D&D 5E If party short rests in a dungeon room

[Quickleaf]

DM question for ya.

If the party does a short 1 hour rest in a dungeon room they just cleared, can it be interrupted? if so what percent of the time should I interrupt it as a DM?

Not enough information.

If by cleared you mean "killed all monsters and there's no chance of random encounters anymore", then logically they should be able to rest without interruption.

Playtest rules gave these guidelines for frequency of random encounters:

Mostly uninhibited 20 /d20
Typical dungeon 18-20 /d20
Densely inhabited 16-20 /d20

 

[Woas]

Do you mean that you don't think they can ever rest in a dungeon, or just that they shouldn't be able to rest near an unexplored or busy area? These are meant to be characters who can fight toe-to-toe with the undead on a regular basis; they're pretty brave.

And what if they're deep into a mega-dungeon? After a while (they could be there for weeks!) exhaustion would win out no matter how on edge they were.

Also, it depend son how you envisage a short rest working. Is it a nice sit down, a bit of bandaging and perhaps a snack? If so, they could manage that easily with someone on watch at all times (rotating the watch, of course). I'd even argue that for things like Arcane Recovery, as long as they had someone on watch that they trusted, they could probably manage it, unless they were of particularly nervous disposition.

Yeah basically I would envision characters getting pretty cozy for an hour to have a short rest.
Cozy enough were if the characters weren't in an area that was adequately cleared out and known to be non hostile it would be just too tense to get much rest. If there was a place that seemed like a decent safe haven that the characters could stay in that's fine. It really would depend on the circumstances.

 

[Rhenny]

First I decide if there would even be a chance that a wandering monster might happen upon the party. This depends on how much noise they made, how active the monsters are, how many monsters there are in the area. Of coure, if other monsters know that the party is in their territory, the chances go up a lot.

Then, if I can't say for sure..yes or no, I roll random encounter possibility.

So far, I love how 1 hour short rests have worked in my games. Psychologically, my players avoid taking them until they really fear they need them and they feel as if they have found a pretty secure and defensible position.

Just rolling the die when they decide to rest is enough to make them fear. Short rest management is an incredible DM tool to pace the game and adjust to difficult encounters on the fly.

 

[aramis erak]

Many old dungeons included a chance for a a random encounter, and an appropriate encounter table, for the specific dungeon.

I think 10% chance for a wandering encounter every hour was about the standard.

1 in 6 per 10 minutes was the standard in Cyclopedia. which works out to about 66% per hour.
In Cook's Expert, (which goes with Moldvay's Basic), it's 1 in 6 per 20 minutes. Which is about 42% per hour. I can't find it in AD&D 1E.

In wilderness, it varied by edition more. Cyclopedia (which I have to hand) it's between 1/6 and 3/6 for the whole day, and 1/12 and 3/12 for the whole night. AD&D 1 used a table, with population setting die type (and a check on 1 in X), with the number and times of checks by terrain.

 

[Ranes]

I can't find it in AD&D 1E.

The 1e DMG said only that the frequency of checks should be moderated by circumstance. Specific wandering monster tables and the associated check frequency guidelines were the preserve of individual adventures.

 

[Henrix]

A quick look at some old adventures tell me that in Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (1st ed,), wandering monsters occurred between 1-in-8 to 1-in-12 depending on the area.
But it does not say how often to roll. Once every turn (10min) sounds good, looking at the busy area adn the type of encounters.
(The encounters are like '1d6 orc servants going to get platters for the feast'.)

Descent into the Depths of the Earth has a chance per hex travelled.

Against the Cult of the Reptile God has a 1-in-8 per turn.


I'd give it a chance per hour, though.

 

[Grainger]

I'm not sure if it's in the 1e DMG, another source book, or an interview, but I recently read a quote from Gygax about never letting a wandering monster encounter ruin the game... I can't find the reference now, though. I'd say that wandering monster checks are useful to make the party feel threatened, but they shouldn't be used in excess (that said, I used to run BECMI wilderness travel by rolling checks for every 10 minutes of game time - the (low-level) party did a lot of running, and it made them plan their journeys very carefully - and it was probably my most enthusiastic campaign group I've ever had); I wouldn't be anything like so malevolent now, though.

 

[Henrix]

Killing PCs with wandering monsters is no fun for anybody.

They are there to disturb the peace (and rests) for the PCs and wear down their resources.

It is there to force them to plan for the unexpected.
Unexpected that it is not entirely dependent on the GM's whims, but sheer chance.

It is not there for the characters to gain anything.
They are not worth any XP, and don't carry much treasure.


Also note that to disturb a rest it need not be a dangerous or even hostile encounter.

A merchant with a caravan and guards staying to chat and trying to impress the PCs for a little over an hour.

Strange noises that put them on guard and on the ready.

A downpour soaking their resting place so they have to break camp.

A lady in distress.

 

[Grainger]

Killing PCs with wandering monsters is no fun for anybody.

They are there to disturb the peace (and rests) for the PCs and wear down their resources.

It is there to force them to plan for the unexpected.
Unexpected that it is not entirely dependent on the GM's whims, but sheer chance.

It is not there for the characters to gain anything.

They are not worth any XP, and don't carry much treasure.

In old school (e.g. BECMI), it was highly likely that any encounter could TPK.

But yeah, I basically agree with you. They're to keep the PCs on their toes - not to be the main focus of the game, and certainly not be provide great rewards, XP or otherwise.

 

[The_Gneech]

Last night in my Starter Set game, the players surprised me by deciding to take a short rest in the Cragmaw Hideout after clearing about half of it. Cragmaw Hideout is small, only about six rooms, but it's pretty bisected into two halves that don't like each other much and have a noisy waterfall between them, so even though the complex was on alert I decided the chances of wandering patrols or such were actually pretty small, and rolled for it randomly (12 on d12).

They put the rogue on watch, and I rolled an 8, so all was well. But goblins are also not the brightest of opponents... if this had been a hobgoblin war-camp or a similar place with better training and discipline, there surely would have been a patrol.

-The Gneech