State of the Commonwealth - Energy and Fatigue - Playtested and Revised!

If you are designing games, be they video games, miniatures games, or tabletop RPGs, one of the required processes is playtesting. No matter how good something looks on paper, or sounds when you say it out loud, it could fall completely flat in practice around the game table. Even good ideas generally need to be refined, streamlined or radically rewritten after they have encountered the players.

Last week, I shared a system for dealing with fatigue from activity and power use in Knights-Marshal of the Commonwealth [Powered by BASH Sci Fi]. I also mentioned that I would be playtesting the system. I did, and the following is what came out of that process. However, the system was significantly altered before playtesting through brainstorming with Chris Rutkowsky, designer of BASH Sci Fi [the core system for KMotC] and owner of Basic Action Games. Chris's enthusiastic aid helped me find a few issues that would have cropped up, and refine the system into something closer to what I was looking for. Much of the porgress that has come of the last week is due to his input. Any warts that remain, are undoubtedly mine. 

Here is the current version.

The Fatigue<>Energy System is based on a continuum with Fatigue at one end and Energy at the other. The exact number of each will change over time, but they are all on the same scale – the higher your Fatigue, the less Energy you have remaining. When you are out of energy, i.e. when you are full up on Fatigue, you cannot use powers or maneuvers that cause Fatigue Checks. You must first Rest to regain energy.

Everyone begins with Energy equal to the 3 plus the total of their Stats [usually 8 in Knights-Marshal of the Commonwealth]. So beginning characters in KMotC will generally have 11 Energy.

Characters start with 1 Energy box marked off as Fatigue. This reflects the general wear and tear of activity that is not being tracked over the course of an adventure. To this other fatigue may be added through play or by the GM to reflect previous activity/ encounters, etc.

Fatigue can affect Energy in a number of ways, and can be recovered more or less quickly. In KMotC, we break fatigue down into 3 basic types.

• Extended Activity: Long term activity [like a days march through the jungle, or climbing the superstructure of a derelict starship].
• Ongoing: you can accrue this sort of Fatigue from armor worn, or certain powers or talents [like Flying, Danger Sense, or Reckless Might]. Ongoing fatigue reduces your Energy when you are using that ability, but is automatically recovered when you stop the power or talent. So your Fatigue rises when you don your armor, begin to Fly, or when you start Reckless Might, and any Fatigue checks are made against this increased total. But as soon as you stop the power, or remove the armor, the Ongoing Fatigue off that ability or armor is immediately recovered. If you have ever worn armor for real, you know that the relief on removing it is palpable.
• Action: this is the Fatigue cost from fighting maneuvers, psionics, martial arts, etc, as well as for Brawn checks for feats or strength or Agility checks for sprinting or jumping, etc.

To figure your current Fatigue Threshold: Starting at 1, add the Fatigue cost of any armor or heavy equipment carried/ worn, along with any Fatigue incurred from activity, or from ‘Ongoing’ powers or abilities. This is your Fatigue Threshold.

To make a Fatigue check, add the fatigue cost of the power or ability being attempted to your Fatigue Threshold. This is the number that must be equaled or exceeded on the Fatigue Check. If you make a check for the action attempted, say an attack roll, a power check, or similar, you will use this roll in two ways: 1 - to determine success or failure normally, and 2 – to see if your Fatigue increases due to the activity.

If your roll is equal to or higher than your Fatigue Threshold, your current Fatigue does not change. If it is lower than the Fatigue Threshold, your Fatigue, and your Fatigue Threshold for future rolls, rises by 1.

Failure on the Fatigue check does not necessarily mean failure of the power. The roll is compared to the Fatigue Threshold separately from whatever the roll would normally do – attack roll, power check, etc.

Note – Dice Bonus and Penalty modifiers that you gain for particular powers, talents, or abilities, do not affect your Fatigue Checks, only the Power or talent roll portion of the action.

Example:

Rae, the Elohir bondi pyrokinetic, is infiltrating the base of a pack of marauders, in order to open the blast doors for her knight. She has been climbing and skulking for the last hour, so she has the base of 1 Fatigue, but is not wearing armor, nor is she carrying heavy gear. She also has taken 2 Fatigue, from previous power use getting here.

            But now she is within sight of the blast door controls, which are being watched by two marauder guards. She elects to use all of her 4 points of Pyrokinesis to try to take out both guards quickly.  

            Since she is attempting a 4 point Power, her Fatigue threshold will be 3 [her current Fatigue]  + 4 [the level of the Power] for a total of 7. Rae would roll 2d6 for her attack roll with Pyrokinesis, and use the roll both to determine her success AND whether her use causes her Fatigue to rise. In this case, since she has elected to use an area attack, she would not normally make an attack roll [with area attacks, the target characters must roll to evade the area of effect, and no 'targeting' roll is normally required]. So we can use the 2d6 roll to check for Fatigue and to roll Damage for the affected squares. Since the guards are unaware of her presence, or her attack, and since Rae would not benefit from a bonus to hit, the GM assigns a -2 Dice Penalty to their evasion rolls. Even if she had received a bonus to hit, however it would not have affected the fatigue check portion of her attempt.

            Rae rolls a four and a two on her dice, for a total of six. This is below her Fatigue threshold of 7, so her fatigue will rise from 4 to 5. She also multiplies her six by the multiple for damage [in this case x4] for her pyrokinesis.

And so, feeling the effects of her invocation, RW creates a fiery area beneath both guards that should distract them long enough for her to get to the blast door controls.

Dealing with Fatigue:

Here are some ways to reduce the fatigue cost of powers, to recover faster, or to mitigate the impact they have on your ability to do stuff.

It is possible to reduce the Fatigue cost of Powers. When you are spending Power Points during character creation or with XP, 1 Power Point can reduce the cost of a power by 1 Fatigue, even to Zero Fatigue. So 2 points spent on reducing the Fatigue cost of TK would mean that you suffered no Fatigue when using TK at Rank 2 or lower.

If you fail a Fatigue Check, instead of increasing your Fatigue Threshold by 1, you may elect to transform 1 Action Fatigue [marked with an ‘/’] into Extended Activity Fatigue by marking it with an ‘X’. Your Fatigue does not rise, but it will take longer to recover Fatigue lost from extended activity with a Rest.

Rest:

You can take time to rest, and reduce your Fatigue by 1. 

One point of Action Fatigue, say from power use, or a Martial Maneuver, can be recovered by resting for a panel.

Extended Activity Fatigue [referred to as Exhaustion, like from a day of marching through the desert usually requires an hour per Point of Recovery.

Ongoing fatigue from armor worn or gear carried, or from Ongoing power use, like the Flight power, can be recovered simply by removing or dropping the gear, or discontinuing the power.

You can note Action Fatigue with a ‘/’ through the Fatigue box, and Extended Activity with an ‘X’, to help keep them straight.

            There are also a number of Advantages and Disadvantages that can affect your expenditure and recovery from Fatigue.

Advantage:

Quick Recovery: You recover at twice the normal rate. So short term fatigue recovers at the rate of 2 per panel, long term at 2 per hour. This power does not affect the amount of recovery from powers such as Psionic Rejuvenation.

Disadvantage:

Out of Shape: Your Fatigue threshold starts at 3, instead of 1 like everyone else.