Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 23:24:30 -0500 From: sd18@cornell.edu (Steve Danielson) To: Multiple recipients of listSubject: 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 purpose of this article is to consolidate the three statistics that measure a character's health: hits, injuries, and exhaustion.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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