How fast does fire spread in Pathfinder?

[Michael Girdwood]

My characters are currently playing through the Curse of the Crimson Throne: Edge of Anarchy book. After deciding to go back to Eel's End to take out Devargo Barvasi, they took two hours to come up with a plan. The plan has been highly successful so far, but it involved setting fire to the drug den/boat. While this served them as a successful distraction, the fire now encompasses the back half of that boat and I need to figure out how fast the fire might spread. I have been unable to find related rules. Any ideas on house rules?

Also, would Devargo warn Chittersnap? And, if he did, how would the ettercap react?

[erian_7]

Cross-posted to the 3.5/OGL forum.

[DM_Blake]

I don't have a ready answer about fire atm, but I would suggest you might want to bury most of your post in a spoiler:

Spoiler:

Like this.

Simply click the button to "Show" the "BBCode tags you can use" below the text window.

[Vigil]

Possible spoilers for CotCT:

Spoiler:

In Escape From Old Korvosa, a fire breaks out in a townhome while the pc's are in a fight. The adventure recommended cutting up some little red paper pieces and placing them in some squares. Every round, roll to see if the fire spread and where, and add more little red bits to the now-burning squares (the specific mechanics are in the adventure). If the fire spreads to an occupied square, the occupant takes damage. After a minute, smoke inhalation kicked in, too.

[cyrusduane]

Michael Girdwood wrote:

I have been unable to find related rules. Any ideas on house rules?

In the free land of Pathfinder, Fire spreads at the speed of plot. (As fast as you want it to, and what is good for the story)

[DM_Blake]

cyrusduane wrote:

Michael Girdwood wrote:

I have been unable to find related rules. Any ideas on house rules?

In the free land of Pathfinder, Fire spreads at the speed of plot. (As fast as you want it to, and what is good for the story)

Oooh, I love the speed of plot.

I once had a storyline hit mock3 (three times the speed of plot). The sonic boom shattered our pepsi bottles.

Speed of plot is good, until you have some smart alec player who calls you to the carpet for having events transpire either too fast or too slow - these wise guys hardly ever accept the old speed of plot excuse.

Still, you're almost certainly right in this scenario. Without specific rules to follow, it's really up to the DM to spread the fire as he sees fit, hopefully to enhance the challenge and suspense of the moment.

[Rezdave]

DM_Blake wrote:

Speed of plot is good, until you have some smart alec player who calls you to the carpet for having events transpire either too fast or too slow - these wise guys hardly ever accept the old speed of plot excuse.

"It's burning so fast because the ship was recently tarred and pitched against leakage and there are still spills and barrels everywhere that haven't been cleaned up yet."

"It's burning so slowly because this ship was made out of a locally harvested wood that is particularly hard and, though it makes great charcoal, burns particularly slowly when exposed to open flame."

A creative DM can always put down a Player.

FWIW,

Rez

[toyrobots]

Rezdave wrote:

A creative DM can always put down a Player...

...and make them like it.

[primemover003]

I'm almost certain the rules for a structural fire are in the DMG 2...

[Daniel Moyer]

The fire would spread until you got a cleric to cast Remove Disease on you, but that's what your Paladin gets for hanging out at the Eel's End Brothel and Calistrian women.

[DM_Blake]

Daniel Moyer wrote:

The fire would spread until you got a cleric to cast Remove Disease on you, but that's what your Paladin gets for hanging out at the Eel's End Brothel and Calistrian women.

Stupid n00b paladin!

Just a couple more levels and he would have been immune to that...