No, I know. I am asking how long it takes me to try to dig out on my own. You helping me takes a minute. But me doing it myself? Heh. Having been buried in a few avalanches (back in my day, wheeze, we did our research), it depends on how deep you're buried, the wetness/weight of the snow, and how you ended up buried (arms trapped underneath? in front of face, creating airspace to breathe and move in?).
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 6, 2020
The original draft of the avalanche rules had provisions for trying to keep yourself closer to the surface, and was harder to dig yourself/someone else free the more they failed while the avalanche was moving.
Way too fiddly and complicated, but stuck pretty close to realism. The rules for digging yourself out in the final version mostly represent you being able to clear enough space to breathe. If you can manage to do that, the rest is less important to track in a granular fashion.
— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) September 6, 2020
Surprises me not at all. More realistic = more fiddly, and slows down roleplaying at the table more, every time. Gary saw that from the beginning, and often answers cavils at early GenCon panels with: “D&D is NOT a simulation game. If you want that…” etc etc. Avalanches and crevasses in glaciers are a very good argument for carrying the classic ten-foot-pole (or better, a longer one!), though. Also reaching someone who's fallen through thin ice on a frozen lake or river (and I've done that far too often, too!).
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 6, 2020
You ain’t lived in Wisconsin until you’ve fallen in a frozen lake. Yep. And Michigan, and Ontario where I'm from. I even fell through ice on my neighbours' frozen outdoor in-ground swimming pools, when I was a kid. And once tobogganed onto someone's roof in a blizzard, to their great astonishment. ;}
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 6, 2020