D&D General D&D without resource management

[Clint_L]

Setting hyperbole aside, D&D5e has the potential to be resource management heavy, or light, depending on how you run it. It has the potential to be exploration heavy or light, depending on how you run it. It has the potential to be combat heavy or light. Story heavy or light.

It's a great rule set. There are other great rule sets, too. This one leans more towards resource management, though not quite to the extreme of say, Pathfinder, or Call of Cthulhu. At the opposite end of the spectrum you have games like Dread and Fiasco. There is room for lots of approaches.

What I take OP to be asking is "is resource management a defining feature of D&D?". In other words, could you have zero resource management and still recognize what you are doing as D&D? I would argue not. Ultimately, I think hit points, spell slots, and combat rounds with resources such as movement and actions are defining characteristics of the game. Other resources, like inventory, are not essential, but those basic resources are part of what make D&D, D&D.

Edit: RPG is a much more general term, and I think the defining feature is literally in the name: role playing game. It has to have a story in which the player is an active participant. It definitely does not require resource management; there are plenty of RPGs that do not.

 

[Vaalingrade]

How so? Never been in a pitch-black dungeon?

~Cast light, has dark or low-light vision, enjoys not having to pretend to care about torches.~

 

[Vaalingrade]

One could argue that D&D is whatever game WotC slaps that name on, so....

But "new and improved" is often just a bland marketing term and I'm wary of it.

Except it really would be improved by dint of not having arrow counting and Vancian magic in.

 

[CleverNickName]

It feels like the game has been trending in that direction for a while now. Cantrips were just the beginning; I know DMs who ignore ammunition, carrying capacity, even the number of hours in a day. It's only a matter of time until class features and spellcasting follows suit.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

It feels like the game has been trending in that direction for a while now. Cantrips were just the beginning; I know DMs who ignore ammunition, carrying capacity, even the number of hours in a day. It's only a matter of time until class features and spellcasting follows suit.

i hope so

 

[Celebrim]

I don't see as the computer industry should be considered authoritative on TTRPG classification.

For the record, I actually consider the essential element of RPG to be role-play.

But that said, there are games that have role-play that I don't consider to be RPGs - for example, theater games or story-telling games or a child's game of "make-believe".

But I do think that it is interesting how what is essential to an RPG translates out of the tRPG experience into other formats. For example, I'm currently playing Star Wars: Fallen Order which has storytelling, a skill tree, and a somewhat open world with monsters to fight and puzzles to solve. But I wouldn't classify it in any fashion as an RPG, whereas if it had meaningful resource management, I mentally probably would characterize it as an RPG. And I don't think I'm alone in that, so there has to be something going on here.

 

[Clint_L]

It feels like the game has been trending in that direction for a while now. Cantrips were just the beginning; I know DMs who ignore ammunition, carrying capacity, even the number of hours in a day. It's only a matter of time until class features and spellcasting follows suit.

I ignore those things unless there is a compelling story reason for them to matter.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Of course the biggest change would come to casters. I think the best solution would be to go to a "casting check" system. Personally I would not set DCs to particular spells, but instead let caster make a check to find out how much magical energy they can gather that turn, and then decide whether to use it immediately, or keep gathering next turn to be able to use bigger effects or more powerful spells. It would require a totally different system for casting and using spells, but that would not necessarily be a bad thing.

i built a roll off make spells on the fly system similar to M:tA from white wolf for both 2e and 3e by taking the spell seeds from high level campaigns/epic level handbook and working out the DCs/Target Numbers for a handful of spells... then I let the caster class I made get X number of seeds to start and more every Y levels...
I then DID have a resource management though with a mana system that lowered DCs and you got mana back at a X/ten minute rate where X was governed by your level.

 

[billd91]

by that logic any game that has only non magic PCs (say a fighter and a rogue) aren't playing D&D

by that logic, apparently fighters and rogues don't have hit points

 

[Malmuria]

I think we're talking about two different things: 1) inventory management of stuff like torches, arrows, etc, and 2) the per rest abilities. You can choose to bring 1 torch or 10 torches into the dungeon, so the calculation comes in preparing for the adventure, whereas with per rest abilities you only get a pre set amount, and the only way to control that is by resting, hence the 5 minute work day.

- Basic dnd (i.e. bx and becmi) has very few per rest abilities--mostly just spells. Even hp don't totally reset on a long rest. And resting mid-adventure is dangerous, and will cause you to use more of your limited torches and arrows. Most of a class features (finding secret doors, infravision, etc) is available at level 1. Everything else you get with leveling are static increases (to hp, saves, etc) and what would now be called "ribbon" abilities.

- Some OSR games, like Knave and Mausritter, handle spells by converting them to inventory. Like in Mausritter, a spell is a little tablet that you hold in your hand and has the possibility of being exhausted after you use it.

- Whitehack assigns a hp cost to spells. So spells don't have an inherent level, but they can have a minor or major effect depending on how many hp you use to cast them. Spellcasters heal a bit faster than other classes to balance this.