How do people handle PCs staying up way past bedtime?

I know that there is a drug that helps remove the need for sleep for a short period but I can't remember if there were any actual rules regarding this?

It's under the Resilience skill.

I would probably just give them x Strain, since Strain is the overall stress the mind and body of a PC endures.
Maybe if a character doesn't get his minimum required sleep (give or take a few hours) one or two strain plus one strain for every hour.

Add to that a few black dice per every six hours.

I would probably just give them x Strain, since Strain is the overall stress the mind and body of a PC endures.

Maybe if a character doesn't get his minimum required sleep (give or take a few hours) one or two strain plus one strain for every hour.

Add to that a few black dice per every six hours.

Rather than adding Strain, you might consider reducing the Strain Threshold until the character gets enough rest. That way, a character can't just shoot somebody and burn Advantages to make up for a night without sleep.

A combination of reduced strain threshold for tiredness and one or more Setbacks as their coordination and response time dwindles seems about right to me.

My personal experience with staying awake for prolonged periods (like 24 h or more) is that even routine tasks require more and more concentration and are increasingly prone to (sometimes critical) failure.

According to the formula that you can function without impair for roughly about the combined sleep time in the past 48 h, taking into consideration the underrepresentation of Resilience, I'd say:

For every 4 h past 16 h you will do increasingly difficult Resilience checks;

Success: one cumulative Setback for all checks,

Failure: cumulative Upgrade to all checks,

3 Advantage: remove one Setback,

Triumph: next Resilience check with same difficulty,

Despair: you fall asleep.

In an emergency, when initiative is rolled and adrenalin kicks in, maybe Advantages from the initiative could cancel out Setbacks for the encounter.

A short nap might get rid of a single Setback, a longer one of an Upgrade.

Well, that's what I could pull from my hat right now, taking into account my personal experience and the fragmented memories of what I once was taught. I'm sure it could profit from further refinement.

I would probably just give them x Strain, since Strain is the overall stress the mind and body of a PC endures.

Maybe if a character doesn't get his minimum required sleep (give or take a few hours) one or two strain plus one strain for every hour.

Add to that a few black dice per every six hours.

I would actually do something like this but also temporarily reduce their strain threshold (similar to when obligation is rolled). The threshold is where they actually reach a breaking point which when you're exhausted for a prolonged period of time would become weaker. Couple this with increasing strain from staying up makes for a pretty deadly combo.

Likewise, starvation and other forms of deprivation might temporarily lower Wound Threshold rather than actually inflicting Wounds.

That is something I thought of aswell, but I wanted to stay in the basic ruleframe.
I agree reducing the Threshold would be the more fitting solution and this is how I would probably handle it if any character does something like this on purpose.
But it is, as I see it, tweaking of the given framework, which might not be something every GM likes.

I do 2 things in these situation. I declare what the consequences will be, perhaps a Strain Threshold reduction of 4. Then I call for a Resilience check to reduce that consequence, with each success reducing it by 1 to a minimum of 0. The first check will be an Easy difficulty, but each check will get harder and harder. I will add setback based on the conditions, and in extreme conditions such as Hoth Blizzards some upgrades as well.

As I have a toddler, I am rolling at least 4 setback dice on any of my day to day rolls.

The book says that going without sleep for 24 hours would add a <D> which seems a bit low a starting difficulty, although I could start at that and then add an extra < D> per additional 4 hours. I like the idea of starting with a strain threshold reduction and reducing this per success and using <AD> to increase the time between rolls, <TH> could most defiantly add <S> to the next roll or maybe reduce the time between rolls.

As I have a toddler, I am rolling at least 4 setback dice on any of my day to day rolls.

Strangely I look after 2 autisic children and suffer chronic pain as I had a nerve sliced during an operation that left me with 24/7 pain I manage about 1-2 hrs sleep per day but can manage to outperform my 2 colleauges at work both in quality (just) and in quantity (significantly). Occasionally I get a good 6 hr sleep and occasionally I go without for 40 or so hours with none. Sometimes I do feel tired, most of the time not, dread to think of the long term issues I will have later , but short tern I seem as capable as normal.

