Endurance

Endurance
“Their clothes were mended, as well as their bruises, their tempers and their hopes.”

While Attributes and Skills are the basis for all actions a character attempts, and Traits provide qualities that set heroes outside the norm, Endurance and Hope are what keep an adventurer on the road or provide him with reserves of energy – often the only chance for a hero to succeed against overwhelming odds.

Endurance and Hope are internal resources that are tapped in a moment of need, or that are consumed when some form of threat takes its toll on the character.

How Endurance and Hope works
During play,heroes use up Hope and Endurance points as they are hurt or frightened, or attempt difficult tasks, and restore them through rest or life-affirming events.

A hero’s total Hope and Endurance scores are maximum values; recovered points cannot take either pool above its total.

Endurance represents a hero’s resistance to injury, physical or psychological stress, even torture. Whenever a character is subjected to some form of harm or toil, his Endurance score is reduced accordingly. Endurance loss should not be confused with being Wounded: while every successful attack in combat provokes a loss of Endurance, a player-hero is only at risk of a wound when hit by a piercing blow, a precise attack that threatens to bypass the target’s armour and defences completely and cause them serious injury.

Fatigue
Fatigue determines when the weight and bulk of the equipment normally carried by a hero starts to effect his performance. A character’s Fatigue threshold is first calculated during hero creation and is normally equal to the sum of the Encumbrance ratings of the adventurer’s selection of weapons and protective gear

Losing Endurance
During play, player-heroes lose Endurance points to blows suffered in combat, as the consequence of strenuous efforts, and to other sources of physical harm. When, for any reason, the Endurance score of a character drops to a level equal to or lower than his Fatigue score, the hero is considered to be Weary. Check the Weary box on the character sheet, and apply the effects to the character If a character’s Weary box was already checked, then losing Endurance doesn’t provoke any additional effect. When a character’s Endurance score is reduced to zero points, he is physically exhausted and falls unconscious. Lost Endurance points are recovered swiftly if a hero is allowed to rest and feed, unless a hero is wounded or sick.