Fatigue...

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Kloster

Hi,

1st time we played RQIII, we carried over some elements from RQII, including ENC management.

All the other campaign (and the next to be started soon) have used the basic RQIII fatigue rules. And yes, we all ticked 1 FP every round, and it was not a problem. We all had a sheet of paper to mark MP, FP and Hits.


Runequestement votre,

Kloster

The problem for most people was that once you hit the penalty part, constantly having to subtract varying values got tedious. Yes, its a part of the system, but there are plenty of times when you could normally just look at a skill as listed and use it as-is. Having to do the math, even if it isn't hard math, round after round could get old.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

The problem for most people was that once you hit the penalty part, constantly having to subtract varying values got tedious. Yes, its a part of the system, but there are plenty of times when you could normally just look at a skill as listed and use it as-is. Having to do the math, even if it isn't hard math, round after round could get old.

When I was running RQ3, Fatigue was usually a non issue. Most characters had a few positive FP points, and RQ fights tend to be short and brutal.

In the few cases where characters went into negatives, it was fairly easy to roll the dice, see if the result was close, and if so bother to check the penalties.

For the most part, if a character had a 85% sword skill, and rolled a 43, fatigue isn't a factor.

I can only recall two fights in RQ3 where fatigue played a real factor. The first was a massive fight where a dozen characters held off a group of 50-60 foes by holding two staircases, and the second was a situation where someone had put on multiple layers of armor to face a dragon. One the first situation was a bookkeeping pain, and that was less because of fatigue, and mostly because of tracking wounds, turns, and SR for 50+ NPCs.

[drohem]

Our RQ3 group did the same thing: we checked fatigue penalties when your die roll was close to your maximum skill level and the fight was lengthy.

[Kloster]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

The problem for most people was that once you hit the penalty part, constantly having to subtract varying values got tedious. Yes, its a part of the system, but there are plenty of times when you could normally just look at a skill as listed and use it as-is. Having to do the math, even if it isn't hard math, round after round could get old.

No. As some others have explained for their case, most of the time you just tick your fatigue tally. You have to check only if the roll is close to your real skill value AND the combat has already had quite a long duration.
Except for the occasional miss by 1 or 2 percent, the only real influence I can remember is a memorable (for me) fight where most of the participants were nearing exhaustion (negative FP equaling starting value), and were taking breath to regain 1 or 2 FP , just to be able to strike without passing out.

This fight was one of the most tactical and interesting I ever had, because we all had to outthink our adversaries, to use all our capabilities, to exploit the terrain, just to avoid losing our lives.
I liked.

Runequestement votre

[Trifletraxor]

Originally Posted by Kloster

No. As some others have explained for their case, most of the time you just tick your fatigue tally.

That would be nice, but for me it would go something like this: "Have you remembered to tick your fatigue tally? Please tick the tally! Remember to tick the fatigue tally every round. TICK THAT BOX YOU MORONS!!!"

And I'd get responses like, "Yeah, yeah, [tick!]", "I keep track in my head..." and "But it doesn't matter anyway".

I want a better system. Ticking every single round takes time.

SGL.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Trifletraxor

That would be nice, but for me it would go something like this: "Have you remembered to tick your fatigue tally? Please tick the tally! Remember to tick the fatigue tally every round. TICK THAT BOX YOU MORONS!!!"

And I'd get responses like, "Yeah, yeah, [tick!]", "I keep track in my head..." and "But it doesn't matter anyway".

I want a better system. Ticking every single round takes time.

SGL.

But every ophter system that handles fatigue "in combat" generally requires that you track the passage of time.

Maybe instead of the players ticking off points, the GM could keep track of what turn it is and use that, instead of rely on players to tick off points.

I can think of several less detailed methods, inclduing those from RQ2.

One simple method would be to let each character fight STRx3 minutes before they are exhausted and must half skill ratings. If ENC> STR use STRx2, and so forth. But, at that level fatigure can be basically ingored.

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

But every ophter system that handles fatigue "in combat" generally requires that you track the passage of time.

Not all of them require you to bookkeep every round, however. The RQ: AIG system, for example, made some checks at the start of combat based on what you'd been doing before and you encumberance, and then assumed you were good for a few rounds. And the time when you needed to check again was consistent for everyone, so all the GM had to do was keep track of when that check point rolled around and then say "Time for fatigue checks again."

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

When I was running RQ3, Fatigue was usually a non issue. Most characters had a few positive FP points, and RQ fights tend to be short and brutal.

I saw quite a few who rode the ragged edge, and we certainly saw 10-15 round fights on occasion.

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Kloster

No. As some others have explained for their case, most of the time you just tick your fatigue tally. You have to check only if the roll is close to your real skill value AND the combat has already had quite a long duration.

I will put bets this just means in practice it gets missed fairly often.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

I will put bets this just means in practice it gets missed fairly often.

I won't take that beit either. Being the guy who ran such, it did get missed a bit. Especially when people were bleeding to death, someone was tryting to get off a haeal, while other were trying to get off the last hit.

But, to be honest, it really didn't matter too much. Gnerally a 5% error in the hit percentages either way wasn't that big a deal.


To me, the bigger pain in the butt bookeeping wise, was magic. Everyone cast differernt spells in differernt rounds, then having to keep track of when what wore off of whom.

I think the easiest method (other than ignore fatigue entirely), is to roll after a fight (or maybe before and after, if the group has been active) and apply a penalty then. Realistically, it is almost impossible for someone to pass out from fatigue while fighting for their life. Adrenaline will keep them going. They will probably "crash" after the fight, but really no one is going to fall over from the weight of a breastplate when someone's swinging an axe at them. Not when most fights rarely last more than a minute or two.

You could even force a roll when a hit location gets reduced to 0. People do pass out from pain.