Pressures
Each faculty has a pressure dial. Exerting on one of the faculty's skills fills its dial, and a full dial makes that faculty's checks harder.
Exerting spends the limit behind the skill you are rolling with. It buys a better roll now and pushes that limit toward the point where its whole faculty turns harder and can no longer be exerted at all. Each dial starts with a limit of 20, and every exertion adds 5 to the dial behind the rolled skill, so 4 exertions fill a fresh one. A few reinforced thoughts change what one exertion costs; they are listed below.
[You have exceeded your social limit. While Anxious: Psychological (Social) checks are now harder and you cannot Exert yourself while performing them.]
Reinforced thoughts that change exertion
Divine Manipulator of the ThreadsExerting on Action Checks cost -1 FatigueExerting on Relation Checks cost -1 AnxietyExerting on Intellect Checks cost -1 Delirium
Jar of FacesExerting on Relation Checks cost -1 Anxiety
Modified Limited HangoutWhile not Exerting:+1 Bonus to Action Checks
Spiritual Auto-SurgeryExerting on Intellect Checks cost -1 Delirium
Standalone ExpansionExerting on Relation Checks cost +1 Anxiety
The Empty FloorExerting on Action Checks cost -1 Fatigue
What exerting buys
An ordinary roll uses two dice. Exerting adds a third die and keeps the best two. Critical success and failure still apply.
Every red and white check also carries a bonus for not exerting. It counts only while Modified Limited Hangout is reinforced, and only on checks of the faculty its line names. Exerting on such a check gives the bonus up.
What it costs
Each of the 3 dials answers to one faculty and to the 5 skills of that faculty. The spend lands on the dial, not on the skill: Technoflex draws on the same dial as Grey Matter and Records, so exerting on one of them leaves less room for the next. The other faculties do not pay for that roll.
What a full dial does
While Anxious, Relation checks get harder and you cannot exert on them at all. Fatigued and Delirious carry the same lock for their own faculties.
The pressure works on you before that point. As a limit degrades, the rolls of the skills that draw on it are penalized; the size of that penalty is not known. A limit is a range rather than a line, and the case moves its middle as it goes, so the same build does not have the same room on every night.
Getting the room back
Sleep brings both ends of the range down, and how well you slept decides how much comes back.
Coffee, nicotine and alcohol each lower one dial and raise another:
- Coffee (RUMBA! Canned Coffee, Jefa Red & Black Blend, Camisado Ultra Sweet) buys Action room and spends Relation.
- Nicotine (Suprema 100s, Sturdy Pony, Ouroboros Black) buys Intellect room and spends Action.
- Alcohol (Perro Pale, Wiśnia Brand Schnapps, Shard Mezcal) buys Relation room and spends Intellect.