Aberrant RPG - Starvation

[z-Carver]

In game terms, how does starvation affect a Nova? On one hand, they have heightened metabolic functions, requiring massive amounts of food for healthy bodily functioning. On the other hand, Mega-Stamina would reduce effects of starvation somewhat. Where is the trade-off? Which would have the greater effect? Mega-Stamina, or the loss of the needed nutrients?

[Wakinyan]

Tough to get that detailed. For those Novas who still need to eat I would think you could link hunger to Quantum Pool. Less you have the more hungry you are. With a full pool you would still need to eat but say not anymore than a normal human would.

I would say MegaStam might help streamline starvation when it happens. Optomizing a Novas body to stave off the negative effects as long as possible.

System for this though would require a bit more work.

[kestrel404]

Waki: That's an interesting idea, but I don't buy the idea that hunger would reduce quantum. q comes from ambient energy, and not just chemical energy from food.

There are two possibilities as I see it: Hunger reduces die pools, or it increases difficulty. I'm more inclined to increase diff, since reducing die-pools could leave people at pools of 0 for things like survival (making it impossible for the untrained to survive in the wild, instead of just difficult).

Increasing difficulty on a scale from 7-10 is pretty harsh, so it should be done slowly. +1 diff for not eating for more than 48 hours, +2 for not eating for a week, +3 for not eating for two weeks, and after that rolling endurance to survive (no successes or a botch kills you), with permanent stamina loss resulting from a successful roll of fewer than 5 successes. That would be appropriate for a human, and because novas have are naturally tougher than humans, I'd say it goes for a nova as well, despite the requirements for more food.

Mega-stamina would increase these figures the same way it increases healing rates, in my opinion.

[Wakinyan]

Quote:

Originally posted by Alchemist:
Waki: That's an interesting idea, but I don't buy the idea that hunger would reduce quantum. q comes from ambient energy, and not just chemical energy from food.

I think that the way of replenishing a Qpool would be varied among Novas. Meaning some who don't need to eat might harvest it from ambient Zero Point energy. Some might have special diets in their alternate form, a fire based character might eat coal for example. Some might just get very hungry and eat a lot. There is no hard core system for this I guess but I see variety and diversity in sustenance for Novas just like the sheer range of what Novas can be.

[Noir]

Actually, the core book states that when your Quantum Pool is low you are exhausted and hungry. So there must be some link between food and q pool, even if it is only in the head because we have been taught we get energy from food. Heh.

~Noir

[Harold 'Mythic' Anderson]

(for simplicity, I'm considering each meal for a nova to be a nova-sized meal)

I would think your average nova needs to eat as often as your average human and Mega-Stamina helps reduce the frequency.

Adaptability might also give us a hint on how to deal with it.

For example, a nova with Mega-Stamina can operate for a number of days before requiring sleep. A nova with Adaptability doesn't need to sleep at all as long as they have one Quantum Point in their body. Also, a nova with Adaptability and one Quantum Point doesn't need to eat, hence, by analogy, a nova with Mega-Stamina would require food less often.