"Let's rest now"

[S'mon]

Re '15 minute work day', and the players who say "let's rest now" in the middle of an assault on an organised dungeon - I used to just slaughter the PCs without compunction when they did that.

Now that I've mellowed in my old age, I've started giving them Nature/WIS/etc checks to understand the situation, and when they succeed I explain:

"OK, it's now getting dark, so far the goblins in goblin-town have been sleepy and disorganised, so you only face light opposition. If you now set up camp and rest in goblin town for six hours, the hundreds of goblins still in the ruins will get organised and come for you... Are you still going to rest?"

I worry a bit I'm not being enough of a rat bastard DM any more, but players these days seem to be so trained (brain washed?) to seek rest at any opportunity, I like now to give them a chance to reconsider before I slaughter their beloved PCs. When they get higher level I'll probably stop giving warnings, though.

How do you handle it when a player says "Let's rest"?

 

[jonesy]

Entirely situation specific, and has to do with how they prepare for it. If they explain what they are doing in a way that makes sense I'll even let them rest in a dragon's lair or a demon fortress. There will be a probability of something spotting them, but if they set up lookouts for the night they might spot them first. As with everything else, preparation and luck go a long way.

And then there was the one time when they tried sleeping between two ogre war camps, and woke up to find both armies capturing them.

 

[Croesus]

How do you handle it when a player says "Let's rest"?

I usually don't even require a check of some sort. If their decision seems outstandingly stupid, I assume the players are making some incorrect assumptions about the game and provide additional info, just as in your example. Then whatever decision they make stands and we go forward from there.

I've seen way too many instances where players thought one thing was happening, the GM has a very different view of the situation, and the players end up feeling treated unfairly. Such miscommunication is common and inadvertent, so I try to err on the side of "Are you sure...?", rather than "Well, you shouldn't have done that. Too late now..."

 

[S'mon]

I usually don't even require a check of some sort. If their decision seems outstandingly stupid, I assume the players are making some incorrect assumptions about the game and provide additional info, just as in your example. Then whatever decision they make stands and we go forward from there.

In my example (which happened on Monday) I only required a check because I had already told the players repeatedly about the goblins being nocturnal, need to complete the mission quickly, etc. But it had been 8 weeks since the last game so maybe they forgot. If it's info the PCs should know but the players don't I will tell them without a check, of course.

 

[IronWolf]

I think you handled it well. The check sort of allowed you to make sure they were on the same page and considering their environment when making their decision.

I play with an experienced group who does not abuse resting so the issue doesn't come up much for us as they choose reasonable rest locations and plans for resting if they do feel the need to try to pull it off in a hostile environment.

 

[Xphile]

I think you handled this well. I think the best way to give your players information and let them choose. They have then accepted those consequences.

My question is what do you do if your players were in that same scenario (goblins, race against time, etc), but blew one of the earlier encounters and are now majorly hurting. If this is a 4e game, I mean that there are no more daily powers remaining and your lucky players have two healing surges... most have only 1. Do you give them a spot to rest and get back up to full, or do you toss them full steam ahead and see if they survive.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You'd love our group- we plan our retreat as we advance. When it's time for us to rest, we usually have a pretty good spot in mind, and decent odds of getting there. Occasionally, we've been forced to abandon such a plan, but we're prepared for that, too. Its the rare day that sees all of our spells depleted.

 

[S'mon]

I think you handled this well. I think the best way to give your players information and let them choose. They have then accepted those consequences.

My question is what do you do if your players were in that same scenario (goblins, race against time, etc), but blew one of the earlier encounters and are now majorly hurting. If this is a 4e game, I mean that there are no more daily powers remaining and your lucky players have two healing surges... most have only 1. Do you give them a spot to rest and get back up to full, or do you toss them full steam ahead and see if they survive.

I think they thought they were majorly hurting. I was running The Slaying Stone as a race against time - no extended rests - but the PCs went in at 2nd level, and I halve monster hp (though I also make encounters tougher). To succeed the PCs had to avoid unnecessary fights, get the Stone, and get out before the goblins woke up.

The PCs had the Stone and just had to get out of town, they had 2 hours before nightfall, but they were low on Surges and would have liked to extended-rest. Only that would have had them trapped by several hundred angry goblins.

They did decide to press on, survived two more battles including the climactic showdown with their orc rivals, made it out... then again discussed whether to take an extended rest (defender was on 1 healing surge). I pointed out they were only 6 miles from their employer's house and could be there right after sunset, so they did keep going and completed the mission.

In the old days running 1e or 3e I would never have been so kind, but I think 4e is a bit harsher with the healing surge mechanic - the players have genuine reasons to seek a rest/recharge, whereas typically with 3e they'd try to rest whenever the Wizard had cast a few spells.

 

[S'mon]

Do you give them a spot to rest and get back up to full, or do you toss them full steam ahead and see if they survive.

If PCs put the effort & skill in to locate a safe resting place maybe they can find one, but I don't base that off how hurt they are - I don't tend to cut my players any slack in metagame terms, I'm a bit Gygaxian.

 

[Janx]

I usually don't even require a check of some sort. If their decision seems outstandingly stupid, I assume the players are making some incorrect assumptions about the game and provide additional info, just as in your example. Then whatever decision they make stands and we go forward from there.

I've seen way too many instances where players thought one thing was happening, the GM has a very different view of the situation, and the players end up feeling treated unfairly. Such miscommunication is common and inadvertent, so I try to err on the side of "Are you sure...?", rather than "Well, you shouldn't have done that. Too late now..."

Yeah, if players are wanting to do something stupid, and they're not known for actually being stupid people, I would assume there is a gap in information.

Any such gap, I assume to be my fault in relaying information the PCs have encountered. It's always worth double-checking as a matter fair play.