Conditions & Disposition & Treatment

Hello everyone!

I had my first session of Torchbearer ever last week and was the GM. It was also my first time as a GM. I read and read and read the rules again, as well as some topics on this forum and Reddit before creating my first adventure, which we played together with my girlfriend.

It was awesome, I really like this system and what it’s meant for. Actually, I wanted to find a system to play Darkest Dungeon as an rpg, so you know!

Anyway! Back to my questions! Because I have two (and had many others but you guys answered a lot of them on this forum, which I’m grateful for).

  1. What is the actual effect of the Hungry and Thirsty Condition when it comes to Disposition?

Hungry and Thirsty and Disposition p68
If any member of your team is hungry and thirsty, subtract one from your team’s disposition. Only apply that penalty once, though. So if two people are hungry, it’s only -1s.

Hungry and Thirsty Effect p76
Hungry and thirsty subtracts one from your disposition for any conflict.

As you can see, there seems to be a contradiction. First quote seems to say that after you roll, you subtract 1 success, as written p8:

-s
If you see a notation for a “-s”, subtract the indicated number of successes after you roll, pass or fail.

But the second quote says that you subtracts one from your disposition, without mentioning anything about rolls (as does the beginning of the first quote).

So, what is the actual effect? Does it subtract 1 success after a roll? Or does it remove one no matter what?

Here are two examples:

Karolina and Beren engage in a kill conflict. They’re both Fresh. Karolina is Captain.
She gets 4D for Fighter + 1D for Fresh + 1D for Beren’s help = 6D
She gets 4 successes and adds it to her RAW Health (4) for a Disposition of 8.

Same test but Karolina is Hungry and Thirsty.
Instead of 4 successes she gets none.
Her RAW Health is still 4. So, what is the Disposition? Is it 3 or is it 4?

  1. Treatment for Injury or Sick and Sucking it up or Sweating it out

Injury and Sick p77 and p78
[…] If the healer test is successful, the penalty is removed and the condition alleviated.
If the healer fails hist test, the [condition is removed, but Ability, Nature or a Ability-based skill] of the GM’s choosing is reduced by -1D. […]

  • Does it mean that, in case of a failed test, the penalty is still active? I guess not.

  • Also, according to the rule written p8, this -1D means you subtract one dice before you roll. But, in this case, how long does it last? I don’t really get the part related to advancement.
    If Karolina is Injured, and she gets -1D to Fighter, then her Fighter slate is cleaned and she has to advance her skill as if it was Fighter 3 in order to lose this -1D effect, is that it?.

You might say I have written too much for such trivial questions. You may be right! :stuck_out_tongue: I wanted to make sure it was clear for me, you and other newbies like me. Sorry you had to make it through this, but thank you for doing so!

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  1. We always play it as just -1s, so it does not affect base dispo.

  2. In both of those cases, the condition is removed (and that associated penalty) but the chosen ability is permanently reduced. You erase any advances marked against the reduced ability, so have to start advancing it again from the new lower rating.

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Alright! Thank you very much!

Rulebooks tend to be written “specific rule overrides general rule” so page 68 would be correct since it has more detail.

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Oh yeah, should’ve thought about that. I’ll remember that in the future!

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