Stress, Breakdowns, and Hardening

Stress

The life of an interstellar adventurer, explorer, or trader is not for the faint of heart. Stress represents the accumulated psychological weight of a character's experiences.

Gaining Stress

When the characters witness or perform some act of depravity, something that alienates them from themselves and their sense of humanity, they gain Stress.

This list is not exhaustive, and the GM may apply Stress to any actions that cause a character mental distress or strain.

Combat-related stress affects everyone that participated in the combat regardless of individual actions or effectiveness.

Stress is gained at the end of a scene.

Losing Stress

Characters can lose Stress by getting away from their interstellar lives, indulging in their vices, relying on their friends, or making positive change in the universe.

For the relaxation method, standard starship accommodations do not count. Starship bunks are cramped, stagnant, and rarely private; a situation wholly unconducive to proper relaxation. Starships with the "Luxury Cabins" fitting can provide a number of safe relaxation spots equal to the number of luxury cabins. The relaxation method also requires the character to maintain a Good lifestyle (25 credits/day), or receive standard starship provisions, in order to lose Stress.

The indulgence method requires at least 50 credits worth of vices.

Breakdowns

When a character's Stress exceeds their Wisdom score, they must make a Mental saving throw. On a success, they hold themselves together, but the cracks begin to show. Every time they gain Stress they must make a Mental saving throw, at a -2 penalty, then a -4, and so on, until their Stress goes below their Wisdom.

If they fail, they have a Breakdown. The player can pick a Breakdown from the list below. When suffering a Breakdown, the character doesn't gain any Stress. The Breakdown continues until the character's Stress goes below their Wisdom.

• Deathwish: You become utterly negligent of your own life and health. You cannot willingly retreat from combat and your maximum hit point total is decreased by 2 points per character level due to your recklessness, to a minimum of 1 HP per level.
• Withdrawal: You draw into yourself and refuse to acknowledge the situation, taking refuge in calming thoughts and soothing delusions. You can fight only to defend your own life. You cannot do anything that would require a skill check, but can handle simple tasks.
• Indulgence: You desperately seek solace in food, drugs, or other pleasures. You will eat or consume all food or recreational drugs you can obtain as quickly as physically possible and will spend all of your time in self-indulgent behaviors unless herded by your teammates. You can fight only to save your own life and make all skill checks at a -2 penalty. You cannot refuse a proffered drug or other indulgence while the Breakdown is in effect.
• Cowardice: You are overwhelmed by the fear of death. You cannot fight and will flee or hide from all combat and other significant physical perils, and will do whatever you must to avoid danger or harm.
• Confusion: You are dazed and horrified by what has happened, and can think only of the events that inspired this Breakdown. You cannot act on your own initiative; you must be told to do things by someone you trust, after which you may choose to carry out their request normally for up to a scene before your thoughts drown you again.

Hardening

Whenever a PC would suffer a Breakdown, they may choose to become Hardened to the world and its horrors instead. The character's Stress immediately drops to zero, they ignore the first point of Stress they gain in later scenes, and they gain a psychic scar related to their personality, actions, or the thing that would have caused the Breakdown.

A character can be Hardened multiple times, ignoring one additional point of Stress each time.

Psychic Scars

A player with a Hardened character should explain how they use their Psychic Scar in order to cope in the face of a world of nightmares. Once a Psychic Scar is gained, it can only be removed by truly extraordinary means; there is almost no chance a given character will remove their Psychic Scars.

• Self-Destructive: You’ve seen a lot of people die. You know your turn is coming, and maybe you deserve it. Your hit die takes a -2 penalty, to a minimum of 1 hit point per die. Your current maximum HP decrease by 2 points per character level.
• Addicted: You’re addicted to booze, recreational drugs, or unhealthy habits. Pick an appropriate addiction, gaining the benefits as well as ignoring the point of Stress granted by this psychic scar. You can change your addiction, but you can never shake it entirely.
• Self-Doubting: You weren’t good enough to escape doing what you did. You couldn’t figure out another way. Your skills aren’t enough to save you from this world. You automatically fail any skill check if you roll a natural 12 on the dice. Reroll abilities cannot save this check.
• Loner: It’s better if you don’t get close to anyone. You can still function as part of the party, but you automatically fail all Lead skill checks, you cannot have henchmen or followers, and you suffer a -2 penalty to all other social skill checks not revolving around intimidation or hostility. You can’t talk or listen to others to reduce Stress.
• Nightmares: They don’t happen every night, but they happen often enough that sleep is no friend. Your Constitution modifier decreases by 1, to a minimum of -2, affecting your maximum hit points. You also suffer a -2 penalty on all saving throws.
• Delusional: You believe something that fundamentally isn’t so, but that would justify or redeem your actions if it was true. You cannot be shaken in this belief, twisting every fact and observation into further confirmation of it. Your clouded reason results in a permanent loss of 3 Wisdom points, to a minimum of 3.
• Bloodthirsty: Leaving live enemies behind you is sure to get you killed, so you make sure that doesn’t happen. You cannot fight non-lethally and will kill any prisoners or surrendered foes if left alone with them. You don’t gain any Stress from killing people, but any form of Stress recovery has a flat 50% chance of not working on any given occasion.
• Penitent: You’re not going to bloody your hands again. You can endure the violence of your allies, but you cannot personally, directly kill anyone, for any reason. If you do so, your Stress increases to two points more than your Wisdom score, you suffer a Breakdown, and you must trade this psychic scar for another. You can never choose this scar again after breaking its taboo.
• Dependent: Your friends understand. They’re the only ones who could. Your Hardening doesn’t stop you from gaining Stress when your friends or party members are Mortally Wounded, and if one dies, you gain an additional 1d6 Stress. Your Charisma score decreases by 3 points as your self-reliance frays, to a minimum of 3.