Traits themselves will no longer be reduced in most situations.

Traits are remaining the same, so no worries there. What is changing is the modification of Traits during gameplay. This seemed like an easy and obvious way to add “major issues” such as death, disease, exhaustion and more. Lowering traits caused many things to get penalized at one time. This made sense for mechanics but has not worked well in practice at the table.

Lowering one Trait by one would have many rippling effects. Players that did not know all the relationships between Traits and just about every aspect of their character were confused. Iit was complicated to figure out the new numbers. Even though the sheet auto calculates much of this for you it was still very manual to add GM Mods to temporarily make these changes to your character.

I’ve changed this. Now, there is a new penalty that can quickly and easily be applied to your character. This is the new way to handle death, exhaustion, disease, and more.

Detriments are what these will now be called. There are 4 levels. Detailed breakouts of the exact penalties can be found here:

-> https://atomicrpgsystem.com/running-an-atomic-rpg-game/game-master/game-rules/#detriments

• None: Your character is fine and does not have any Detriment modifications.
• Minor: Your character is mildly affected by penalties.
• Moderate: Your character is greatly affected by penalties.
• Sever: You character can barely function the penalties are so sever.

Minor Detriment – Character will have the following penalties.

• Character Tier Penalty to All d20 Rolls, All Defenses, and Speed

Moderate Detriment – Character will have the following penalties.

• Character Tier x2 Penalty to All d20 Rolls, All Defenses, and Speed
• Lose ( Character Level x 2 ) to Damage, Healing, Max Hit Points

Sever Detriment – Character will have the following penalties.

• Character Tier x5 Penalty to All d20 Rolls, All Defenses, and Speed
• Lose ( Character Level x 5 ) to Damage, Healing, Max Hit Points

Detriments can no be gained by the following in game events.

• Death, rather being Raised from it.
• Environmental Penalties
• Exhaustion Penalties
• Other misc. GM stuff like curses, disease, and more Oh My!

Curing Detriments is usually done through having a Full Rest. Though this might not always be the case when it comes to things like Diseases or Curses. These might have specific curing requirements dictated by the GM.

You can now quickly and easily see the modifiers you will need to apply to your rolls with the new Detriment Dropdown in the main stat section of your character sheet. These bonuses may be auto calculated on the character sheet in a future update.

Streamlined Death Penalties and Management

If a character can die and be raised many times. But they will suffer more and more sever penalties each time they are raised without getting a Full Rest.

• 1^st Return from Death: Minor Resurrection Sickness
  • CT Penalty to d20s and Defenses
  • Pen to Damage?
• 2^nd Return from Death: Major Resurrection Sickness
  • CTx2 Penalty to d20s, Defenses, CT Pen to Speed
• 3^rd or more Return from Death: Sever Resurrection Sickness
  • CTx5 Penalty to d20s, Defenses, CTx2 Pen to Speed

1 Full Rest recovers 1 level of Detriments. Meaning, if you have Minor Detriments then 1 Full Rest will bring you to having No/None Detriments. However, if you have Sever Detriments, 1 Full Rest will change it to Moderate Detriments. Another Full Rest will reduce it to Minor Detriments. One more Full Rest would be needed to reach No/None Detriments.

Environmental Penalties changed to use Detriments

These penalties were similar. Using Detriments streamlines rule usage and not needed to know a separate rule for Environmental effects.
https://atomicrpgsystem.com/running-an-atomic-rpg-game/game-master/game-rules/#enviro-effects

Exhaustion Penalties changed to use Detriments

Exhaustion previously lowered Character Traits which was found to be too cumbersome for gameplay.

Each failed Exhaustion check increases the tier of Detriment.

https://atomicrpgsystem.com/running-an-atomic-rpg-game/real-time/resting-and-recovering/

Additional Character Status’s

In the past things like disease and curses were usually GM mods or long-term Powers. This could be a lot to manage and create. So instead, these types of things should now be used alongside the Detriment system.

This way penalties are easily calculated and applied without slowing gameplay. At the same time offering some more unique situations where a PC might have to find the sorcerer that cursed them or find the correct tonic to cure a disease to end the penalties.

These types of things should be the GM affecting the PCs. Generally speaking, the PC’s should not be able to create these on their own without special consideration by their GM.