My game has entered a situation where the ability of a speeder bike To remain hovering after exceeding it's strain threshold is important. (I. E they are over a lake). My guy instinct is to say no but I want other opinions. I'm not concerned with them kissing the bike as the just "inhereted" a half dozen, but it sinking will mean they need to swim.

I would rule that you could handle it in a number of ways, it might be that the damage which pushes the bike over its threshold pushed the repulsorlift over the edge. Another bike might have damaged the drive meaning that it coasts to a halt but remains hovering for a time. A third bike might short out its power source meaning that it quickly runs out of power . As to the riders having to swim, I would only make it an issue of the water that they are over is deep and/or has powerful currents.

Also, even if they do have to swim failure doesn't automatically mean that they sink and drown. You could rule failure as extra time taken to get to shore, extra strain suffered or even loss of some gear as their spare blaster pistol slips out of its holster, or the holomessenger device shorts out from the water.

This wouldn't be an issue for me as I rule that there are specialist bikes for over water (more akin to air speeders that speeder bikes), standard speeder bikes don't work over water in my games.

I think most landspeeders are designed where their propulsion is distinct from the repulsorlifts, so if the engine cuts out, it'll just drift to a stop and remain floating.

However, if they were at a higher than minimum altitude, then the plummet might mean it hits the surface. Also, it seems there might be a slight distinction between water and ground. The way repulsors work, I don't think they're designed to cross water over a meter or so, unless it's specifically a kind of marine vehicle.

Is it going to mean more to the story and be more interesting for the players to swim or to figure out how to paddle the bike to shore? Whichever it is, there's your answer. Even if you rule that it doesn't hover, that doesn't necessarily means it sinks completely either.

I generally rule that exceeding a threshhold means the vehicle is powered down and completely disabled (ala, no hover), but I always support story over crunch nowadays.

It's a lake and they are at extreme personal range from shore. So it could matter. However they can also radio for a rescue. I was thinking failure meme they go under but they are still able to hold their breath for a while. It's the difficulties I'm struggling with fire swimming. I'm thinking average to tree water with one setback for each range band Traveled And an increase of one for swimming with equipment.

Thanks for your help everyone. I decided to go ahead and have the speeder sink, fortunately the person they were pursuing was incapacitated by a rifle bolt and crashed his vehicle as well so they are now all sinking in the middle of a lake. It will be up to the players to determine what happens now.