D&D (2024) Rests should be dropped. Stop conflating survival mechanics with resource recovery.

[Emberashh]

Its high time to abandon it. Its dumb and the pearl clutchers can be ignored.

The best solutions to fixing the problems with rest involve limiting when they can be used, which in turn just causes a verisimilitude problem. Those obnoxious safe haven rules are awful and is just a flipside of the coin of unimmersive mechanics.

Survival ultimately should be an all or nothing option. Either you go all the way or you don't do it at all, and the desperate clinging to rests just holds the game down. Let it go.

An energy system like Mana or Stamina works better all around and is a lot easier to balance around, and it can work no matter what kind of campaign or module is being run. From Marvel esque romps to nitty gritty horror and anything inbetween. And, best part, no arguing.

Have a potion? Your loss if you decide to use it at a bad time. No wasted time trying to negotiate for what amount of time we're going to skip for arbitrary reasons.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I subscribe to jettisoning the Long Rest, but I cannot endorse any argument that appeals to 'verisimilitude', which is worse than a bad resource mechanic.

 

[mellored]

How would you recover mana?

Perhaps when you rest?

 

[Emberashh]

I subscribe to jettisoning the Long Rest, but I cannot endorse any argument that appeals to 'verisimilitude', which is worse than a bad resource mechanic.

Either you can only "rest" in a "safe haven", which isn't how real animals, including humans, work, or the world unrealistically refuses to respond to people camping in a dungeon due to meta concerns and what ultimately becomes negotiating on whether or not this timeskip works or not.

Its dumb mechanically and it does break verisimilitude. Little reason to not acknowledge its a valid reason to call it bad.

How would you recover mana?

Perhaps when you rest?

Potions, like literally any other RPG that isn't stuck in this useless tradition.

Potions are a resource that removes all negotiating and negates any verisimilitude problems. If players want to spend their resources willy nilly they should be able to, and the GM should be empowered to keep the fight up because the difficulty shouldn't even be tied to whether or not they've had a potion anyway.

 

[mellored]

Potions are a resource that removes all negotiating and negates any verisimilitude problems.

Not sure drinking gallons of gatorade to keep casting spells is high verisimilitude.

Not to mention, what kind of recycling program does those bottles have? How does putting something in your mouth instantly cure a wound on your foot? Do you really want to get into a sword fight carrying a bunch of glass? Is your opponent going to let you just drink it?

Potions break verisimilitude.

 

[Bardic Dave]

Either you can only "rest" in a "safe haven", which isn't how real animals, including humans, work, or the world unrealistically refuses to respond to people camping in a dungeon due to meta concerns and what ultimately becomes negotiating on whether or not this timeskip works or not.

Its dumb mechanically and it does break verisimilitude. Little reason to not acknowledge its a valid reason to call it bad.



Potions, like literally any other RPG that isn't stuck in this useless tradition.

Potions are a resource that removes all negotiating and negates any verisimilitude problems. If players want to spend their resources willy nilly they should be able to, and the GM should be empowered to keep the fight up because the difficulty shouldn't even be tied to whether or not they've had a potion anyway.

How do you acquire potions? From a potion seller? With gold?

I can see the negotiations now—

Player 1: "Let's head back to town, I'm out of potions"
Player 2: "But I don't wanna! Let's stick to the adventure!"

or

Players: "This potion seller's dry? Well, there must be another nearby. Let's go look around!"
DM: "No, there are no more potions to be had. You'll have to make do with what you have"
Players: "No competition among potion sellers? There goes any sense of verisimilitude in this pseudo medieval economy"

or

Player 1: "Potions are expensive! Let's strip the gold filigree from all these statues to pay for our potion habit!"
Player 2: "That's boring, and it's breaking my immersion! There's adventure to be had!"

----

I think a certain amount of obnoxious haggling between players is endemic to the genre. If it's not rests, it's something else. I don't see your solution fixing anything, really.

 

[bloodtide]

But you need a way to reset game abilities.

And players will want to do game abilites every encounter.

You need rests.

 

[overgeeked]

But you need a way to reset game abilities.

And players will want to do game abilites every encounter.

You need rests.

Lower the number of abilities and have them recover with a 5-minute short rest. Keeps rests. Players get to use all their toys. And the designers can actually balance the game. So many problems solved.

 

[mellored]

But you need a way to reset game abilities.

And players will want to do game abilites every encounter.

You need rests.

To be fair. You could use milestones. Recover X after so many battles.

Not very verisimilitude, but functional.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Either you can only "rest" in a "safe haven", which isn't how real animals, including humans, work, or the world unrealistically refuses to respond to people camping in a dungeon due to meta concerns and what ultimately becomes negotiating on whether or not this timeskip works or not.

Its dumb mechanically and it does break verisimilitude. Little reason to not acknowledge its a valid reason to call it bad.

Yeah, I still can't support trying to bring 'verisimilitude' into D&D anymore than I can support bringing rabid hyenas into a kindergarten.