How do you deal with food and shelter?

[turnip]

Hey DMs, how do you deal with the mundane necessities of adventuring like food, shelter, and sleep in your campaign? Do you keep close tabs on it all, and mandate that at least a crude shelter be made each night? If so, how do you do that?
Do you ensure that the PCs keep tabs on food, and nock them down d/t hunger effects?
Or do you just handwave it to allow for faster, less cumbersome gameplay?

I am starting my first campaign as a DM, and am not certain how detailed and realistic most people want their adventuring to be. I don't want gameplay to be a chore, but I don't want a 300-mile hike with no forethought on provisions and sleeping arrangements, either. I've backpacked and slept in a hand-made shelter before, and it's hard work!

 

[Ahnehnois]

I don't care. Every once in a while I ask them to roll a survival check, but this is just to add flavor and encourage people to take that kind of skill. The only situation I would track hunger/thirst is if the PCs were stuck in a desert or similarly extreme environment with no help.

Shelter I also don't care about except for flavor, but sometimes I have them set a watch up if they're in dangerous territory.

Not that I couldn't see it as being a fun and meaningful part of the game, but for my style this stuff is under the "life's to short" category.

 

[El Mahdi]

Usually, I just handwave it. The only times I track it, or make an issue of it, is when I'm running an adventure where that is a specific plot element I want to exploit.

I view it kind of like someone using the bathroom in a movie or TV show. For the most part, you never see it, unless it is plot relevent.

 

[kitsune9]

I used to nickel and dime my players on all this stuff, but after awhile, it becomes a bookkeeping bore.

The only time where it becomes really important or where I will nitpick the issue is when the players are crossing into very harsh or hostile climes where part of the danger is not having enough water and food. I ran a desert adventure where the party did lose their team of donkeys and they had to eat one of their horses because they got lost in the desert before they found a caravan that had available supplies (at x5 the cost too).

Another adventure was the PC's trekking up into a mountain range just above the arctic circle. I flat out told them finding food and water in the frigid wastes would be extremely difficult and to expect penalties to the survival check. Also, they should expect other hazards, such as snow blindness. They bought a huge set of provisions, trade goods for the natives, and acquired pack animals that can cross the snow.

Unfortunately, D&D tends to make survival fairly easy. Roll a survival check, beat the DC, and blammo, you're good for the day. Nevertheless, I try not to bog down the game unless I'm willing to take the extra step for the players to be able to keep track of that efficiently.

If you really want to make the bookkeeping aspect of food and water a reality, create a special resource tracking form (use Excel or Word). Have the players list all their perishables on the sheet. Then as you declare each day done, pass the sheet around as the players have to tick off their water and food. A cruel DM waits until the players are well on their way into the wasteland before he springs the sheet on them.

By having the tracking form out, you now have the entire group tracking their resources on the sheet as a group and it will be something on their mind as they wander around whatever wasteland or desert you have them going to.

 

[Nagol]

It really only applies at very low levels. By 4th level, the party typically has augmented storage like a Handy Haversack and has tossed a bunch of dried rations into it and spending some nights in a Rope Trick space. Purify Food and Drink shows up.

By 7th level, they are sleeping in a temporary cottage and Create Food and Water and Remove Disease are commonly available.

By 13th level, the group is spending the nigh in a Magnificent Mansion and eating Heroes' Feast.

 

[Morrus]

Yikes, no. I can't imagine anything less fun than Dungeons & Accounting! Handwave all the way.

 

[turnip]

Thanks for the answers! I guess all that note-taking while watching "Survivorman" is going to go to waste...

 

[hayek]

It doesn't hurt to ask your players if they want that level of detail. I would think most would not, but if someone made a nature-master ranger with nature skill tweaked out of this world so he could help the party survive in the wild he may feel devalued if he doesn't get a chance to shine.

But I'll admit that other than that one extreme example, I can't imagine players would find it fun to keep track of food. If they can kill a dragon, I think bagging a squirrel for dinner is no trouble.

 

[Stormonu]

Depends. Something like traveling the desert wastes of Athas - definately want to track food & water, probably shelter in the cases of encountering sandstorms and the like.

For most common adventuring, sometimes I do track (mostly just food usage), a lot of times I don't worry about it.

I tend to be more diligent about tracking ammo, really. I kinda like how Gamma World does it (use ammo once, you're okay. Use it more than once and your out until you "restock"), but I'd like it to be a bit more fine tuned - say like a recharge power (starts at recharge 1, each additional use increases the recharge die to 2, 3, 4, 5, then 6. After each use, roll a d6. If you roll the recharge # or less, you still have ammo/food/water/etc. After an encounter, you get back 1 point towards recharging/reequipping. An extended rest at a well-stocked area would reset recharge back to 1.

 

[Wiseblood]

Yikes, no. I can't imagine anything less fun than Dungeons & Accounting! Handwave all the way.

I personally feel that way about feats and powers. Give me a grappling hook and some rope any day.