Characters can hold their breath for 1 minute without making an Action Check. Beyond a minute, the character must make a Toughness Check or Willpower Check at the start of their Turn each Round (assuming 6 second Rounds). The Difficulty Score starts at 1, but increases by 1 each time the character performs an Action Check to hold their breath. This means that on the first Round the Difficulty Score is 1, on the second Round the Difficulty Score is 2, and so on. AS Long AS the character succeeds, they continue to hold their breath. If they fail, they gasp, involuntarily taking a large, deep breath.
If there is air available when the character takes a breath, even if it is poisoned or harmful, the character can breathe normally again. After one Round of breathing normally, the character may attempt to hold their breath again. Of course, they may still need to resolve the Effect of anything unpleasant or Dangerous in the air they are breathing. If there is no air or if the character is under water, they immediately begin to suffocate or drown.
If the loss of air surprises the character, the Adventure Guide may rule they don’t have time to hold their breath. In the case of a space suddenly filling with toxins or other harmful vapors, this means the character spends at least one Round breathing the Dangerous air before they may hold their breath. In the case of a character falling into the water or the air in the room suddenly being removed, go straight to the rules for suffocating or drowning.
Suffocating and Drowning #
If a character fails to hold their breath in an environment where there is no air or while under water, they risk imminent death. At the end of every fifth Round (30 seconds), the character must make Toughness Check. The Difficulty Score is equal to the Difficulty Score for the last attempt to hold their breath with a minimum of 2. The Difficulty Score increases by 1 for each Toughness Check after the first.
If the character succeeds, they may continue to take Actions for the next 5 Rounds, although they suffer one Drawback to the Difficulty Scores for all Action Checks equal to the number of Toughness Checks they’ve made to avoid suffocation. These Drawbacks do not apply to the Toughness Checks to avoid suffocation. If they fail any of the Toughness Checks, the character passes out. The character must continue to make Toughness Checks every 5 Rounds while in the airless environment, and the Adventure Guide continues to add an additional Drawback to the Difficulty Score each time. If the character fails a Toughness Check, permanently reduce their Intellect score by 1. This loss can never be cured or recovered. The character continues to make Toughness Checks, but if their Intellect score reaches 0, the character dies.