Below is a list of my home rules we drafted to deal with a glaring fault we found in the fatigue generate rules for lack of sleep and its recovery. Our goal was to try to degree to limit from allowing one full stat to define sleep deprivation. At the same time we wanted something that showed a similiar status as reality in that just because you slept a few hours today, you havent' recovered just yet from that massive weekend you just pulled all nighters on. Without any further introduction, my house rules, please provide input and feedback, thanks.
House Rules:
sleep deprivation:
Sleep deprivation begins after a continuous awake state of more than 18 hours plus the toughness bonus (E.g. the standard human male would begin sleep deprivation tests at 21 hours). Each failed toughness test will result in one fatigue level of damage unless otherwise stated. When a character has received an amount of fatigue equal to their toughness bonus they fall asleep.
example 1: Bob has just been in a drunken brawl and was beat up by a scum in the ally and suffered several wound points of damage and two ranks of fatigue, he has also been awake for 20 hours. Next hour bob will need to test his toughness or fall asleep.(bob has two fatigue levels and a 32 toughness therefore if he fails the test he will have gained three ranks of fatigue and fall asleep for 8 hours unless forcibly awoken)
A sleep deprivation test is required every toughness bonus in hours you are awake beyond 18 hour limit.(E.g. John is an experienced bouncer and has a toughness of 50, he has been working three jobs to save credits to buy a new hab. Today he has worked overtime in the extreme as all three jobs want him to work ten hours. He begins testing for fatigue at 23 hours and every five hours there after.)
The tests for sleep deprivation scale as the amount of time from the norm is exceeded without adequate rest. This begins at a +10 toughness check and decreases by 10 each subsequent period.
example 2: continuation of john. John succeed at his first toughness check against a 60 (toughness 50 +10) and than tests again at 28 hours awake (now against a 50) which he fails, he now gains one rank of fatigue.
Every continuous cycle awake makes the toughness test more difficult until the character sleeps adequately or falls asleep. After failing one sleep check or having a level of fatigue is doubly damning as it invokes an additional -10 to the roll)
Example 3: continued from example 2: John fails the second test but passes the third test at 32 hours (becomes a difficult -20 or 30 to pass the third)
18 hours + 1 * TB = T +10 18 hours + 6 * TB = T - 40
18 hours + 2 * TB = T - 00 18 hours + 7 * TB = T - 50
18 hours + 3 * TB = T - 10 18 hours + 8 * TB = T - 60
18 hours + 4 * TB = T - 20 18 hours + 9 * TB = T - 60
18 hours + 5 * TB = T - 30 18 hours +10 * TB = ****
**** - character falls comatose asleep for a 24 minus toughness bonus times two in hours. Character can not be aroused through normal means unless direct physical damage results or dangerous stimulants are used which risk severe permanent mental and physical trauma.
In addition for each full twenty four hour period awake a player must make a successful WP test whose difficulty is based on the period in question. Each failure results in a cumulative -10 to intelligence until adequate sleep is received and than by only one degree per adequate sleep night. If WP test is at a - or negative the test is automatically failed.
Day one = WP +20
Day two = WP +10
Day three = WP + 00
Day Four = WP -10
Day Five = WP -20
Day Six = WP -30
Normal Sleep is considered 12 hours minus WP(B). Example John the bouncer was lucky to have a 50 toughness but he was born with little mental fortitude and has a 22 willpower, when he goes to sleep he will need to sleep for ten hours, and woe to him the reductions from staying awake two days to his menial intelligence.
Sleep recovery: sleeping less than the normal sleep requirement may or may not assist in subsequent sleep deprivation tests. One full day of normal sleep will remove the Toughness based modifiers, and will remove one level of intelligence loss accumulated from failed willpower tests.
Example john had been awake for nearly forty hours in our previous example and had failed several toughness challenges and incurred several fatigue, fatigue is a physical symptom of sleep stress, which is easily recovered from; However, John also could having done this many days in a row has suffered from multiple days of intelligence loss. Even though on Emperor day he slept for a normal sleep set, he only recovered one negative rating to his intelligence. This will continue to affect him until he finally stops trying to work three full time jobs with overtime in all of them.
If a character is unable to sleep for a complete normal sleep period, the problems of sleep deprivation continue to ail him. Firstly the character reduce his fatigue by a number equal to the hours he has slept. If a character sleeps less than four hours, the time is irrelevant and does not assist him in reduction of sleep deprivation. If a character sleeps less than the normal sleep requirement and more than four hours, the character does not take the next tier of sleep deprivation, but also does not reduce his intelligence loss as he would otherwise. In all cases, sleeping for any continuous amount of time in excess of an hour will reset the willpower challenges back to day one.