Exhaustion, Healing, and Injuries

by Steve Danielson

Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 23:24:30 -0500 From: sd18@cornell.edu (Steve Danielson) To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Exhaustive Exhaustion (Long Post)

>>>>>Warning: Long Post.

While this does appear to be in direct contradiction to my previous article about excessive rules debate, I think that I could use some feedback on this. Please help me out on this one;) By the way, the guys at ICE appear to be receptive to new ways of looking at things even at this late stage of the game -- so original ideas are good!

The Body Politic: Exhaustion, Healing, and Injuries in RoleMaster

The purpose of this article is to consolidate the three statistics that measure a character's health: hits, injuries, and exhaustion.

1. Hits

Concussion Hit Point loss is the most common type of damage suffered in Rolemaster combat. Standard Rolemaster rules state that characters heal at a rate of one per hour of rest or one per three hours of light activity. This method is works all right for low hit point totals but as character's hit point totals rise, the healing time takes longer and longer. Assume a halfling loses 10% of his hit points, say roughly five total. The halfling will take five hours of rest to heal.. Contrast this to a half - troll who also takes 10% of his hit points, say roughly twenty total. The troll will require twenty hours of continuous rest to heal up. Even though both characters have lost the same percentage of hit points, one takes four times longer to heal than the other. This creates a disparity in the game. I suggest to allow characters to roll their racial hit dice after the rest period to see how many points they will heal. This allows characters with dissimilar hit point totals to heal at roughly the same rate respective to their racial maximum hit points.

2. Injuries

Injuries are a frequent occurrence in Rolemaster due to the critical based combat system that it employs. Injuries have a variable rate of recovery based upon the severity of the injury and the overall health of the character. This article will examine how to classify injuries and determine an accurate recovery time for the character. The discussion in this section closely parallels that of the Rolemaster system. It is included for completeness.

3. Exhaustion

Each character in Rolemaster has a rating which gauges their characters stamina called exhaustion points. The exhaustion points statistic is a game mechanic used to measure how much activity a character can accomplish before becoming tired and incurring activity penalties. This article focuses on a new system for generating and recovering exhaustion points based upon the racial and Co bonus of the character.

Section One: Recovery from Hits

When recovering from hit point damage, a character must not engage in hard physical activity, to do so will nullify the time spent resting up to that point. Depending on the type of activity the character is currently pursuing, he will recover 1 hit die (roll at the end of the healing period) for every full healing interval that he rests. A character recovers from hit point damage at the following rate:

     1 Hit Die/hour of rest
     1 Hit Die/three hours of light activity

The character's constitution bonus divided by ten is added to the recovery roll when it is made. This reflects that character's with heartier constitutions will recover faster than those with lesser constitutions.

Section Two: Injuries and Recovery Time

As defined in Character Law and Campaign Law,
injuries can be divided into three general types:
Light Injuries     If a specific injury results in
                   a penalty of 0 to -20, it is
                   considered a "light injury." 
                   In addition, light injuries
                   include wounds which yield
                   1 to 5 hits per round in
                   bleeding

Medium Injuries       Specific injuries which result
                      in a penalty of -21 to -50 are
                      considered "medium
                      injuries."  Medium injuries
                      also include wounds which
                      yield 6 to 10 hits per round
                      in bleeding.  Fractures are
                      considered medium injuries.

Severe Injuries     Should a specific injury
                   result in a penalty of -51 or
                   more, it is considered a
                   "severe injury."  In addition,
                   severe injuries include
                   shattered bones and wounds
                   which yield more than 10
                   hits per round in bleeding. 
                   Any wound which destroys
                   an organ, or renders it
                   inoperable for more than one
                   day is also considered severe.

Recovery from Wounds

Characters recovering from wounds, will need to roll on the Healing Recovery Chart (see RM Rules). The character will roll the dice and then add his Co bonus plus any modifiers as the Gamemaster deems appropriate. The resulting time is the number of days needed to heal a light wound. To determine the number of days needed to heal a medium wound or a severe wound, multiply the number by 5 or 10 respectively. Also, multiply the total time needed for recovery by the racial recovery multiplier.

Multiple Wounds

It is possible for a character to suffer multiple wounds. In the case of multiple wounds, roll to determine the recovery time for the most serious wound. To that total add one - half of the recovery time needed for all other wounds suffered.

Example     Tervyn Nightstalker, the infamous
        half - elven thief fails in his attempt
        to leap from the third floor of a villa,
        catch a flag post, and catapult himself
        over the villa wall into the small pond
        outside the wall.  After rolling
        criticals, it is determined that Tervyn
        has suffered; a broken ankle, fractured
        ribs, and a mild concussion.  His
        recovery time in the local prison is
        determined as follows: (the player
        rolls a 73 on the healing recovery
        chart)  broken ankle [severe wound
        with bone, tissue, and tendon damage,
        max result of 2 days x 10] 20 days
        plus fractured ribs [medium wound
        with bone damage, max result 1 day x
        5 / 2] 2.5 days, and plus concussion
        [medium wound with head damage,
        max result 5 days x 5 / 2] 12.5 days. 
        A total of 20 + 2.5 + 12.5, or 35 days
        will be spent in recovery.  Adjust this
        total by the racial recovery modifier
        of half - elves of 1.5 for an actual
        total of 52 days.

