D&D (2024) Brainstorming 5 minute work day fixes

[Horwath]

I go back & forth but currently do because some of my players were abusing the milestone to do things like "I'm going to be late, my order is taking a long time... my order is here but I need to eat" for a game at someone's house with food every game. It also allows me to reward my more active players in ways that milestones do not allow.

playing is it's own reward.
I would not punish players if they need to eat or have RL issues, or worse can't come to the session at all.

if someone want's to play one session per level, it's fine with me.

 

[Horwath]

5th is supposed to be easy IMO ( low peril, low chance death, low triggers, inclusive ) etc, so the PCs can do lots without resorting to the 5MWD.
If you up the challenge and make it more like older editions it just encourages the need for more rest etc.

6PC party, if in a fight at least two PCs are not knocked out, then it's a cakewalk fight.

 

[Oofta]

The world continues to turn even if the PCs rest. They can't rest just anywhere, they need a safe haven and even snuggled in their beds at home may not be safe if they're in the middle of a gang war. If they attempt to rest in a dangerous areas, it just gives the enemy time to prepare, send for reinforcements or take the money and run.

I use the alternate rest rules (overnight for short rest, several days for a long) but that's more for pacing than eliminating the 5MWD. I dislike mechanical meta-game rules for limiting 5MWD, I want the reasons they can't just get a long rest whenever they want to depend on in-world reasons and logic. Fortunately I've never found it difficult to do that when I want.

 

[tetrasodium]

playing is it's own reward.
I would not punish players if they need to eat or have RL issues, or worse can't come to the session at all.

if someone want's to play one session per level, it's fine with me.

I agree but there are problems that it creates & it's contagious bit of malignant behavior. I can reward an involved & active players with a bit of extra exp here & there without the same oribkems caused by extra milestones for them when that here & there adds up to a level or more.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

people still give XP?

I forget all the time how popular milestone leveling is... but I use XP.

If the fight is not in the deadly(or at least hard+) category, why bother rolling for initiative?

Sure, from time to time it might be fun to roleplay a 10th level fighter that punches a town drunk for throwing an insult to the party, but is that really fun always?

having 6-8 fights per day was a bad idea from the start and it still is.

I agree with the concept that somedays should be 6-8 fights that over time are draining and sometimes there are only 1 or 2bigh fights that are... but there is plenty of reason to roll initiative for an average encounter in either case.

 

[John R Davis]

6PC party, if in a fight at least two PCs are not knocked out, then it's a cakewalk fight.

I would say that isn't what 5th ed is about. That will just encourage 5MWD. IMO/E

 

[aco175]

I give each player a 'hero point'/ inspiration each game night that can be used anytime that night. It is basically a re-roll for anything. If I wait to reward it until after the first encounter, then it is a carrot to continue since you now have this reroll.

 

[Blue]

PF2 is a veiled encounters system. Essentially, healing is easy (out of combat) and powers recharge as you rest. There is a tiresome process where the players ask the GM if they have 10 min to rest over and over until they are topped off or interrupted. Though, its expected that the players are not drained of resources in encounters based on how the system works. In my opinion, it just turned 5MWD intot he 5 lunch break work day but...

Im not quite a fan of either the encounters system or the veiled approach to make folks thinks its old time D&D. I prefer the adventuring day with resource management. I think the ideas about short resting up to prof a day is a good measure for 5E. I do wish there was someway to include dials for any type of adventure pacing. Maybe something called a modularity that lets folks change the way the system plays at their own table. That seems like an ideal option to fix 5MWD/5LBWD for everybody. If only...

Resource management, a/k/a attrition-based play, can be done. There's one straightforward requirement: the game can't put the key to refresh into the player's hands either directly or indirectly. This includes time-based recovery like sleeping.

Having features and spell recharge only during extended downtime (5e Gritty Rest variant.) Have them reset after a set number of encounters (13th Age, d20). Have them reset at certain milestones (AiME, d20 - end of Journey phase, but it would need to also include other phases). The last two can fairly easily be adjusted as a knob, the first would require tailoring adventure length so it's not as easily done.

It's also possible to mix and match. Have resting allowing spending of HD / HP healing, but keep feature & spell recovery separate.

 

[Gorck]

people still give XP?

I do exclusively. I'm terrible at making decision, so I'd never be able to determine when the characters are "due" to level up. Combining XP from defeating enemies with XP from miscellaneous actions (opening traps, solving puzzles/riddles, overcoming environmental obstacles, etc.) is as good of a determining factor as anything I could arbitrarily contrive.

 

[bloodtide]

The only real fix I have found for this is the DM simply forces the player(s) to keep playing the game.

There is no amount of mechanical rules that can help if the player(s) are dead set on "resting all the time". The players will just follow whatever rules they have to, and won't care about what the DM says or does. And will out right call the DMs silly bluff of "oh the world keeps turning while you rest", but the players KNOW the DM will never alter the game to be out of the players favor.

Example: The players attack a dark tower full of foes. At a point they whine and run away to rest. They rest for a time...then come back to attack the dark tower...again. The DM can bluff all day long about how the tower is now on "high alert" after being attacked. But the tower door guards will STILL be exactly TWO "appropriately fair and balanced by the rules encounter" foes. The DM will NEVER have six powerful guards and do a TPK on combat round three.

More Extreme Example: On round five of combat the players run away from a dragon to "rest". The DM blinks and then says "oh, um well, you give the dragon a free attack as you just walk away" and gets ready to do an attack. The players just shrug "whatever DM, go ahead and kill our characters and end the game and we will just leave and not come back". The DM looks on with horror about being abandoned and just says "er, um, oh, the dragon watches your characters leave."


Being the Hard Fun DM is the only way to stop the "rest all the time players". Though more then likely such players will leave that DMs game.