(Non-)advancement while Sick

Torchbearer An Adventurer's Essentials
1

Working through the rules, getting really excited about trying the game out soon. So far, only one question that I’m really stumped on, and I don’t see it posted about anywhere on the forum.

The rules say that while Sick, a character “cannot advance.” Does this mean:

(a) the character simply does not log any new Pass/Fail tests on skills/abilities, meaning that “nothing counts” the whole time they are Sick, or
(b) they can still log Pass/Fail tests, but they can’t actually advance anything until they clear the condition?

Interpretation (a) seems pretty harsh, but interpretation (b) seems like it could lead to a ridiculous situation in which the character recovers from being sick and then immediately advances a few things (if they had racked up a number of tests while sick). But then again, you’d have to be sick a pretty long time for that to happen, which seems pretty unlikely.

Any official rulings or unofficial thoughts? Thanks!

2

It’s b.

3

FWIW, the intention was a—because of the simplicity of it. But in practice, even we couldn’t bring ourselves to play that interpretation. So b it is!

4

Thanks! Thanks especially for that detail, Luke. Both aspects make sense – the simplicity of the (harsher) rule, and the “lenient” interpretation for the sake of sanity :slight_smile:

And thanks Stormsweeper for the super-fast reply!

5

That’s some honesty in game design right there. :slight_smile:

6

I always thought it was A (and may have played it that way)

7

I was running my game as A, but after a party member became a carrier or plague they are happy to know it is B.

8

Haha, one of my players made eleventy billion Will tests while Sick without gaining any advancements, whoops. Also casting Wormtongue on a PC is pretty harsh.