Strain And Toil

Everyone has a limit to how much they can take before they can’t push themselves any further. Stress is how this is tracked.

Gaining Stress

Depending on the scope of the character something may or may not be stressful. A hardboiled investigator might be used to seeing the dead, whereas a baker may not be. Stress can be assigned:

• When a character fails an Endurance test related to something mind effecting.
• A character finds themselves in the face of something terrifying.
• When a characters mind or body are ravaged by hunger, cold, exhaustion.
• When a character fails a Skill Test they may suffer Stress but move forward. As an example, maybe the character fails an athletics skill test to jump over a cliff, instead of having them fall to their death, they could be assigned a Stress and be left precariously dangling.

Similar to Reaction or Power, Stress can be offered as a resource to spend. When a character pushes themselves out of their comfort zone suggest they may complete the action or make a skill test if they take Stress.

Jumping into the mouth of a large creature to attack it from the inside.

When a character has Stress equal to their max Stress they Boil Over. If a character at their max Stress would gain Stress they don’t and instead just Boil Over.

Boil Over

When a character has Stress equal to their max Stress they boil over. The simplest effect of boiling over is that a character is Defeated. However the Game Master may assign an alternate effect, or the effected Player Character may suggest something appropriate. When you boil over, reduce your Stress by 1. As part of the act of boiling over you cannot gain additional Stress.

Needs

Everyday a character unless otherwise specified needs access to clean water, a night of sleep, and 1 Food. If any of these needs are not met the character gains 1 Stress.