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# Part of Simon Phipp's RuneQuest/Glorantha Site

Glorantha is Copyright Issaries Inc, RuneQuest is Copyright Hasbro Inc
Glorantha is a Fantasy world setting and RuneQuest is a Fantasy Game.
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Copyright © 2001 Simon E.Phipp
Created On 28 January 2001
Last Updated On 28 January 2001

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# House Rules - Movement and Fatigue

## Fatigue

Fatigue has always been a problematic area in RuneQuest, either being too cumbersome or too unbelievable for common use. Generally, I ignore fatigue rules as I find they interfere with the flow of a game. However, there are times where they can come in useful, so I devised a few rules to cover them.

In RuneQuest 3, a person could run hard for a distance, losing fatigue, then walk slowly for a while to recover the fatigue, then continue to alternately run hard and walk slowly all day, always recovering fatigue and being able to run again. I always found this a silly idea.

I prefer the idea of having two types of fatigue - Short Term Fatigue (STF) and Long Term Fatigue (LTF).

Short Term Fatigue is what happens when you exert yourself in short, sharp bursts, for instance in fighting, running or swimming. After such exertions, the person needs to sit down or rest for a while and most of his energy will be recovered.

Long Term Fatigue is the result of sustained periods of work, at lower levels than Short Term Fatigue. These periods of work result in the loss of fatigue but not quickly. Similarly, recovery of this energy takes a long period of rest. Long Term Fatigue is lost by performing tasks for hours on end or by performing long bursts of Short Term work.

As a rule of thumb, one point of Long Term Fatigue is lost for every 10 points of Short Term Fatigue.

Short Term Fatigue is regained as the RQ3 rules, at a rate of 1d3 - 1 points for each round of rest.

Long Term Fatigue is regained at a rate of 1D3 - 1 points per hour of rest.

Fatigue lost through magic is normally Long Term Fatigue and quickly drains the reserves of a person.

A person's current fatigue is calculated by subtracting Short Term Fatigue, Long Term Fatigue and Encumbrance from the normal Fatigue Points. CF = FP - STF - LTF - ENC.

## Movement

Closely related to fatigue is movement, as long term movement drains fatigue and is tiring.

The following rules apply to movement, whether long or short term.

1. Movement at up to half Move (Walk, Trot)
  This is easy movement and can be continued up to 10 hours in any day
  No fatigue is lost for such movement
  If such movement is continued for longer than 10 hours in any day, fatigue is lost as 2 below for the period in excess of 10 hours

2. Movement at up to full Move (Jog, Canter)
  This is tiring movement and cannot be sustained for long periods of time
  Lose 1 point of temporary fatigue per round of movement or part thereof
  Lose 1 point of long term fatigue per 10 points of temporary fatigue loss
  If fatigue points are reduced to below 0, all fatigue losses are doubled

3. Movement at up to 1.5 times Move (Running, Gallop)
  This is difficult movement, only for short bursts
  Lose 2 points of temporary fatigue per round of movement, or part thereof
  Lose 1 point of long term fatigue per 10 points of temporary fatigue loss
  If fatigue points are reduced to below 0, all fatigue losses are doubled

4.Movement at up to twice move (Sprint, Full Pelt)
  This is exhausting movement
  Lose 3 points of temporary fatigue per round of movement, or part thereof
  Lose 1 point of long term fatigue per 10 points of temporary fatigue loss
  If fatigue points are reduced to below 0, all fatigue losses are doubled

5. Movement at up to 2.5 times Move
  This is running beyond normal means
  For each point of movement over double Move, lose 1 point of temporary fatigue per SR of movement
  Lose 3 points of temporary fatigue per round of movement, or part thereof
  Lose 1 point of long term fatigue per 10 points of temporary fatigue loss
  If fatigue points are reduced to below 0, all fatigue losses are doubled

System | Move | Speed | Km/Day | Km/Day Tireless/Magical
RQ3 | 1 | 3 km/h | 15 | 72
RQ3 | (12SR/rnd) | 3.6 km/h | 18 | 86

The RQ2 Movement is too complex to be easily described here, so I much prefer to use the RQ3 movement, with a 12 SR melee round. If you use the normal 10 SR round, movement is reduced slightly.

To determine movement for a creature, multiply the Move by the distances above, so an unencumbered human can walk 45 km / day or 28 miles / day, a little more than the RQ2 rules but a little less than the RQ3 rules, and an unencumbered horse can move 150 km / day, 93 miles /day. This may seem fairly high, but put a rider and pack on the horse and it becomes encumbered to such an extent that it tires easily.

Terrain is treated as applying a multiplier to the normal movement, so a human walking through thick forest moves at 45 x 50% = 23 km per day. Effects are cumulative, so walking through boggy forest is at a rate of 45 x 0.85 x 0.50 = 19 km per day.

Terrain | Multiplier
Light Vegetation | 85%
Medium Vegetation | 70%
Heavy Vegetation | 50%
Hills | 70%
Passable Mountains | 33%
Barely Passable | 10%
Impassable | 0%
Boggy Marshland | 85%
Swamp Marshland | 70%
Quicksands | 50%
Major River | 1 Day to cross
Minor River | 1 hour / 100m to cross

Weather | Multiplier
Light Rain (1"/day) | 85%
Medium Rain (2"/day) | 70%
Heavy Rain (3"/day) | 50%
Torrential Rain (4"/day) | 30%
Light Snow (1"/day) | 85%
Medium Snow (2"/day) | 70%
Heavy Snow (3"/day) | 50%
Blizzard (4"/day) | 30%
Mist | 85%
Foggy | 70%
Pea Souper Fog | 50%

Heavy rain can also make the ground boggy and make a river wider, snow can freeze boggy ground, improving travel or can make a river freeze over.

Travelling along a road or good trail will negate the effects of vegetation, but not for hills and mountains.

Flying creatures ignore the effects of terrain features but not weather effects.

## Swimming

Movement is one third normal for non-aquatic or non-amphibious creatures when swimming
All swimming is tiring, treat fatigue losses as being one level higher
Treading water allows the recovery of temporary fatigue but not long term fatigue, for every 10 rounds of treading water lose 1 point of long term fatigue
A swim roll must be made for each swimming session or every hour spent swimming, a failure means double fatigue loss for that session
Rough water may increase the fatigue loss, making swimming harder or acting as a terrain modifier

[End]