Unconscious and Unable To Walk fatigue

[Bert Preast]

In recent wars against the Njerps I have noted that the ones who lose consciousness regain fatigue while they are sleepy-byes.  I have been knocked out a few times, and I can assure you that you do not awake feeling refreshed.  A severe concussion and maybe some puking is more normal.  I understand that adrenalin kicks in and gets you back in the game, but you are in no way feeling better about things. 

Suggestion:  I think fatigue level should remain as is, or more likely worsen while a creature is unconscious.

My other gripe is watching those with leg wounds and "Unable to walk" recovering fatigue as they drag themselves across the dirt towards me.  Anyone who has crawled knows that it is not really very relaxing.

Suggestion:  Creatures with "Unable to walk" should incur a fatigue penalty when they move.

 

[PALU]

I agree with the second suggestion, but not the first one. You're certainly not going to feel refreshed when waking up after being knocked out by a combination of injury and fatigue, but you're going to recover from some of the oxygen deficiency and some of the lactic acid effects.

I'm not opposed to the introduction of specific effects of being knocked out by blows to the head, but that would be separate from the current encumbrance+injury+fatigue effect (which kicks in regardless of whether the fainting was done as a result of being hit on the head or bitten in a hand [yes, I had a character that died due to the latter: failed 3 75% effective chance actions (thrown javelin, javelin thrust, dodge), got bitten in the hand, fainted from pain, and the wolf made sure the character never woke up again]).

[Bert Preast]

Fair comment; perhaps the solution would be to either lose consciousness through shock (that is, the accumulation of wounds leading to fainting) or losing consciousness because some extremely irritating person just whacked you in the head with an axe.  The former could leave you at the same fatigue level when you come round, the latter meaning you accrued some fatigue while you were sparked out?

[PALU]

It's unusual for a character to lose consciousness due to shock alone (my character was particularly sensitive to it), with the dominant cause being accruing a combined penalty to over 100 with an injury. A character with 90 fatigue and 20 injury would wake up with a penalty of 110 and remain unable to move until 10 points of fatigue had been worn off, which is rather boring (but happens a lot when tanning elk hides...). (I ignored encumbrance in the example above).

I don't think there's a need for any extra penalties for being hit in the head to the point of blacking out, as blacking out usually means death anyway. Separate concussion effects due to being hit in the head are not unreasonable, however.

[Bert Preast]

I think the losing consciousness through shock may represent fainting, but may also represent lying on the deck and screaming/moaning/blubbing for mummy rather than having actually blacked out.  In game terms, there's not much difference between the two!