Rations

## Sustenance

Food and water supplies are measured in "rations", the minimal amounts necessary for a day's needs. A ration of food consists of roughly a kilogram of nutrient-rich meat or carbohydrates, while a ration of water amounts to about three liters of liquid. Each ration counts as one item.

Three meals of food can be bundled together as one encumbrance item, but water is heavier and more cumbersome to carry and cannot be bundled. Your character must eat and drink one ration a day to maintain full strength, and might require more in some very hostile environments.

Each day at dusk, a character gains one hunger point and one thirst point. Consuming a ration of food or water will remove a point of hunger or thirst, and consuming two rations will remove two points. A character who gorges on more food than that will gain no further benefit, as the weakness of extended malnutrition can't be fixed by a day-long banquet, but a character with sufficient clean water can drink away any thirst they may suffer.

When thirst points rise to 2, a character must save versus Physical Effect or become Thirsty. When thirst points rise to 4, the character automatically becomes both Thirsty and Parched, and must save versus Physical Effect or perish of thirst. When thirst points rise to 6, the character dies a terrible death. A character must drink away all thirst points before they can throw off the effects of thirst.

When hunger points rise to 5, the character must save versus Physical Effect or become Hungry. When hunger points rise to 15, the character automatically becomes Hungry and must save or also become Starving. When hunger points rise to 30, the character must save or drop dead from hunger, and will become perpetually Dazed even if they make the save. When hunger points equal 45, the character dies. A character must eat enough to remove all hunger points in order to throw off the effects of Hungry or Starving.

### Contaminated Food and Water

Clean, radiation-free, non-toxic comestibles are so valuable in the wastelands that they form the basis of the barter economy. Often, men and women have to make do with impure food and drink. These makeshift foodstuffs gradually build up toxins in those who eat them, eventually causing sickness or death. For many people, the threat of slow death tomorrow is less fearsome than the promise of starvation today.

Each time a person eats or drinks a ration of "dirty" food or water, they gain one toxin point. Each day that ends with them fully-fed and hydrated, with zero hunger or thirst points, they can make a Physical Effect saving throw to drop one toxin point, representing a healthy and well-fed person's ability to purge their system of these subtle poisons. Some pretech pharmaceuticals can also purge toxin points.

When a character's toxin points reach 10, the PC must make a Physical Effect save or become Sickened. When toxin points reach 20, the character becomes Sickened and must save or become Contaminated. When toxin points reach 30, the character dies. Contaminated food and water is generally obvious to an observer it has the faintly metallic taste of Dust infestation, or the sickly flavor of rot, or any one of a hundred other little qualities that tell a denizen of the New Earth that it is not safe to eat. Some artful traders can conceal the presence of contaminants in food supplies, but these men and women rarely live to try the trick twice.

### Survival Skills

Survival is difficult in the wastes, as even seemingly pure water, freshly-caught rabbits or harmless-looking berries can be contaminated with the residue of nuclear fallout or Highshine byproducts. It requires an expert eye to find the still pools that have settled out their poisons and to process mutated wild game into safe edibles.

A character may spend four hours in any given day to hunt for food. On a successful Wisdom/Survival skill check at difficulty 8, the hunter gains 1d3 plus their Survival skill in food rations. If the character spends eight hours foraging, they may add +1 to the skill check. Longer hunting periods will not help. Characters may forage in a group, in which case each participant makes their own Wisdom/Survival check.

If the foragers are less fussy about what they eat, they can find potentially larger amounts of food. A forager can make a second Wisdom/Survival check at the same difficulty if they so choose. If this roll succeeds, the forager gains 1d3 plus their Survival skill in food rations. However, everything foraged that day on either roll is considered Dirty, and will add toxin points to those who eat it. Gatherers who forage as a group must choose together whether or not to use this option for all members of the hunting party.

A character may only make a foraging attempt once per day. Some exceptionally rich lands might offer a bonus to the Survival skill check or add additional rations to any gathered. Unusually hostile or overhunted terrain might have the opposite effect.

It is not usually necessary to forage for water. There are usually enough clean streams, pools, or succulent plants around to refill a party’s canteens without stopping to hunt for it, barring some exceptionally desolate stretch of badlands.

Foraging can be dangerous, and the above rules assume that the foragers are taking steps to avoid the territories of large predators and dangerous mutant plants. Exceptionally dangerous terrain might still give them a chance of encountering mutants, but such encounters will be rare- if every village hunter faced fanged doom on a monthly basis, none would live out a year.

Bolder hunters can push on where wiser ones would turn back. If the foraging party ignores danger signs and goes wherever the hunting is best, they gain a +2 bonus to their Survival checks, but have a 1 in 6 chance of encountering something nasty, of a kind to be determined by the GM.

Every hunter worth his spear knows the usual tricks for purifying tainted water with charcoal and certain types of Old Terran cloth, but a proper Old Terran water filter is far more reliable. A single filter can clean up to 10 rations of dirty water per day

## Ration, Dirty

### Tech Level

0

“Dirty” foodstuffs resemble ordinary dried meats and vegetables, but all have subtle traces of nanite taint, decay, or natural toxins. Provender of this kind is available in many places as a cheap way of stretching a person’s available clean foodstuffs.

## Ration, Normal

### Tech Level

0

“Dirty” foodstuffs resemble ordinary dried meats and vegetables, but all have subtle traces of nanite taint, decay, or natural toxins. Provender of this kind is available in many places as a cheap way of stretching a person’s available clean foodstuffs.

## Ration, Old Terran

### Effect

+1d6 Health, -1d4 Toxin, -1 Hunger or Thirst

### Tech Level

4

“Dirty” foodstuffs resemble ordinary dried meats and vegetables, but all have subtle traces of nanite taint, decay, or natural toxins. Provender of this kind is available in many places as a cheap way of stretching a person’s available clean foodstuffs.