Stamina

Please note - these mechanics are in developement, and may be changed as testing continues.

Stamina Pool

Maximum Stamina is a derived value found by adding a character's Hardiness and Wisdom (Dead Inside do not add their Health to this value). It represents the capacity of an individual to remain focused and active in the face of daunting situations.

Expending Stamina

When a point of stamina is used, it is said to be expended. A single point of expended stamina is recovered for every ten minutes of rest, unless another factor is in play - certain magics and technologies make recovering stamina faster or slower, as does successfully Centering and using either the Resilient Body or Resilient Will maneuvers.

Strenuous effort generally results in expended stamina. For example, moving at a character's best speed for 50 beats expends 1 stamina. Certain skills may effect this rate. For example, making a hiking or long distance running check doubles the number of beats needed to expend 1 stamina while traveling on foot.

The other common situation that expends stamina is taking complicated actions in combat, which not only take a number of Simple Actions, but also have expend value. For example, using a weapon on full-auto is tiring because the characters arms are being jerked around constantly and the character is trying to aim and hold their weapon steady. Preforming attacks while using the Gymnastic Skill is often also challenging. Both types of actions thus expend 1 point of stamina.

Casting spells puts a strain on the body and mind - when a spell is cast, the caster expends a number of Stamina points equal to the tier of the spell. This leads many casters to use a single big spell is a bid to end the fight quickly, or to hold back in combat until an ideal situation arises. It's also common to see a mage hide in a relatively safe place in order to cast in conjunction with Resilient Will so they can maximize the number of Simple Actions they can spend on recovering Stamina.

Occasionally, stamina is expended due to the effects of magic, or to overcome certain situations. Exposing a character to enemy fire usually requires some form of morale check, but expending a point of Stamina instead is also an option. Focusing on an immediate objective (defuse the bomb) instead of panicking (because you only have a minute left) has similar options. Certain Brawn or Mind spells cause Stamina to be depleted, either directly or as a side-effect.

Lastly, fighting in adverse environments is often physically taxing (even the best of the best have trouble fighting or moving in quicksand), and requires the player to expend 1 stamina if they use more than half their remaining Simple Actions in a round.

Running on Empty

Now, obviously, players and their enemies are likely to hit a rough patch, and run out of Stamina. In that case, the character is Afflicted with Exhaustion - a character may make 1 action, strenuous or not (strenuous actions are ones that would normally require stamina to be expended), if that is the only thing they do that turn. Each additional action takes one stamina, and these additional actions may not be strenuous. All checks made are at a penalty equal to any negative stamina the character is suffering (ie, if someone took a strenuous action at stamina 0, the character is now at -1, or worse, and that minus applies to all checks afterwords). If a character's negative stamina is greater than half their Hardiness, they must make a Hardiness check each round or fall asleep due to exhaustion. Stamina expended due to harsh environments also cause a check to be made against Health - failing to get a 6 or better results in a Wound.

Exhaustion is mitigated by recovering to at least a Stamina Pool of 1.

Sleepless, Addiction, and Other Reductions

Not sleeping enough is a problem - if a character does not receive sufficient rest every 1000 beats, they suffer 1 point of permanent Stamina loss until they can get some good rest (though, certain hard skill checks, technology, or drugs may stall this effect somewhat). Addiction to some chemicals can limit a persons capacity to concentrate and focus, expending 1 or more points that must be recovered normally only after the drug's effects end. Withdrawal almost always has some nasty effects, and permanent stamina loss during the process is common (though, once clean, a person can recover it normally, assuming that the drugs or withdrawal haven't withered the statistics underlying Stamina). Please note that some drugs have effects for hours, days, or even months, or withdrawal effects of similar duration, especially in advanced states of addiction (some drugs may also have lingering side-effects even after the main effect is over). Certain extremely powerful spells may semi-permanently reduce Stamina - this requires some dispelling magic if the character can't afford to out-wait the effect. Lastly, illness may adversely effect the stamina pool, either by directly expending points, and/or by causing an adverse environment effect, as above. In humans, for example, Pneumonia reduces a characters Hardiness by at least 1 and Stamina by 1 (so, -2 or more net to the Stamina pool), while the Flu afflicts them with Exhaustion, with the noted effects from Running On Empty.

Guidelines

While there are many options and maneuvers that have a predefined cost, there are innumerable actions that a player will want to take, so, we are going to lay out a few guidelines for the sort of stamina costs a GM/player is likely to run into. To be clear, these are unaided by any relevant skills. Most of these actions are presumed to take no more than 1 beat.

0 - saying a few words.

1 - holding a dialogue, moving a very short distance (under a meter), pulling something out of a pouch or container if you don't need to search for it, reloading from a clip or speed loader, loading 2 free bullets/shells, seeking nearby cover, removing or putting on a piece of clothing, sweeping an area with a Sense. Floating, exerting weight-force telekinesis for a Vidian, having a thought (or a Bright Idea).

2 - moving a character's speed in meters, putting on a piece of modern armor, debating at length, preforming a small/simple feat of strength or agility (trying to keep a door closed, jumping across small gaps - you need to make a check to succeed; this use is just to try), carefully examining an area with one sense, preforming a difficult mental task under pressure. Fully exerting telekinesis for a Vidian. (please note, if a player pays to move, they do not need to pay 1 to exactly position themselves at the end. The 1 movement/cover is purely to deal with movements too small to be addressed here)

3 - using a single weapon once, shielding another while in combat, fighting defensively, a limited but complex maneuver for a performance (remembering the lines for a certain section of a play, and delivering them properly, properly demonstration of a kata or steps to a dance).

4+ moderate/extensive maneuvers, such as wielding multiple weapons, using alternate modes of fire, complex performances of extended length or rigor.

Now, of course, you can stack these pretty thoroughly - so a Vidian both exerting all of it's telekinesis and using a simple act of strength would be a 4, not a 2. Also, certain actions may enhance these costs - moving stealth-fully is more exhausting than walking, and doubles the action costs of foot movement (or halves the distance). Lastly, laser weapons, as opposed to chemical, magnetic, or plasma weapons, have no moving parts, and need no adjustment to remain in target, reducing the number of simple actions needed to fire them by 1.

Here are a few examples that will cause a player to expend a point of stamina.

1 - A great act of strength or agility (tumbling through a closing door, holding a collapsing roof), moving a distance of more than 5x a character's Speed in one turn (just one for the round), making a co-ordinated attack with an extra weapon (fighting two foes in melee, wielding 2 weapons independent of each other, or dual wielding pistols and trying to aim at separate targets), most advanced combat maneuvers, adverse combat conditions (fighting while hanging from one hand, fighting while upside down, fighting while dancing, etc), moving through rough terrain, or easy terrain in an awkward manner (like trying to be stealthy, using an unusual form of locomotion), using a Sense in an extremely adverse condition, casting a tier 1 spell.

2 - Complex co-ordinated attacks (controlling multiple armatures, wielding a significant number of weapons in a controlled fashion), moving through extreme terrain or rough terrain in an awkward manner (like trying to be stealthy, using an unusual form of locomotion), casting a tier 2 spell. Please note this doesn't count if, for example, a character is "firing from the hip," or otherwise attacking in a functionally blind fashion - that remains a lesser Expenditure.