A Long Rest is a 6-hour rest period during which the party sets up camp, eats and drinks, and each character performs one Rest Activity. Long Rests can only be taken once per 24 hours.
After completing a Long Rest, all “Once per Long Rest” abilities reset.
Quick Reference
Long Rest Procedure:
- Set up camp (wilderness only — 🏊 END + 🏕 Survival Group Test)
- Assign Lookout (at least one recommended)
- Eat and drink (1 food + 1 drink)
- Choose one Rest Activity (Sleep, Provide Care, Repair/Craft, Read, Scavenge, Lookout, Scout, Town Services)
- Roll 🤒 Illness progression Tests, if anyone is sick
- Roll Recovery — 1d8 + 🏊 END MOD, upgraded to 1d20 + END MOD if you Slept
- Resolve activities and reset “Once per Long Rest” abilities
Frequency: Once per 24 hours Duration: ~6 hours
Long Rest Procedure
Step 1: Set Up Camp (Wilderness Only)
If the party is not in a town or settlement, they must set up camp before resting. This is a Group Test using 🏊 END + 🏕 Survival.
| Camp Result | Effect |
|---|---|
| Good Camp (Group Test success with Leader CRIT) | All party members gain +2 ⏱ Sequence and 5 Temp HP until the next Long Rest |
| Normal Camp (Group Test success) | No bonus, no penalty. Rest proceeds normally. |
| Failed Camp (Group Test failure) | The GM determines a consequence. This may include: alerting nearby hostile groups, increased chance of ambush, environmental hazards, or uncomfortable conditions that reduce rest effectiveness. A failed camp should never completely prevent rest, only make it more difficult. |
If the party is in a town or settlement, camp setup is skipped. The party has access to shelter and may proceed directly to activities. Town services (doctor, merchant, etc.) are available as activity options.
Step 2: Assign Lookout
If the party is resting in the wilderness, at least one party member should be assigned as a Lookout. The Lookout keeps watch for threats during the rest.
The Lookout makes a 👁 PER + 🏕 Survival Test to detect approaching threats. The GM sets the 📊 Difficulty based on the environment and the approaching threat’s stealth.
| Lookout Result | Effect |
|---|---|
| Success | Threats detected. The party is woken with time to prepare — they may equip weapons, take positions, and enter combat normally. |
| Failure | Threats not detected. The party is 😲 Surprised — enemies get a surprise round. Sleeping characters start combat Prone with nothing in their Weapon Slots or Quick Slots. Armor remains equipped. |
If no Lookout is assigned, the party automatically fails to detect any ambush. All sleeping characters start combat Surprised, Prone, and without equipped weapons or quick items.
Lookout is a Rest Activity.
The character assigned to Lookout cannot Sleep, Repair/Craft, Read, or Scavenge. They sacrifice their rest activity for the party’s safety.
Step 3: Eat and Drink
Each character consumes 1 food item and 1 drink item. Food and drink provide HP restoration and may grant temporary buffs or impose side effects depending on the item consumed.
One food and one drink per rest period is the maximum, not just the minimum. Additional food or drink consumed during the same rest provides no HP and no buffs.
Super Mutants are enormous and eat accordingly — they may consume 2 food items and 2 drink items per rest period. This doubles their carried food weight and foraging demand.
Characters who do not eat or drink gain a stack of 😫 Exhaustion.
Step 4: Choose a Rest Activity
Each character selects one Rest Activity for the Long Rest. You may only perform one activity — choose carefully.
Step 5: Illness Progression (If Sick)
Any character carrying an 🤒 Illness rolls a progression Test for each Illness at the end of the rest, regardless of which Rest Activity they chose. As with mending 🤕 Injuries, a success reduces its severity by one step (Major → Minor → cured) and a failure escalates it. A character receiving Provide Care rolls with Advantage.
See 🤒 Illness for the full progression rules.
Step 6: Recovery
Resting restores HP. Sleeping restores more.
