Hunger Meter
The Hunger Meter is an integral part of the Rainwall RPG experience. It can be found on the second Character Sheet, and is used to track the effects of Hunger. It is broken up into two parts:
- Hunger Tracker - every 12 hours without consuming food brings the Hunger Meter down by 1 box
- Hunger Meter Chart - this handy chart tells you what is effected by different levels of hunger
Once a player's Hunger Meter fills all the way, that character is dead from starvation.
Allocating Effects
Each character has three things that are affected by hunger:
- Cognition - mental faculties; affecting Aptitude, Perception, Psychological Influence, and Cultural Influence
- Morale - mood; affecting Charisma, Fortitude, Social Influence, and Economical Influence
- Vitality - physical ability; affecting Strength, Dexterity, Mystical Influence, and Force Influence
The Hunger Meter allows players to choose which of these are affected at which rate. There are three rates, meaning one goes down slow, one goes down at a medium pace, and one goes down quickly. Use the chart along the left side of the sheet to see what Traits and Influence are effected by each one, then choose how you want these to be allocated.
Using the Hunger Meter
The very top bar has 24 slots, meaning characters can survive for 12 whole days without food in the apocalypse. Every 12 hours that passes without the character consuming food, the top meter goes down by one slot (fill it in from right to left). When enough slots are used on the top meter, the other slots begin to fill up.
- 1st row - this row depletes at the fastest rate; for every 2 slots across the top, this row depletes by 1, but negative effects jump every 3 colored boxes
- 2nd row - this row depletes at a medium rate; for every 3 slots across the top, this row depletes by 1, but negative effects jump every 2 colored boxes
- 3rd row - this row depletes at the slowest rate; for every 4 slots across the top, this row depletes by 1, but negative effects jump after 1 colored box the first time, and every 2 colored boxes thereafter
Negative Effects
The meter is color coded. As long as everything is in the white slots, no negative effects are added.
- Light Gray - When the meter goes down to light gray, associated Traits and Influence suffer a -1 penalty
- Medium Gray - When the meter goes down to medium gray, associated Traits and Influence suffer a -2 penalty
- Dark Gray - When the meter goes down to dark gray, associated Traits and Influence suffer a -2 penalty