FOOD, DRINK & SLEEP

In game terms, lack of food and drink are simply injuries to a random one of Awareness, Endurance or Strength.

• a person requires three substantial meals a day (or six small ones, etc), each substantial meal missed causes 1 injury.

• they require in temperate weather 1 litre of fluids; +1 for warm weather or high altitude, +2 in hot weather, +1 in high humidity, and +1 or more for a day of exertion. One litre of fluids can come from the food eaten. Each litre short is 1 injury. "Weather" is personal, eg do you have shelter from the hot sun, are you wearing too many clothes for hiking in the cold, etc.

• they need 8 hours' sleep, each 2 hours missed in one day causes 1 injury. (Yes, many people today go around permanently with a loss of Awareness, Endurance or Strength, they're always tired.)

• the injuries inflicted here require "first aid" consisting of making up what was lacking. No amount of bandages will make up for starvation, the person just needs to eat.

DRUGS & DISEASE

Drugs and alcohol have varying effects. In game terms, most add or subtract from the six attributes. There are many of them, only general categories are presented here.

• depressants (alcohol, morphine, etc) subtract from Awareness, Mind and Reflexes. Some will add to or subtract from Grit, depending on the personality of the character - some people are angry drunks, some are crying drunks, etc.

• stimulants add to Grit, Awareness and Endurance.

• hallucinogens subtract from Awareness as the character's perception of the world is altered. This may affect Grit, depending on the nature of the altered perception - is it a good or bad trip?

For game purposes, they're broken down into "doses". A "dose" is not a "standard drink" or anything like that, it's simply the amount required to produce the effect, an abstraction.

• Each dose gives a +/-1 to the relevant attributes for 1 hour.

• 12-Endurance hours after that, the hangover begins, where one of the attributes affected suffers 1 injury for each dose consumed.

• Of course if the drug is taken again, they'll get the bonus/malus to attributes once more. Thus addictions begin...

A disease is simply an attack on the character which they can't dodge, only resisting with Endurance. Diseases are of many kinds and severity, but generally they injure Awareness (high fever, delirium), Endurance (coughing or out of breath, weak rapid pulse) or Strength (weakness).