Deterioration and Recovery

There are numerous ways in which characters can come to be in less than perfect condition, and equally numerous ways in which they can recover. This section deals with the more important.

Injury, Fatigue, and Boredom

Whenever a character becomes injured, fatigued, bored, seduced, or enters any other negative state which she has a chance of throwing off over time, the GM should assign three factors: the recovery ability, the severity, and the level.

Recovery is determined using the Crafting Rules. The recovery ability determines the crafting total, the severity determines the time period, and the level determines the difficulty. If the level is higher than the character's recovery ability, this does not indicate that she cannot recover at all. Instead, subtract enough from the level to make it one less than the revoery ability, and multiply the recovery time by the number subtracted, plus one. (That is, add the recovery time every time you subtract one from the level.)

For example, Flavia is injured. The recovery ability is Endurance, which in her case is 8, the severity is one week, and the level is 12. If this were a real crafting total, she would be incapable of completing the task. As it is, the time period is increased to six weeks, and the level reduced to 7.

If it would be necessary to subtract half or more of the level, the character cannot recover without help.

Medical or other assistance may help the character. Use the assisting ability, the severity, and the level to set up another crafting situation, but any points gained by the medic (or other assistant) add to the character's running total. In this case, a character cannot assist if the level exceeds his ability.

Injuries should be assigned a severity of a day, a week, or a month. A standard level is 5: an average person recovers in the time period. If they are more complex, or there are other complicating factors, such as infection, increase the level. Fatigue should be assigned a severity of an hour or a day, in most cases, and boredom likewise. Of course, the GM may change this if desired.

Injuries and fatigue may also be assigned a penalty, which is subtracted from all totals. This need bear no relation to any of the other parameters: for example, banging a bone can render you practically helpless, but only for a matter of seconds, and it has no permanent ill-effects. On the other hand, a small cut right on a joint can take ages to heal, but cause you no real inconvenience. The whole penalty applies until the injury is fully recovered: this is not entirely realistic, but the book-keeping involved in slowly removing the penalty is probably not worth the trouble.

Disease and Poison

A character exposed to a disease must make an opposed roll against the disease's infectivity. If she fails, she catches the disease.

Once a disease is caught, or a poison ingested, the character may try to fight it off. This is resolved as a normal contest. The acting, effect, and resistance totals should be set for each disease or poison, as should the way in which the corresponding totals are generated by the character: they will normally be Endurance, Endurance, and Endurancex3, although the multiplier will often vary between diseases and poisons.

The interval between rolls in the contest should also be set. For a fast posion, they might be a fraction of a second, while a lingering disease might have an interval of months. While the contest is being resolved, the character is unwell, but not seriously. If the character wins the contest, the disease is thrown off, and there are no further effects.

If she loses, the disease or poison advances a stage. At this point, the character gains an injury, again depending on the disease or poison, and possibly as severe as death. The disease or poison may have more than one stage: if so, repeat the contest.

Once the character has won a contest, or the disease or poison has run its course, she may begin to recover, using the recovery rules above.

Aging

Even characters in role-playing games grow old and die. Every year, starting when she turns thirty, a character gains one Aging Point per year. Characters can also gain Aging Points from illnesses, nasty accidents, unhealed wounds, and so on.

When a character has 10 Aging Points, she gains one point of Aging Penalty. When she has accumulated another 9, she gains a second point. In general, once a character accumulates (10-[Aging Penalty]) Aging Points, she gains another point of Aging Penalty. Once the Aging Penalty reaches 9, the character gains one point of penalty for every point.

The Aging Penalty is subtracted from each Aptitude for all purposes, so that the character learns more slowly as she ages. Also, one half of the penalty (rounded down) should be subtracted from all Physical Abilities, and one third (again, rounded down) from all Mental and Social Abilities. When the Aging Penalty exceeds your greatest Endurance Ability, you die.