Topic: Waking up from sleep

[vroomfogle]

I was trying to come up with a standard way of handling waking up from a sleep - how do you all handle it?   

First I think it should require some sort of Perception/Sense (depending on what skills you use) roll - even a "Sleep Awareness" roll if using RMFRP.   The actual skill here is not important (personally i'll be using a hearing perception roll) but there should be some sort of roll to see if you wake up from some external stimulus.   Modifiers would apply to the roll based on the external stimulus (+50 for sounds of combat next to you, etc).  Being shaken awake probably would not require a roll and the character can be considered to have been woken up (make it 1 round action).

Ok, so now your character is awake.  There should probably be some sort of penalty, either a minus to all actions for a certain amount of time, or a limited % activity.    Or perhaps both.   The problem with giving limited % activity is it then makes some actions impossible to perform such as casting or prepping a spell.   The problem with only using a penalty is that the character has no adverse effects if they perform actions that don't require a roll.   Maybe it makes sense you can't prep a spell when first waking up though.

Then how long does it take to wake up?   This probably is based on environment.  If you wake up with someone swinging an axe at you you will probably wake up in a hurry.    But under normal circumstances should it take multiple rounds?    This is also dependent on the person as well, so maybe a roll should be involved (Self Discipline based I think).

I think something like this would work then:

- Waking up requires a sense/awareness/perception roll modified by external stimulus
- After waking up at -25 for all actions (75% action for actions not requiring rolls) - though you
- Penalty reduces by -5 a round, or is completely eliminated if you roll > 100 on d100 + SD Bonus (i.e. everyone will be at full activity after 5 rounds, sooner if you succeed SD roll).

Thoughts?

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

I would suggest the following:

1) Perception roll at -20 to be woken up from normal sleep. Modified by the sounds and/or actions of others (i.e. being slapped = +75, etc).

2) First round awake, make a Medium Self Discipline roll. Success = -25 to initiative for that first round; failure by 25 or less, -50 to first round's initiative; failure by 25-50, no action first round and -25 to initiative second round; Failure by more than 50, no action first 2 rounds, -25 to the third round's initiative.  Modifiers due to circumstances can be applied here.

3) actions during the affected rounds receive a -25 modifier or take 25% longer to accomplish.

4) may make a new Medium SD roll each round, with success meaning you are awake, and failure means you continue as directed by the first roll (#2 above). Trying to "clear your head" and wake up  is a 25% activity action.

[yammahoper]

I have always used Pr and Sd for waking up and determing how groggy the PC is.

Pr+Pr+Sd+d100.  Anyresult under 100 is penalty for the round, and keep rolling each round till a 100+ result is achieved, at which point PC is fully awake.  This comes in mostly when a PC is recovering from a sleep spell.  This is really just a fancy orientation check and can take the place of a roll to wake up since the PC is in the process of waking up with this mechanic.

I do NOT allow perception skills to be used when sleeping, though since adopting RMSS I have used Awareness a few times.  Most times I assume any significant noise will wake a PC up, and I would apply a pretty big bonus, like +30 or more, to any roll to wake up if a fight is taking place near/around them.  If the ability to wake up is in question, then I would let a d10 roll under Sd result in waking up, or something simular.

lynn

[Warl]

this is the way I have always handled it.

[Fenrhyl Wulfson]

Don't forget it all depends on your mindset and stress level when you fall asleep.

I have a daughter and, as a father, was worried that she could die in her sleep (she and her mother nearly died during the labor). Let me be clear: a single cough was enough to awake me and I was at full potential . This kind of clear minded state at the awakening was also confirmed bu my father. His life was in peril several times (being a member of the french army and later head of a weapons selling company in Saudi Arabia during the latest war in Irak, he was targeted several times by murderers) : some sounds were able to awake him in a pinch and he was again at full potential.

Hard to make a rule from this, basically, I take note of the PCs state of mind when before they fall asleep (are they expecting a trap or an ambush ? Do they feel safe ?) and then hand out maluses to reactions as I see fit.

[markc]

 I think I would use Alertness [RMSS/FRP] and determine the base difficulty from the MM chart. Then add all the positive and negative mods to the roll, such as time sleeped, race, fatigue, in dangerous territory, etc. And I would come up with a flat bonus that I felt would have them wake up most of the time. So a base alert=approx 15-20, I think a base bonus would be 40. But I would like to test it a while to see how it wored in game.

MDC

[vroomfogle]

But I would like to test it a while to see how it wored in game.

GM: "You are all overcome by narcolepsy for this session so I can test these new rules!"

[markc]

But I would like to test it a while to see how it wored in game.

GM: "You are all overcome by narcolepsy for this session so I can test these new rules!"

 More like when they are sleeping in a safe place and something happens. Or a dream sequence in which they wake from thier dream into a dream.

 Both good fun and allows for some unusual game play and more deadly traps/mosters/trainging/etc.

MDC

[Temujin]

We've used Situational Awareness - Sleeping (or Meditation for elves), or if the character doesn't have it, either Alertness or Sense Ambush depending on the situation.  A case might be made for Sense Awareness - Hearing too, I suppose.

[Arioch]

I usually handle it like this:
- Alertness (or special Awareness skill) roll to wake up, difficulty based on the situation (noise, enviroment, mental state of the character, etc). If the character is still "tired" (has not recovered all of his PPs or HPs) raise the difficulty by one, in addition to all other modifier.
- The % result on the Static Manuever table gives you the activity he has for the first round after waking up (max 100%).
- Re-roll each round  until you achieve a Success or better and get full % of action.

[Cormac Doyle]

I'd say this will vary wildly depending on the circumstances ...

Normally, I need three alarm clocks and a good kick to get out of bed ... but (like many parents), I can be woken, alert and across the hall in my daughter's bedroom if I hear her starting to get sick.

You also have the Light sleeper/Heavy sleeper issue AND the timing of the sleep cycle ... it's much harder to wake up at certain parts of the sleep cycle ... which for most people is c. 90 minutes long ... hence you feel more refreshed if you sleep 90 (1.5 hours), 180 (3 hours), 270 (4.5 hours), 360 (6 hours) or 450 (7.5 hours) ... getting woken at 420 minutes (7 hours) or 480 minutes (8 hours) is when you will wake up slowly and really groggy !!!