownings were a result of over eager villagers.
>>46138330
Underrated post
>>46144105
After a brief search, apparently swimming was considered a knightly sport, one of the Seven Agilities of Knights in the Middle Ages, but lost popularity as society became more conservative because swimming required one to remove their clothing.
And references to people swimming date as far back as cave paintings, and Egyptian clay seals.
The main reason most people couldn't swim have been mentioned throughout the thread, usually that they just never encountered a reason to swim. People that lived near the water probably learned at some point.
>>46136859
People can sort of doggy paddle, yes.
But that isn't going to keep them from having difficulty remaining afloat or working against rapids and such.
>>46137485
Couldn't swim until late teens.
At the elementary, swimming classes cost extra and parents were too much of a cheapskates to sign me up for them.
My highschool didn't have pool at all (it was sort of assumed you already learned that at the elementary).
>>46136859
indeed
even newborns know to hold their breath underwater and to flail about in some mock swim pattern
>>46138977
ive been told that for a long ass time captains would specifically get sailors that couldn't swim; all to avoid the possibility of a mutiny
>>46145608
Yeah many sailors and pirates actually couldn't swim. But it was less of a purposeful selection and more of a by-product of press-gang recruiting.
>>46138129
My mother and her siblings were taught that way. So yeah, it works.
>>46144074
Yeah if it comes down to it I would rather know how to swim but never need to then the opposite.
>>46136179
She grew up in low tech fantasy Metropolis.
>>46136179
Because the swimming skill doesn't reflect an ability/inability to swim, but the ability to swim in more difficult situations.
There's no check to swim when you're in a still pool with no danger, after all.
And if you took 90% of the people today and threw them in a pool in armor, carrying too much, in the middle of fighting, tired, stressed, or any of the other reasons why swim tests might be called for, most of them would likely end up drowning.
>>46148303
Would swimming in the ocean require a swim check?
>>46148570
Are you swimming at the beach? If so probably not.
Did you fall over board and are now in the middle of the ocean? If so yes.
>>46136179
He's descended from fire elementals. Hates water, always has.
The price of being a Sorcerer.
>>46136179
>why your character can't swim at his age.
He grew up a poor city kid. His parents could barely afford to put him through school, much less give him swimming lessons he'd never use.
IRL: In the 70's, my dad went and paid for swimming lessons before becoming a sailor (not navy IIRC). This was apparently unusual, as most sailors figured they were good as dead if the ship sunk in the middle of the ocean. Swimming only buys you a few hours, which only matters if someone is coming to get you within that time, but not fast enough to just drag your ass back up.
>>46148570
Yes.
Let me tell you, even one-foot swells are pretty fucking big when they're at head height.
>>46136179
He's a dwarf.
He's black
>>46136179
Why not explain why he should know how to swim, HM?
>>46136179
Um, my character is warforged.
Also you'll note I listed a pair of pontoons, a ten foot pole, a tarp, and several dozen feet of rope in his inventory.
>>46136179
Most Sailors in the Age of Sailing couldn't swim
Fuck off
>>46136179
There are many roleplay reasons why a character should not know how to swim
In fact there are cases where a character trying to learn to swim would actually be done not for roleplay but for a mechanical benefit
>>46145659
I always heard the story that sailors specifically didn't teach themselves to swim, because no one was going to rescue them if their ship sank. Drowning quickly was way better than treading water for two hours then drowning anyway.
>>46150277
He's a Floridian /fit/fag that lives by the beach.
>>46151003
>In fact there are cases where a character trying to learn to swim would actually be done not for roleplay but for a mechanical benefit
I think my DM once chewed me out for giving my character some swimming skill among other things. He saw it as packing my character full of useful skills instead of.. I don't even know, I guess he wanted to see more points in shit like performance or flower-arranging.
>>46136179
He is wearing plate armor.
>>46136179
Nigga he's a centaur
Being able to swim is a relatively modern luxury. Most works couldn't swim to save their lives back in the day.
>>46151849
Horses can swim. Why not centaurs?
>>46136179
They're an artificial intelligence that doesn't even have a body most of the time.
He was always more of a climber than a swimmer. You know that one kid that always climbed the bleachers when they were collapsed in gym class no matter how much it pissed the teachers off? That was him. Besides, he rides what can basically be considered as a dire komodo everywhere, he doesn't really *need* to swim at this point.
>>46139133
Huh.
I'm not afraid of water insomuvh as what's in it.ie, anything man made in the water scares the shit out of me. I don't like pools with visible drains that aren't the white plastic capped over variety. The pool pump/cleaner thing that looks like a lamprey terrified me for quite a while. Just looking at submerged machines or drains, or even just metal/concrete docks make me anxious.
It doesn't help that I regularly have nightmares of being in insane bathrooms or drifting through water treatment plants
Just typing that made me feel anxious and dreadful.
