That wonderful stuff: Lava

[kdtipa]

I'll admit I haven't read the 4e books cover to cover (yet). But I read 3e books pretty thoroughly and I don't recall lava in the natural hazards sections. I might have simply missed it, forgotten it, or haven't seen it yet in a 4e book, but I'm curious about stats for lava in GURPS.

In D&D 3.x, lava is pretty scary. It does a lot of damage. And it seems... it really should. There's also the "continuing" damage from it being stuck to you. And I wonder about those toxic fumes that usually accompany lava... Is there a definition for GURPS? If not, has anyone come up with good stats for it?

Sure it's unlikely anyone will encounter lava without seeking it out, but some of the worts traps in my time playing D&D included lava... and I'm just curious about what the GURPS stats are.

[RedMattis]

Here is a free e23 book on the topic of Lava.

Lava Rules! Fire and Brimstone :P

[The Whiner Knight]

Oh, lava! What a wonderful substance! If only there was some way we could harness its awesome power!

TWK
Also yoinking that e23 book....

[kdtipa]

Nice... Thanks for the e23 link. And thanks for the amusement over the dwarf fortresses... :)

[kdtipa]

I just got a chance to look at the PDF... That is fantastic. :)

[Lord Herman]

Indeed. The e23 link is brilliant. I'm so using that in my game sometime.

[Stripe]

I would imagine it does a certain amount of corrosive damage per second, right? What sounds reasonable, 100? I wonder how much damage is done by even getting close?

From the always-correct Wikipedia: "When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at temperatures from 700 °C to 1,200 °C (1,300 °F to 2,200 °F)."

[PK]

Originally Posted by Stripe

I would imagine it does a certain amount of corrosive damage per second, right? What sounds reasonable, 100? I wonder how much damage is done by even getting close?

A lot more than the average person thinks, due to an unfortunate lack of physics (specifically, convection) in most modern media. See TVTropes for a list of the worst (but be prepared to spend 12 hours trapped on that site if you've never been before -- no, seriously).

The short answer is that it would be entirely reasonable to say that anyone close to molten lava/magma should take about half the damage that they'd take from actually falling in. I'm not enough of an expert to give actual ranges in yards and such, but the whole idea of "jumping from plate to plate, over rivers of hot lava" is 100% ridiculous -- not only jumping over lava, but just getting close enough to try it is a death sentence.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Stripe

I would imagine it does a certain amount of corrosive damage per second, right? What sounds reasonable, 100?

Burning, not corrosive. And Campaigns sez molten metal does 3d per second.

[Ragitsu]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

I'm not enough of an expert to give actual ranges in yards and such, but the whole idea of "jumping from plate to plate, over rivers of hot lava" is 100% ridiculous -- not only jumping over lava, but just getting close enough to try it is a death sentence.

It's doable with a good Light Walk roll :-).