GURPS updated Effort level March 2016

Let's centralize the Rules of Fatigue and to change some In-game incentives and strategies.

Rules Modifications

• Fatigue Levels and Penalties. B426 Fatigue affects the Mental Faculties of the character. 
• 1/3 remaining FP is the Hitting the Wall and can do with penalties to IQ, DX, Will (and Self Control) and Per (attention). I recommend a -2 when "hitting the wall" or exhausted. 
• 2/3 remaining FP the character is Tired and has -1 penalty to IQ, DX, Will (and Self Control) and Per (attention).
• Full FP. 
• 0FP left. -4 penalty to IQ, DX, Will (and Self Control) and Per (attention).
• Extra Effort. Needs to be modified with this understanding of how the body works. You don't really Lose a lot of Effort by Pushing your Limits: you actually induce greater Injury doing that. The Fitness Literate equates Extra Effort = Potentially Debilitating Injury. 
• Crippling Limbs Threshold B420-B421.  Consider the Core or Back HP. Substitute FP to HP "lost", particularly the part of the body the Extra Effort is involved. So most full body Extra Effort affects the Back (as many of the older Gamers who do sports may ache to be reminded) 
• Less Roll of Extra Effort B356. Don't make two rolls when you can make 1. If a character tries an extra effort, don't ask him to make a separate HT check. Just compare his Rolls against his Skill or HT modified. Use the roll against the Skill he needs to succeed in the Task and his Modified HT or Skill. 
• Example. HT10 but Lifting-14, someone does an Extra Effort -2. He rolls a 12 he makes it on his Lifting BUT he fails with his HTof 8. He takes HP damage on the limb or core he used. 
• Carrying Heavy loads
• This screws with the encumbrance rules as when a PC starts carrying more than a Moderate level of effort they get tired much faster (in a couple of minutes interval). Very Fit is one of the few ways to get through this. 
• Soldiers can have Increased BL for hiking and marches. Learning the conditioning they had to endure kinda makes them deserve those points. Since this is purely for Carrying by pack, you can discount the BL from 3 to 2 (Condition: back and packs only). Allow up to 5 levels. So a Soldier with Carrying BL of +5 ST15 or can carry 90lbs for HOURS. But he's sorely taxing his back.
• Performance Limits.
• When PCs use their Performance limits (their max speed etc) any failure can result in 1 HP injury to that limb (remember the crippling limb threshold in B420-421). This means movement and all others over time. Taking it easy becomes a matter of risk aversion as well as knowing when to risk. 
• Using HT or Skill as a second benchmark of any Roll would be troubling but incentives a balance. It shows how much skill and training goes into being a warrior or athlete. 

Rules Notes

Effort/Activity Level	Intervals	Examples	Enc	BPM
Rest	FP/ hr	Siting and breathing well		60
Light Activity	FP/ hr	Walk or Hike	Unenc	80-90
Moderate Activity	FPx2/ hr	March or Moving around 16lbs for an hour.	Light	100-120
Serious Activity	FP/ 2mins	Combat or Bursts of High Intensity to Intensity Activities. Firemans or Farmer’s Carry ¼ of Two hand BL.	Medium	120-140
Intense Activity	FP/ 1min	Paced Running or Swimming at ½ max speed. Firemans or Farmer’s Carry ½ of Two hand BL.	Heavy	140-160
High Intensity Activity	FP/ 15 sec	Sprinting or a Max Weight Capacity or max swimming speed. Firemans or Farmer’s Max Carry of Two hand BL.	Extra Heavy	170+

Time. An "Hour" is really just 45 mins of straight work, and none of the breaks or adjustments. This is the measure of the Pace in Small Wars Manual and in many productivity studies. A person doesn't normally do anything straight for 1 hour. this is not a hard rule. Typically after the 45 mins the remaining 15minutes is rest. If it was a mild effort no extra FP carries over to the next hour.


B354 Running and Fatigue Cost.

