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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8071153" data-attributes="member: 71699">Yup, I think instant rests is one pole. What makes clear sense is that they can't be interrupted and players can't choose when they take them (because if they could, it would be the same as not having resource limitations). I can think of a few classes of mechanic to riff off -<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Class 1 - reliable - instant short rest at the end of each other combat. Obvious fault, characters might as well spend all unspent resources in each other combat. Also observably hurts SOD.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Class 2 - random - chance of a short rest at the end of each combat. One way to do this would be to gain 1 rest die per combat. At the end of each combat roll all rest dice. On a 7+, get a short rest and empty the dice pool (lose the accumulated rest dice). The point here is to have RNG protection: you'll eventually be certain of resting. I tried this, players hate it. They hate not knowing when they will rest.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Class 3 -  points - accumulate points in combat somehow. When you have N points, you must spend them to gain a rest. I've tried this, and it becomes problematic if characters can get out of sync on rest points, e.g. by dying.</li> </ol>None of these methods is particularly good at differentiating rest types, which is a shame because the short long difference is worth having. We see across many games a worthwhile tiering of ability power, from weak-use-as-you-like, to strong-use-a-few-times, to ultimate-use-once, across some number of combats (the "adventuring day"), to use-once-and-remove-from-game. Four tiers that open plenty of design space.A "rest" rule is needed to create each tier. No rests gives tier 1 and tier 4. Short rests adds tier 2. They're really just use-recovery rules. We need a second rest rule to add tier 3. Classes might include -<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Class A - reliable - instant long rest replaces every third short rest. Obvious faults, tracking plus same faults as Class 1.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Class B - random - one could accumulate a long rest die type. Or have a result that replaces the short rest with a long rest. Requires some thought to resolve the probability distribution, but quite resolvable. Players will foreseeably hate it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Class C - points - accumulate long rest points somehow. I've tried this: it's fairly gruesome.</li> </ol>You can see how easy it is to work out permutations, once you know the purpose and dimensions of the mechanical space. But all versions have some pretty thorny problems in play.Trying them out is why I flipped to the whole other set of narrative-or-time-based rests, that players choose when they take, but can be interrupted.</blockquote>

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