Not sure if this has been covered in here before, but if it's in any of the Books I've missed it.

So here's my question by way of a slightly convoluted back story. The other day I was riding home from work , I ride a bike 6 miles each way and have a relatively demanding job (13 hours that day), physically and mentally, anyway as I was crossing a street I realized half way across I had missed seeing a car that was bearing down on me. Obviously I missed hitting it. My thoughts afterward were these, and I am nerdy enough I put them into game dynamics:

• I was tired from working 13 hours that day
• Irritated from disrespectful employees

Due to this my Perception/Vigilance was lacking and I missed getting hit by a car that I didn't see, even though it was towards the end of dusk and had it's lights on.

Now according to anything I have read a character is incapacitated when their Strain Threshold is reached. Has anybody considered adding Setback dice when a character's Strain reaches lower levels, but not the actual Threshold itself?

Yes. Typically, I'll make my players roll a resilience check and/or a willpower check. If they fail they will be awarded setback dice to represent physical or mental fatigue.

Usually I introduce these checks during physically demanding adventures like stalking through the woods for a week. I don't have a specific trigger such as half strain, 3/4 strain, etc, but now that you've planted that idea in my head, the PCs will be in for something new

Depending on the source of Strain, the character doesn't need to be incapacitated. In Social Encounters, you can have the intrigues and arguments deal Strain, and once you're over your threshold, you can no longer contribute. You don't pass out in the middle of the great hall, but you probably go find a quiet corner and sulk. So in your case, maybe you were over your strain threshold, so you automatically failed your Piloting (Bike) check. No Despair came up, so you didn't suffer a Collision, which is good. I'm pretty sure a Schwinn doesn't have shields.

I don't think you need a mechanical justification for the situation. It's all handled narratively in my mind. Long hard day at work, Setback. Distracted emotional state, Setback. Your Strain level doesn't need to matter imo.

I'd say, depending on the situation, fatigue can either show in increased Strain or temporary Setback; they shouldn't be interconnected.

When you open that box: Why give Setback for Strain, but not for Wounds? They are much more distracting, aren't they?

I'm on-board with this. Strain shouldn't be an incapacitated or nothing sort of deal.

Side note: you're incapacitated (or otherwise out of the situation) when your strain exceeds your threshold, not when it equals your threshold.

Mechanically, the system handles overexertion with Resilience: fail the check and failure/threat may inflict strain and/or add setbacks to skill checks until you do something to recover from the exertion. Your situation would be the latter.

On 8/10/2017 at 2:18 PM, The Grand Falloon said:

Depending on the source of Strain, the character doesn't need to be incapacitated. In Social Encounters, you can have the intrigues and arguments deal Strain, and once you're over your threshold, you can no longer contribute. You don't pass out in the middle of the great hall, but you probably go find a quiet corner and sulk. So in your case, maybe you were over your strain threshold, so you automatically failed your Piloting (Bike) check. No Despair came up, so you didn't suffer a Collision, which is good. I'm pretty sure a Schwinn doesn't have shields.

Unfortunately the shields upgrade for the Schwinn is cost prohibitive, it's called a Hummer.

On 8/10/2017 at 3:42 PM, Grimmerling said:

I'd say, depending on the situation, fatigue can either show in increased Strain or temporary Setback; they shouldn't be interconnected.

When you open that box: Why give Setback for Strain, but not for Wounds? They are much more distracting, aren't they?

I do agree with Setback for Wounds, if you're hurting then you're generally distracted. Unless of course you happen to be me and I have a bad habit of asking, "Why am I bleeding now?"