D&D 5E Long Rest House Rule to adjust to "frequently resting" campaigns

[Wiseblood]

If the players buy in no problem. But that Jasper fellow is just going to buy up a lot of iron rations and stay put till Monday rolls around again.

This is the CR I face.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

But keep in mind with this rule, its not that you cannot rest. You certainly can, you just gain the benefit of a short rest....which is still quite restful. You just don't get the complete everything at full until some extra time has past and your batteries are truly recharged.

Fair enough. I guess that just goes back to deficiencies with the basic resting rules, where it's hard to say exactly what is going on when you spend Hit Dice unless you're using the medkit option such that spending Hit Dice equates directly to using the medkit.

The other alternative I would suggest is just a slower rest variant, such that every night in the wilderness counts as a short rest, and the only way to take a long rest is by spending a week in town. That gives a solid distinction for when you are recharging your batteries, and gives a consistent benefit to actually just sleeping. (Especially if you nix the concept of Hit Dice, and just heal 1 HP per level after a short rest.)

 

[Lackhand]

My version is a little bit similar; when you are Rested, sleeping for eight hours makes you Restless and you are mechanically taking a Long Rest. You cannot otherwise take a Long Rest; trying just gets you (at best) a Short Rest.

When you are Restless, one day of carousing, three days of any other low-intensity downtime activity, or seven days of any sort of travel or high-intensity downtime activity makes you Rested.

A character CAN ensure they sleep in blocks of four hours at a time to avoid a long rest when they're due if they want; as a frequent sufferer of insomnia, that doesn't seem unrealistic.

 

[Lanefan]

The Rule: After taking a long rest, a player cannot benefit from another long rest for 7 days. Any long rest taken during this window gives the player the benefit of a short rest.

Thoughts?

I can only assume that by "player" above you mean "character", as it's a mighty powerful DM indeed who can dictate the resting abilities of his/her real-life players.

 

[Horwath]

I dont see the problem with 8hr long rest every day.

It's even in the rules that you cannot benefit from more than 1 long rest per 24hrs.


If you feel that players go to sleep after too few encounters, put time limit on some quests.

I.E. you must rescue hostages within 3 days or they are dead. There is a ritual performed by cabal of evil wizards that will destroy a city in 7 days if they are not stopped. etc...

You can even make middle of the night ambushes while characters are asleep. Starting a fight with a critical hit to your face, missing turn 1 and starting turn 2 prone is no joke, even if CR of monsters is quite low.

 

[Sadras]

This rule bridges the gap between the normal "potentially frequent" long rest, and the 7 day long rest gritty system.

The Rule: After taking a long rest, a player cannot benefit from another long rest for 7 days. Any long rest taken during this window gives the player the benefit of a short rest.

I'm having a terribly slow day, how is this different to the gritty system in the DMG?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I'm having a terribly slow day, how is this different to the gritty system in the DMG?

Among other things, this still lets you take a short rest in just an hour. You just end up with a lot of short rests before you get a long rest.

 

[clearstream]

One thing that has been debated recently is the notion of the adventuring day and the expected number of encounters. While 5-6 encounters are expected, there are many groups that only have a few encounters before a long rest. Whether its intolerance of the time it takes to do that many encounters, or they feel that fewer encounters makes more sense for the flavor of the adventure...it is still a factor.

This rule bridges the gap between the normal "potentially frequent" long rest, and the 7 day long rest gritty system.

The Rule: After taking a long rest, a player cannot benefit from another long rest for 7 days. Any long rest taken during this window gives the player the benefit of a short rest.

So initially, long rest works just like it does now. So players can take them when/if needed to get the juice back. But after that....things get grittier.


What this does is still allow players to recover their abilities quickly in a dungeon setting. So you don't have to stop the action for 7 days like you would with the normal grittier rules. But on the flip side, players can't take strings of long rests to break up encounters. They are also encouraged to push harder before resting...because if they rest too early they "miss out" on all the returns the rest can give them.

Further, this is great for wilderness adventures. A DM can throw a random encounter at a players on day 1. The party rests as normal. Then an encounter on Day 3 is still a bit more deadly, because now the players can't just immediately recover afterwards. It still provides the wear down of resources expected for balance in the game...but allows you to stretch it over several days instead of just the 1 adventuring day.

Thoughts?

I've tried a few variants in my OOTA campaign. I believe lengthening calendar time between rest is good, but you need to consider a few other factors like exhaustion. My house rule (that is working very nicely for me) is -

Short Rest
A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 3 hours long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds. After taking a short rest, a character can’t benefit from another for about 3 hours.

Extended Short Rest
An extended short rest is a period of downtime, at least 8 hours long. Along with the standard benefits of a short rest, an extended short rest allows characters to reduce exhaustion by 1 category, and those with sufficient XP can level-up.
A character can’t benefit from more than one extended short rest in a 24 hour period.

Long Rest
A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 24 hours long, during which a character sleeps for at least 6 hours and performs no more than low-key activity, such as reading, talking, eating, crafting or standing watch. If the rest is interrupted by adventuring activity—fighting, casting spells, an hour or more of marching, or similar—characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it. Along with the standard benefits of a long rest, characters who were not exhausted at the start of the rest can perform 1 day of a downtime activity, and those with sufficient XP can level-up.
After taking a long rest, a character can’t benefit from another for about 24 hours.

 

[jasper]

Guys unless you have encounters between theses rests, it don't mean nothing. Jasper is going to hold up at the bar till he is fully up. Big fat hairy deal. So Jasper the Jerk Fighter took 2 weeks to go from the Empire State building to the New Jersey tunnel. The DM is just going to advance the calendar.
If you put a time limit that is great. Until gee whiz Jasper 006 still defeats Evil Morrus, disarms the nude bomb, and stops the clock with 6 seconds to spare again.
Or Jasper the Jerk gets tired of your time limit and lets Evil Morrus succeed. Then the New York Comic con is going to very interesting next week.

 

[clearstream]

Guys unless you have encounters between theses rests, it don't mean nothing. Jasper is going to hold up at the bar till he is fully up.

In practice at the table, I find that it does indeed mean something. As a DM, I don't like to be forced to distort my narratives. The 24 hour long rest has proven long enough that interruptions are easy to narrate: preventing individuals from abusing it.

In the end, it is 100% up to the DM whether or not characters can rest. A DM can always interrupt one. Jasper cannot hold up the bar unless I let him. And for me the 24 hour long rest - and then not another for at least 24 hrs, for a 48 hour minimum cycle - let's me manage that in a way that feels natural. Additionally, it helps the background world out by halving the number of strategic spell casts. (So only 1/2 the availability of Raise Dead etc.) I find that very helpful. Also deals with L's Tiny Hut quite well.

24 hours is also enough time that background events can meaningfully leave characters behind. I tried 48 hour long rests, but that was far too long. The impact was negative on the narrative, because eventually we had to let the characters rest and when they did too much time was forced to elapse.

The issue I have with the OPs concept is that I think what's needed is a balance of longer resting time, and longer between rests. Not solely one or the other because eventually what happens is the longest time frame ends up forcing the pacing to itself.