Hriston
Dungeon Master of Middle-earth (He/him)
Hello,
I'm currently running a game that features a lot of overland travel and exploration. I'm using the default resting rules, however, not the Gritty Realism variant, and I've noticed something a bit odd about these rules. I think it stems from a few factors that may or may not be unique to my game. First is that the party will normally travel for only eight hours a day, due to the risk of exhaustion involved with a forced march. I generally rule that making and breaking camp each take two hours, so that leaves twelve hours of the day that can be spent resting in-camp. Second is that the party is setting watches while they sleep, and although six hours is the minimum amount of sleep needed for a non-elf to gain the benefit of a long rest, I think it's implied (by the text of the elven racial trait Trance) that eight hours of sleep is ideal for non-elven humanoids (which agrees with my personal experience). Third is that the party consists of three members, all non-elfs. Consequently, the character that takes the second watch completes his long rest over a period of nine or twelve hours interrupted by a watch of between three and four hours. By a strict reading of the rules, this character cannot gain the benefit of a long rest because he's keeping watch for longer than two hours. Here's the rules-text for reference:
I'm currently running a game that features a lot of overland travel and exploration. I'm using the default resting rules, however, not the Gritty Realism variant, and I've noticed something a bit odd about these rules. I think it stems from a few factors that may or may not be unique to my game. First is that the party will normally travel for only eight hours a day, due to the risk of exhaustion involved with a forced march. I generally rule that making and breaking camp each take two hours, so that leaves twelve hours of the day that can be spent resting in-camp. Second is that the party is setting watches while they sleep, and although six hours is the minimum amount of sleep needed for a non-elf to gain the benefit of a long rest, I think it's implied (by the text of the elven racial trait Trance) that eight hours of sleep is ideal for non-elven humanoids (which agrees with my personal experience). Third is that the party consists of three members, all non-elfs. Consequently, the character that takes the second watch completes his long rest over a period of nine or twelve hours interrupted by a watch of between three and four hours. By a strict reading of the rules, this character cannot gain the benefit of a long rest because he's keeping watch for longer than two hours. Here's the rules-text for reference:
A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps for at least 6 hours and performs no more than 2 hours of light activity, such as reading, talking, eating, or standing watch. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity - at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity - the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.
A long rest must be at least eight hours but can be longer. When it is longer than eight hours, I believe the allowable period of light activity also needs to be extended by the same amount of time and that the two-hour limit on light activity only applies to a long rest that is strictly eight hours. For instance, in a three member party in which each member sleeps for eight hours, the member taking the second watch will take a long rest of twelve hours, four hours of which is spent keeping watch.