Every biological character who completes a Long Rest rolls Recovery, regardless of which Rest Activity they chose:
Recovery = 1d8 + 🏊 END MOD
If you chose the Sleep activity, the Recovery die is upgraded to 1d20 — and only then may you mend injuries.
| Recovery roll | Mend injuries? | |
|---|---|---|
| Slept | 1d20 + END MOD | Yes — see Sleep below |
| Any other activity | 1d8 + END MOD | No |
- Recovery is in addition to any HP gained from food and drink.
- The 🎖 Faster Healing perk (+1d8 per rank) applies only to an upgraded (Sleep) Recovery roll.
- Robots do not roll Recovery. They have no regenerative capability — see 🏕 Robot Rest Rules.
- A 🏕 Short Rest grants no Recovery.
Passive healing also restores 💔 Cripple Threshold
All passive healing — food, drink, and Recovery (including the Sleep upgrade) — is divided evenly among all 6 limbs, rounded down, and applied to each limb’s 💔 Cripple Threshold.
Crippled limbs are ignored and receive nothing; the divisor stays 6. A crippled limb only comes back through injury mending or a 📋 Medical Treatment.
See 💔 Cripple Threshold for full details and examples.
Choosing a Rest Activity other than Sleep is a real cost, but never a total loss. You still recover; you simply recover less, and your injuries do not mend.
Rest Activities
Sleep
You sleep for the duration of the rest, allowing your body to recover properly.
Recovery Upgrade: Your Recovery die is upgraded from 1d8 to 1d20 — restore 1d20 + 🏊 END MOD HP instead of 1d8 + END MOD.
The 🎖 Faster Healing perk adds 1d8 HP per rank to this roll.
Injury Mending: Sleep is the only way to mend your own injuries. For each Crippled limb, roll an 🏊 END + 🏕 Survival Test. On success, the injury’s severity is reduced by 1 tier (Incapacitation → Major → Minor → Healed).
| Injury Severity | Mend 📊 Difficulty |
|---|---|
| 🤕 Minor Injury | 10 |
| 🤕 Major Injury | 15 |
| 🤕 Incapacitation | 20 |
You may attempt to mend each injured limb once during Sleep.
Receive Care
If a party member is performing the Provide Care activity (see below), sleeping characters under their care receive enhanced healing:
- Bonus HP: Add the caregiver’s ⚕ Medicine skill to your upgraded (Sleep) Recovery roll
- Item-Based Treatment: The caregiver may use medical items to treat your injuries using the item-based ⚕ Medicine system. The caregiver rolls the ⚕ Medicine Tests, not you.
Provide Care
You spend the rest tending to your sleeping party members’ wounds, using medical items from your inventory to treat injuries more effectively than self-mending.
- This applies to all sleeping party members — you do not need to choose a single patient
- Sleeping characters under your care receive the following benefits:
- Bonus HP: Add the caregiver’s ⚕ Medicine skill to their Sleep HP recovery
- Item-Based Treatment: You may use medical items from your inventory to treat injuries on sleeping characters. Each treatment uses the item-based ⚕ Medicine system — the appropriate medical items are consumed and you roll 🧠 INT + ⚕ Medicine vs the injury’s 📊 Difficulty. Treatment quality (Proper/Adequate/Improvised) applies based on items available. You may only attempt to treat each 🤕 Injury once.
- A First Aid Kit (+2) or Doctor’s Bag (+5) contributes its 💚 Heal Bonus to each successful treatment, as normal
- You do not Sleep — your Recovery roll is not upgraded, and you do not mend your own injuries
- You may still eat and drink normally
The 📖 Minnesota Journal of Medicine Book Perk allows you to provide medical attention AND read the book at the same time — this is the only way to perform two rest activities simultaneously.
Repair / Craft
You spend the rest maintaining equipment, crafting items, or performing modifications at an available workstation. This follows normal 🔧 Repair and 🔨 Crafting rules and requires appropriate resources.