Treatment

Recovery time can be lessened if the character is in intensive care, like a hospital. It is up to the Gamemaster to decide how much time is gained.

First Aid

First aid skills can reduce the effects of wounds by stopping bleeding and splinting bones. The benefits gained by first aid only last as long as the character remains inactive. Active movement and actions will reopen and reaggravate the wounds.

Complications: Infections

While characters are recuperating from wounds, they are vulnerable to infections and diseases. The Gamemaster can model this by modifying all resistance rolls made by the character by a constant factor (anywhere from -10 to -50 depending on the severity of their condition).

Complications: Permanent Damage

If the character suffers a massive severe injury it is possible that they will be adversely affected with permanent damage. Examples could include a character who received major eye damage, and as a result had gained a -30 modifier to all visual perception skills. It is up to the Gamemaster to decide whether this happens. Magical healing will reduce this chance of permanent damage.

Section Three: Exhaustion Points

It is not necessary for the Gamemaster to keep track of exhaustion points for all player characters every single gaming session. Instead, exhaustion points should be used as a game mechanic to increase suspense and drama during certain gaming sessions where the characters are reaching the end of their endurance, but do not dare to rest. Each character's exhaustion point total is a measure of the activity they can try to accomplish before they become too fatigued. This system does not measure the degree of a character's fatigue as a continuous spectrum, rather it divides exhaustion into a set of stages, each with their own modifiers. To determine the base exhaustion points available to a character multiply the racial hit dice type by ten, then add the total Co modifier of the character to the total. The exhaustion point total is further modified by the age of the character. For example, an high elf would have 100 base exhaustion points. If the person in our example was an adult elven Fighter with a Co of 100, his exhaustion point total would be 125.

Introducing Exhaustion Stages

To promote ease of play, the GameMaster does not need to track a character's exhaustion points to the last detail to determine any exhaustion modifiers. Rather there exists a range of exhaustion stages which characters pass through. Each stage has its own base modifier to all actions. The stages are as follows: Not Fatigued (-0%), Light Fatigue (-10%), Fatigued (-30%), Heavily Fatigued (-50%), Exhausted (-70%), and Total Exhaustion (-100%). The effects of exhaustion modifiers on character actions are as follows:

     100% of penalty for all purely physical actions
          (including combat)
     75% of penalty for all physical/mental related       
          actions (including spellcasting)
     50% of penalty for all purely mental actions

Determining the amount of exhaustion points in each stage is easy: take the total exhaustion points of the character and divide it by ten. Do not worry about the remainder. The first 20% goes to the Not Fatigued stage, the next 20% goes to the Light Fatigue stage, the next 30% goes to the Fatigued stage, the next 20% goes to the Heavily Fatigued stage, and the last 10% and any remainder goes to the Exhausted stage. When a character expends all of his exhaustion points, he is assumed to pass into Total Exhaustion. These totals are written on your character sheet for ease of reference. So in our example, the elven fighter would divide his exhaustion points as follows:

Exh. Stage          Point Range           Modifier
Not Fatigued          [0 - 24]              - 0%
Light Fatigue         [25 - 48]            - 10%
Fatigued              [49 - 84]            - 30%
Heavily Fatigued      [85 - 108]           - 50%
Exhausted             [109 -125]           - 70% 
Total Exhaustion      [no points left]     -100%

When a character has used all of their exhaustion points they are automatically at - 100% and must rest until they regain at least one exhaustion point.

Optional Rule:
An optional rule that adds variability to exhaustion points is to allow characters to gain 10 exhaustion points for every 5 ranks of Body Development that they learn. This reflects the training and conditioning that the character went through to gain more hit points and become tougher.

Why do we use Exhaustion Stages?

Exhaustion stages are an useful abstraction that allows the players and the Gamemaster to move away from messy details. The exhaustion stage concept also allows some interesting subtleties in rules regarding exhaustion point recovery.

Recovering Exhaustion Points

Exhaustion points are spent on a point by point basis, but they are recovered on a much more abstract scale. A character can recover exhaustion points while resting or engaging in light activity. A character is assumed to recover one exhaustion point every minute of rest or one exhaustion point every five minutes of light activity. Until a character sleeps for more than 6 hours they may not regain more than two exhaustion stages per rest period.

Sustained versus Burst Exhaustion

The above rule limiting a character to recover no more than two exhaustion stages without six hours sleep assumes that the exhaustion was sustained exhaustion. Sustained exhaustion refers to exhaustion point loss suffered because of long-term activity. This type of exhaustion is harder to recover from as it drains the body's reserves of energy. The second type of exhaustion is burst exhaustion. Burst exhaustion come into effect when a character expends his reserves quickly in a short period of time; examples would be spellcasting, and dashes or sprints. A character can recover all but one of the stages that he passed through due to his burst exhaustion activity. A character recovering from burst exhaustion, regains one exhaustion stage per minute of rest or one exhaustion stage per five minutes of light activity. The unrecovered exhaustion stage is treated as if it was generated by a sustained type of activity.

THANKS
Steve Danielson
sd18@cornell.edu


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