What are the rules for exhaustion?

Question

My players ran up the side of a mountain for about 8 hours. Then proceeded to get in a fight. I can't imagine that more than one of them (we got an athlete), even in wolf form, could possibly be doing good after all this exertion. Also some of these characters haven't gotten more than 1 hours sleep in the last 24 hours.

What are the rules for physical exhaustion?

Answer 1

In your case:

• assuming when you said they have only has an hours sleep in the last 24 hours, that they got a full 6-8hours rest immediately prior, then they are doing fine to be at no penalties yet
  • since you take no penalties for the first 24 hours.
• Then they make a Stamina+Resolve test to say awake -- which you might put as a -1 to -3 due to there tiredness.
  • If they pass they have a further 6 hours without penalty,
• then they make a test at -1 (plus the -1 to -3 for physical work) and if they succeed then they are at -1 to all actions but awake.
  • Repeat every 6 hours, add additional -1 to all actions (including the not falling asleep roll)

Mechanics:

There is nothing in the GMC-Rules update, so we roll back to the nWoD 1e rule book (It will be good when the full and straight 2e rulebook comes out).

The only rules from being awake for a long time. Page 179 Wod Core

For every six-hour period that your charac-ter persists beyond 24 hours, make a Stamina + Resolve roll. If it fails, he falls asleep. If the roll succeeds, your character remains alert and active... For each six-hour period in excess of 24 hours in which he foregoes sleep, his dice pools suffer a cumulative -1 penalty. ... This penalty also applies to successive Stamina + Resolve rolls to remain awake. If your character performs physically demanding activities such as running... the Storyteller can impose an additional -1 to -3 penalty on your rolls to remain awake. The longest a person can go without sleep is a number of days equal to the lowest of his Stamina or Resolve, at which point he passes out. Once your character does sleep, it's for eight hours, plus one hour for each six-hour period (in excess of 24 hours) that he forced himself to remain active

This is modified by Iron Stamina., which werewolves (unlike Promethean) do not receive for free. This may change when updated werewolf 2e comes out.

In short WoD is very generous for going without sleep. It is also very generous for holding your breath.

You might want to be a bit harsher (I wouldn't but it is your call). Say give them a "Puffed Out" condition: "You are physically fatigued. -1 to all physical actions till you take some time out that isn't running up a mountain and fighting."

From a realism perceptive:

Wolves have incredible stamina.

Wolves move at a average 5 miles/hour and travel 50 miles in a day hunting for food. That is 10 hours of movement in a day, followed by a fight (though likely a fairly trvial one, with deer etc more interested in escape than combat). So if you assume that werewolves in wolf form, which as PCs start as average humans, become average wolves, then they should have no worries with 8 hours.