Vince_Snetterton
Explorer
The thing is, and I believe you agree with me on this, is that once the baseline, (the initial homework) is done, re: the weight of items being carried, or tracking ammo, or rations, maintaining those numbers are trivial.This is like saying that since someone likes eating apples one time, they should also like eating oranges everyday. They are not remotely the same in terms of effort, frequency, taste, and reward - at least not for many, if not most people.
As for things like ammunition, I do think there should be some system in place for dealing with the possibility of running out (some people like an ammo die, my groups keep actual track) but it should be as detailed or abstracted as the group is comfortable with.
I, too, in general, have an old school vibe with my DM style - but I also feel like there have always been a range of player preferences that have been at odds with my style since the 80s - this is nothing new. People complained about keeping track of encumbrance back in 1E days. I first ran across an ammo die optional rule in 2E, clearly because some people didn't like keeping track of arrows, some people prefer VTTs and D&D Beyond because it keeps track of that stuff for you. I also know "new school" players for whom part of the fun is detailing where every bit of gear is on their body and how, even though there are other game preferences that make us a bad match for playing together.
For me, sometimes the puzzle of "how are we gonna carry all this stuff?" can be fun - but that fun (again for me) has diminishing returns. I don't want to spend time at the table figuring it out in a detailed way every session - and I don't like assigning homework for between sessions (even though some things, like leveling up - are best done then, so it is not always avoidable).
You fire an arrow, you subtract it from the quantity on your sheet (5 seconds work). You eat a day's rations, you reduce your rations by 1 (5 seconds work) AND you subtract 1 or 2 pounds from the weight you are carrying (also 5 seconds work). You come across a hoard of loose coins, mostly copper. NOW you have to have a conversation in group about how to carry that.