The Repair/Craft activity gives you 6 hours of 🔨 Crafting Time, free — the rest is already happening. Spend it however you like.
Every recipe and operation has a Crafting Time. Notably, one Repair Kit or 🧰 Toolkit charge spent = 1 hour, so a Long Rest is roughly six charges’ worth of work.
You may perform any combination of the following, within the 6 hours:
- Repair items using Repair Kit charges, raw ⚪ Scrap (🎯 Jury Rigging), or duplicate combining
- Repair Robots — the Fix and 🔩 Fix Malfunction actions (see below)
- Craft items at an available workstation (weapon/armor mods, chems, cooked food, fabricated gear, 🔨 Custom Gear)
- Refill Repair Kit and 🧰 Toolkit charges at a Workbench using ⚪ Scrap
- Dismantle items into ⚪ Scrap at a Workbench
You do not have to use a rest to craft. Crafting is available at a 🏕 Short Rest or any other safe moment — it simply costs game time instead of being free. See 🔨 Crafting for the full time tables, workstation requirements, and perk prerequisites.
Repairing Robots: Robot healing is not a special rest rule — it is the Fix and 🔩 Fix Malfunction actions, performed out of combat at 1 hour of Crafting Time per charge instead of an ⚡ AP cost. See 🏕 Robot Rest Rules below.
Read a Book
You spend the rest reading a Book. Upon completing the book, you gain its Book Perk, which can be used once before the next Long Rest (at which point it expires if unused).
- You do not Sleep — your Recovery roll is not upgraded, and you do not mend your own injuries
- You may still eat and drink normally
- You may re-read a book you have previously read to regain its Book Perk
- Characters with the 🎖 Comprehension perk may assign previously-used Book Perks to their permanent Book Perk Slots during this time
Scavenge
You spend the rest exploring the surrounding area for useful resources.
- The GM determines what is available based on the location
- Relevant perks (🎖 Can Do!, 🎖 Pharma Farma, 🎖 Scrounger, 🎖 Fortune Finder) may apply
- The 🎯 Wasteland Survivor milestone (🏕 Survival +5) enhances scavenging capabilities
- You do not Sleep — your Recovery roll is not upgraded, and you do not mend your own injuries
- You may still eat and drink normally
- See Scavenging for full details
Lookout
You keep watch over the camp for the duration of the rest. See Step 2 above.
- You do not Sleep — your Recovery roll is not upgraded, and you do not mend your own 🤕 Injuries
- You may still eat and drink normally
Scout (World Map Travel Only)
You spend the rest exploring the adjacent tiles and gathering information about the surrounding area.
- Benefit: For the next 24 hours, the party’s 👁 PER + 🏕 Survival Group Tests for encounter detection gain -2 DC — encounters are easier to detect
- The GM may also describe adjacent tiles: terrain type, signs of faction activity, approximate danger level
- You do not Sleep — your Recovery roll is not upgraded, and you do not mend your own injuries
- You may still eat and drink normally
- See 🗺 World Map Travel for full details
Scouting is most valuable before entering unknown or hostile territory.
Town Services (Town/Settlement Only)
When resting in a town or settlement, you may use your activity to access local services:
- Visit a Doctor — Professional medical care, may heal HP and mend 🤕 Injuries more effectively than self-care
- Shop — Buy and sell goods with local merchants
- Gather Information — Talk to locals, investigate leads, gather intel
- Other — The GM may offer additional services based on the settlement
Rest Activities Summary
All biological characters roll Recovery regardless of activity. Sleep upgrades the die and unlocks injury mending.
