D&D 5E Does anyone actually track rations?

[Arcshot]

As of my current campaign which is mostly taking place in wilderness, I do not need the players to track ration since their Ranger can easily forage. No torch or lantern since all have darkvision. This makes things easier on bookkeeping. During my BECMI era, we kept track of every single inventory from water to ration, from torches to oil. Looking back, it is kind of strange we enjoyed doing that, but things are different now. We go lite on these and focus on the stories and adventures.

I will still request my players to keep track of ration if they are on a long trip into dungeons though.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

As of my current campaign which is mostly taking place in wilderness, I do not need the players to track ration since their Ranger can easily forage. No torch or lantern since all have darkvision.

Do note that a torch or lantern can still gain you advantage in combat though. Have your sharpshooters 150' away, out of darkvision range, shooting into an area lit by a torch held by another character (or a familiar). Voila! advantage on attacks.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

The problem with tracking rations or even items in general is that it's too much work for a DM. If you have five players and want to check that they track their items properly, you are busy the whole next day just doing that after a session! So the only way to do it is ask your players to do it for themselves. But they NEVER do! In my whole life as DM no PC ever told me he is out of food, water or that he can't carry anymore.

Also, the rules on water are dumb in 5E. You need to drink two full waterskins of water in normal climate on a single day just to not suffer exhaustion! And you can't even cure exhaustion by drinking something. If I really was strict about it, it would end up with "Oh Ed and Peter forgot to say that they drink something this session, so the whole next session they both have to play with exhaustion level 2, hahaha, gotcha!" and then it will end up with my players saying right after every long rest "I find the next water resource and drink what I need for the day".

I'm currently still tracking resources, but I'm not happy with how it works out. I wonder if I should just let each player select a lifestyle and then automatically deduct the money needed for the lifestyle every long rest and assume that includes all the food and water needed for the day. The only downside is that they the party can stay in a dungeon for weeks without having to go back to town and restock. But checking this is such a pain anyway. I'd need to check they don't buy more rations than they can carry and then calculate how long each character will last with them. Ugh!

 

[discosoc]

The problem with tracking rations or even items in general is that it's too much work for a DM. If you have five players and want to check that they track their items properly, you are busy the whole next day just doing that after a session! So the only way to do it is ask your players to do it for themselves. But they NEVER do! In my whole life as DM no PC ever told me he is out of food, water or that he can't carry anymore.

The act of tracking stuff isn't what bothers me. I have decent players and it just because normal to say "so before you head out, are there any supplies you need to get" and then people stock up on rations and torches or whatever else they think they'll need. Maybe even a henchman or two.

The "problem" I've encountered is that there are so many ways to eliminate the need for even bothering with any of this stuff in the first place, often baked right into a class, race, or background. One person takes the Outlander background, and you never have to bother with similar survival role again unless the location is specifically barren or something. Pick anything but human or halfling for your race, and you have little need for torches or the Darkvision spell. I mentioned it before, by my current main group has seriously gone something like several years eating nothing but goodberries. It's like a running joke, actually.

I've never been so concerned that I need to make sure the tracking of rations is perfect, like it's XP. Just that the rations and other similar "before you head out on the adventure" type gear seems to be not very important anymore.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Well, that's up for them to roleplay, though. I imagine at least some PCs would get tired of always eating goodberries and go out to hunt a boar or something. And just because some PCs have darkvision doesn't mean that you won't need light for the others. Plus dimly lit is still different from brightly lit.

In any case if you're players enjoy with how it is, just let them play like that.

 

[delericho]

Nope. We don't track rations, mundane ammunition, or any coin smaller than 1gp. We also don't track encumbrance.

But that applies only to the current campaign. In theory, there are other types of campaign where tracking those things would add more to the game, and for those we would indeed track such things.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Meh. Also, it depends on how the party deals with the NPCs; they're an available buffer to avoid a really bad situation.

In the frozen land of Nador they were forced to eat Robin’s minstrels. And there was much rejoicing......YEA!!!

 

[Mercule]

Only when necessary. I'm very happy that my group has an elf with the Survival skill and that the Rogue decided to dip into Ranger. Since the campaign takes place in a verdant, if remote, farming area, I don't see the need coming up.

Likewise, I only call for encumbrance when they try to carry out seven chests of loot and five suits of full plate.

 

[Uller]

I generally assume the PCs are more expert at packing for expeditions than my players. So I don't bother tracking things like that unless it is an extraordinary circumstance like griffons attacked their pack animals and now their supplies are all gone...

 

[iserith]

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.

If I'm running a classic dungeon or a hexcrawl, then yes. Otherwise, no. I let the players know whether it's important to keep careful track of this or not at the outset. This is generally done as a conscious effort at making scarcity an element of the drama and resupply a challenge. As such, it's appropriate for some scenarios and not others in my view.

Generally, when I've elected to make it matter, I will tend to go after the PCs' supplies: Monsters attack lanterns. Failed checks to unlock doors result in damaged thieves' tools. Monsters disarm and steal weapons or try to nab a PC's backpack to get at its food, then run off. And so on.