Time Taken: One round to several minutes or hours.
This skill represents the character's ability to stay afloat in aquatic environments — lakes, oceans, flooding rivers and luxury starliner swimming pools. Swimming difficulties are determined by the water conditions: the starliner pool is Very Easy, while a roaring river might be Very Difficult. When a character fails a swimming check, he begins to drown. Roll 2D at the beginning of each round; if the total is less than the number of rounds that the character has been drowning, the character drowns and dies. Characters can attempt other actions while drowning at a -3D penalty. Characters who are drowning may attempt to save themselves once per round. They must make a swimming total at one level of difficulty higher than the one in which they failed their swimming roll (the character doesn't suffer the -3D penalty when making this roll).