Dehydration
To survive the harsh desert environs extant over much of Athas, water is absolutely
necessary. Moreso than the lack of food, the lack of water -- even for a few days --
can spell the painful demise of a being in the 130 degree heat. Thus preparations
for crossing the desert always include obtaining the necessary amount of water: 1 gallon
per day per being.
The actual amount of the requirement is modified by various factors, such as
travelling by night or remaining inactive (a reduction of one half), size (smaller
creatures require less, larger more...half-giants four times as much!), and race
(thri-kreen require only one gallon of water a week).
Those who fail to drink their required amount of water in a given day will suffer from the
effects of dehydration, a slow and painful way to die.
Dehydration causes a loss of Endurance. A
draw from the Fate Deck should be made, and dependent upon the amount of water the
character has consumed, the aura of the card determines how much Endurance is lost.
Those characters who have consumed about half the necessary requirement lose no
Endurance if a white card is drawn, one point if a red card is drawn and two points if a
black card is drawn.
Those characters who have consumed less than half of their requirement lose one
point if a white card is drawn, two points if a red card is drawn and three points if a
black card is drawn.
The character will die if their Endurance reaches zero.
Further, a dehydrated character has an action
check penalty equal to the difference between their Endurance and their current Endurance
score for many actions (the Narrator may decide which...though feats of willpower may be
immune to this penalty). Lower Endurance characters, while their penalties will be
lower overall, will die more quickly from the heat.
A dehydrated character who manages to drink
their full allotment will regain their lost Endurance, drawing a card from the Fate Deck
with the effects as follows: one point if a black card is drawn, two points if a red card
is drawn and three points if a white card is drawn. If their Endurance is still
lower than normal, they must again drink their full allotment the following day to regain
more.
Desperation
When times arise where there simply will not be enough water, food or other
necessities to go around -- or none whatsoever -- characters may become maddened by the
heat and lack. Though generally used in conjunction with a lack of water, other situations
may require desperation checks, such as lack of food, limited cures for poisoning or
diseases, or vanishing air in a collapsed tunnel.
| Difficulty |
Average (8) |
| Action Ability |
Spirit |
| Opposition Ability |
none |
Comments: Each day a character goes without water,
they must make a check against desperation by playing a card from their hand.
Success means the character has kept their wits and attitudes about them, while failing
this Action check forces the player of the character to draw a card from the Fate
Deck.
This card is used to determine how desperate they will be that day in their attempts to
acquire a drink, in effect determining their Nature for that day in regards to gaining
water. Note that some folk will be unscrupulous no matter what, and as such, any
card drawn lower than the numerical value of a character's normal Nature has no
effect.
The desperation lasts until the character has made a successful Action check or acquired
the water.
If someone has died due to dehydration, the difficulty of the Action check becomes
Challenging (12).
Mishap: The character goes immediately mad with severe
desperation, doing anything and everything in their power to gain water and
insure their own survival. Only rehydration will cure the desperation in this case.
Wearing Armor
Wearing armor in the brutal heat of an Athasian day is something only brave or
stupid men try, as the heat quickly saps one's energy and increases their thirst two-fold.
Each scene in which the armor is worn, an Endurance check must
be made to avoid becoming dehydrated. Failure means the character has become
dehydrated, and is affected as noted above, requiring them to both remove the armor and
rehydrate themselves.
| Armor Weight |
Difficulty |
| Very Light (padded jackets or a few bone plates) |
Easy (4) |
| Light (boiled hide or woven giant's hair) |
Average (8) |
| Medium (bone or stone ring-like mail) |
Challenging (12) |
| Heavy (plate mail of bone or wood, metal chainmail) |
Daunting (16) |
| Very Heavy (metal plate mail) |
Desperate (20) |
Other situations may increase the difficulty of
the check, especially combat, while certain skills may reduce the difficulty.
The Edge
Some Athasian heroes have a bonus to certain actions or skills due to
superhuman ability, utter mastery, or just plain luck. This bonus is known as
'the Edge' and functions in the following manner:
Whenever a character takes an action wherein they have the Edge, they may add one
additional card from their hand to their total if the value of the card added is equal to
or less than that of their Edge.
The extra card provided by the Edge should only be played at the end of any
card-play (i.e. after trumps are drawn and added), and itself cannot be used to trump.
...back...
