about a 3/4 chance of not dying those 8 weeks when things go bad. 56
points isn't bad for a character, and if he bumps his DX and ST, he
might just survive a bad week, even though it'll take a few weeks to
recover. And he's going to live a lot longer, too.
Things look rosier for 56 point Jim. When he hits 70, he'll have lost
that 20 points, sure, but he'll have gained back 14.4. So he'll be a
strong 50 pointer at age 70. At 80, he'll have lost another 20, but
gained back 7, so 37 points (with just about enough fractions for
another point, so we'll call it 38 at 70). Now we start losing 3 a
year, so that'll put him at 82.3 when the sands run out. But that's 12
years of work, and until his IQ drops below what he needs, he can still
get another point or 2 in that time. If we assume he needs ST 1, DX 1,
IQ 8 to function, he can lose 28 points before having real trouble.
That's still 9.3 years, in which time he'll get another 6.7 or so
points, good enough for another couple years. So Jim is now 89.3 and 16
points. Pretty robust. He'll keep working another 2 years, not enough
to guarantee another point, before he can't work anymore at 10 points.
So, he retires at 91.3, and lives another 2.6 years, shuffling off the
mortal coil at 94. This is assuming he doesn't lose out on any of the
bad roll weeks.