Fatigue Rule

[Tomicroll]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here so I'd thought I'd present a system and see what everyone thinks. Let me know if you have any criticisms or additions.

Fatigue

The fatigue rule is meant to cover the ramifications if a character travels more than 10 hours in a day, or moves at their run speed for an extended period of time. To keep things clear I'll refer to the first case as a stamina check, and the second case as a run check.

Stamina check - Endurance check made every hour beyond the 10th, DC Hours travelled

Run check - If moving at run speed Endurance check every hour, with the following Difficulty classes
Running 1-8 hours, DC 10
Running 9-15 hours, DC 15
Running 16+ hours, DC hours traveled
If you run more than 10 hours roll twice, once for the stamina check and once for the run check.

Any Endurance roll:
Failure by 1-3; +1 Fatigue
Failure by 4+; +2 Fatigue

Every hour that a roll is required, characters can either:
- Help another character. Choose a number (X), your DC for Endurance checks is +X, helped character DC is –X. X cannot be more than half the Endurance DC.
- Help the party. Nature Roll, DC = Endurance DC. Succeed; everyone’s Endurance DC is -1. Critically Succeed, everyone’s Endurance DC is -2. Fail by 1-3; no effect. Fail by 4+; that character can no longer attempt to help the party.
- Help themselves. Perception Roll, DC = Endurance DC. Succeed; their Endurance DC is -1. Critically Succeed, their Endurance DC is -2. Fail by 1-3, no effect. Fail by 4+, Endurance DC is +1.
- First Aid. Heal Roll, DC = Endurance DC. Succeed; -1 to someone’s fatigue. Critically Succeed, -2 to someone’s fatigue or -1 to 2 people’s fatigue. Fail by 1-3, no effect. Fail by 4+, that character can no longer attempt first aid.

Fatigue Level
1. -1 to all rolls
2. -1 to all rolls, -1 to speed
3. -1 to all rolls, -1 to speed, -1 Healing Surge*
4. -2 to all rolls, -1 to speed
5. -2 to all rolls, -1 to speed, -1 Healing Surge*
6. -2 to all rolls, -2 to speed
7. -2 to all rolls, -2 to speed, -1 Healing Surge*
8. -3 to all rolls, -2 to speed
9. -3 to all rolls, -2 to speed, -1 Healing Surge*
10. Passes out. The character will revive after an extended rest.

*Healing surge loss only occurs once upon initially hitting that fatigue level.

Let me know what you think,

Thanks,
Tomicroll

 

[Garthanos]

Short term fatigue is for me wrapped up in hit points somewhere... and
While I find myself interested in Long term damage house rules, I find myself not having much excitement for long term fatigue.

Realistically adrenaline rush tends to overpower fatigue impairment (and even replaces it with its own form of impairment - which does not impact speed) so I am not sure whether your rules are 'realistic' but they do capture a certain feeling... there are certainly campaigns where you want the environment to feel as much the adversary as anything else so that it isn't just the dragon you fight it is the process of getting there.

 

[timbannock]

Honestly, I'd present fatigue as a Skill Challenge, because fatigue isn't appropriate every session, every story, every campaign. It's only "fun" when the environment really is dangerous to the PCs. Otherwise, it's just an exercise in accounting.

YMMV.

But you do have a great system to put into that skill challenge, so by no means am I making light of your work. It seems like you could work the fatigue level into something a little cleaner by just jamming it all into the format for disease rules, no?