Rally and Resting

[Zyraen]

There's been quite a few questions asked about these two, so it would be clearer if I wrote this out.

Rally is an action, usable at any time. It can be likened to a common move, but it is not an ability, nor does it have the healing keyword. This also means that Healer bonuses etc do not apply to Rally.

Rally
Standard Action
Personal
Effect: You can spend a Reserve to regain HP equal to your Reserve value. If you have a Healer feat, you also gain regain extra Pri Trait bonus HP. If you used a Standard action to Rally, you also gain +2 bonus to all defenses until SNT.
Special: An ally can use a standard action to Heal/Medicine check you at DC 8, to allow you to Rally as a free action. You can also Rally as a free action when your Death Saving Throw total (inclusive feats, modifiers etc) equals or exceeds 20.

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Total Defense is also an action, it is not an ability.

Total Defense
Standard Action
Personal
Effect: You gain +2 bonus to all defenses until SNT.

Note the differences between the two lies in spending the Reserve.

[Zyraen]

Resting Time Required

The time required to take an effective Rest varies from GM to GM, but the usual minimum is 5 minutes, and a GM can decide that it can be as long as 1-2 hours. This duration is most advisably fixed for the duration of a campaign, ie the GM decides that all Rests in his campaign takes say, 30 minutes. However, the GM can for flexibility's sake decide it is adhoc, especially in a game with high informality between the GM and players, but this is not advisable, especially if players like to plan a lot.

In general, for frequent time-sensitive missions comprising of multiple encounters, 5 minutes is the most advisable. If it is dungeon crawling with no real time limits, longer durations are ideal.

UB does not use long rests, but uses Reserves (or lack thereof) to carry forward damage and Willpower to account for ongoing strain of consecutive encounters.

Players might spend extended time in a safe or civilised area, such as their home base/lair, in a friendly city, or travelling overland. A campaign may use one of the following two rules for this.
A) When a full 24 hours passes without encounters, you regain all HP.
B) You do not regain HP between rests, no matter how much time as passed. This maybe adjusted by some sort of special charges, such as spending gold for special rest at an inn or a healing house.

For my homebrews, which are usually in civilised settings, I usually use 5 minutes and rule B for long stretches between rests.

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Resting Benefits - When to Do What

Note: Any time out of combat, you may use the Rally action to spend Reserves.

1) You start a Rest.

2) After you Rest for the minimum amount of time ( as decided by your Campaign GM ), you can be certain that you will regain your Reserves and Signature abilities. You may then use your remaining Reserves via Rally, and Signature abilities, notably left over Heals.

3) You then decide to gain the benefits of a Rest, including regaining all your Signature abilities, Heals, and your Reserves.

4) You may then spend your newly regained abilities - including Heals and Reserves - to recover from any left-over damage. These expended resources will not be regained until after your next encounter, and thus doing so effectively reduces the resources you have for the next encounter.

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Pressing On and Time

It costs 2 WP to Press On even though you have not met the minimum amount of time ( as decided by your Campaign GM ), and it is an individual decision to do so. When you do so, you skip the minimum amount of time requirement, going from Step 1 to Step 2 of a Rest immediately.

However, to use Press On, you still need at least SOME TIME to recover, minimum is 1 minute without combat, and hence Press On cannot be used in combat. Typically this is at least about 1 minute to 5 minutes, or longer, depending how long the actual resting time required is. When using Press On, note that this period of time need not be actually resting, it might be part of a chase scene, driving a car, running down a staircase, tracking the villain's footprints, etc. However, it should not involve combat and should not be perilously strenuous, ie should not involve taking some actions that would/could result in damage, such as leaping over chasms, jumping down walls, climbing up an incline where falling is dangerous, rushing into burning buildings, etc.

Press On is most commonly used to continue after a very brief rest, or pursuit, usually to stop a villain from getting away, or to rush right after combat to help with a dangerous situation like a rescuing people trapped in a burning building.

However, it is probable and possible Press On is used under unexpected circumstances. While the PCs are still resting, they are attacked, or while they are pursuing/tracking the villain, they are ambushed. Or they simply decided not to take a proper rest and end up faced with so many opponents they realise it would be a really good idea (or GM hints it is best) to use Press On and regain their depleted Signatures and Reserves.

In such a case, the use of Press On is declared as (technically before) initiative is rolled. Step 1 and 2 are both skipped, as you simply do not have the actions to expend your left over resources from the previous encounter. You go straight to step 3, regaining all your Signature abilities and Reserves etc, and likewise skip step 4 as you are now fighting for your lives.