Encumbrance/fatigue rules for dummies

[modsr]

For some reason I'm having huge difficulties understanding the journey rules, both original and revised. I'm thinking I'll go with the revised rules with my group.

What perplexes me the most is Fatigue-related stuff. I'll have a go at this. So basically, there's two different Encumbrances: your war gear (armor and shields) and your travelling gear (war gear plus travelling gear plus any other encumbrance, such as treasure). War gear sets your Fatigue baseline, meaning Fatigue can never go below that while you're wearing the gear. Now, if you fail a Fatigue check during your travel, you increase your Fatigue by your complete gear encumbrance.

Let's say my character has 28 endurance. His war gear amounts to 15 enc, and additionally he carries travelling gear (2 enc). I'd write 15 on my character sheet where it says Fatigue. Then, when I fail just one Fatigue check I'd have to increase my Fatigue by 17, bringing it to 32 (which probably isn't possible, should it cap at 28?). Even having taken no hits in combat, I'd now be Weary until I got into a sanctuary for a prolonged rest, right (and it'd take me 13 days to return to Fatigue 15)?

I'm hoping I missed something, since all this seems really harsh.

/I think I may have cracked the case, but I'll still post this so maybe someone else will learn. Your travelling gear doesn't include war gear at all, right? So I'd increase my Fatigue by 2 in the warmer months (as per the revised journey rules) per failed Fatigue check. Also, as an aside, should I keep erasing and rewriting my Fatigue score in the small circle on the character sheet according to my current Fatigue? Seems like there should be one more circle in the sheet so you'd have War Gear in the bottom one, Fatigue in the middle one and Starting Score in the top one. Then you'd erase the Fatigue and Current Score values as needed/

Edit: where does carried Treasure fit in all this? War Gear? Travelling gear?

[Arkat]

Yeah, you just raise your fatigue by two point in the warm months. Carried treasure is tallied in the same way that war gear is, and raises basic fatigue score.

[Valarian]

Your basic fatigue threshold (the point at which you become weary) is the sum of the War Gear encumbrance.

On journeys, you take either Summer travelling gear (spring/summer) or Winter travelling gear (autumn/winter). The Summer gear has an encumbrance of 1 and the Winter gear an encumbrance of 2. The encumbrance for the travelling gear is not applied until you fail a fatigue test. When this happens, for each failed test, you add the relevant travelling gear encumbrance to your fatigue threshold. When you have a prolonged rest in a safe place (not the side of the road or a camp) then the travelling gear fatigue from your failed tests will disappear, returning to h basic fatigue threshold level.

Treasure raises the basic fatigue threshold in the same way as war gear, by 1 point per treasure point carried. While you carry it with you, you incur the penalty in the form of the raised fatigue threshold. You may have treasure stored, hidden, left at home, invested with a factor, etc. This treasure is not counted as you're not carrying it with you.

When your current endurance drops below your fatigue threshold, then you become weary.

[Hermes Serpent]

Valarian has basically nailed it with the exception that Travel Fatigue is changed to 2 and 3 points for Summer/Winter in the revisions and the updated one volume core rulebook.

[Yepesnopes]

The Summer gear has an encumbrance of 1 and the Winter gear an encumbrance of 2.

Is it not 3 and 2 for winter and summer respectively?

[modsr]

Thanks, everything seems very clear now! One thing though, do you really track fatigue by constantly erasing the fatigue circle and rewriting it? Seems like it'd wear out soon enough, since fatigue changes a lot more than endurance (I'm guessing you'll gain some fatigue on every trip but you won't get wounded in every fight). Any nifty ways to deal with this?

[shipwreck]

No worries, modsr, those travel rules threw me for a loop as well. Don't forget, the Fatigue doesn't go away until they can rest in a 'safe' place! I made this mistake at my last home game and everyone was like, 'What's the point of fatigue if it just goes away when we sleep for the night?'

As far as keeping up with it, there are player scratch pads out there (I've made one, adapted from Rich's) and I just have the players divide their Fatigue box in half. One half is Encumbrance (which doesn't change until they drop gear) and the other is Travel Fatigue. Yes, it does mean erasing but they could just keep a tally as well, or just a running record on a piece of paper.

I'm sure other have better solutions out there

[Pangea]

You also asked about Treasure. The rules indicate that each Treasure Point is equal to 1 Encumbrance. So you should add that sum to your base endurance (armor / weapons / Treasure Points). Thus you can become Weary fast if you are lugging a big bag of gold while wearing armor, on a long trek.
In the games I play we give various Encumbrance rates to various treasure: some are 1 Encumbrance per Treasure Point (if coins, silverware and such) others can be 0 Encumbrance (like the 70 Treasure Point ancient elf necklace our Treasure Hunter found).
(re.Traveling gear, summer or winter, just think of them as having a Fatigue rating, not Encumbrance really).
Also, once you have been carrying your things, your Encumbrance is set, so if you drop your bag of gold or armor (except for some things such as the Helm etc.) you do not suddenly bounce your base Encumbrance down. You have to spend a restful night first.

[zedturtle]

Yeah, I generally ignore encumbrance for Treasure, although maybe I need to start factoring that in somehow. I don't like the current rules.... Maybe something to do with your Fatigue or Encumbrance and if you exceed those values then you get additional Fatigue?

[Valarian]

Valarian has basically nailed it with the exception that Travel Fatigue is changed to 2 and 3 points for Summer/Winter in the revisions and the updated one volume core rulebook.

Ah ... I've not studied the revisions in detail as yet. Interesting that they've increased that.