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Rest

A rest is a stretch of downtime long enough for an Operator to recover - patch wounds, top off mags, eat, drink, and sleep off the worst of the day. The system recognizes two flavors: a short rest (about an hour, in cover, weapons hot) and a long rest (eight hours, secure perimeter, sleep). Most class and designation features that recharge use one of these two clocks.

Short Rest

A short rest is at least 1 hour of low-effort activity: weapon maintenance, eating an MRE, redressing a tourniquet, running comms checks. You can be alert and armed; you cannot be in active combat or sustained heavy exertion.

During a short rest:

  • Spend Hit Dice. You may spend any number of your Hit Dice. For each die, roll the die and add your Constitution modifier - that is the HP regained from that die. Your current Triage Code still divides the result. Triage Red blocks Hit Dice spending entirely.
  • Recover features. Anything that recharges "per short rest" or "per short or long rest" comes back. This includes Second Wind, Action Surge, Unit Leader Leadership Dice, and several other designation abilities.
  • Heal stress. Stress damage heals on a short rest at the rate listed in the Stress Damage table.
  • Craft field expedients. A Combat Medic can craft an improvised stim or antidote during a short rest. Tech and demolitions specialists also use short rests for small fixes.
  • Top off magazines. With a supply cache on hand, top off the loaded mag from spares and consolidate partials. No net gain in ammo - redistribution only. See Ammunition.

You can take up to two short rests between long rests at most tables - the GM may rule otherwise based on the operational tempo.

Example: Falke (3 Hit Dice, CON +0) finishes an objective at 12 / 34 HP (Orange). He calls a short rest in a cleared building. He spends 2 Hit Dice: rolls 7 and 4, +0 each = 7 and 4 HP healed before the divisor. Orange's divisor is "5 per 1," so the 7 becomes 1 HP and the 4 becomes 0. He's at 13 HP, still Orange. Second Wind, on the other hand, recharged - and bypasses the divisor when he uses it next turn.

Long Rest

A long rest is a period of at least 8 hours, of which at least 6 are sleep. The Operator can stand up to two hours of light watch in the middle without breaking the rest. A long rest requires safety and shelter - a hide site, a FOB, a safehouse, a hotel room. You cannot long rest in active contact, on a moving exfil aircraft, or while taking fire.

After a long rest:

  • HP fully restored. You wake at maximum HP and Triage Green, regardless of where you started (provided you survived the night).
  • Hit Dice recovered. You regain spent Hit Dice up to half your total (minimum 1).
  • **All "per long rest" features reset. ** Indomitable, Resourceful, and most designation features key off this clock.
  • Stress damage heals at the long-rest rate from the Stress Damage table.
  • Exhaustion drops by 1 level. Unless held by a persistent cause (Triage Red still adds 2 while you remain there).
  • Resupply ammunition. At a secure, supplied location (base, FOB, established cache), all magazines refill to the starting loadout. In the field without supply access, no refill - only consolidation. See Ammunition.

A long rest's HP-restore step is a healing source for the purposes of the Triage divisor - but it bypasses the divisor because it's set to "full HP" rather than a roll. You always wake fresh, even if you slept Red.

Example: Falke ends the day at 13 / 34 HP, Orange, Exhaustion 2 (1 from Orange, 1 from a previous fail). The squad makes the safehouse and racks out. He long rests: HP back to 34, Triage Green, Hit Dice back from 0 → 1 (half of 3, rounded down, minimum 1), Exhaustion drops from 2 to 1. He's combat-effective again by morning.

Interrupted Rests

If a rest is broken before its minimum time has elapsed - contact, alarm, casualty - it grants no benefit. Restart the clock from zero once the threat is handled.

A short rest of less than 1 hour gives nothing. A long rest of less than 8 hours counts as a short rest if it ran at least 1 hour, otherwise nothing.

Compared to Classic D&D 5E

  • 1 hour short / 8 hour long is the same baseline as classic 5E.
  • Hit Dice spending on short rests works the same way; the Triage Code divisor is the homebrew layer on top.
  • Long rest fully heals and refunds half of spent Hit Dice - same as classic 5E.
  • Exhaustion drops by 1 per long rest, same as classic 5E.
  • The big change is operational realism: you cannot long rest in active operations, and the Triage Code can throttle Hit Dice value or block them entirely. This is why field medics and stims matter so much.