Resting

The following resting rules force players to carefully judge the benefits and drawbacks of combat. Characters can't afford to engage in too many battles in a row, and all adventuring requires careful planning.

There are two different types of rest: a short and long rest.

### Short Rest

A short rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps for at least 6 hours and performs no more than 2 hours of light activity such as reading, talking, eating, or standing watch. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity, fighting, at least 1 hour of walking, or similar activities, the character must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.

At the end of a short rest, a character can spend any number of Stamina Dice to heal, up to however many they have.

A character can spend Stamina Die to either heal, as per normal, or reduce their current level of exhaustion by 1 per stamina die spent. For every stamina die spent during a short rest, on either healing or reducing exhaustion, a character reduces their current Stress (see Madness) by 1.

A character can't benefit from more than one short rest in a 24-hour period, and they must have at least 1 health at the start of the rest to gain its benefits. If a character has not eaten enough food or drank enough water in the last 24 hours, they can’t benefit from a short rest.

### Long Rest

A long rest is a period of 7 days of Downtime Activity. This period can include even strenuous activities such as dueling or training, but can't include proper 'adventuring' activity or overland travel.

Each day of the long rest is split into two 8 hour chunks, each of which can be dedicated to a Downtime Activity of a character's choice. For example, they can commit 8 hours a day to training for the whole rest, then spend 8 hours on four days days carousing, and 8 hours on the last three days practicing a profession. Smaller activities such as shopping do not count against the number of downtime activities a character can accomplish. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity, at least 1 hour of 'adventuring' activity, they must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.

Additionally, for every day that passes a character reduces their Stress (see Madness) by 1. A character can remove additional Stress by indulging in a vice such as drinking or wenching during a period of Downtime. For every period of Downtime they do so they can roll a d4, removing 1 Stress on a roll of 1-2 and 2 Stress on a 3-4. Indulging a vice will often require some monetary investment or other 'price' depending on their chosen vice.

At the end of a long rest a character regains all of their Health, Stamina and Stamina Dice, and their exhaustion is reduced by 1.

In order to take a long rest, the characters must be in a settlement that is non-hostile towards them.

#### Sleeping in Armour

Sleeping in light armour has no adverse effect on the wearer, but sleeping in medium or heavy armour makes it difficult to recover fully during a short rest.

When a character finishes a short rest during which they slept in medium or heavy armour, they half any stamina they recover and do not reduce their Stress as a result of spending Stamina Die. If a character has any levels of exhaustion, they cannot choose to reduce it by spending Stamina Die.

### Going Without a Short Rest

A short rest is never mandatory, but going without sleep does have its consequences.

Whenever a character ends a 24-hour period without finishing a short rest, they gain 1 Stress (see Madness) and must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion.

It becomes harder to fight off exhaustion if a character stays awake for multiple days. After the first 24 hours, the DC increases by 5 and the amount of Stress gains increases by 1 for each consecutive 24-hour period without a short rest. The DC and Stress gained resets to 10 and 1 respectively when the character finishes a short or long rest.