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Changing rest periods
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7624771" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>So its sounds like you're coming up with your timescales based upon "real world" resting, as opposed to the recovery of game mechanics. If that's the case, and you want your rests to have an appearance of what you think a person actually would consider restful were they to actually take one... then fine. Whatever time amount you decide on that "feels right" will be fine.</p><p></p><p>I will say though, that in my own experience (after having run a campaign that changed short and long rest duration) that others in the thread are right in that the decisions to rest really do come down to game mechanics first and foremost. The only real reason any players take rests at all is based on just getting back their abilities, not from any thought of how long it would take to feel better after a fight. So in that regard... the real question isn't what "feel right" for a person to catch their breath... but what players can get away with in re-inquiring their abilities without causing as much difficulty for themselves.</p><p></p><p>And in that regard... I suspect that a four hour short rest will not accomplish what you want.</p><p></p><p>To rest for four hours pretty much means that the entire game is put on hold. The players know that they are pretty much going to have to "camp" for that time-- probably set alarms, set a watch, and if they are in a dungeon, assume they are going to have random encounters during their short rests like all the time. So at that point... more often than not they're going to just say "Screw it. If we have to go through all this effort to protect ourselves for four hours just to get our short rest game mechanics back... we might as well just do the full 24 hour long rest and get <em>everything</em> back."</p><p></p><p>Whereas when a short rest is one hour, or 10 minutes, or something smaller like that... players are more likely to think they can "get away with" taking a short rest without it causing too many issues for the party. And thus psychologically they are more okay with doing so. So if you want your players to actually take short rests... you need to make them short enough to make them think that they can do so without screwing themselves over in the process. A four hour short rest though? I'm just afraid that feels too long for players to take it and not bother going straight for the long one.</p><p></p><p>Maybe I'm wrong and your group will consider a 4 hour rest still a "safe" amount of time and thus be willing to take them. My players most certainly would not. Every one of them would go "If we have to sit around for four hours, we might as well just sit around for the full 24." So get an idea of how your players will think how long they can sit around without causing all the enemies to collapse down upon them, and then go with the longest short rest you can that makes them still willing to take them. That's the best thing you can do to get you the longest timeframe you want, while also not losing short rests from your game altogether.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7624771, member: 7006"] So its sounds like you're coming up with your timescales based upon "real world" resting, as opposed to the recovery of game mechanics. If that's the case, and you want your rests to have an appearance of what you think a person actually would consider restful were they to actually take one... then fine. Whatever time amount you decide on that "feels right" will be fine. I will say though, that in my own experience (after having run a campaign that changed short and long rest duration) that others in the thread are right in that the decisions to rest really do come down to game mechanics first and foremost. The only real reason any players take rests at all is based on just getting back their abilities, not from any thought of how long it would take to feel better after a fight. So in that regard... the real question isn't what "feel right" for a person to catch their breath... but what players can get away with in re-inquiring their abilities without causing as much difficulty for themselves. And in that regard... I suspect that a four hour short rest will not accomplish what you want. To rest for four hours pretty much means that the entire game is put on hold. The players know that they are pretty much going to have to "camp" for that time-- probably set alarms, set a watch, and if they are in a dungeon, assume they are going to have random encounters during their short rests like all the time. So at that point... more often than not they're going to just say "Screw it. If we have to go through all this effort to protect ourselves for four hours just to get our short rest game mechanics back... we might as well just do the full 24 hour long rest and get [I]everything[/I] back." Whereas when a short rest is one hour, or 10 minutes, or something smaller like that... players are more likely to think they can "get away with" taking a short rest without it causing too many issues for the party. And thus psychologically they are more okay with doing so. So if you want your players to actually take short rests... you need to make them short enough to make them think that they can do so without screwing themselves over in the process. A four hour short rest though? I'm just afraid that feels too long for players to take it and not bother going straight for the long one. Maybe I'm wrong and your group will consider a 4 hour rest still a "safe" amount of time and thus be willing to take them. My players most certainly would not. Every one of them would go "If we have to sit around for four hours, we might as well just sit around for the full 24." So get an idea of how your players will think how long they can sit around without causing all the enemies to collapse down upon them, and then go with the longest short rest you can that makes them still willing to take them. That's the best thing you can do to get you the longest timeframe you want, while also not losing short rests from your game altogether. [/QUOTE]
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