As I have a toddler, I am rolling at least 4 setback dice on any of my day to day rolls.

Strangely I look after 2 autisic children and suffer chronic pain as I had a nerve sliced during an operation that left me with 24/7 pain I manage about 1-2 hrs sleep per day but can manage to outperform my 2 colleauges at work both in quality (just) and in quantity (significantly). Occasionally I get a good 6 hr sleep and occasionally I go without for 40 or so hours with none. Sometimes I do feel tired, most of the time not, dread to think of the long term issues I will have later , but short tern I seem as capable as normal.

I have 3 kids between 1 & 8 years old, that's tough enough with getting them to sleep and being woken almost hourly at night, add in pain like that and I can barely begin to comprehend that, my sympathy is with you for sure. Even as it is I get weeks where 5-6 hrs of broken sleep a night leads to dizziness and an inability to focus, your doing well for sure.

I have 3 kids between 1 & 8 years old, that's tough enough with getting them to sleep and being woken almost hourly at night, add in pain like that and I can barely begin to comprehend that, my sympathy is with you for sure. Even as it is I get weeks where 5-6 hrs of broken sleep a night leads to dizziness and an inability to focus, your doing well for sure.

Edit to give a hint of the operation , lets just say that there wont be a number three child,( or ill be asking questions) and the nerve sliced left me rather tender.

Ouch that sucks. I had an accident with severed nerves in one finger last year, but thankfully that only hurts in cold weather (something less common here in Australia).

Ok, so far they have had about 18 hours without sleeps D have been bouncing from one encounter to the next over that time. I would probably say that they have been running on quite a lot of adrenaline but that is probably about to leave them as things calm down.

So after all of this I am intending to reduce thier strain threshold by 4 and give them 2 setback dice until they have a full 8 hours sleep. I will allow them a simple Resilience check to counteract these effects.

Any uncancelled success can reduce the rest time needed by an hour, down to a maximum of 4 hours. And any 2 advantage can reduce the strain threshold reduction by 1. (Or should it be 1 advantage?)

This will then be split over the rest time needed. Any triumph can negate one setback dice.

So if they roll 2 success and 2 advantage thier strain threshold would be reduced by 3 and they would have 2 setback until they have a full 6 hours sleep.

I will make them roll again every 2 hours extra they stay awake with an increase in difficulty and an increase in strain reduction and setback dice depending on the additional length of time awake.

Thoughts?

Do you expect them all to be remaining awake for an extended period now that things are calming down?

Rather than being mechanistic about it (tracking hours spent, making multiple rolls based on time passed, etc), look at things from a narrative angle and keep it simple. "You've been awake for 30 hours when (something happens)." At that point apply something like 2 setbacks and 4 strain threshold, reduced by resilience results (success and advantage, respectively).

On 28.6.2016 at 2:28 AM, Richardbuxton said:

I have 3 kids between 1 & 8 years old, that's tough enough with getting them to sleep and being woken almost hourly at night, add in pain like that and I can barely begin to comprehend that, my sympathy is with you for sure. Even as it is I get weeks where 5-6 hrs of broken sleep a night leads to dizziness and an inability to focus, your doing well for sure.

Try power naps, they can deal with the dizziness easily and allow and should allow you to focus again. That is if your little one is still not sleeping through the night. Been 6 months, hopefully the teeth are mostly done already. ;-)

1 hour ago, Garran said:

Do you expect them all to be remaining awake for an extended period now that things are calming down?

Rather than being mechanistic about it (tracking hours spent, making multiple rolls based on time passed, etc), look at things from a narrative angle and keep it simple. "You've been awake for 30 hours when (something happens)." At that point apply something like 2 setbacks and 4 strain threshold, reduced by resilience results (success and advantage, respectively).

Actually hey are right in the middle of a couple of time sensitive scenarios, so will have to make some tough choices about how long they take to rest up. They are also likely to have their sleep interrupted by another side mission but they may be able to operate ok if they reduce the amount of time they actually need to rest up. I could flip it and make them roll once they wake-up?