Resting/sleeping

[PalladiumBrony]

There's one topic I've often been slightly confounded by; resting and sleeping. Leaving aside that many skills (such as swimming and running) either modify or supercede the basic fatigue rules, let us assume that, as per basic rules, "light" activity - such as jogging, light housework etc - can be done for a period of 2xPE in minutes, before the character needs to rest, while heavy activity such as intense physical labour is done for 1xPE. what the books never really seem to go into is... how LONG do you need to rest before you can work again? Like, you get a lumberjack with a really, really beefy PE of 15. He doesn't just do 15 minutes of work, then quit for the day; He;ll do 15 minutes of work, take a quick breather, and then be right back in the game.

As regards sleep, I just assume that in order not to be sleep deprived, you can stay awake for your PE in hours (to a minimum of sixteen, because let's face it, most people can get by really comfortably on 8 hours of sleep a night) before absolutely needing to sleep (being completely exhausted), after which you need at least 8 hours of sleep to wake up properly refreshed and not suffer penalties. Sound fair to everyone? And is there anywhere the whole resting/sleeping issue is actually properly addressed?

[Bill]

Here's the thing, PalladiumBrony, Palladium's games were written with the intent that you focus on action more than mundane tasks. It doesn't include rules to govern pretty much anything outside of stressful situations. To that end, fatigue shouldn't even come into play unless the characters are being forced to stay awake for days at a time or labor under extreme conditions. At that point, say trying to perform his work in 110 degree heat with inadequate hydration and poor equipment, your lumberjack might start suffering after 15 minutes. Similarly, skill penalties associated with sleep deprivation are discussed on p301 of RUE. They start affecting the character after 24 hours awake. Anything less isn't considered stressful in the game.

[bobharly]

I wrote rules for running based on 4 levels of exertion. My formula was P.E. x factor = Max distance before exhaustion.
Sprint (x30 spd) was PE x 10 (meters)
Run (x20 spd) was PE x 200
Jog (x15 spd) was PE x 1000
Rest was walking (x10 spd) 20km/PE

Thus with a PE 10 you could sprint 100 m, run 2km (roughly 1.25 miles), Jog 10km, and needed to walk 2 km to rest before starting over. This will be Guy 1.

With a PE 20 you could sprint 200m, run 4km, jog 20km and needed to walk 1km to rest. This will be Guy 2.

Then my formula got really detailed calculating the averages of each movement category over each max distance plus the rest factor to accurately calculate how fast a character could run 100 meter dash, a mile, a 5k and a marathon. It was all really complicated and I ended up discarding all of it because I quickly realized that in most instances selecting sprint for the 100 m, run for the mile and jog for 5k or more worked just fine and generated similar results without needing to split hairs. So I just use the first three (Sprint/Run/Jog) and the rest of the formula though fun was more than what I needed.

Now my formula focuses not on time, but on work accomplished. To find out time we need to factor in Speed. You can use speed for any task, even if it isn't running. I have seen lots of strong guys who worked slow. But people who are fast, tend to be energized all the time. Not always true, but hey it's a game.

So using the two guys above with PE 10 and PE 20, lets assume they have matching Spd 10 and 20. (I will assume you are going by the rules of Spd x 20 = meters per minute)

Task 1, 100 meter Sprint: Guy 1, 20 seconds and exhausted (needs 20 minutes rest at walking rate or 10 minutes sitting down as an alternative). Guy 2, 10 seconds and still good to go.

Task 2, 5k run: Guy 1, runs 2 km, walks 2 km and runs 1 km to finish in 1 hour and 10 minutes or Jogs the whole 5 km in 33 minutes (jogging is more efficient in this example because he doesn't tire as fast). Guy 2, runs 4 km and walks in the last 1 km for a time of 15 minutes or he can casually jog it in 17 minutes.

Task 3, marathon (26.2 miles or 42.16 km): Guy 1 (jogs 10 km, rests/sits for 10 minutes) (x4) and runs the last 2 km like a champ! 5.3 hours. Guy 2, (jogs 20 km, rests/sits 2.5 minutes) (x2) and runs the last 2 km in 2.38 Hours and keeps running another 2 km to show off!

I haven't worked on sleep deprivation yet. With some adaptation my running rules can be used for any task, you just need to know what intensity level they are working at, how much work they need to do and how fast they can do it. From there you can stack on variables like temperature, injuries, encumbrance, etc...

But seriously, once ability scores get to 15 or higher, it's usually not a big deal to work about this stuff unless the situation is intense. Normal people do get tired though and need to rest for longer periods.

[Glistam]

The Heroes Unlimited G.M.'s guide also has sleep deprivation rules in it.