Resting and Recovering
Resting and recovering are an important part of keeping a character healthy and ready for action. Characters need to rest every day to keep healthy, strong, and fit. Characters in Atomic do not generally have to worry about running out of Powers or Abilities throughout a game day. Whether a Atomic RPG System group has 1 encounter or 100 in a day, they can remain just as strong and powerful. This makes GMing the group easier because the group remains a consistent strength, players also love this mechanic because they have access to all of the cool and fun Powers when they need them. This doesn’t mean the players have unlimited Powers, it just means there is no limit to the amount of encounters they can have in a day. Here are the Atomic RPG System Rules for resting and recovering.
Short Break Refreshes Powers
A short break in the action does not heal or refresh a player character. However, if a player character does have a chance to take a Short Break in the action, Discipline Powers and Item Powers can return, depending on which Powers were used during which Game Time Mode. To be considered as a Short Break, the pace of the game will allow the transition to go up one step from the current game time mode.
- Battle Time must change to Turn Time for Battle Time Powers to refresh.
- Turn Time must change to Real Time for Turn Time Powers to refresh.
- Real Time Powers refresh after a Full Rest is completed.
If in-game events will not allow the Atomic game mode to change, players are not able to take a Short Break.
For example, if the party has just finished battling some enemies and they are fleeing before the next wave arrives, they were just in Battle Time during the fight. Battle Time switches to Turn Time, so the party can use Skill Checks to evade their pursuers. The Game Mode is now Turn Time which allows all of their Battle Time use Powers to return. During the Turn Time Game mode, two players use Powers that increase their Skill Checks to evade the pursuers. They successfully evade their pursuers, but because they were looking behind them instead of in front, they happen to fall into a pit full of alligators! The alligators attack immediately, causing the Game Mode to return to Battle Time. Now in Battle Time, the players have access to all of the Powers they used in the previous Battle Time. However, the players do not have access to the skill boosting Powers they used during Turn Time. This is because the Game Mode did not change to Real Time, but instead went straight back to Battle Time. Once the alligators are dead and there are no signs of the enemies that were chasing them, the Game Mode can switch straight from Battle Time to Real Time. Now, all of the characters’ Powers are returned while they carve up the alligators for meat and handbags.
Full Rest Refreshes a Character
A character will be healed and refreshed with a Full Rest. To be considered a Full Rest, the character must be sleeping and inactive for 1/4 of the day. All of this rest needs to occur within 1/3 of the day. So for a regular 24 hour day, a player character must sleep for 6 hours in an 8 hour period. This lets the player character and their party take into account watches and patrols. It also doesn't ruin an entire Full Rest should it be rudely interrupted by alien face huggers.
Here are the benefits of a Full Rest.
- A Full Rest keeps a character from getting Exhaustion penalties. (see below)
- A Full Rest will heal a character (Character Level x Character Tier) Hit Points upon completion of a Full Rest.
- A Full Rest will heal all of the character's Traits by their Character Tier.
Character Exhaustion
If a character refuses to rest is otherwise unable to rest during a single day, normally a 24 hour period, they will begin to suffer Exhaustion. Exhausted characters will have a -1 to all Character Traits. The penalty increases to -2 on the second day of no rest. Look to the table below to see the penalty progression for each day. When any of the character’s Traits reach 0, the character will fall unconscious and will be unable to wake until they have completed a Full Rest.
Exhaustion Character Penalties
| Days Without Rest | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penalty to Traits | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 25 | 30 |
*These penalties should be added as GM Modifications to the character sheet while they are in effect. The character sheet will calculate all the changes to the character.