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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 9609724" data-attributes="member: 6696971">The impact on play (for each participant) is much more significant than you're imagining. Let us take the typical deployment of Alarm so that we've got an analogous situation.TORCHBEARER* We know exactly how Aetherial Premonition (Alarm-equivalent) will structurally impact play.  This is because (a) Camp phase is a structured segment of play with explicit procedures to resolve its constituent parts until you move out of Camp phase and back to Adventure phase.  Further, (b) AP does exactly what it does mechanically and those benefits are table-facing.  Finally, (c) we know on failure of Tests (like casting AP) should generate Success w/ Condition or Twists (new situations that complicate matters in interesting, premise/theme-relevant ways) in roughly equal proportion.  We also have clear advice and constraints on what constitutes good handling of Twists.  Finally, we've got codified, table-facing structure for each component part that attaches to this stuff (such as what each Condition does and how to clear a given Condition including the cost, the test required, and the order of clearing).D&D 5e (or pick your non-4e D&D)* Ok, so we're trying to trigger a Long Rest for full resource refresh.  Let us go with the 20 ft cube warded. * Questions the GM answers based on their personal mental model of the shared imagined space:1) Does a creature attack within 8 hours?2) Does a group of creatures attack?3a) If so, what is the roster of creatures and do they have access to ranged capability that will circumvent the Alarm spells area of effect, thereby interrupting the Long Rest and overcoming the ward? 3b) Alternatively, do they perhaps even have Dispel Magic to overcome the ward and if they've got that, what is the rest of their spell loadout?4) Does a creature or group of creatures (including roster/capabilities) attack at 8 minutes and 1 second, allowing for the Long Rest to go off, but ablating the newly gained full resource refresh for the coming adventuring day?  If so, back to roster/budget questions.5) Alternatively, does some exploration-based threat emerge that renders Alarm irrelevant because it is not creatures; sinkhole, landslide, avalanche, flash flood, volcanic eruption, magical phenomenon (any number of things)?6) Is the area cursed?Now if you're playing map & key D&D, 5 and 6 in particular should have those potential situations telegraphed such that players can (and should) suss them out and make plans accordingly (including pushing on or making camp elsewhere).  Further, good map & key D&D should have clear Wandering Monster clock mechanics such that players can determine the dynamics of 1-3 and play accordingly.  However, let us not pretend that there isn't an abundance of D&D advice out there (particularly of the AP variety or GM Storytime centered play) that instructs GMs to prevent Long Rest refreshes via monsters or environmental hazards or curses because they will create anticlimax for BBEG fights or harm adventuring pacing or something along those lines.  That advice is everywhere, has been for decades, and persists to this day.The point of the lead post (I'm confident, but willing to be corrected) is that these two modes of Alarm spell action resolution + gameplay loop + overall structure regarding resource refresh are extremely different from one another in all three of (i) the nature of the moment of play/decision-points as it pertains to players, (ii) the principal role of and constraints on the GM, (iii) the principal role of the structure of play.</blockquote>

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