D&D General Resource Management should not be your only tool to challenge players.

[Minigiant]

Resource Management
Action Management
Tactical Play
Strategic Play
Diplomatic Management
Resource Optimization
Action Optimization
Build Optimization
Detail Perception
Micromanagement
Macromanagement

All should be tools for challenges to players. Rotated amongst the ones they tolerate

 

[Micah Sweet]

I broadly agree; I wish resource drain over the course of the day wasn't so integral to challenge in DnD, though if you got rid of that I'm not sure I'd even call it a dnd-style game. But I would love a fantasy adventure ttrpg where the game was built to make each combat interesting regardless of how many other combats there were since the last full heal-up. (4e came close but not quite there)

Although at a certain point all gameplay is resource management, since turns and actions and hit points are also resources.

I'm also concerned that de-emphasizing resource management would be very difficult in a D&D-style game.

 

[Reynard]

What do you use instead?

I don't worry too much about it with 5E because there is no mechanism to make it worthwhile. I think 5Es combat generally runs pretty well, and it is comparatively quick, so I like very difficult fights with lots of enemies, cool terrain effects and the like. This might be the culmination of a 5 room dungeon, or it might be the only thing that happens that "adventuring day." Resource attrition usually ends up resulting in a bunch of time spent on uninteresting, unsatisfying encounters or traps, just to make a set piece encounter harder. I generally skip the middle man and just amp up the set piece.

I realize there are knock on effects, particularly with how different classes recover their abilities, but that is a system problem, not a me problem.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I'm also concerned that de-emphasizing resource management would be very difficult in a D&D-style game.

Resource management makes a ton of sense if you're going into dungeons to fight dragons, after all.

But sometimes we play DnD in a way that doesn't really involve any of that. It shouldn't surprise us when the game doesn't fit so neatly into that square hole.

 

[Reynard]

I'm also concerned that de-emphasizing resource management would be very difficult in a D&D-style game.

I'm not sure that D&D has a singular discernable style that makes this statement true.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Resource management makes a ton of sense if you're going into dungeons to fight dragons, after all.

But sometimes we play DnD in a way that doesn't really involve any of that. It shouldn't surprise us when the game doesn't fit so neatly into that square hole.

Sure, but you have to admit that if you're not concerned with resource management, you're not engaging with the vast bulk of the game's mechanics. It's mostly skill checks and free roleplay at that point.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Sure, but you have to admit that if you're not concerned with resource management, you're not engaging with the vast bulk of the game's mechanics. It's mostly skill checks and free roleplay at that point.

That and occasions too-easy fights.

Not that I don't enjoy some free roleplay and skill checks. But if DnD was only one thing I wouldn't play it nearly as much.

 

[Reynard]

Sure, but you have to admit that if you're not concerned with resource management, you're not engaging with the vast bulk of the game's mechanics. It's mostly skill checks and free roleplay at that point.

I don't see how that is true. You aren't engaging with a few of the game's mechanics, most of which are obviate by level 3.

If you mean hit points and spell slots and per X abilities: you absolutely are engaging with those mechanics. You just aren't engaging with them in the boring and broken way 5E presents them.

 

[Oofta]

I think resource management are pretty central ro D&D. That doesn't mean there can't be other challenges as well. The issue is, it really depends on the group.

Some people hate puzzles and riddles. I played in a campaign ( LFR, the 4E public game) that had a lot and pretty much everyone rolled their eyes and handed it to the one guy that can do them I don't think he enjoyed it after a while either.

Some people like political intrigue or mysteries. But there are better games for that.

So I use the alternate rest rules with one group where a short rest is overnight and a long rest several days, usually a week. It suits my standard pace of play. Resource tracking is definitely an issue. But for another group? They're heavily martial based so I don't bother.

In both groups, I simply mix it up a lot. Sometimes we'll spend an hour or two role playing, sometimes we'll do complex encounters like chases or complex traps. Things that the PC matters but the players can also come up with clever solutions.

For example in a recent game the group had to get past some ogre battering ram guards. One of the PCs used a class feature to enlarge themselves and a hat of disguise to look like an ogre and, long story short, they bluffed their way through.

So I wouldn't worry if they don't have to care all that much about resources, unless it's something they enjoy. Find other things to sprinkle in.

 

[Stormonu]

I think I realized I stop liking resource management back when I was playing the first Diablo and my hit points/mana didn't come back over time. It made me realize that sort of thing wasn't fun in AD&D either.

I like making my players use their noodle over just hammering their way through a problem, but it can be tough to get the balance just right. There's been tons of ink spilled on balancing and building combat encounters, but not so much on how to put together interesting puzzles, interactions and the like - examples, yes, but little in the way of on-the-fly design tools to help you put together and analyze how to make interesting puzzles and how they work at being interesting instead of being dicefests.