Making camp after a weary day’s effort. Copyright Dean Spencer Art, used with permission.

I am interested in the theme of fatigue in fantasy adventuring – that there are limits to perserverance, to maintaining constant vigilance. In general I am interested in simple rules that can bring the characters more to life and make them more than perfect automatons. And in particular, given my chronic fatigue syndrome, I am interested in tiredness.

Here are some rules.

“The most desirable quality in a soldier is constancy in the support of fatigue; valor is only secondary.” ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Fatigue

Every character has a Fatigue penalty. It starts at 0 and can increase to -3. If your fatigue would increase beyond -3, you fall unconscious for 1d6 turns.

Some exceptional characters can be tougher, by having one or even two extra “0” fatigue box to tick off before they start feeling the effects.

Effects of fatigue

Fatigue affects sustained concentration and alertness when no immediate danger threatens – for example, studying complex tomes, watching for minute signs of danger, reflexes. It’s easy to drift off and lose the thread. Any rolls that come under those categories receive the fatigue penalty, and some activities may require a roll that otherwise wouldn’t. For example, if your fatigue is severe (-3) you may need to save to stay awake if you are waiting with nothing to do.

Once danger arrives adrenaline kicks in and drives away tiredness. Apply the penalty to the initiative roll, if you use individual initiative, but not to anything else in combat.

Causes of fatigue

When exploring a dungeon we roll for fatigue every time we make a wandering monster check (normally every 2 turns). I use the encounter stew system by Arnold K, so I just toss these extra dice into the pot along with dice for torches and spell durations. I colour code my dice to tell them apart.

We roll:

One white encumbrance d6, plus 1 die for each character who is overburdened, and 1 die for each character wearing heavy armour. For every 1 rolled a character takes -1 fatigue. Assign each fatigue to a different character if possible, and assign first to the most encumbered characters.

Persistent uncomfortable or difficult conditions (such as stifling heat, wading through deep water, deafening racket) add additional encumbrance d6s to the pool.

One white sentry d4 for every character on sentry (more on this below). For every 1 rolled a character on sentry takes -1 fatigue. Assign each fatigue to a different character if possible. If the party are on full alert skip this roll and just assign -1 fatigue to a character.

Outside dungeon exploration, characters also sustain fatigue when keeping watch through the night and when doing a forced march to travel further than is normally possible in a day.

Sentry duty

In general, when GMing I provide description and the players describe what they do, and through this the players can discover treasure, monsters, traps, etc.

However, what if the clues to these things are subtle? A depression in the ground due to a pit trap, a crack in a corridor wall that hints of a secret passage beyond, ichor dripping from the fangs of a giant spider lurking above.

When the players are exploring a dangerous environment one or more characters are on sentry. When the GM needs to know if the characters have spotted something subtle, all sentries roll. A successful roll reveals those subtle clues but it is still up to the players to use normal interaction to see what these clues mean.

If four or more characters are on sentry then the party is at full alert and they automatically notice these clues without need for a roll.

Recovering

Characters recover 1 fatigue when they get a night’s sleep, or 2 fatigue if they have a fire (implying also cooked food) or are sleeping in a proper bed in a house.

Commentary

Being vigilant (via the sentry roll or keeping watch through the night), pushing your character’s endurance (by burdening yourself or doing a forced march) has a cost in fatigue. This both gives us interesting choices (how dangerous do we think this is? Who do we need to prioritize keeping well-rested?) and also makes the characters more human.

The difficulty of recovering fatigue while sleeping rough and keeping watch makes the comforts of civilization and safety more palpable.