D&D 5E Hunger System for Rime of the Frost Maiden - feedback needed

[TheSword]

So I’m looking at Rime of the Frostmaiden and I want to add some optional rules in to make things a bit scarier and gritty. Basically dial up 5e. I’ve also just finished reading Alive, the story of the Uruguayan Rugby team that really gets across the crippling effect hunger can have.

Current rules for hunger are...

Characters who don’t eat or drink suffer the effects of exhaustion. Exhaustion caused by lack of food or water can’t be removed until the character eats and drinks the full required amount.

A character needs one pound of food per day and can make food last longer by subsisting on half rations. Eating half a pound of food in a day counts as half a day without food.

A character can go without food for a number of days equal to 3 + his or her Constitution modifier (minimum 1). At the end of each day beyond that limit, a character automatically suffers one level of exhaustion.

A normal day of eating resets the count of days without food to zero.

However there are a couple of issues with this. Chiefly that hunger is either deadly or inconsequential.

1. The rules are very binary... You’re either effected by hunger or you aren’t.
2. Exhaustion after 3 days is a real possibility and death can soon follow. This makes including long term hunger very challenging. Particularly when stacking with other exhaustion causing effects.
3. There’s no linkage to activity level. Marching a day without food has the same effect as sleeping for a day without food. That’s not how calories work.
4. Removing hunger is very easy. One days food resets the clock. A character with Con 14 could eat their food once every 5 days and have no ill effects.

So my proposal for this campaign is to make Hunger a score like you see in corruption rules in other systems. Increasing in some circumstances and decreasing in others.

Hunger starts at 0 assuming a well fed, healthy individual.

• Every day subsisting on less than 1/2 a pound of food adds 2 hunger points.
• Every day subsisting on more than 1/2 a pound but less than 1 pound adds 1 hunger point.
• Every day of substantial activity (walking for <4 hours, fighting, digging a fox hole, running) when on half rations or less adds 1 hunger point
• Every day of strenuous activity or extended activity (climbing a cliff, walking more than 4 hours, extended combats, digging out of an avalanche) when on half rations or less adds 2 hunger points. Or if on full rations adds 1 hunger point. (To avoid a hunger point in these circumstances you must eat double rations)

For every day of full rations. Reduce hunger by 2. If that day also includes no substantial activity reduce it by a further 1.

The effects of starvation have increasing effects as they progress. Tougher individuals can survive for longer without the ill effects. Hunger is split into bandings equal to your Constitution score. All affects are cumulative.

Level 1 - Hungry (0 to Con Score)

• You must make a Wis DC 10 saving throw each day or gain the flaw “I will take whatever reasonable steps I can to eat enough to stop my hunger.”
• You have disadvantage on checks to gain exhaustion from forced marching, cold weather and other environmental effects

Level 2 - Starving (Con Score +1 to Con Score x2)

• You must make a Wis DC 10 saving throw each day or gain the flaw “I will take unreasonable steps to eat enough to stop my hunger unless prevented.”
• You must roll an additional dice when making Strength and Dexterity ability checks and take the lower result. This stacks with effects of exhaustion.
• Your movement spread is reduced by 5 feet. This stacks with exhaustion.
• Yor maximum HP are reduced by 1 per level

Level 3 - Starving (2 x Con Score +1 to Con Score x 3)

• You gain the flaw “The need for food is my driving motivation, nothing matters more to me.”
• You must roll an additional dice when making all ability checks and take the lower result. This stacks with exhaustion.
• Your movement spread is reduced by a further 5 feet. This stacks with exhaustion.
• Yor maximum HP are reduced by a futher 1 per level

Once you reach the end of the Level 3 Hollow banding at the end of every day you fail to receive full rations you take a level of exhaustion. Until death.

While magic may mitigate the effects of starvation, hunger points cannot be removed until the victim eats. Greater Restoration and Heal spells reduce Hunger to 0.

It is possible under this system for a typical person without any food in a safe environment to survive up to 21 days without any food at all if resting. A human with constitution 16 could last 30 days.

In strenuous conditions making a full days walk or digging a typical human would last 13 days but after 9 days there would be very little activity going on due to the effects of exhaustion.

What do people think. I’m particularly interested on the mechanical effects. Effectively I have added a system of effects that are similar to exhaustion but also stack with and enhance the effects of exhaustion. In the same way that elven accuracy enhances the impact of advantage.

Suggestions and critiques are welcome!

[Edited to have just 3 starvation levels and take into account hp loss]

 

[DEFCON 1]

As much as some people will claim it's part of a "death spiral ", I personally think you should tie the reduction of Max Hit Points to your levels of hunger too.

From the player POV, gaining levels of hunger becomes much less painful and psychologically problematic when still gaining hit points each time they level up. Without having their primary combat ability degraded, any other system just doesn't have the same impact.

That is the one downside of the HP system... having HP and doing HP damage are both more important to players than any other system in the game.

 

[TheSword]

As much as some people will claim it's part of a "death spiral ", I personally think you should tie the reduction of Max Hit Points to your levels of hunger too.

From the player POV, gaining levels of hunger becomes much less painful and psychologically problematic when still gaining hit points each time they level up. Without having their primary combat ability degraded, any other system just doesn't have the same impact.

That is the one downside of the HP system... having HP and doing HP damage are both more important to players than any other system in the game.

That’s a really good point. Perhaps each level of starvation are 1 hp per level is reduced every other level?

I was considering having 3 starvation levels and combining the effects. So perhaps at each level hp are reduced?

 

[TheSword]

I've modified this to have just 3 levels, each with a Flaw and with the later two levels having an impact on Ability stats, hp and movement.