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Resting and the frikkin' Elephant in the Room
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<blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7119564" data-attributes="member: 12731"><p>TL;DR: Everybody's telling me the solution to my problems is X, only X isn't in the game. So what kind of crappy solution is that?!</p><p></p><p>Longer version:</p><p></p><p>Go read Angry GM's take on resting. It's fairly typical and several posters give me the identical spiel, often complete with the dismissive tone:</p><p><a href="http://theangrygm.com/ask-angry-resting-in-5e-and-why-its-fine/" target="_blank">http://theangrygm.com/ask-angry-resting-in-5e-and-why-its-fine/</a></p><p></p><p>The spiel, btw, is "just add time constraints through your story". But that's just dishonest - it's not part of either the rules or its supplements. The game should IMNSHO work right out of the box, and story-driven constraints on resting frequency simply isn't part of the game as shipped. Like <em>at all</em>.</p><p></p><p>Or, as commented by Kernel Class in conjunction with that post:</p><p></p><p>Now, here comes the elephant(s) in the room, that nobody seems to actually want to discuss:</p><p></p><p>* <strong>The official published scenarios never* provide what's needed to enforce this attrition.</strong> </p><p></p><p>* <strong>The rules never enforce any attrition.</strong> </p><p></p><p>* <strong>In fact, the rules bend over backwards making attrition as unenforceable as possible.</strong> <span style="font-size: 9px"><em>It's practically impossible to interrupt a short rest. There are spells that trivialize the danger of a particular location (everything from Goodberry to Magnicifient Mansion via Rope Trick).</em></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 9px"><em>*) please read "seldom" in place of "never" instead of angrily posting an example proving me wrong. I don't care if there are examples of adventures that address attrition, the point is that most adventures don't.</em></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>So, let us discuss. </p><p></p><p><strong>How do you make attrition work in a game where you don't fancy doing all the hard work, and instead rely on official published supplements?</strong></p><p></p><p>How many encounters and short rests do you have per long rest? What does the party need to do when they feel they need to stop and rest? What's stopping them from doing this?</p><p></p><p>I should state out right that at low levels, the game works alright and there isn't much of a problem. Below level four or seven (or so), heroes are certainly so fragile no combat is truly "trivial" and they will feel the "attrition" even before they've used up any resources!</p><p></p><p>Feel free to use existing modules as examples; anything from Rise of Tiamat through Storm King's Thunder and Tales of the Yawning Portal. Just keep in mind that I'm mainly thinking of the mid game and above. <span style="font-size: 9px"><em>If you absolutely must have a specific level to discuss let's use level 10; that way every published campaign qualifies.</em></span></p><p></p><p>The only constraint I'm asking of you is that you can't dismiss or "solve" the issue by the flippant "just add time constraints to the adventure" thing. Trust me, I've been given that piece of useless advice enough times already. I am specifically asking about ways on how to make D&D and its rules work, given the assumptions that 5th edition suddenly places upon the game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CapnZapp, post: 7119564, member: 12731"] TL;DR: Everybody's telling me the solution to my problems is X, only X isn't in the game. So what kind of crappy solution is that?! Longer version: Go read Angry GM's take on resting. It's fairly typical and several posters give me the identical spiel, often complete with the dismissive tone: [url]http://theangrygm.com/ask-angry-resting-in-5e-and-why-its-fine/[/url] The spiel, btw, is "just add time constraints through your story". But that's just dishonest - it's not part of either the rules or its supplements. The game should IMNSHO work right out of the box, and story-driven constraints on resting frequency simply isn't part of the game as shipped. Like [I]at all[/I]. Or, as commented by Kernel Class in conjunction with that post: Now, here comes the elephant(s) in the room, that nobody seems to actually want to discuss: * [B]The official published scenarios never* provide what's needed to enforce this attrition.[/B] * [B]The rules never enforce any attrition.[/B] * [B]In fact, the rules bend over backwards making attrition as unenforceable as possible.[/B] [SIZE=1][I]It's practically impossible to interrupt a short rest. There are spells that trivialize the danger of a particular location (everything from Goodberry to Magnicifient Mansion via Rope Trick).[/I][/SIZE] [SIZE=1][I]*) please read "seldom" in place of "never" instead of angrily posting an example proving me wrong. I don't care if there are examples of adventures that address attrition, the point is that most adventures don't.[/I][/SIZE] So, let us discuss. [B]How do you make attrition work in a game where you don't fancy doing all the hard work, and instead rely on official published supplements?[/B] How many encounters and short rests do you have per long rest? What does the party need to do when they feel they need to stop and rest? What's stopping them from doing this? I should state out right that at low levels, the game works alright and there isn't much of a problem. Below level four or seven (or so), heroes are certainly so fragile no combat is truly "trivial" and they will feel the "attrition" even before they've used up any resources! Feel free to use existing modules as examples; anything from Rise of Tiamat through Storm King's Thunder and Tales of the Yawning Portal. Just keep in mind that I'm mainly thinking of the mid game and above. [SIZE=1][I]If you absolutely must have a specific level to discuss let's use level 10; that way every published campaign qualifies.[/I][/SIZE] The only constraint I'm asking of you is that you can't dismiss or "solve" the issue by the flippant "just add time constraints to the adventure" thing. Trust me, I've been given that piece of useless advice enough times already. I am specifically asking about ways on how to make D&D and its rules work, given the assumptions that 5th edition suddenly places upon the game. [/QUOTE]
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