Resource Management in RPGs

[Obryn]

I think the most valuable resource I have during my sessions is time. Tracking rations, ammunition, torches, and so on take a lot of time for (IME) very little reward. The other side of the coin is that, if we track arrows, we need to spend time buying more arrows next time we hit town.

Now, mundane resources can be exciting in some cases. If I'm running Dark Sun or WFRP, I'm a lot more likely to track things like food and water. For "normal" D&D - even, at this point, 1e for my group - the PCs have so much money that arrows and rations are trivial. We'd rather spend our play time on the exciting scenes - the exploration, combat, and treasure-finding - and gloss over the other stuff.

-O

 

[TwinBahamut]

I think the most important reason is that, while things like food and water can be really important across the course of a long period of time in a game, the greater emphasis of any individual D&D session probably leans more heavily towards chunks of time where food really isn't all that important.

For example, a classic D&D dungeon crawl will probably take a day or so of time. In that time, any reasonably stocked party has very little risk of running out of food, so there is little immediate pressure to worry about such things. On the other hand, the character's hitpoint levels, available powers, number of failed death saving throws, and other such resources will fluctuate greatly, due to the large amount of combat without the chance to rest and recuperate. Basically, the needs of ammo, food, and other such resources can easily be hand-waved even at low levels as the simple requirement that the characters go to a town to get resupplied every few days (and tracking this more precidely can get tedious), but abstract resources related to life and death are simply more relevant in the more exciting point of time that take up more of a session.

Honestly, I think the game would be better off putting more mechanics into tracking things like physical endurance and political influence, which can significantly matter in the kinds of challenges that players focus upon the most regardless of timeframe, rather than tracking food and ammunition.

 

[Stoat]

Available supply makes a big difference. Cheap, plentiful resources are not interesting, and the party is always assumed to have enough. However, if you are going on an expedition to uncertain lands (deep in the desert, into the swamp, the Underdark, the Forbidden Jungle), I like to have the party specify what they are bringing with them as part of their planning. That way when they are deep in the giant tree in the middle of the swamp and the cultists just won't. stop. coming. then the number of arrows/spell components they packed suddenly can be an interesting statistic.

Picture the movie Aliens, especially if you have seen the deleted scenes. Did the Marines think much about how much ammo they were packing when they were all gung ho and dropping in to kick ass? Hell no, until it started running out, then it was one of the most interesting elements of suspense in the movie.

I agree with this statement in principle. In my experience, however, it's tough to pull off for two reasons. (1) Players that know they're going into a barren desert or whatever tend to dramatically over prepare ("I'll buy 1,000 arrows and six months worth of iron rations") to the extent that they don't run out of expendables; and (2) D&D's magic system makes it hard to pressure PC's with the loss of common items. Items like the Bag of Holding, Decanter of Endless Water, Ring of Sustenance and Murlynd's Spoon, and spells like Purify Food & Water, Create Food & Water, and Teleport make it relatively easy for PC's to restock the essentials. This is particularly true if the players know in advance that they're going into a high risk area.

 

[Derren]

It depends on the RPG. In a Fallout like post apocalypse RPG, tracking food is more important in others. And most military rpgs (especially those with a "behind enemy lines" theme) keep track of ammo.
Fantasy RPGs, including D&D are ultimately about slaughtering everything which doesn't look like a PC race. And for slaughtering things you don't need food. You do need arrows, but having no arrows meaning you are not able to slaughter things this is considered too boring and is mostly overlooked.
What you do keep track of is your slaughter potential. Spells, powers and HP.

PS: Food and ammo doesn't become trivial, even with lots of money, when you also keep track of encumbrance. Good luck carrying 1000 arrows and all those rations. But that too gets overlooked in D&D. After all, the other main goal in D&D, besides slaughtering things, is looting the corpses. ANd you can't have the PCs leaving loot behind because of encumbrance, that would be unfun....

 

[Doug McCrae]

Picture the movie Aliens, especially if you have seen the deleted scenes. Did the Marines think much about how much ammo they were packing when they were all gung ho and dropping in to kick ass? Hell no, until it started running out, then it was one of the most interesting elements of suspense in the movie.

Keeping track of each individual shot is a bad mechanic to represent this. Throw out the bathwater - the videogame-y* mechanic - but keep the baby - down-to-the wire resource management where every shot is important.

*This method of resource accounting works much better in videogames, where the computer can keep track of everything and, unlike humans, won't make mistakes.

 

[Akaiku]

PS: Food and ammo doesn't become trivial, even with lots of money, when you also keep track of encumbrance. Good luck carrying 1000 arrows and all those rations. But that too gets overlooked in D&D. After all, the other main goal in D&D, besides slaughtering things, is looting the corpses. And you can't have the PCs leaving loot behind because of encumbrance, that would be unfun....

"Why hello good sir, it seems as though you have a large amount of things to carry! Might I interest you in a bag of holding IV? It can carry a truly stupendous amount of arrows and rations and it will fit on a normal backpack with narry a care! This problem of yours can be solved at the low low cost of GP!"