Saturday, September 22, 2018

Sleeping for Rest

Most characters need to sleep at least six hours per 24-hour cycle, if they wish to avoid negative effects from forced march, heal their hit points through rest or regain their spells.

Sleeping must be managed under reasonably comfortable conditions.  Characters cannot sleep in their armor, or while wearing anything uncomfortable; they may not sleep in the open if it is raining; they may not sleep in temperatures that cannot be properly insulated against.  Decibel levels cannot be above 40 dB.  If these conditions are not met, characters may try to sleep, but it is presumed the sleep is ineffective and not restful.

Characters that are sleeping have a chance to awake if roused or if conditions change.  These rules, as well as the sort of sleeper an individual is (heavy, normal, light) are covered under Rouse Sleeping Creatures.

For attacking sleeping persons who will not wake due to approaching stealthily, see Helpless Defenders.

When waking, a formerly sleeping character should be counted as prone and unarmed.  Until 4 action points (AP) are expended by the character to fully awaken themselves, the character should be counted as groggy for combat purposes (-2 to hit).  Rising from a prone position requires 2 AP, while rising from a chair requires 1 AP.  If the character's weapon was laying within reach or beside the character when the character was sleeping, it requires 1 AP to take hold of it, regardless of the weapon's weight or length.

See Also,
Sleep (spell)

Endurance Running I (sage ability)

Enables the physical power necessary to run very long distances, provided the character has sufficient water to drink and is minimally encumbered - that is, the character is carrying little enough that they have the full potential movement, typically 5 action points (AP).

The speed that can be maintained is equal to a cost of ⅖ AP per combat hex.  This equals a distance of 8.52 miles per hour, which can be maintained for a period of up to 3 hours.


During this time, the runner will sweat considerably, double the amount normally lost in perspiration due to dehydration.  This water must be replaced no more than every ten minutes, continuously, either by water that is found or carried.

For example, a 150 lb. character running in warm weather is losing 0.9 lbs. of water every hour, or 13.8 fluid ounces (1.72 cups, or 431 ml).  This equals 2.3 fl. oz. per ten minutes, a little more than a quarter of a cup or 72 ml.  This is about 4 swallows of water (which ranges from 16 to 20 ml per swallow).  Running in this temperature is more or less feasible.

Of course, the runner can stop at any time and search for water.  If the amount of necessary hydration is not achieved, however, movement while running is reduced to normal running speed (½ cost per combat hex) for the following ten minutes.  After that, the runner must reduce their speed to a normal pace.  Once the necessary amount of water has been imbibed to replace all that has been lost since the run began, the character may begin running again, until the three-hour limit has been reached.

See Running (athletic ability)