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[Cadfan]

Originally Posted by Alex319

1. Why is it that the "mundane" resource management (rations, fatigue) is generally seen as tedious, while the "fantastic" resource management (power uses, item charges) isn't?

Because checking off something like rations or arrows is repetitive, time consuming, and has little effect on your overall chance of success in the typical game, because rations and arrows are trivially cheap in the overall design scheme of the game and can be carried in amounts that make counting them a formality. Power uses, on the other hand, have an immediate effect on the course of the game each time they're used, both through their use and their absence afterwards.

If you ran a game where firing an arrow was as much of an expended resource as, say, using one of your only three diamonds as an indispensable component in raising an ally from the dead, people would care about counting arrows. But if you play a relatively generic D&D game where a player can stuff a few hundred arrows into some magical bag every time he goes to town, no one will care about the arrows.

2. Would it be possible to design a game system where "mundane" resource management takes center stage, and is as important to the game as the "fantastic" resource management is in games like D+D?

I'm sure it would be possible.

Do such systems already exist? How well do they work

I've played Battletech recently, and while I think the game has certain fundamental flaws due its age that are not relevant in this conversation, it provides an example of what you're looking for. You don't track rations in it per se, but in a campaign you do track things like salvaged lasers and smashed heat sinks. Tracking these things, while occasionally tending towards the tedious, can be a lot of fun because you're at a constant risk of losing important weapons and components you need to succeed, yet you've got a constant chance to salvage and gain even better gear.

The key, I think, is that the resources tracked have to matter. Tracking rations in a game where you can easily afford as many rations as you need isn't that exciting. Same with arrows. And you can create them with magic. And you can hunt for food and make your own arrows. It just doesn't DO much to track them.

But put the party in a situation where tracking these items actually matters to their success or failure, and they'll probably start having fun tracking them.