Can you "suck it up" before...

Can you use the rule “suck it up” to remove injured at a cost, before you take a test where death is on the line. The way it’s worded on page 74 is " … at any point after being injured, you can opt to have your character suck it up."

Does this mean you can suck it up before a test where death is on the line? This seems like it would have to follow the fiction. The situation where this came up is when a player is falling down a chute, while injured. Would he have had to suck it up before engaging the chute? Or can players suck it up at any time like the rules say?

After reading the book, it says “any time”, which may imply that you could do so after a failed test that might result in your death. As a GM, I don’t really like this and would prefer that players “suck it up” before the test, since I should have already told them that death is on the line. I certainly would not allow it after the death condition has been given in a “backsies” attempt to keep their character alive.

As written, any time means any time i suppose; but once the death condition is given, that’s final. The same applies for “sweating it out” for the Sick condition.

I’ve been treating it like eating rations. I figure you need to actually take a moment to do the things they describe you as doing in the text, but it doesn’t take a turn and you don’t need to make camp or anything (hence the “any time” language).

Can you really suck it up after failing a test, but before the consequences of failing that test are applied? I don’t have access to my copy of the rules, but it seems to me like the consequence should be applied at the moment that the test is failed. Under that interpretation, “at any time” would not allow shrugging off an injury after failing, but before dying, as there simply isn’t time between.

Correct. The fiction is important here. You need a free moment to suck it up: stick some wood between your teeth and cauterize it, or pour some strong spirits on it, rub some dirt into it, something. I wouldn’t allow someone to suck it up while sliding down a chute.