D&D 5E Resource-Draining Model D&D Doesn't Work (for me)

[Retreater]

Which version of D&D are you running? And what level are the PCs?

If it's 0-1-2e then the simple encounters, particularly at low level, shouldn't take long at all (though for the love of your sanity avoid RAW 1e initiative like the plague!); and for some of them you might not even need a detailed map. At about 4th level or below in 1e I can usually get through several simple encounters in a session, plus some intervening story, scouting, information gathering, and in-character arguments. As the PCs get higher in level, however, even the most basic of encounters can get bogged down in a hurry - my PCs average about 8th-9th level these days and even a simple battle can take half the night.

If it's 3e or 4e you're a bit more up against it at any PC level, as both those kinda demand proper battlemaps and that time be spent on tactics and abilities etc. even in a simple combat. And 4e comes with the added time-sink of higher PC and monster hit points, unless you use a lot of minions...though some of this can be mitigated by skill challenges taking the place of time-consuming exploration and info gathering if you so desire.

Itf it's 5e - well, the advertising told us it could play quick, or be made to, if that's what you want. Reports from posters in here, however, would tend to suggest otherwise; and that's all I can go on as, though I've read the core books, I've yet to play it myself other than a couple of convention games (which are a completely different animal than ongoing home campaign games).

That said, regardless of edition I've a few suggestions that may or may not be practical for you:

- Run longer sessions. I've learned over the years that it generally takes the players an hour or two - sometimes more - to get the socializing and out-of-game chatter out of their systems, plus another hour or so if it's been two weeks instead of one since they last saw each other. Thus, with a 4-hour session you're often just nicely getting started when it's time to pack it in; but with a 6-hour session you'll get those extra couple of hours of good play in.
- Run back-to-back sessions. By this I mean run the same group two nights in a row; or a night and then the following afternoon. The first night will be the usual; but if my own experience is anything to go by the second night will be pure gold - they got all their socializing done the night before and they (and you) haven't had time to forget everything that's going on in the game.

We're playing 5e. No matter the level, the need to run trivial speed bump encounters is a default assumption of the game.
Running longer sessions or two weeks in a row just can't happen due to our schedules, though I'd love it.

 

[Oofta]

We're playing 5e. No matter the level, the need to run trivial speed bump encounters is a default assumption of the game.

It is? I mean, don't get me wrong you can if it works for you, but I've been running 5E since it was released and I don't think I've ever run a trivial encounter. I've had some encounters I thought would be difficult that were made trivial because of good planning and/or luck. But from an XP budget standpoint? If I think the PCs can easily defeat an encounter we just narrate it.

There are times when I know the group is only going to have a handful of fights between long rests because of story reasons and every single one is deadly (partly depends on the group). But trivial? Track torches, arrows or miscellaneous resources? Ain't nobody go time for that.

 

[Nevvur]

Another option I have heard but rarely used is to skip all the little encounters and get to the bigger ones. You just say, "After several hours of battling minor skirmishes with goblins and the occasional bugbear you arrive at the main gates of The Castle of Arrrrrrrrgh. Everyone take 3d6 damage or cross off a spell for each d6 you wish to avoid." This skips a lot of little things and gives some resource drain. You could come up with a chart or such to detail exactly what is lost, but you also wish to keep things simple.

Another thing I do is have one of the players track initiative. It takes some work off the DM and speeds some up, but not much. The other thing I do is have the players roll damage on themselves. I roll to hit and tell them d6+2 or such and get to move on with the next attack. Some posters here say it is a bit cruel, but it works for my group. A last thing is I have the casters roll the saves when they cast spells. I just tell them the monster has +1 to dex or something.

I've tried something nearly identical. Most of the table was on board and enjoyed the fast paced, heroic narrative. A couple players felt like they had been deprived of 'playing the actual game.'

Which is to say, it definitely works, but is a method that should be discussed with players to ensure everyone's on the same page with the goals of play.

 

[5ekyu]

Except the topics are conflated.

On the surface, avoiding "meaningless" encounters is trivial. Just don't have them.

The interesting part is where you note how this leads to imbalance between short and long rest classes, and make the question instead read "how do I avoid long rest classes dominating short but possibly difficult adventuring days?"

Which leads us right back into resource-management being a problem.

The real solution is having two versions of each class: one long rester, one short.

This way people not enjoying the default resource management game, but still likes to track resources per day, can play an all-long-rest party.

And people not enjoying much resource management at all can play an all-short-rest party.

"Just dont have them"

Yes but that doesnt mean necessarily not having the weaker encounters, just making them not "meaningless".

Lotsa of ways to accomplish that that do not exacerbate or bring into play the short/long rest issues some folks imagine.

 

[CapnZapp]

"Just dont have them"

Yes but that doesnt mean necessarily not having the weaker encounters, just making them not "meaningless".

Lotsa of ways to accomplish that that do not exacerbate or bring into play the short/long rest issues some folks imagine.

It still consumes the play time.

That is, for all it's merits and flaws D&D still assumes plenty of playing time.

I believe the OP is asking for advice on how to make D&D work when you want to focus on the pivotal encounters, if that's all you have time for.

Just skipping the "in-between' encounters isn't satisfactory if players respond by ditching short-rest classes (correctly deducing long-rest classes are more powerful in such a scenario).

Adding "meaning" to them doesn't work either, since there's not enough time to run them as is, much less if they have plot, story and consequences.

