The Forge Archives

I had an idea today at work about the Fatigue rules in TRoS that I want to share with everyone on the list.  This is just an outline of my thoughts so far without any hard rules.  I am just wondering what you all thought about it and to invite any suggestions or ideas that you might have on the subject.

Fatigue (general things that effect all types of Fatigue equally)
*   Reduced or denied access to food, water, and air accelerates Fatigue accumulation.
*   Reduced accumulation of Fatigue for activities that are typical or common for the character.

Temporal Fatigue
*   Acquired through light, medium, and heavy exertion.
*   Effected by the Encumbrance and Strength of the character.  The character's Strength is used as apposed to Endurance because that is used to determine the frequency, like it is in the original rules.
*   Can be recovered at various rates by stopping all activity and either casually standing around, sitting down, or lying down, plus recovery can be further accelerated by meditation or sleep.
*   Temporal Fatigue also translates into Mental Fatigue at a rate determined by a character's Race and Will Power.
*   Affects only physical actions being performed, but take note of the previous point.

Mental Fatigue
*   Acquired through just being awake and through light, medium, and heavy mental activities.  Also gained through acquisition of Temporal Fatigue.
*   Can only be recovered through meditation or sleep.
*   At high amounts, it can lead to a person falling asleep whether the character wishes to or not.

Spiritual Fatigue
*   Acquired through performing actions that are in strong opposition to a character’s Conscience, Faith, or Destiny, or by a character loosing their Drive, Faith, or Passion through events within or beyond their control.
*   Can only be recovered through long periods of time such as weeks, months, or even years.
*   Has the same affect as Mental Fatigue, plus it can either increase the character’s ability or inability to fall asleep, and either increase or decrease the appetite of the character.  In the later of these two cases, it becomes easier for the character to accumulate Temporal Fatigue.  The later of the two cases is also the most likely result.

Interesting. There could be different fatigue recovery rates, depending on where you rest(i.e. Inn is better than wilderness). Then the presence of a "Travel Pack" or similar would increase the fatigue recovery rate. I've always wanted a mechanical reason for carrying around all that stuff.
BTW, the "Travel Pack" is a wonderful invention. More of that kind!


Diseases and illness should be a factor as well. And injuries.

I had forgotton about disease and illness, good idea!  as far as sleeping in a bed or a wilderness, I think that the major difference should be determined by the temperature of where you're at.  Have you ever tried to go camping when it's 32ºF outside.  I think there should be a maximum amount of recovery as well.

Another thing that I have thought of is that my Spiritual Fatigue could be used to curtail players that are trying to take advantage of the Spiritual Attributes by picking things like having the destiny to never die.  If an evant should happen to come along to put that into dought, that character could acquire Spiritual Fatigue.  I guess it could at least make them think twice about what they pick in the first place.

I have a question for Those Who Knows, regarding these things.
How comfortable or uncomfortable is it to wear a plate armor during travel?
I can imagine someone wearing a chainmail tunic while walking eight hours a day, but is that possible in a plate armor?
How much of a difference does a horse make?

Durgil:
I can't see wounds as a factor on your list. It should be.
Anyway, It'll be fun to see the results. As I've said before, I've always wanted a mechanic for simulating weary, travel-worn, starved characters.

Um.. I can't say for certain, as I'm only just now upgrading to steel in my armor, but I did wear my steel cuisses/knees for several hours of walking, running, sitting even a little bit of jumping (familiarizing before going into combat) with barely a notice. Once I got into combat, I began to notice them a lot more, though it was probably due to a popped rivet altering the fit, and causing one leg to ride lower than the other.. very, very irritating when you've got articulated knees with a half-greave.

So, on a slightly different vein, if/when you do come up with a mechanic for simulating weary, travel-worn, starved characters, hit 'em extra hard if their armor doesn't fit right.

Also, I imagine, from what little I do know, that riding a horse would be notably better IF you are familiar with the saddle. If you're not (ie, no or low riding skill) factor in saddle-soreness to anything involving using the body from the hips down.

Those are great suggestions and ideas! Thanks a lot, Joakim and Lance.  This project may take me a while though; there is a lot of information here to assimilate.

The more time I spend working on this idea, the more complicated it all becomes.  How many Fatigue Points can an individual accumulate before he drops from exhaustion?  Can dropping from exhaustion only occur from the acquiring Temporal Fatigue or should there also be limits on the amount of Mental and Spiritual Fatigue?  How should experience in a skill affect the rate of accumulation?  This is all just getting way too crazy for me to contemplate.  Unless there are some ideas on how to conveniently handle this material without writing The Riddle of Fatigue, I think I will have to just leave well enough alone.

Something else that I just thought of that I would like to see, possibly in TFoB, is the opportunity for a combatant to choose to fight an opponent who he perceives to be much weaker at a reduced CP so as to reduce his fatigue accumulation.

QuoteHow many Fatigue Points can an individual accumulate before he drops from exhaustion?

Three or four times your END score, perhaps?

QuoteCan dropping from exhaustion only occur from the acquiring Temporal Fatigue or should there also be limits on the amount of Mental and Spiritual Fatigue?

From your first post, I got the impression that Temporal Fatigue makes you exhausted, Mental Fatigue makes you tired and Spiritual Fatigue gives you nightmares and general Spiritual unrest. I liked it that way.

QuoteHow should experience in a skill affect the rate of accumulation?

How about if you took three different sets of accumulations for light, medium and heavy exertion. Then put all kinds of activities in these three different categories. Now, to use horse riding as an example, that activity might go from Medium to Light exertion, depending on your Riding skill. This also suits what Lance said about riding.

Quote from: JoakimFrom your first post, I got the impression that Temporal Fatigue makes you exhausted, Mental Fatigue makes you tired and Spiritual Fatigue gives you nightmares and general Spiritual unrest. I liked it that way.  [And] How about if you took three different sets of accumulations for light, medium and heavy exertion. Then put all kinds of activities in these three different categories. Now, to use horse riding as an example, that activity might go from Medium to Light exertion, depending on your Riding skill. This also suits what Lance said about riding.

These are all really good ideas.  I will try to work on it some more over the Holidays.  Thanks!