D&D 5E Does anyone actually track rations?

[discosoc]

I love campaigns where exploration is important. Expedition kind of stuff where the players have a chance prepare for the adventure, pack supplies, choose which spellbook to bring, etc.. Onet hing I've noticed, at least with my group, is how so much is trivialized with racials, cantrips, or low-level abilities.

Don't need torches (light spell).
Don't need rations (a single goodberry is all you need for the entire day, not to mention the healing is useful throughout)
Don't need flint/steel (so many free flame spells)
Even if you didn't have a light spell, nearly every race has darkvision baked in anyway.

So out of curiosity, do people even bother with rations and other supplies? I know encumbrance has basically gone away entirely, so maybe this is just the first step to not worrying about basic needs.

On a side note, the party laughably came across a candle of invocation. I'm not really concerned about the gate spell issues of past editions, but I do think it's funny that a single item will basically mean free rested healing forever. Druid lights it, gets 10 free 1st level heals in, then snuffs it out. 239 more uses...

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

That kind of stuff has largely been taken out of D&D as unfun I think. I find resistance when I tell players that they may have to make choices on what to haul out of a dungeon due to weight and space limitations. Hirelings and packbears have been out of the picture for a while.

 

[the Jester]

Yes we do. Both parties I run have used trains of goats as pack animals at least once (and several such pack animals have been lost to griffon attacks).

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

So out of curiosity, do people even bother with rations and other supplies? I know encumbrance has basically gone away entirely, so maybe this is just the first step to not worrying about basic needs.

Eh.... yes, and no, and it depends. I track things that are in limited supply. For example, my players' PCs have a spelljamming ship using a lifejammer (fueled by life force). When they were running it off of cows, I had them track how many cows were still alive. Now that they've upgraded it to run off of captured and subdued ropers, I have them track how many ropers are still alive. The ropers also count as rations because they are feeding the ropers to each other.

Psycho, I know. I should make all the ropers come down with some kind of disease like kuru.

 

[bgbarcus]

Generally I just assume the characters have food or I add some extra time to the long trips to account for foraging. However, there are some small number of times when adequate provisions are part of the challenge of an adventure. In those cases I warn the players ahead of time and let them figure out how much food to bring. That might mean bringing pack animals. In those cases the players have to decide how much of their time to spend foraging vs. living on carried provisions and the decision matters because they are under some time constraint.

 

[MG.0]

We track rations, water, and other consumables, as well as encumbrance. Darkvision in my games is disrupted by bright light, just as first edition infravision was.

Probably even fewer people track water than rations. Most characters seem to only carry a single water skin which is only good for half a day's water. In my games, that is a good way to die of thirst when you find yourself in a bad situation. While foraging may be easy in a forest, it is decidedly less so in a deep cavern or alternate plane.

I agree that 5th has removed a lot of the need for these things though cantrips, darkvision, etc. but I don't find that to be a welcome change. Yes less bookkeeping is always good, but never having to worry about the dark, starving to death, or dying of thirst means the game loses something visceral and important.

There's a very good reason first edition was human-centric.

 

[imabaer]

OotA actually has this become an important mechanic, because the party starts off with literally nothing in a foreign, hostile land.

But for the most part, ration checking is the same as requiring archers to count their arrow and salvage them after each battle. If it's not contributing to the overall feel or fun of the game (sometimes, it does), ditch it.

 

[discosoc]

I agree that 5th has removed a lot of the need for these things though cantrips, darkvision, etc. but I don't find that to be a welcome change. Yes less bookkeeping is always good, but never having to worry about the dark, starving to death, or dying of thirst means the game loses something visceral and important.

That's pretty much how I feel. It's just kind of bland wanting to have the environment be a challenge only for almost every challenge have a trivial and (usually)free solution. I'm pretty sure my group has gone about 8 months living on a goodberry a day, and they seem to have no desire to change that. No tavern experiences where the group orders "Otik's spiced potatoes" or gets into a drunken fight over a mug of ale. No chances for the survival skill to be of much use. Just pop a goodberry and forget about it.

 

[discosoc]

OotA actually has this become an important mechanic, because the party starts off with literally nothing in a foreign, hostile land.

But for the most part, ration checking is the same as requiring archers to count their arrow and salvage them after each battle. If it's not contributing to the overall feel or fun of the game (sometimes, it does), ditch it.

OotA also has a crapload of NPC's who's primary purpose is to provide the means needed to survive. I know it wants to give the impression of a desperate period of survival, but the the way it actually plays (we've been at it for a few weeks) is nothing like it beyond how things are described.

 

[Minigiant]

I track rations, clothing and stuff when the party is ever in danger of them running out (low levels when thieving goblins are numerous and goodberry spell slots are costly).

What I do track is clothing, sleep, and water. People say I love freezing sleepy wizards to death a little too much.

Endless wolves!!!