Contradiction in the fatigue rules?

[VIVIT]

Point for point, fatigue is just as effective at killing you as actual injury. You can't normally cast yourself to death, but if you cast yourself into unconsciousness, a single hit of damage from any source will finish you off just as easily as if you'd been physically beaten within an inch of your life. It's also explicitly stated that other forms of fatigue can kill you, such as the 2 points inflicted after coming out of the berserk state (p. ITL121).

This is a bit unusual, but not contradictory yet. The actual rules for character death (p. ITL10) state that, even after your ST goes negative, treatment from a physicker can still heal you, and that if this raises your ST to 0 or more, you "didn't really die." This strongly suggests that a figure with negative ST isn't really dead so much as in critical condition, and will die if left untreated. And the time limit is one hour, which is long to recover from 4 points of fatigue.

Apparently it's a common house rule to define "unconscious" as the case where injury + fatigue ≥ ST, "dead" or "dying" as the case where injury alone ≥ ST. DCG does this, but it seems like a limited version of this arises from TFT as written. If we allow figures to recover from fatigue during the hour when they can be saved by first aid (which we should, unless we think that spending an hour facedown in the dirt doesn't count as "lying down and resting quietly, doing nothing else"), then they should be able to survive going down to at least ST −4, as long as 4 or more of that ST was lost to fatigue.

Diegetically speaking, this interpretation makes a lot of sense, so much sense that it feels like intended behavior. Yet everywhere else, RAW suggests the opposite by saying that no, negative ST means that you are dead, dead, dead, no matter where that ST loss came from.

Is it known how this was intended to work?

[hcobb]

See page 16 of Hexagram #7.
http://www.warehouse23.com/products/...issue-number-7

[VIVIT]

Originally Posted by Henry J. Cobb

See page 16 of Hexagram #7.
http://www.warehouse23.com/products/...issue-number-7

Originally Posted by warehouse23

This latest issue includes:

• Mortality Options for TFT by Henry J. Cobb

Is that an interest I smell?

[TippetsTX]

I prefer the original (pre-Legacy) rule that says you can't cast yourself into unconsciousness. 1 ST was the minimum.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

I prefer the original (pre-Legacy) rule that says you can't cast yourself into unconsciousness. 1 ST was the minimum.

ST 1 was unconscious in Classic. This got moved down a point as noted in my article.

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by hcobb

ST 1 was unconscious in Classic. This got moved down a point as noted in my article.

You're right. We treated it as 'conscious but disabled' (still do)... no option to attack or move, but the figure can still communicate, drink healing potions or perform other limited actions that don't conflict w/ the first two restrictions.