Short Rests and Resource Replenishment

[LockerM]

Short and Long Rests, Replenishing HP / EP

Right now we just say that rests are an 'epic event', where some epic events are about passing checks with the cards in your hand while others are about adding or aggregating totals. I think epic events should either be one or the other, so everyone knows what to do when playing an epic event. We can separate 'short rests' from 'epic events' if we choose to make Epic Events about passing checks and leave rests as aggregating total. My proposal below involves short rests aggregating a total value based on the cards drawn.

My proposal for short rests is to have players draw 3 cards and compare that total to a table such as the following:

Recovering Points is based on total value drawn. Face cards retain their value, with J = 11, Q = 12, K = 13, A = 14. Players draw their rest cards first and then determine what they'd like to allocate recovered points to. They can also discuss at the table what they're planning to replenish, so a Martial can replenish more EP if the support says they're also replenishing their EP to heal the party after the rest ends, etc. So if someone draws enough to replenish 3 points, they could replenish 3 HP, 3 EP, or any mix in between.

X axis = Total Points recovered, can be split amongst HP and EP
Y Axis = Total Value drawn

-	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
10	1
15		2
20			3
25				4
30					5
35						6
40							7

Note - highest quantity possible is drawing three aces = 42, so the table ends at 40 for a short rest.

[CBroz1]

I'm worried about

1. Scalability with this proposal - how will this change with player level?
2. Uniqueness of summing - can we make this more like other mechanics, so it's not hard to remember how to do a Quick Rest?

[LockerM]

Updated Quick Rest Mechanic Proposal

Represented in PlayerGuideBrief in PR #36

8. Your character may need to rest to recharge Energy Points or heal Health Points. A Quick Rest takes about 30 minutes of in-game time. A Full Rest is a full 8 hours of in-game time.

• On a Quick Rest, each player can draw a card a number of Rest Cards determined by their level. Each Rest Card drawn regains 1 HP or EP. If the card drawn is the same as the character's Primary Suit, you regain an additional 1 HP or EP. Reference the Full Guide for more details on taking a Quick Rest.
• On a Full Rest you replenish all expended Energy Points and your Health Points return to their maximum.
• If you run out of cards before you can successfully take a Rest, you may
  shuffle, but must always draw with one (1+) Lower Hand until your next Rest.
  This signifies your character running out of Stamina during a long day.
• After completing a Rest, shuffle your discard pile back into your deck. On a Full Rest, you may return both Jokers from the discard pile to your hand as Fate Cards if they were used. Return any Aces back to your deck before shuffling for a Full Rest.

[LockerM]

Proposal for Rest Cards by level up - we will need this to be revised significantly once we start playtesting at higher levels so I don't think we need to critically solve for it at this juncture.

We can have players start with 3 Rest Cards at Level 1. Rest Cards are then gained at a rate of 1 per level up. Meaning a level 4 player would have 3+3 cards = 6 cards. These are expended on Quick Rests and regained on Full Rests.

[LockerM]

Do we need to decouple how HP and FP are now considered the same if each is equivalent to 1 point on a short rest?

Or is it a linear scale of FP and HP as players scale? We need to figure this out if we have a balance between a character who has equivalent of both and then max on either scale.

To action on - let's test quick character creation on all extremes to see what we find.

[CBroz1]

• Axiom: FP value = HP value.
• Therefore: Support can heal 1 HP per FP?
• Also means: Support who spends 1 FP healing a target is equivalent to just handing them a rest card they can use immediately.

By keeping numbers low, we remove our ability to make the ratio more nuanced (1:1.2). It would be nice to allow a Support to heal 1.5 HP per FP

[CBroz1]

@LockerM - I fixed the table in the top comment

[LockerM]

Proposing an additional Stamina Mechanic to Quick Rests

When players draw Rest Cards for a short rest they are replenishing a number of cards equal to the total value of the Rest Cards drawn. Face cards count as their ascending value (J=11, etc). This allows players to reshuffle their stamina back into their deck but gives that a variable component to the Rest.

Not sure about other resource replenishment just yet but would be curious to test out how many cards an average player has for a Quick Rest and the average number of cards re-shuffled in after drawing 2-3 rest cards.

Part of why I like this is it does not need to scale by level, since you are always working off of the same 52 card deck each time. This would make a Quick Rest when you're only down to 15 cards a risk, because if you draw low maybe you total redraw 14 cards back in your deck. Are you ready to go fight a major boss with 29 cards in your deck, or are you and your party going to try to return to town safely before you run out of Stamina and become Exhausted (drawing with lower hand - not sure what we should call the Status Condition when running out of cards but it shouldn't be called Exhausted. Maybe we refer to the different levels of this condition as Winded at level 1 and then at level 2 that is Fatigued and if you hit level 3 (run out of cards 3 times before a Full Rest) you are Knocked Out.)

To implement this best we should make the Status Condition Winded only recover on a Full Rest. That way if a player runs out of cards before a Quick Rest they can still reshuffle new cards into their deck but they maintain the lower hand for the day. This would make longer days more punishing and truly represent the character growing more fatigued over time, since a quick 30 minute rest should not be a deep rest to recover from fatigue but more a chance to catch your breath and quickly bandage up and rejuvenate.

[CBroz1]

@LockerM Is there any limit on the number of quick rests a party can take? Do my rest cards reset back to level after the short rest? If so, what's to stop from chaining them together?

[LockerM]

@CBroz1 My vision was similar to other well known games where you can take a Quick Rest to replenish your resources as long as you have Rest Cards available, but once you run out of Rest Cards the efficacy of the Quick Rest is limited. We can also set a hard limit of 3 Quick Rests per Full Rest if we end up implementing mechanics that are "regen on Quick Rest" and want to limit the amount of times a player could replenish that mechanic's usage.

In my mind if we go the "X Rest Cards per level" route these would replenish only after a Full Rest, when it would reset back to the maximum.