| Activity | Recovery | Mends Injuries? | Other Benefits | Available To |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep | 1d20 + 🏊 END MOD | Yes (🏊 END + 🏕 Survival Test per limb) | Primary recovery method | Biological characters |
| Receive Care | 1d20 + END MOD + caregiver’s ⚕ Medicine | Medical item-based treatment | Requires caregiver | Sleeping characters |
| Provide Care | 1d8 + END MOD | No (self) | Treat all sleeping allies with medical items | Medicine-focused characters |
| Repair / Craft | 1d8 + END MOD | No (self) | 6 hours of 🔨 Crafting Time. Repairs Robots. | Anyone with Repair skill |
| Read a Book | 1d8 + END MOD | No | Gain a Book Perk | Anyone with a Book |
| Scavenge | 1d8 + END MOD | No | Find resources | Anyone |
| Lookout | 1d8 + END MOD | No | Detect ambush threats | Anyone |
| Scout | 1d8 + END MOD | No | -2 DC to party encounter detection for 24 hours | Anyone (world map travel) |
| Town Services | 1d8 + END MOD | Varies | Access settlement resources | Town/Settlement only |
| (Robots) | None | Via 🔩 Fix Malfunction only | Must be Repaired — see below | Robots |
Robot Rest Rules
Robots do not sleep, eat food, or drink water — and they do not heal on their own. A Robot has no regenerative capability. Every point of HP it gets back has to be put there by somebody with tools.
- Robots do not eat or drink. They are immune to 😫 Exhaustion.
- Robots cannot Sleep, and do not roll Recovery. Resting restores nothing.
- Robots are healed only by being Repaired — see below.
- Robots can perform any other activity: Lookout, Read, Scavenge, Repair/Craft, or Town Services.
Robots make excellent Lookouts, since they gain nothing from Sleep and lose nothing by standing watch.
Repairing a Robot
Robot healing is not a special rest rule. It is the Fix and 🔩 Fix Malfunction actions, performed out of combat — they cost 1 hour of 🔨 Crafting Time per charge instead of an ⚡ AP cost. Nothing else about the actions changes.
| Item required | Effect | |
|---|---|---|
| Fix — standard repair | 1 Repair Kit charge (or 5 ⚪ Common Scrap, +6 DC) | Restore 5 + 🔧 Repair HP, and the same to one limb’s 💔 Cripple Threshold. Mends a Minor Malfunction on that limb. No Test unless mending. |
| 🔩 Fix Malfunction — serious damage | 1 🧰 Toolkit charge (or 5 🟢 Uncommon Scrap / 3 🔵 Rare Scrap, +6 DC) | Restore one limb’s Cripple Threshold by 🔧 Repair + 🛠 Repair Bonus, half of that to HP. Mends a Major Malfunction or System Failure. 🧠 INT + 🔧 Repair vs DC 10 / 15 / 20 by severity. |
- One limb per charge, exactly as in combat.
- No per-rest limit. Charges, ⚪ Scrap, Crafting Time, and workstation access are the only constraints.
- Requires a Workbench, or the 🎯 Field Repairs milestone (Repair +3) to do it rough in the field.
- A Robot may self-repair, at the same Disadvantage the actions already impose for repairing yourself.
Repair is to Robots what Medicine is to biologicals
Repairing a Robot is structurally the Provide Care activity, not the Sleep activity — a skilled character spending resources and time to service someone else’s body. The two systems mirror each other:
| Biological (⚕ Medicine) | Robot (🔧 Repair) | |
|---|---|---|
| Free passive recovery | Recovery 1d8 + END MOD, upgraded to 1d20 by Sleep | None |
| Skilled caregiver restores HP | Provide Care — adds caregiver’s Medicine skill | Fix — 5 + Repair, per charge |
| Skilled caregiver mends damage | 📋 Medical Treatment — consumes items, mends outright | 🔩 Fix Malfunction — consumes a charge, mends outright |
| Free self-recovery mends damage | Sleep — steps down one tier per rest | None |
| Quality tiers | Proper / Adequate / Improvised, by items | Proper (kit) / Improvised (Scrap, +6 DC) |
| Treating yourself | Disadvantage | Disadvantage |
| Difficulty by severity | 10 / 15 / 20 | 10 / 15 / 20 |
The trade for playing a Robot: you carry no food or water and are immune to 😫 Exhaustion, but you never heal for free.