What I believe the OP needs is a D&D where all classes are long-rest classes. Maybe even slightly weaker such classes (otherwise you might find you need to feature "over-leveled" monsters to make the encounters you do run sufficiently dangerous to provide a satisfactory level of challenge, which in turn again makes play take longer)

 

[Sadras]

One of the key mechanics of D&D over the years has been the idea of resource-draining encounters. You burn torches, you fire arrows, you lose hit points to swarms of mooks, you cast spells from encounter-to-encounter, you scrape by with just enough strength left in you to fight the Big Bad at the end of the dungeon. Or you camp in a "safe area," hoping your characters can recover their resources without random encounters that further drag out the game and spend more resources.

Herein is the problem (for me). My group gets together twice a month, if we're lucky. We get about 3 hours of "quality" time each session (after taking out breaks, snacks, general socializing, etc.) Knowing that the majority of our time is going to be spent with "another ho-hum goblin encounter that will only challenge us by spending a 1st level spell and a few arrows" or a trap that might do 1-6 hp of damage, it just doesn't seem a good way to spend time.

Any one else experiencing this? Any work-arounds?

(a) Montage exploration;
(b) Utilise skill challenges to overcome quick resource-draining encounters or exploration - stakes could be: Hit Points, Hit Dice, Inspiration Points, In-game Time, Equipment (breakage or loss), Mounts, Retainers/Hirelings, Coin, possibly even incur exhaustion levels. Auto successes could be guaranteed with spells or class/race features;
(c) Use the appropriate rest mechanic for your group or customise the rest mechanic to fit your storyline style;
(d) In-Game Time may cost light sources (equipment), rations, warer, use of active spells or magical affects (potions); and
(e) Treat random encounters like a quick-and-dirty skill challenge (b) or just automatically narrate success with appropriate level of resource drain.

Good luck!

 

[CapnZapp]

(a) Montage exploration;
(b) Utilise skill challenges to overcome quick resource-draining encounters or exploration - stakes could be: Hit Points, Hit Dice, Inspiration Points, In-game Time, Equipment (breakage or loss), Mounts, Retainers/Hirelings, Coin, possibly even incur exhaustion levels. Auto successes could be guaranteed with spells or class/race features;
(c) Use the appropriate rest mechanic for your group or customise the rest mechanic to fit your storyline style;
(d) In-Game Time may cost light sources (equipment), rations, warer, use of active spells or magical affects (potions); and
(e) Treat random encounters like a quick-and-dirty skill challenge (b) or just automatically narrate success with appropriate level of resource drain.

Good luck!

(f) Hope for an official expansion that tweaks the game to work for you


(What this post is really saying, is "why are people always suggesting you accommodate the status quo when it is clear the rules is the reason you're having your issues? To me, the real solution is to change or ignore the rules that create the problem in the first place, instead of running through various hoops as if the rules were written on stone tablets by the almighty himself )

 

[5ekyu]

It still consumes the play time.

That is, for all it's merits and flaws D&D still assumes plenty of playing time.

I believe the OP is asking for advice on how to make D&D work when you want to focus on the pivotal encounters, if that's all you have time for.

Just skipping the "in-between' encounters isn't satisfactory if players respond by ditching short-rest classes (correctly deducing long-rest classes are more powerful in such a scenario).

Adding "meaning" to them doesn't work either, since there's not enough time to run them as is, much less if they have plot, story and consequences.

What I believe the OP needs is a D&D where all classes are long-rest classes. Maybe even slightly weaker such classes (otherwise you might find you need to feature "over-leveled" monsters to make the encounters you do run sufficiently dangerous to provide a satisfactory level of challenge, which in turn again makes play take longer)

Having an enjoyable an interesting encounter instead of a ho jum meaningless one seems to be on target.

"Knowing that the majority of our time is going to be spent with "another ho-hum goblin encounter that will only challenge us by spending a 1st level spell and a few arrows" or a trap that might do 1-6 hp of damage, it just doesn't seem a good way to spend time."

The key bring thst you could have those ho hum encounters plsy toles snd be fun and engaging in ways that dont particularly focus on the HP beatdown.

Maybe, just maybe, a ploypt/story element out of one of those now fewer snd not ho hjum encounters gives thst "short rest character" a spotlight and a key to the final boss fight. Maybe it gives them something, I dont know wht word I could use... maybe pivotal to that final scene.

 

[5ekyu]

(f) Hope for an official expansion that tweaks the game to work for you


(What this post is really saying, is "why are people always suggesting you accommodate the status quo when it is clear the rules is the reason you're having your issues? To me, the real solution is to change or ignore the rules that create the problem in the first place, instead of running through various hoops as if the rules were written on stone tablets by the almighty himself )

Uhhh... bashing for suggesting ways to adjust to deal with the problem is odd when the OP literally asked for "Any work-arounds?"

I get it doesnt serve perhaps an agenda to respond with workarounds but... really?

 

[Sadras]

(f) Hope for an official expansion that tweaks the game to work for you


(What this post is really saying, is "why are people always suggesting you accommodate the status quo when it is clear the rules is the reason you're having your issues? To me, the real solution is to change or ignore the rules that create the problem in the first place, instead of running through various hoops as if the rules were written on stone tablets by the almighty himself )

The way I see it is we all have different tables (GM wants, player desires, experienced, noob, young) and different limitations (RL time - prep or playing, players..etc) therefore the standard way of roleplaying as presented in the books is not a one-size fits all. And yes, the rules were not written on stone tablets, the DMG is all about customising.