Fatigue

[phindar]

I've always liked the idea of fatigue rules, but they tend to be too complicated and its not worth slowing play down. Its one of those things where my desire for verisimilitude is at odds with my desire for ease of play. Game of Thrones had a fatigue mechanic, but it wasn't great. -1 per round past the threshold or something. It didn't really click with my group.

Here's what I've been batting around, probably since 2e. A character's Con is his Fatigue Score. You'd write it down over by Saves. Light weapons would be 1 fatigue point, normal weapons 2, 2-hand weapons 3 (maybe, I'm not married to the numbers). A round spent attacking with a Light weapon would be 1 Fatigue (just for the attack or full-attack action, not per attack).

A character who surpasses his Fatigue Score becomes Fatigued, and the counter resets. Once he surpasses it again, he becomes Exhausted. For simplicity, I'd say Fatigue disappears at the end of the encounter, and exhaustion takes an hour to go away. (Similar to the barbarian's fatigue after Rage. Also, Fatigue wouldn't kick in until after Rage or Frenzy ends.) Or, Fatigue could be like normal and spells like Lesser Restoration would be more important. (Maybe a 1st level spell like Refresh that removes or downgrades fatigue/exhasution could be used.)

I know, I know, one more thing to keep track of. Believe me, I get that. If I were going to introduce something like this, it would be in a low-level game where there isn't very much to keep track of, to give my group a chance to road test it and get used to it. I've just always liked the idea.

 

[Felnar]

is this based on 2ed PO: combat and tactics?
it sounds very familiar

 

[phindar]

My group never got into PO series, though we pulled a lot of stuff from Dragon Magazine and other supplements over the years. These Fatigue rules are pretty common sense stuff, so it wouldn't surprise me to find similar versions exist somewhere. Can anyone give a brief, non-copyright infringing rundown of PO: C&T fatigue rules to see if there is anything worth cannibalizing? (Has fatigue been covered in later supplements for 3.5?)

 

[The Levitator]

I'm using a different mechanic, but a similar idea in our game and the players love it. Granted, I'm using DM Genie and I created a script that tracks it all automatically, so it may not be a great idea for anyone who is not using DM Genie.

Basically, I came up with a system called Battle Fatigue because my players didn't like the concept that a 100 HP fighter fights just as well at 1 HP. We understand the abstract concept of HP and that they aren't intended to ONLY represent damage, but describing near misses and nicks round after round gets boring. So, in order to make them happy, I came up with a system that tries to simulate the depreciating effects of stress and injury during combat. It's a simple system based on comparing current HP to total HP.

76-100% of total HP= healthy
51-75% of totaly HP= Light Battle Fatigue (-1 STR, -1 DEX)
26-50% of total HP= Moderate Battle Fatigue (-2 STR, -2 DEX)
25% or less than total HP= Heavy Battle Fatigue (-4 STR, -4 DEX)

In addition, I use this system with a relative health indicator with Maptools. Maptools has the ability to add colored halos to tokens, so I made a color coding system that corresponds with the above system.

Green= healthy
Yellow= Light Battle Fatigue
Orange= Moderate Battle Fatigue
Red= Heavy Battle Fatigue

They players like how taking damage can change their battle strategy and since we don't use exact numbers to describe the action, the combat feels more intense and risky. It's not for everyone, but it seems like it might be something you might want to experiment with.

BTW, if you are using DM Genie, I'd be happy to send you my scripts for the above system!

 

[phindar]

I appreciate the offer, but I'm so luddite I run games out of a loose-leaf notebook and the occasional Excel spreadsheet.

I mentioned this to some of my fellow players, and one of them had a really ingenious idea for keeping track of Fatigue: poker chips. You have a stack equal to your Con, and toss in however many you need to use to attack per round. That'd be the lo-tek solution, anyway.

 

[The Levitator]

That's crazy coincedence! I was just talking with another DM tonight about the Battle Fatigue system that I came up with and he's doing the same thing! He's going to use 3 colored poker chips under his minis to represent the 3 stages of Battle Fatigue. It may be low tech to some, but for players who are already using a more tactile system, I personally think the poker chips (used in either our system or yours) will add an extra bit of fun for players. And that's what it's all about!

 

[scholz]

I am just going to throw out another crazy idea. What if you took a nod from Mutants and Masterminds and made Fatigue a function of Extra Effort.
So instead of just penalizing people for being injured (which also sucks) give them the opportunity to trade Fatigue for something good (bonus damage, a reroll on a To Hit, an auto-confirmed critical, etc..) That way players would do it to themselves instead of having it done to them.

 

[Aramax]

I love the but have never tryed anything that I liked.Over the 25 years that I have run my game ,Ive tried many ways of doing this.But I havnt quit yet!