Stress
There are Three Types of Stress: Physical Stress, Mental Stress, and Vocal Stress.
We track the three types of stress separately
Each Stress is measured 0 to 10
Relaxing: Avoiding the use of an ability or effect associated with a type of stress for One Hour reduces that type of stress by One. For example, when Relaxing Mental Stress we can still use Physical or Vocal abilities and recover Mental Stress. Another example might be that we only use Physical abilities and recover both Vocal and Mental Stress.
Building Up Stress: Abilities that call for “Activation (v:X)” require us to roll the X value when activating their effects. Rolling a One on these checks increases our Stress by One. The least stressful abilities are (v:20). The most stressful abilities may inflict non-variable stress. “Activation 5” for example will increase stress by a full 5 points on activation. Channeled and other abilities that resolve during Upkeep may have ongoing stress build up. “Upkeep 2” for example will increase stress during every upkeep until the effect resolves.
Example: Mental Stress: Activation (v:12) Upkeep (v:12)
Burnout: At 10 points of Stress our characters go into Burnout. Burnout is a little different for each of the types of stress.
Physical Stress Burnout, Strained: On reaching 10 Physical Stress after Effect Activation, The character loses 20% of their total Hit Points. Potentially causing them to be Vulnerable if Hit Points drop to 0. They become “Maimed: Strained” in whatever appendage was used to execute the action that caused them the stress for (v:4) days. Any time during those (v:4) days that they use an ability that may cause Physical Stress, they lose 10% of their total Hit Points and add one day to their recovery time.
Mental Stress Burnout, Seizure: First on reaching 10 Mental Stress after Effect Activation, The character drops to 0 Hit Points and becomes Vulnerable. They Seize out, Dropping Prone and remaining Stunned for (v:6) Full Rounds. After the Seizure, they remain Mind Fogged for the next 6 Full Rounds, Unable to use Abilities and Effects that cause Mental Stress. After the Mind Fog, Mental Stress drops back to 9/10 and normal Relaxation Rules Apply.
Vocal Stress Burnout, Near Mute: First on reaching 10 Vocal Stress, The character Chokes, Interrupting Effect Activation. Second they become Mute for (v:10) Full Rounds, rendering them Unable to use Abilities and Effects that cause Vocal Stress. At the end of Mute, Vocal Stress drops back to 9/10 and they become Near Mute for One Hour, reducing the range of Abilities and Effects that cause Vocal Stress to One Square.
