D&D 5E If party short rests in a dungeon room

[Bayonet]

Last night in my Starter Set game, the players surprised me by deciding to take a short rest in the Cragmaw Hideout after clearing about half of it. Cragmaw Hideout is small, only about six rooms, but it's pretty bisected into two halves that don't like each other much and have a noisy waterfall between them, so even though the complex was on alert I decided the chances of wandering patrols or such were actually pretty small, and rolled for it randomly (12 on d12).

They put the rogue on watch, and I rolled an 8, so all was well. But goblins are also not the brightest of opponents... if this had been a hobgoblin war-camp or a similar place with better training and discipline, there surely would have been a patrol.

-The Gneech

I like that use of terrain. Shows that players are thinking tactically about their situation. Glad it worked out for them.

 

[Chocolategravy]

It wasn't covered in the playtest either. Generally most DMs won't want to have additional encounters as it will just slow down the overall campaign. Random encounters during rest are good to put in to increase the challenge if you feel your players need more challenge and leave out if they don't.

 

[Henrix]

In old school (e.g. BECMI), it was highly likely that any encounter could TPK.

I remember an old TPK of mine (I was on the receiving end... thankfully, I think).
Suddenly, in town, a weretiger appears. I can't remember the details, I do think the party's thief tried to pickpocket it, but let us just say that it left no PC behind.

Thanks, city encounter tables in 1e DMG!

But that's not how it should be.

 

[The M'hael]

I think that spells like rope trick, Leomund's tiny hut, and even alarm(maybe) are for taking short rests. Also, the game is balanced to have about 1 short rest each day looking at the spells per day for wizard and warlock. The wizard gets about twice as many spell slots, and the warlock's recharge on a short rest.