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<blockquote data-quote="loverdrive" data-source="post: 8965072" data-attributes="member: 7027139">Well, it depends. Do the benefits of tracking the resource outweight the tracking itself?There's this category of resources that are just annoying and don't do anything — and this isn't endemic to TTRPGs, vidyagames have them too: hunger in Fallout: NV, weapon condition in Dark Souls, encumbrance in pretty much every damn game that has this mechanic, the list is pretty long.They are annoying not because there's some kind of fundamental law that makes tracking hunger tedious. They are annoying because they are managed so easily that the worst consequence of mismanagement is, well, annoyance. You see a hunger icon/!!!WEAPON AT RISK!!! text/overencumbrance message/whatever, open a menu, click a button, make the icon go away. Much depth, so engaging.In tabletop games, this issue is compounded by lack of a computer that does all the tracking, but that's not the root cause.In D&amp;D, nobody complains about tracking HP or spell slots. Nobody would complain about tracking ammo if it was an actually worthwhile endeavour either.RPGs, just like all other games, benefit from design. Artificially restricting some parts of the game will go a long way to make things more fun, and improvements in &quot;UI&quot;, like replacing pen and paper with, say, cards or tokens or whatever can help to make tracking less tedious, but, again, will be pointless if the resource itself ain't worth tracking in the first place.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="loverdrive, post: 8965072, member: 7027139"] Well, it depends. Do the benefits of tracking the resource outweight the tracking itself? There's this category of resources that are just annoying and don't do anything — and this isn't endemic to TTRPGs, vidyagames have them too: hunger in Fallout: NV, weapon condition in Dark Souls, encumbrance in pretty much every damn game that has this mechanic, the list is pretty long. They are annoying not because there's some kind of fundamental law that makes tracking hunger tedious. They are annoying because they are managed so easily that the worst consequence of mismanagement is, well, annoyance. You see a hunger icon/!!!WEAPON AT RISK!!! text/overencumbrance message/whatever, open a menu, click a button, make the icon go away. Much depth, so engaging. In tabletop games, this issue is compounded by lack of a computer that does all the tracking, but that's not the root cause. In D&D, nobody complains about tracking HP or spell slots. Nobody would complain about tracking ammo if it was an actually worthwhile endeavour either. RPGs, just like all other games, benefit from [I]design[/I]. Artificially restricting some parts of the game will go a long way to make things more fun, and improvements in "UI", like replacing pen and paper with, say, cards or tokens or whatever can help to make tracking less tedious, but, again, will be pointless if the resource itself ain't worth tracking in the first place. [/QUOTE]

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