Determing digging speed

[darthauthor]

Spd. 3D6 running - 1D6 digging

Is what I see in Rifs Ultimate Edition for digging speed of Dog Boys and likewise Psi-Stalkers.

So the speed by which a Dog Boy can dig is determined by a dice roll of 1d6?

So tunneling or excavating how does one judge the time it takes them to resuce a buried victim or dig an escape tunnel?

Do they need the excuvation skill to keep from being buried alive?

Can they dig a grave real fast?

Fox hole?

I mean I know the basic answer is yes but not the advanced answer of how long. It only matters in a time crunch like they only have 10 minutes before the deputy comes back or they see through a spy glass the rides will be there in 1d4 minutes.
Mining?

[drewkitty ~..~]

The first thought of an example of how fast is the digging speed was relative to..... in digging a latrine trench.

The only races I know of that have a digging speed are in the PF RPG game. and the 1st one that comes to mind are dwarves.

[dethbegins]

Splicers uses running speeds conversion and functions under mph, this excerpt is from splicers core rule book, page 108; "Digging: 20 mph (32 km) through sand or dirt, but half as fast through rock or stone. Digging does tire out its pilot, but at a fatigue rate only 50% less than normal. To dig down enough to adequately hide the host takes 3D6 melee rounds."

[Killer Cyborg]

Spd. 3D6 running - 1D6 digging

Is what I see in Rifs Ultimate Edition for digging speed of Dog Boys and likewise Psi-Stalkers.

So the speed by which a Dog Boy can dig is determined by a dice roll of 1d6?

Right; their Speed attribute for digging is effectively rolled for with 1d6 at character creation.

So tunneling or excavating how does one judge the time it takes them to resuce a buried victim or dig an escape tunnel?

That's tough, because I don't recall much explanation about how the Digging Speed attribute actually works.
TMNT 27 has an Animal Power of Digging, and while it's PS-based, it seems reasonable to apply the description of the power to the Digging Speed attribute:
Certain animals spend a large part of their time digging underground. Note that rocks, cement, tree roots, and other obstructions will slow down digging characters. these things can be moved or their SDC can be attacked in order to clear the path.
and
Digging is the ability to dig through dirt, mud, or sand...
...Only the character's body moves through the earth, no tunnel is left behind...
Note: this process does NOT leave a passable tunnel.

As far as I can tell, if you want to leave tunnels with a mutant animal, or clear large chambers, you'd need the Animal Powers of Tunneling and Excavation respectively, or some other equivalent, or the GM would have to determine how your Digging attribute might reduce the normal time for such endeavors.

For animals capable of Tunneling, it's done at 1/2 speed of Digging.
Excavation seems to be 5 cubic feet per minute regardless of how fast one can dig.
Also note that "Tunnels and excavations are not permanent. Gunfire, earthquakes, and traffic vibrations will easily collapse them."

Do they need the excuvation skill to keep from being buried alive?

IS there an Excavation skill?

The closest applicable skill I can find is "Mining", RGMG 77.
Technically, the description of what the skill provides does NOT include knowledge of tunnel construction or underground architecture, but as a GM I'd assume that it actually does cover these things.

Can they dig a grave real fast?

I'd assume so, but not as fast as their Digging Speed.
IF Digging Speed works like normal Speed, then a Dog Boy with a Digging Speed of 1 would be able to dig 20 yards per minute, or about 5 yards per melee if they have 4 attacks per melee.
It doesn't cover dirt removal, though, so it would be of limited use when digging a grave, although just loosening up the soil would help.
Also, based on my knowledge of canine digging techniques, I'd say the surface of the hole could be dug out a pretty close to Digging Speed--maybe as deep as the character's elbows--simply by flinging the dirt out all around.
A standard grave is 3.5'x8' in area, and Digging seems to allow for the character's body width as the base digging width. Most characters' shoulders would be broad enough to cover that area in two passes of the 8' length, which would be about 16' worth of digging, so would probably take about 1 minute to accomplish the first 12"ish worth of digging.

After that, you'd likely need to switch to conventional digging techniques, or have somebody stand behind you with a bucket to catch the dirt as you dug it up, so they could toss the dirt out of the hole.

Or the character could Dig the rest of the grave area, which might not take much more time depending on their body size. If you assume their Digging height is the same as their crawling height, it'd take maybe another minute or two for an average-human-sized dogboy to dig the soil in the rest of the grave loose, which I'd arbitrarily assume as a GM would mean something like 1/2 normal digging speed to excavate the rest of the grave.

All of this is assuming that the ground is just dirt/sand/mud, without rocks, tree roots, or other obstructions.

Fox hole?

Much like above, but with the key difference being that foxholes tend to utilize the excavated soil as a protective mound around the hole itself, I believe, whereas a grave might need to be tidier if a full funeral were to be performed.

Mining?

Any serious mining is going to run into obstructions for which the Digging Speed wouldn't help.
You might get a bit of a bonus digging out tunnels compared to using conventional mining techniques for digging, but you'd regularly hit rocks and such. A lot of mining is done predominantly IN rock, I believe, so the Digging would be of no practical use.

[Grazzik]

I've always considered this as something instinctual - no skill needed - where they use their claws, not a shovel. Why? Because dogs dig in dirt. Dogs dig holes, not tunnels. Dog boys are likely the same, but they're smart enough to make short tunnels if they have to. Nothing fancy or permanent.

There are plenty of Technical skills (Excavation, Mining, Underground Architecture, and maybe Construction [with a penalty]), but as these are technical skills, they are on a scale and of a nature that necessitates the use of tools. Not applicable in the case of the instinctual canine digging where dirt goes flying.

The speed of 1d6 digging is really fast - at max is half the speed of someone running - totally unrealistic. KC's suggestion of 5 cubic ft/min seems reasonable. I'd maybe adjust it to 1d6 cubic ft/min so as to match the dice roll.