Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Is Resource Management “Fun?”
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="rmcoen" data-source="post: 8962082" data-attributes="member: 6692404"><p>Here's my take, after 42 years of playing D&D (and only slightly fewer playing computer RPGs of all types:</p><p></p><p>1. Many people have said the core thing: Logistics is only interesting when it fails.</p><p></p><p>2. Like <em>not</em> finding the first trap, logistics failures lead to obsessive over-planning, which can be the height of "unfun".</p><p></p><p>Currently, my solution is not unlike others I've read here: Occasionally impose #1 for story interest, and most dispense with #2.</p><p></p><p>Easy example: I was playing DDO last week, wasn't paying attention, and ran out of Thieves Tools in the middle of the adventure (they are a consumable, stacks of 50, use one per attempt). Silly me. But the rest of that adventure, I needed to figure out ways around the traps, and remember which ones were still armed (due to some clover-leaf backtracking). When I got out, I went right to a shop and bought <em>200</em> more! This became an issue later, as it used 4 of my precious FTP 40 inventory slots, which is another aspect of Resource Management.</p><p></p><p>PCs, after adventure #1, generally are never in a bind on what they can afford, only what they can carry. And <em>usually</em>, due to magic, don't need to worry about <em>that</em> after level 2 or 3. Why carry a bunch of miscellaneous tools when you can craft them out of ice, conjure them whole, or reconfigure your pet dogbot to have a lockpick tail?</p><p></p><p>One of my players offered to try using an Ammunition Die for her hand crossbows, just to see if there was some fun to be had in the occasional "oops, out of bolts!" moments that might pop up. Never happened in 6 sessions - she did resupply a couple times from fallen foes - and she doesn't bother tracking it anymore.</p><p></p><p>CRPGs use inventory space or carry weight to (try to) limit how much loot/gear you can reasonably truck back to the merchant. (or to microtransaction sell you inventory upgrades) "Yes, all 20 temple guardians had full plate armor. Yes, it's worth 1000gp a suit. But Aha! it weighs 50 pounds each...." Player: "Okay. I can carry 2, the lesser bag of holding can carry 2 more... I'll just make 5 trips. Because I can." So was it really limiting? [DDO again, can't leave the dungeon without penalty -- so I start dropping the 5pp potions so I can pick up the 50pp gems... and then start dropping the 50pp gems so I can pick up the 2000pp magic weapon.]</p><p></p><p>Is this fun? Not really. I pack an extra 100 arrows (what, 20 sp total), can we move on? We all carry 2 weeks of iron rations, and buy fresh food in towns. The DM makes a comment on day 2 or three of the journey that the fresh food is gone, and we move on. I had a torrential rainstorm (and a bad Survival check) ruin their dried supplies; the ranger hunted, the dwarf fished, a day was lost... and we moved on. It was interesting, it was handled, and then we moved on.</p><p></p><p>Darker Dungeon works on resource management because it artificially restricts your resources. You get <em>8</em> things. Torches, camping gear, healing potions, bandages... you get <em>8</em>. And the dungeon <em>will</em> demand you use a (somewhat randomly determined) dozen or more. Whereas PCs in a game are going to <em>each</em> be carrying multiples of all of them... and we move on.</p><p></p><p>So after all this time, I've come down to "I work with the CRPG's restrictions", but in games I run, resources will only matter when the story - or the realistic weather, because I do that - makes it matter in a reasonable situation. Your characters (after level 1) are assumed to have reasonable supplies. the STR 8 rogue is not carrying backup grappling hooks, for example, but I'm not watching or caring about that until she loses one! (Which did happen when running into a laser-shooting golem while scouting alone...)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rmcoen, post: 8962082, member: 6692404"] Here's my take, after 42 years of playing D&D (and only slightly fewer playing computer RPGs of all types: 1. Many people have said the core thing: Logistics is only interesting when it fails. 2. Like [I]not[/I] finding the first trap, logistics failures lead to obsessive over-planning, which can be the height of "unfun". Currently, my solution is not unlike others I've read here: Occasionally impose #1 for story interest, and most dispense with #2. Easy example: I was playing DDO last week, wasn't paying attention, and ran out of Thieves Tools in the middle of the adventure (they are a consumable, stacks of 50, use one per attempt). Silly me. But the rest of that adventure, I needed to figure out ways around the traps, and remember which ones were still armed (due to some clover-leaf backtracking). When I got out, I went right to a shop and bought [I]200[/I] more! This became an issue later, as it used 4 of my precious FTP 40 inventory slots, which is another aspect of Resource Management. PCs, after adventure #1, generally are never in a bind on what they can afford, only what they can carry. And [I]usually[/I], due to magic, don't need to worry about [I]that[/I] after level 2 or 3. Why carry a bunch of miscellaneous tools when you can craft them out of ice, conjure them whole, or reconfigure your pet dogbot to have a lockpick tail? One of my players offered to try using an Ammunition Die for her hand crossbows, just to see if there was some fun to be had in the occasional "oops, out of bolts!" moments that might pop up. Never happened in 6 sessions - she did resupply a couple times from fallen foes - and she doesn't bother tracking it anymore. CRPGs use inventory space or carry weight to (try to) limit how much loot/gear you can reasonably truck back to the merchant. (or to microtransaction sell you inventory upgrades) "Yes, all 20 temple guardians had full plate armor. Yes, it's worth 1000gp a suit. But Aha! it weighs 50 pounds each...." Player: "Okay. I can carry 2, the lesser bag of holding can carry 2 more... I'll just make 5 trips. Because I can." So was it really limiting? [DDO again, can't leave the dungeon without penalty -- so I start dropping the 5pp potions so I can pick up the 50pp gems... and then start dropping the 50pp gems so I can pick up the 2000pp magic weapon.] Is this fun? Not really. I pack an extra 100 arrows (what, 20 sp total), can we move on? We all carry 2 weeks of iron rations, and buy fresh food in towns. The DM makes a comment on day 2 or three of the journey that the fresh food is gone, and we move on. I had a torrential rainstorm (and a bad Survival check) ruin their dried supplies; the ranger hunted, the dwarf fished, a day was lost... and we moved on. It was interesting, it was handled, and then we moved on. Darker Dungeon works on resource management because it artificially restricts your resources. You get [I]8[/I] things. Torches, camping gear, healing potions, bandages... you get [I]8[/I]. And the dungeon [I]will[/I] demand you use a (somewhat randomly determined) dozen or more. Whereas PCs in a game are going to [I]each[/I] be carrying multiples of all of them... and we move on. So after all this time, I've come down to "I work with the CRPG's restrictions", but in games I run, resources will only matter when the story - or the realistic weather, because I do that - makes it matter in a reasonable situation. Your characters (after level 1) are assumed to have reasonable supplies. the STR 8 rogue is not carrying backup grappling hooks, for example, but I'm not watching or caring about that until she loses one! (Which did happen when running into a laser-shooting golem while scouting alone...) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Is Resource Management “Fun?”
Top