My Short Rest DM trick...

[psychophipps]

So I'm running a reskinned Sunless Citadel with Grungs instead of Goblins and popped a pretty serious cap on my 2nd level party with 6 blowgun Grungs, 2 Spike Growths, and a golden Grung a chirring.
After the fight my players confidently declare "We're taking a Short Rest" and start getting ready to roll their hit dice. I then counter with, "What makes you think these guys will just let you chill for an hour? The two leaders got away to grab some more homeboys to curb stomp you with. You ain't getting no Short Rest here!"
Now, we as DMs have to decide how to handle this situation. I'm lucky in that my group answered me with, "Like hell! We'll batten down the hatches and show him!" but some groups might need some prodding to check their various kits to start some amateur engineering. The party on Sunday tied all the doors together with pitons and used some handy unused doors as additional barricades, thus *earning* a Short Rest and its benefits.

Think about doing the same next time your party wants to rest. You, and more importantly *they"*, will likely appreciate the results.

Sent from my XT1254 using EN World mobile app

 

[FrogReaver]

While interesting such circumstances would just be replicated each time and quickly get boring.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I'd try to ask them in-character questions to establish what, concretely, they are doing. I'd be all like, "Really? You guys are stopping to relax, right in the middle of your citadel invasion? Is anyone eating? Is anyone taking off their armor? Is anyone keeping watch?" If they answer emphatic "No" to all of the questions associated with a short rest, like eating, napping, binding wounds, etc., then I'd just tell them, "That's not a short rest." If instead they answer "Yes" to some of the questions, well, at least they're doing it with their eyes open.

 

[aco175]

When planning adventures, I try and provide places where the party can find rest. They may have to pull back or change things if survivors got away, but there is built in places. It seems like this is something 5e built into the system.

I also think that if every time the party seeks rest and there is something going on, then it start to become stale. Sort of like in the old days when every door required you to stop, search, listen, poke, oil, finally open. I try to move the game along to the action unless there is something, which I give Perception or something to hint as.

 

[iserith]

In my town-to-dungeon campaign, The Delve, short rests are 8 hours and long rests are a week (and must be done in town). The population density and the certainty of madness prevents any sort of resting within its walls. Therefore, for a short rest, the PCs have to camp outside the dungeon in the cursed forest that surrounds it. This comes with a 55% chance of a random encounter which can be mitigated down to around 30% with some effort on their part. It also means that 8 hours is shaved off the total amount of the time they can delve in one expedition. That can be significant if traveling to the dungeon took a long time in a given expedition.

So yeah, I heartily support meaningful choices and trade-offs when it comes to characters resting.

 

[cbwjm]

Player's hate him. See how this DM handled short rests with this one simple trick.

 

[Lancelot]

I do a similar thing. My players have an expectation to manage their resources appropriately (i.e. they cannot rely on a short rest after every fight). To paraphrase: if they won't go to the next room, the next room will go to them. Reinforcements will arrive, wandering monsters will show up, some of the enemies will catch wind of intrusion into the "dungeon" and will proactively leave the area (taking their loot with them!)...

Most importantly, nearly every session I run has some kind of time limit on it. Either the big boss realizes that adventurers are on their way and brings every remaining enemy to bear in a single fight (i.e. a Deadly+++ conflict that is almost certain to result in a TPK), or he scarpers with his remaining troops - denying the party the XP and rewards. Or the township gets over-run. Or the princess dies at midnight. Or whatever.

...

Another rule I apply is that Long Rests are only possible in safe, settled locations. This is especially important for wilderness-based modules. Due to the long distances involved in overland travel, I was potentially facing days between each combat encounter. My players grew to expect they could burn every resource in a wilderness encounter, because they could just get them all back over the next day. Now, they're much more frugal - knowing they could spend weeks in the wilderness, and camp down many times, but never receiving the mechanical benefits of a Long Rest until they get to a safe town.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

I allow my players to try short rests, but they definitely can't roll hit dice until I told them they finished the rest successfully (which they might or might not, if they are resting a dangerous area).

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

For us, any rest requires are suitable environment to relax.

Which naturally rules out most active war zones/sites of combat and demands not just the securing of an area, but for the characters to believe the area is genuinely secure.

A room in an inn? Obviously, both short and long rests.
A room in an inn in the shady part of town? With some precautions, short and long rest, though should the player/s come under attack, only short rests may soon be possible.
A tower under siege? No long rests, but short rests during the night.
A dungeon room? For the first few hours, no short rest. If those short rests are successful, a long rest can be attempted.
Hanging around in Hell? Nope, unless they're lucky enough to have a magical escape/safe haven or find a suitably impressive stronghold.

To clarify - the physicality of a locale is less important than the psychological sense of safety/security. It's one thing to border up the doors and windows and another to actually relax. On the flip-side, they can believe a place is safe, begin to rest and then find out they were mistaken.

 

[Pickles III]

Isn't that in the introduction to how RPGs work in the PHB?

".....the players decide what they want their adventurers to do......Then the DM determines the results of the adventurers’ actions and narrates what they experience."

"We rest."

"After 10 minutes you get attacked..."