• Hiking (FP/Hour). B351 and B426
• Hike or Trek, Light Activity/Effort. FP/Hour. In heart rate zones or effort level would fall in about moderate activity. This is about 1.5-2 resting heart rate. The hiking rules have been fixed to 1/2 move in mph per hour. so a lightly encumbered character moves at about 2mph or about 3.6kph. 
• March, Moderate Activity/Effort FPx2/Hour. There is an implied pace when the term March is used versus a Hike. Marches (following the 45mins per hour rule) is at about faster than Hiking's. In my own treadmill self assessment just increasing my pace (adjusting the treadmill's speed) by 20% is almost double the felt effort. I would recommend doubling the FP cost per hour. x2-x2.2 resting heart rate
• For GURPS call it Hiking Effort Level and Marching Effort Level.
• Combat B426
• B426 Its strange that combat is not as consice as it should be in description. I'm sure if the Authors in 2004 discovered the literature on HIIT and Heartrate zones they would have have a lot more to work with and would have something very awesome as a product. 
• Serious Activity or Effort. An FP going in and FPCrippling Limbs Threshold B420-B421.  Consider the Core or Back HP. Substitute FP to HP "lost", particularly the part of the body the Extra Effort is invovled. So most full body Extra Effort affects the Back (as many of the older Gamers who do sports may ache to be reminded) /2 minutes. This is a the level of many Anerobic Activities: brief but high intensity effort levels with many breaks. Basically shredding muscle an micro-damaging bone and ligaments. This is around x
• Paced Running or Swimming (FP/Minute). B354
• Paced Running Speed. Paced Running is x2.25 to get mph or x3.6 to get kph. 
• Swimming Speed at a Paced Running Level. x0.45 to get the mph or x0.76 to get the kph. 
• Intense Activity/Effort. Resting heart rate x2.2-2.7
• Sprinting B354
• High Intensity Activity/Effort. FP/15 seconds. 
• Apply this to performing maximum Strength and movement activities for the same time interval. Example is Doing a flurry of attacks, a HIIT's 
• Lifting and Moving things and Effort level rule. B351
• When performing the tasks in Lifting and Moving things at max capacity consider that it falls under the High Intensity Effort/Activity level. So it is measured in 1FP in 15 second increments (half a HIIT interval)
• ST10 Firemans or Farmer's Carry 160lbs or Performing Activities in Extra Heavy for a minute  for 15 sec
• Intense Activity/effort. 1/2 of Capacity (side note, many machines are supposed to operate in 1/2 of its capacity like Forklifts and other Lifting devices) in 1 minute intervals per FP.
• ST10 Fireman's or Farmer's Carry 80lbs or Performing Activities in Heavy for a minute. 
• Serious 1/4 capacity. Example A ST10 character moving around 40lbs for a couple of minutes or Performing activities in Heavy Encumbrance for a minute. 
• ST10 Firemans or Farmer's Carry 40lbs or a distributed weight or performing activities in Medium Encumbrance for 2 minutes.
• Moderate  1/10 capacity. Example A ST10 moving around 16lbs (1/10 of deadlift) or performing actions in Light Encumbrance for an hour.
• ST10 working with a backpack or load of 40lbs
• side Note. OSHA covers proper lifting and physical labor safety.
• Physical Labor (FP/Hour). Use Digging in B350 as a baseline or a reference for any Physical Labor. Using the Lifting Rules above to set the Work level. 

How to Simplify them All.

• Level of Intensity is set by the Performance Level needed. It the Player wants his PC to go to the next level to get the performance desired then the GM goes there. 
• Intensity Changes the scale of time. More intense the smaller the time increment. 
• Tired or Hungry People make Bad Decisions. this is now reflected in the rules. This encourages players to rest and take it easy. 
• Easy, Moderate, Max and Extra Effort. At Maximum Performance Parameters we get injured and beyond that the Chance of injury significantly increase.  By moderate and easy these are respectively  1/2 performance to and lower performance.