>>46136179
i forgot how
>>46153427
Nice.
My fear of water is basically the same as my fear of the dark: You can't see what's in it.
(It doesn't help I was bit by a pike as a kid. Filthy fucking fish.)
>>46144372
Besides the issue of nudity, using water to clean yourself during the middle-ages was considered dangerous for your health, because it removed filth from your skin pores, supposedly allowing miasma to enter the body.
>>46153595
Sailor here, I'm afraid of being underwater. I had to learn how to swim for the job, and can do it pretty well now, but exercises with full immersion (like entering a survival raft) are still a goddamn trial.
>>46136179
Because there is no reason in his life up until now that would be cause for him to learn how to swim. Do you think everyone in fantasy land lives on a beachfront where learning to swim would actually not be a waste of time?
>>46136179
I'm pretty sure that the DC on staying afloat is low enough you can just take 10 unless you have a strength penalty.
>>46137485
I'm 100% positive that's not true, unless you ask everyone you meet whether or not they can swim.
Not to mention swimming as a skill is FAR more widespread and common in the modern era than it would be in a medieval-backdrop like most fantasy.
>>46136859
You would think but apparently not.
Wierds me out that it's not instinctual
>>46136179
>wfrp
>playing 76 year old dwarf
>find note
>read it
>gm says i didn't pick the read skill
>>46138129
Babies have a lot of quirks like that which they lose as they grow older.
The swimming part is due to the womb being fluid filled, so a baby's natural instinct in water is to calm down and hold its breath. This is an instinct that is lost as the person grows older unless they're given swimming lessons in the toddler years.
>>46136179
She grew up in the north, where going into water for most of the year is a death sentence. Since leaving her homeland she's developed a liking for taking a dip and is trying to learn.
>>46154586
>going into water for most of the year is a death sentence.
Pussy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_swimming
>>46136397
No wonder dwarwes are losing their undergrounds wars, when they can't fight in flooded tunnels.
>>46154532
It's a bit like whistling or trilling Rs. If you do it by a certain age, it happens very naturally. After that point, the potential decreases and the difficulty goes up.
>>46139121
Bugger, you've killed me.
>>46144105
I think you're reffering to a trial by ordeal, but that's not exactly that.
To find if you're guilty or not, you are thrown into the river wih a big rock, or tied up in a sack. You are now judged by god, so if you drown you're guilty and if you survive you're innocent.
It was quite fucked up.
>>46137485
Sounds like you haven't met many Chinese or black people.
>>46136438
There are a few medieval paintings that feature peasants swimming in the background. If I had to guess, I would assume that the lower classes did it for recreation while the upper classes learned to ride horses.
One grew up in a hive city as a factory worker, probably didn't see any more water than he ever needed to take a shower before stepping out. This proved to be a problem when his team was sent on a recon mission up a river on a small boat, Vietnam style.
Another is a Necron. 750kg hunk of metal. He doesn't swim across bodies of water, he just walks through them.
One is a fire mage who would probably propel himself across a river with jets of fire from his fists if he ever cared to (but only if the ladies were watching, otherwise he would probably just get a dinghy).
And the last one is a barbarian who grew up on the steppe growing whatever that accursed land can grow. No time to learn to swim, father needed arms in the fields.
He was raised and trained in a town with rivers too shallow to swim in.
He also rarely takes off his armor and mother nature doesn't allow him to breathe underwater.
>>46154538
>everyone else took relevant skill
>"you just wasted points because one player is incompetant"
>>46154903
Ended up with no one in the party knowing how to read.
We then took it to a library, where the librarian was actually helping the Skaven.
Ended up with two of the party drinking warp fuckery water.
>>46136179
Grew up in a landlocked town. The river was never consistently deep enough to warrant learning swimming.
Afraid of the water, or just never enjoyed swimming.
Simply never had cause to learn because their lifestyle was very relaxed prior to adventuring.
There's a lot of mundane reasons real people might never learn to swim. I know several IRL.
>>46153890
That was only because of the Black Death and then later Protestants being titanic prudes. Prior to the black death bathing was extremely common in medieval Europe.
>>46154591
Yes, she is.
>You need to explain right now why your character can't swim at his age.
>implying he can't
You know what's one of the things I love about D&D 5e? They combined Swimming, Jumping and Climbing into a single Athletics skill. Now I never have to choose between the 3 because I don't have enough skill points to go around?
>>46136192
>What the fuck kind of system are you running where you need to put points into swimming?
Deus Ex.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j8jMn2Kcgs
>>46136179
He lived way the fuck inland, so there wasn't any point in learning.
>>46136179
600 pounds of metal and stone for one, and the other ended up with a new limb that he doesn't know how to swim with.
>>46136179
But he can. He's a servant of the local storm god, grew up on a village on a sandbar, and can quite literally now breathe underwater. He's much more dangerous in the water than out.
