Adventurers are usually considered to be well-off enough to easily afford their daily food supplies. Any time you are in a city, ship, or some other place where food is sold or stored, you can obtain rations at infra cost (see Money). This does not even typically need to be mentioned to your GM, and you do not need to track food until leaving such a location; food supplies only become a concern once you are out on an adventure.

Starvation & Recovery    After the first full day without food, an organic character gains minimum exhaustion equal to their fatigue factor (see Exhaustion). In other words, a hungry character always has at least one degree of exhaustion. For every subsequent day without food, a character must roll d12 on CON; if failed, minimum exhaustion is raised by a value equal to their fatigue factor again. This means that the character will eventually reach maximum exhaustion and die, but these rules assume a normal level of adventuring activity; if a character spends the entire day resting, they gain 1 Easing to the CON roll. If the character survives 30 days, they add 1 Hindrance for every day beyond 30.

    Once a character begins eating again, they must continue making the same daily d12 roll on CON. This time failure has no effect and a success lowers their minimum exhaustion by a value equal to fatigue factor, reversing the process. 1 Easing is still added to the roll for an all-day rest.

Foraging    Adventurers caught without food can attempt to supplement their supply with food found in the wild. For rules purposes, foraging describes scouring a wilderness area for edible plants. It can also describe hunting or trapping small animals too insignificant to have a bestiary entry, such as birds or rabbits.

    To successfully forage, a character must spend 4 hours looking, then roll d20 on INT. This roll receives a significant +TN from Outdoorsmanship (Nature). Willpower cannot be used to give a reactive +TN to this roll. Hindrance or Easing is added to the roll in certain areas:

    A successful roll yields food in the amount of 2 pounds, plus 1 extra pound for every 4 by which the roll succeeds. Multiple characters may each make a separate roll, even if they are staying together. Foraging cannot be performed simultaneously with other wilderness-searching activities, such as Tracking or Field Elixir Production (Nature). Any preparation or preservation time is included in the 4-hour search time. At the GM's discretion, Hindrance can be added to the INT roll for areas searched repeatedly without traveling. Foraging cannot be performed in close proximity to cities.

Hunting    For rules purposes, hunting describes an attempt to encounter and stealthily approach a creature for the purpose of attacking it for food. It generally locates a single wild animal from the docile bestiary that is not overly large or threatening, such as a deer. Encountering more dangerous or significant animals is typically the subject of more detailed rules, such as full Tracking (Nature), searches, or random encounters.

    To successfully hunt, a character must spend 4 hours looking, then roll 2d12 on INT. This roll receives a significant +TN if you have both Outdoorsmanship and Tracking (Nature). Willpower cannot be used to give a reactive +TN to this roll. If multiple characters hunt together, each may make a roll, but multiple successes have no extra effect. Hindrance or Easing is added to the roll in certain areas, according to the same rule as above for Foraging.

     1 Hindrance must also be added to all rolls if at least one hunting character is in medium-noise armor; high-noise armor makes hunting impossible. A successful roll encounters the animal, but it must be downed using normal Combat rules. By default, a successful hunt begins the combat with the animal surprised, and the hunting character(s) going first in turn order. The animal will be at the characters' visible range during Medium Stealth. All characters may choose to make a single stealth roll (see Combat Stealth), in which case the combat may begin at the High Stealth visible range instead if all succeed.

    If the animal is successfully defeated, it must be processed and preserved. The tools for accomplishing this have been heavily streamlined by Lur-Asko adventuring culture, and are included in a character's camping equipment (see General Equipment). The process takes 8 hours for one character, or 4 hours for two. Once complete, the animal yields a pound weight of food equal to 1/8 its original weight in pounds.

    These rules may also be used to butcher larger creatures defeated by the party. For large creatures, add 1 hour to the basic 8-hour processing time for every 50 WGT; other characters may help, splitting the work between them and proportionally lowering the time, to a minimum of 4 hours. Creatures that cannot be processed within 12 hours will spoil, awarding a lower quantity of food in proportion to however much time was spent. Cold realms or winter temperatures may extend this window to 3 days. Some creatures list "Edible with difficulty" in their description, in which case they can only be processed via Difficult Cooking (Nature). Creatures that list "Inedible," or which are non-organic, can never be processed.Water    Organic characters require water - a simpler need than food, but one even more vital for their life. It is assumed that your character carries a water canteen and a means of purifying water in their carrying rig, and that this is sufficient for all their needs in settled areas or temperate climates. Drier climates may require a General Knowledge roll to locate water, or water may be absent entirely (for example, on the surface in Nani). In these situations, you must carry additional water and track its supply. An organic character in an environment without water requires an amount of water equal to their WGT in pounds per day. For example, a character of 8 WGT needs 8 pounds of water per day.

Dehydration & Recovery    The rules for going without water are identical to those above for going without food, except that after the first full day without water, a character makes the CON roll once every 4 hours. If a character survives 3 days with no water, they add 1 Hindrance for every 4 hours thereafter.Sleep

   All organic characters (as well as some non-organic ones like vampires, liches, and revenants) require sleep. Any rule that refers to a character sleeping refers to a normal, sufficiently restful amount of sleep. This means around 6-8 hours; a character may split their sleep into smaller portions, such as when they need to participate in a night watch. Typically, this is handled in the rules as two 4-hour rests. Sleep of around 4 hours is only half effective, with every 2 nights of such sleep counting as 1 night without. Very poor sleep, whether too short or too frequently interrupted, does not fulfill rules referring to sleep. Any beneficial effect that mentions sleep may apply only once per day (for example, a character cannot sleep 16 hours a day to receive double effects from Sedating elixirs).

    Characters may sleep in stopped vehicles, in land vehicles traveling in TE5, or in aircraft or watercraft cruising in good weather (assuming they are not filling a crew role in the vehicle). Sleeping characters occupy an extra seat in vehicles; they may sleep in a single seat, but the sleep is only half effective. Ships and airships fully allow sleep, unless they are in combat.

    1st-degree heat hazards, 1st-degree cold hazards, and 2nd-degree psychic hazards result in half-effective sleep, and sleep is impossible at higher degrees (see Environmental Hazards). This rule is suspended if the character is past three nights without sleep (see below).

Sleep Deprivation & Recovery     For every night without sleep, a character takes a penalty of -2 to INT and DEX. After one night without sleep, a character without someone else to keep them awake must roll d6 on WILL to stay awake during any 4-hour rest; every additional night without sleep adds 1 Hindrance to these rolls. After three nights, the character will begin uncontrollably falling asleep, regardless of their activities or if someone else is around. A night of good sleep undoes the effects of 1 missed night.