Holding one's breath

[Sentinel]

any rules in HU ? (or anywhere in PB?) Book and page # if you got it.

Yes, there is a statement about how long one can hold ones' breath.
I'll have to look up a page number for you later.
I'll trot out Rifts Underseas in a few.

Also pull out your copy of Powers Unlimited One, for the minor power Hold Breath.

[Steve Dubya]

Also pull out your copy of Powers Unlimited One, for the minor power Hold Breath.

This is an actual POWER??

I don't know why I am so surprised - Clock Manipulation was a Major for awhile...

[Sentinel]

Also pull out your copy of Powers Unlimited One, for the minor power Hold Breath.

This is an actual POWER??

I don't know why I am so surprised - Clock Manipulation was a Major for awhile...

I think it still is.

Also, I seem to recall there is something in Aliens Unlimited Galaxy Guide about how long a character can hold his breath.
Also check skills like Depressurization Training, and similar skills in the Rifts GMG and Phase World.

[Overlord Rikonius]

Also pull out your copy of Powers Unlimited One, for the minor power Hold Breath.

This is an actual POWER??

I don't know why I am so surprised - Clock Manipulation was a Major for awhile...

I think it still is.

I'm pretty sure it's a minor in HU2. Which is good, because, while stopping bombs and being able to instakill anyone with a pacemaker is cool and all, it doesn't compare at all with invulnerability, controling elemental forces, running at mach 1, or the other major powers.

[Sentinel]

Also pull out your copy of Powers Unlimited One, for the minor power Hold Breath.

This is an actual POWER??

I don't know why I am so surprised - Clock Manipulation was a Major for awhile...

I think it still is.

I'm pretty sure it's a minor in HU2. Which is good, because, while stopping bombs and being able to instakill anyone with a pacemaker is cool and all, it doesn't compare at all with invulnerability, controling elemental forces, running at mach 1, or the other major powers.

I agree.
Of course, even among Minors and Majors, not all powers are going to seem equal. Especially with Powers Unlimited One.

[Sentinel]

actually I'm not interested in the POWER but in how it's figured for any character, like a Hardware pc or a Physical Training character (vanilla ones as I call them).

but I will check out PU1 and HU2.

I didn't see anything in Kuseru's New rules and powers for P.E.

Maybe it's in the Martial Arts Netbook, as Hold Breath-Fu.

[cyber-yukongil v2.5]

rules for holding one's breath exist, but rules for what happens when the time expires do not. I've looked through every PB I own, which is the entire RIFTS line plus a sprinkling of others, and nowhere could I find rules for drowning.

[Nekira Sudacne]

rules for holding one's breath exist, but rules for what happens when the time expires do not. I've looked through every PB I own, which is the entire RIFTS line plus a sprinkling of others, and nowhere could I find rules for drowning.

it's...assumed that once you can't hold your breath any longer, you drown and die.

[Guest]

actually I'm not interested in the POWER but in how it's figured for any character, like a Hardware pc or a Physical Training character (vanilla ones as I call them).

but I will check out PU1 and HU2.

I didn't see anything in Kuseru's New rules and powers for P.E.

That's because I use a simplistic formula. P.E.xmelees for normal P.E., doubled for Extraordinary, tripled for Superhuman, and quadrupled for Supernatural (P.E.xminutes).

[Tinker Dragoon]

any rules in HU ? (or anywhere in PB?) Book and page # if you got it.

I'll trot out Rifts Underseas in a few.

Invulnerable characters are stated to be able to hold their breath for 12 minutes, which is further stated to be four times that of a normal person, making the standard time 3 minutes.

[acreRake]

Invulnerable characters are stated to be able to hold their breath for 12 minutes, which is further stated to be four times that of a normal person, making the standard time 3 minutes.

Sounds good to me. BTW what's the time for "hold breath" in the mutant animal section?

[Guest]

That's because I use a simplistic formula. P.E.xmelees for normal P.E., doubled for Extraordinary, tripled for Superhuman, and quadrupled for Supernatural (P.E.xminutes).

that seems soft given the formula in Rifts Underseas.

I suppose it might, in a way, but if you remember, the average person has a P.E. of effectively 11, meaning they can hold their breath for almost three minutes before drowning (fairly realistic), whereas a supernatural creature can hold it's breath quite long underwater.

I suppose I can't really criticize, since it's an "all over the place" issue much like the one that forced you to write up the PE stuff in the first place.

I went with the KISS method of doing it, and oddly enough it seems to work well.

For supernatural PE, I'd probably tend towards PE in Hours or 1/2 hours, -- something a little more heroic.

Several supernatural creatures already only hold their breath for PE in minutes. I could probably go into some big scientific discourse about lung size/capacity vs consumption of oxygen, but really, P.E. in minutes is quite heroic enough already, especially given that the average supernatural creature would be able to hold their breath for 15-20 minutes...about five to seven times that of the average human.

of course it would be a nice way to kill off a demi-god/godling/dragon hatchling character

Suffocation is always a nice way of killing your enemies.

[Sentinel]

Using creatures like dolphins, whales, and Pneuma-Biforms might also give a good indication of "heroic" levels of how long one can hold ones' breath when there is a question about it.

[AlanGunhouse]

Dolphins and other aquatic mammals have a substance called Myoglobin in their muscles that stores oxygen, giving them reserves humans and others do not normally have.

[Vincent Takeda]

Page 21 of the aliens unlimited galaxy guide under paragraph 1 of aquatic worlds suggests one round per point of PE before losing consciousness and drowning.

[AlanGunhouse]

Seems a bit excessive, that means an untrained human with an average PE can hold their breath 2.5 minutes. I do not know about you, but I can't.

[Vincent Takeda]

without artificial o2 assistance beforehand, someone has pulled off 11 minutes, lol.

In my younger days I could almost get to 2

[AlanGunhouse]

without artificial o2 assistance beforehand, someone has pulled off 11 minutes, lol.

In my younger days I could almost get to 2

There are two different skills that can double your breath holding time, meaning a trained person with both skills could theoretically hit 30 minutes if they had max PE...assuming they add. If they are effectively the same, well then it still gets to 15.

[Incriptus]

APS Void [PU3] also offers "A victim can hold his breath for approximately 5 seconds per P.E. attribute point"

[AlanGunhouse]

APS Void [PU3] also offers "A victim can hold his breath for approximately 5 seconds per P.E. attribute point"

That seems more realistic.

[Vincent Takeda]

I'm a fantastically out of shape asthmatic and even I can pull off 50 seconds readily without prep. Maybe not 'under duress' though. I feel like the difference between 5 seconds and 15 seconds per PE point is the difference between 'realistic' and 'cinematic'

[eliakon]

The question is "hold your breath for what? And where?"
In space or underwater or in a gas field or what.

As for what happens afterwards, as I recall it is treated as a choke attack and you take damage to HP until you die or get air.

[AlanGunhouse]

Well, the situation was someone lobbed a gas grenade into the room, so they were fighting the attackers to get their gas masks...