D&D 5E A Question of Rest

[Tev]

It's all about context. Some days you'll get to a long rest with everyone clinging on to life by a single thread, spent and worn down to the bone where a single, strong gust of wind would finish the party. Others everyone will barely have a scratch and could easily handle a few more fights if they needed to but as long as this is all in context with what's been going on then it doesn't really matter.

I don't think throwing constant fight for your life action at players is a good idea most of the time. That then becomes the norm and diminishes the impact of big fights where everyone really should be fighting to stay alive and throwing their all at it.

At the end of the day, as long as everyone has had fun it really doesn't matter.

 

[Shiroiken]

I define overspending resources as taking a rest that causes you to fail your current objective in order to avoid a potential TPK.



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So you don't know if you overspent until it's too late? Seems unpleasant. How do you avoid this? Isn't under-spending resources (in this style of game) just as bad as overspending them?

 

[OB1]

So you don't know if you overspent until it's too late? Seems unpleasant. How do you avoid this? Isn't under-spending resources (in this style of game) just as bad as overspending them?

Not really, typically it's that they don't know they've underspent until it's too late. In the style my table plays, we have a heavy emphasis on resolving story uncertainty through PC choice. Those choices only resonate if there is tension between what they want and their ability to accomplish it. If we finish a day with unspent resources, it means we wither accomplished all of the goals that we had, or we made a choice to accomplish some goals at the expense of others, but the choice of which goals to follow was up to us.

For example, while heading into the evil Turtleman's castle to rescue the princess, we see a treasure room guarded by a giant mushroom. We decide to risk going for the treasure, but it takes more resources than we expected because of some unlucky rolls. Now we have to decide whether to risk fighting Turtleman at less than full strength, and from the stories we've heard, that may prove difficult. But if we don't rescue her now, she will be sacrificed to Turtleman's evil god, so we push forward, hoping for the dice to be on our side.

If that ends in TPK, so be it. We've chosen to take that risk to accomplish our goal. If it ends in victory, it's that much sweeter knowing that we were actually risking our characters to accomplish it.

 

[Shiroiken]

Not really, typically it's that they don't know they've underspent until it's too late. In the style my table plays, we have a heavy emphasis on resolving story uncertainty through PC choice. Those choices only resonate if there is tension between what they want and their ability to accomplish it. If we finish a day with unspent resources, it means we wither accomplished all of the goals that we had, or we made a choice to accomplish some goals at the expense of others, but the choice of which goals to follow was up to us.

For example, while heading into the evil Turtleman's castle to rescue the princess, we see a treasure room guarded by a giant mushroom. We decide to risk going for the treasure, but it takes more resources than we expected because of some unlucky rolls. Now we have to decide whether to risk fighting Turtleman at less than full strength, and from the stories we've heard, that may prove difficult. But if we don't rescue her now, she will be sacrificed to Turtleman's evil god, so we push forward, hoping for the dice to be on our side.

If that ends in TPK, so be it. We've chosen to take that risk to accomplish our goal. If it ends inTur victory, it's that much sweeter knowing that we were actually risking our characters to accomplish it.

Not trying to be a jerk (it just comes naturally), but in your example, wouldn't it be smarter to simply leave the giant mushroom (which probably can't move) until AFTER you kill Turtleman? He seems to have a time limit, but the giant mushroom and treasure will probably still be there afterwards. Additionally, you could long rest before, facing the giant mushroom with full strength.

In general though, I agree that the answer to the poll question is heavily based on playstyle. As I said previously, my group rests based on game time, rather than player choice. Resting early means more wandering monster rolls before you even start the long rest. This can sometimes hurt worse than just continuing on.

 

[OB1]

Not trying to be a jerk (it just comes naturally), but in your example, wouldn't it be smarter to simply leave the giant mushroom (which probably can't move) until AFTER you kill Turtleman?

You mean when all of the Turtleman's minions are on high alert and searching the castle for you? And the mushroom can definitely move, the trick is jumping on it's head to squash it before it bumps into you...

Actually, one of my favorite "keeping them honest" tactics is to have the BBEG's three top lieutenants show up to avenge their boss moments after said BBEG has been defeated (again, as long as I've telegraphed the possibility to the PCs beforehand).

I don't think you're being jerkish at all, and I hope that I'm not coming across as telling anyone that they are having BadWrongFun. I find it useful to identify and understand fundamental differences in play style to deepen my understanding of how the rules of the game affect different gamers and how to use that to provide a better experience for my players, hence the poll question of this thread.

 

[Rhenny]

"...a sign that they aren't paying attention to BS meta-game info".

Hiya!

(see above). It tells me they aren't engaged with the "rules of the game". It tells me they are engaged with the milieu/campaign/setting/story. The more a player tries to run his/her character as purely a group of numbers on a spread sheet, the more I will specifically try and run the game where those "meta-game things" will screw his/her character over. Harsh? Yes. Richard move? Yes. Effective at getting a player to think more in terms of "If I was this character, in this world, in this situation, what would make sense to me and what would I do?"? Abso effing lootly!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

This is exactly what I would say.

I hate when players use rest as a recharge pill. I love when they feel character fatigue and decide to rest because it makes sense for the story.

I also like when players try to conserve pc powers just in case, so having something left over means they were smart enough or scared enough to hold back.