That wonderful stuff: Lava

[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.

[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 :-).

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

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

How does that stop the fumes from poisoning and roasting you?

[Ragitsu]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

How does that stop the fumes from poisoning and roasting you?

I'm pretty sure that in a campaign where the GM allows you to walk across the lava by merit of your Kung-Fu training, issues like poison fumes and the wafting heat will be pretty much brushed aside :-P.

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

I'm pretty sure that in a campaign where the GM allows you to walk across the lava by merit of your Kung-Fu training, issues like poison fumes and the wafting heat will be pretty much brushed aside :-P.

Not necessarily. If it's a setting where your abilities are unusual, you might not get a free pass on sensible concerns like that.

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

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.

I always laugh a bit at the end of The Return of the King movie from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, specifically the Mount Doom parts - all that red-orange hot lava would have radiated like any other red-orange hot surface, such as the heating elements in a toaster oven or broiler. Frodo and Sam would have been nicely grilled by the time the eagles got to them, and the eagles would have at least been singed. And this is not even counting the hot fumes emitted.

And as long as I am grouching, gold is denser than lava - the ring would have sunk. Flesh is less dense than lava - Gollum would have floated (while burning to a crisp, of course).

Luke

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

And as long as I am grouching, gold is denser than lava - the ring would have sunk. Flesh is less dense than lava - Gollum would have floated (while burning to a crisp, of course).

There are three issues in play here:
1. It's magic, in the same way that it's still cold after it gets snatched out of the fire. It doesn't have to abide by regular physical laws
2. Steel is denser than noodle soup, but my spoon still stands up in my soup.
3. Narrative awesomeness

[Darekun]

Well, it's not like lava has a fixed temperature. So there's a wide range. I will be assigning numbers, on the principle that guessed numbers are better than none :J

Fresh from the interior, I'd guess 32d/sec burn damage from immersion. At these temperatures, even convection can't keep up, and you're probably looking at about 24d/sec burn damage from contact or being next to it. Maybe -1d/sec per hex, in open air.

A lava flow, hot enough to still be flowing but with a crust of solid black rock, I'd guess 10d/sec from immersion, 8d/sec from contact, 5d/sec from being next to it. Also -1d/sec per hex, so you can stand a few yards away and not take damage. This is also a reasonable level for traps that pipe magma around. (Hail the retracting bauxite bridge!)

For lava that's cooled enough to stop in place, I'd guess 3d/sec from immersion. A large chunk of it, however, may have a more-liquid(i.e. hotter) core. Similarly the surface is cooler, maybe 1d/sec from contact. This is only marginally hotter than fire, so you might take 1/sec within 1 hex, but the air temperature is likely to be within mere heat rules.

If it's cooled enough that a complete shell of black rock has formed, the surface is at fire temperatures.

On the other end of the scale, boiling magma is going to be significantly hotter; this guess is even sketchier, but say 100d/sec for immersion, 75d/sec for contact or in adjacent hexes, -1d/sec per hex away. However, mere liquid magma with gases boiling through it falls into the first category.

All of this assumes open air. In a confined area, air temperature will rise until it burns like contact. Or if it's in a tube that's open at both ends, you can get a real good wind howling through there. This may merely require DX rolls to not fall over, but when the convection maxes out, it may be best to hug the ground and use the climbing rules.



Now, the above only considers the direct heat-transfer damage. There's also the "hot weather" and fumes. Heat(B434) caps out at fire temperatures, so just use that cap as-is. In open air, the fumes from a stable flow will be at the level of Mildly Toxic(S78) or "pollutants"(B429). If it's in the process of erupting, the air nearby will be more like Highly Toxic or "lethal gases". In a confined area, a stable flow can also build up to this level, or beyond if it's been sealed for a while.

[Grouchy Chris]

Originally Posted by Darekun

Well, it's not like lava has a fixed temperature. So there's a wide range. I will be assigning numbers, on the principle that guessed numbers are better than none :J

Fresh from the interior, I'd guess 32d/sec burn damage from immersion. At these temperatures, even convection can't keep up, and you're probably looking at about 24d/sec burn damage from contact or being next to it. Maybe -1d/sec per hex, in open air.

I think you're overestimating the damage from being near to lava by quite a bit. Lava erupts at 700 C to 1200 C, per Wikipedia. Iron has a melting point of 1538 C, much hotter. And here is a picture of a man pouring molten iron.

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/816153-001/Stone\

He's got bare forearms and a bare face, except for his goggles, and I'd say he's about five feet from the pour.

A lava flow, hot enough to still be flowing but with a crust of solid black rock, I'd guess 10d/sec from immersion, 8d/sec from contact, 5d/sec from being next to it. Also -1d/sec per hex, so you can stand a few yards away and not take damage.

Above, I linked to an account of a tourist who walks up to a lava flow of the partially crusted variety and fishes out lava rocks with a stick. He says he got his beard burnt off, but he obviously didn't take 5d of damage, nor did the stick take 10d from being immersed in the lava, which would have been sufficient to destroy it.

The basic set gives 3d/second for contact with molten metal (p. 433).

[Flyndaran]

Air is a wonderful insulator and sucky means of heat transfer.
Boiling with 212 degrees water is MUCH faster than static baking heat of 450 degrees.
Also, humans are evolved to get rid of heat much better than most animals. I believe military studies showed that people can withstand baking temperatures for longer than it takes to cook a steak.. as long as plenty of water was drunk.