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[Rutilant]

I just forgo drowning chambers and drop my prisoners down a 40 z-level pit. They splatter.

I did this in my fortress one time. My dorfs loved it so much they engraved goblins falling to their deaths on the walls.

I created a uh... colliseum.  A round viewing chamber with a meeting area, around the fall pit. If I used fortifications instead of windows, would body parts fly out and hit people?

[Skorpion]

The best drowning chambers deploy water from above the targets, rather than from the side. This is because water moves much, much faster from above.

However since you have freezing seasons, you should build one which deploys water from the sides, from compartments which have never seen sunlight (underground) and will keep water liquid, this water will instafreeze killing all nicely.

The problem with pouring water from above is that you have to find a way of stopping the drownees from using the intake for air.
ALSO, you run into a teensy pressure issue with drainage. It's pressurised to the level above the one where the drowning takes place; draining downwards into a holding tank could cause flooding.
This is handily averted by cavern drainage, though, if you don't mind water flooding the caverns instead.
Also, beware of dumping water into rivers. I've had wells flood due to that. It once took me five years to discover that a closed room full of water wasn't a mining accident, but the well the dwarves were complaining about the lack of.

[Knick]

Some notes on the drowning chamber:

1.  Hatches may be destroyed by building destroyers.  This may be problematic where you use hatches to drain the chamber.  A troll will destroy the hatch, causing all sorts of inconvenience.  Ditto with doors.  If the chamber is secured with a door, that door may be broken down, leading to wet fun.

2.  Not only will open air tanks freeze, but the will deconstruct any hatches underneath.  This leads to still more inconvenience when spring comes and the now-thawed water starts pouring into the chamber, which may not be good for the dwarves.

3.  If you use levers, make sure you label them as you build them.  It gets confusing when you mix up the drawbridge levers with the floodgate levers.

4.  Expect mud.  Lots of mud.  As a result of the mud, expect plants to grow in the chamber.  A towercap can block the flow of water, so beware of that.  If you can make the water ducts at least two z-levels high, you are fine.

5.  Tantrumming dwarves will sometimes randomly pull levers.  This, too is inconvenient.  Try to keep levers out of the way.

Good luck and have fun!

[TomIrony]

I just forgo drowning chambers and drop my prisoners down a 40 z-level pit. They splatter.

I did this in my fortress one time. My dorfs loved it so much they engraved goblins falling to their deaths on the walls.

I created a uh... colliseum.  A round viewing chamber with a meeting area, around the fall pit. If I used fortifications instead of windows, would body parts fly out and hit people?

I have no idea, but if they do, I can only imagine that increasing the dorfs' enjoyment!

"Look, ma! I caught a trophy!"

[Vodrilus]

I've built a couple of large drowning galleries, zig-zagging things that can drown entire sieges in one go. Here's one from Hopestarved:

Spoiler: Human squad drowning (click to show/hide)

The water comes from a 10x10x? reservoir above, controlled by a hatch (maybe I should use a grate as well). The pressurized water fills the hallway almost instantly. It has a retracting bridge (BD:s don't break these anymore, right?) floor for quick drainage and loot collection. Also, the ends of the hallway are stoppered by two raising bridges.
Below, there's a collection chamber and drainage holes, along with an atom-smasher for the corpses.

I once got a human diplomat stuck in one of these. Strangely enough, he survived: too vampire to drown.

[vanatteveldt]

I once got a human diplomat stuck in one of these. Strangely enough, he survived: too vampire to drown.

I think you were drowning it in the wrong fluid :-)

[chaosgear]

'nother question. Can grates be used to stop loot from being flushed away in the drain? It would be a pain to have to fish my goodies out of the river.

[Eric Blank]

Yes, grates should stop items from passing through them as the chamber drains.

[Naryar]

Eh, magma is better.

[Vodrilus]

Eh, magma is better.

As undwarfy as it sounds, I must disagree. The constant flood of drowned sieges provides my forts with unending amounts of hand-me-down clothing, eliminating any need for a textile industry, which means that I may concentrate more workforce to any megaprojects in sight. I also find the non-magma-safe metals that siegers bring (mainly copper, sometimes bronze) highly useful in enriching my ore-limited embarks.

[joeclark77]

4.  Expect mud.  Lots of mud.  As a result of the mud, expect plants to grow in the chamber.  A towercap can block the flow of water, so beware of that.  If you can make the water ducts at least two z-levels high, you are fine.

Would an upright spear trap prevent a tree from growing?  I'm designing my first drowning chamber and would like to combine a high-z fall trap, with a landing-on-spears trap, with a drowning trap, and an archer training range.  That is, until I have the capability to add magma. 

[Rutilant]

4.  Expect mud.  Lots of mud.  As a result of the mud, expect plants to grow in the chamber.  A towercap can block the flow of water, so beware of that.  If you can make the water ducts at least two z-levels high, you are fine.

Would an upright spear trap prevent a tree from growing?  I'm designing my first drowning chamber and would like to combine a high-z fall trap, with a landing-on-spears trap, with a drowning trap, and an archer training range.  That is, until I have the capability to add magma.

Paved roads, also.

[Veylon]

Yes, grates should stop items from passing through them as the chamber drains.

For best results, consider having a three levels: a grate on top to "catch" items, a hatch on the next level down that the water flows across and past, and a stockpile below that. Once the drowning is done and all the water is gone, open both grate and hatch so that the items can fall on your stockpile. Either leave it there or have a minecart route to haul it somewhere else. No point in hundreds of dwarf trips being made to unclutter your depot area one item at a time, especially as the depot is often near the entrance and they could theoretically be exposed to danger. I call this method "Stop, Drop, and Roll"

[SRD]

btw, cave growth can't grow through a stockpile, so just cover the whole place in a stockpile that demands nothing.