Scariks Strands40k Stress

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Much of the rules below is borrowed from Diaspora.

Stress

There are three kinds of Stress: Health, Composure and Status. Each has a skill associated with it that gives you extra boxes. A o rating in the associated skill gives 2 stress boxes, a 1 or 2 in the associated skill gives 3 stress boxes, a 3 or 4 in the associated skill gives 4 stress boxes, a 5 in the associated skill gives 5 stress boxes.

The Health Track is associated with Might

The Composure Track is associated with Will

The Status Track is associated with Wealth

Consequences

There are four kinds of Consequences, each reduces the Stress from a single attack: Minor(-2), Major(-4), Severe(-6), Extreme(-8). Stress can only be reduced to 0, extra reduction is wasted so plan ahead.

You may have one Consequence in each of the three Tracks and three floating Consequences that can be assigned ad hoc to any track. The only restriction is that you may only take one Consequence of each severity in any one Track. You can take a Minor and a Severe Health Consequence and still take a Minor Composure Consequence but you may not take 2 Minor Composure Consequences.

You may only ever have one Extreme Consequence at a time but you may freely mix the other levels. In addition in order to even take an Extreme Consequence you must burn a point of Refresh. Healing from such things also changes the very nature of a character, see more in the healing section below.

Concessions

When you take a Consequence you may also choose to Concede. Negotiate with your opponent to determine how you are defeated or otherwise removed from the scene. If a suitable compromise is reached you gain a Fate Point and the opponent gains whatever benefit the manner of your exit logically would grant.

Healing

Stress

Stress is not 'real' damage, but an accumulation of near misses, bad luck, fatigue, and yes, stress. It is cleared after several days of downtime.

Consequences

• Minor consequences require an Assistance or Track Skill test vs 0. Base time is a half hour.
• Major consequences require an Assistance test vs 1 or Track Skill test vs 2. Base time is one week.
• Severe consequences require an Assistance test vs 4 or Track Skill vs 6. Base time is one month.
• Extreme consequences require an Assistance test vs 6, Track skill can never heal an Extreme Consequence. Base time is half a year. In addition the effect is so profound that the character must change one of their Aspects to reflect the trauma of the event.

In all cases the time taken to heal a Consequence is reduced (or increased!) by the number of Shifts scored on the test. The quality of the facilities the character can rest in modifies the roll, whether Might or Medicae, and cybernetics can be used to assist a Medicae test if they are available.

Note that Medicae is a Trapping of Science, not its own skill.

Assisted Healing

Other characters can help someone heal, the skill they use depends on the type of Consequence: Science for Health, Charm for Composure, Politics for Status. You may attempt to heal yourself but you get a -2 penalty to the check. For the assistance to matter the helping character must periodically return to treat the character. They must spend at least an hour a day with each patient for their help to matter. Only one person may assist at a time.

Time

The time indicated to heal is time spent resting. Getting out of bed slows it down, light activity counts as a half day, moderate counts are nothing and heavy exertion (ie anything that causes a Fatigue attack) actually reverses the process.