D&D 5E Resting and the frikkin' Elephant in the Room

[DEFCON 1]

How do you make attrition work in a game where you don't fancy doing all the hard work, and instead rely on official published supplements?

I have to hand it to you, Capn... you're trying your hardest to get other people to do your work for you so you don't have to. Which, if you can pull it off, more props to you.

You want a solution to your issue, but you just "don't fancy doing all the hard work". But I suspect that because it seems most of the responses you are getting are of the "just add time constraints" variety... it tells me that other people ALSO just aren't interested in doing all that hard work either. Not especially when it's for you and not for themselves.

But hey, if you keep asking for things that don't exist, maybe eventually someone WILL do your work for you and give you a working prototype of what you want. You just might have to... wait a while... for that to occur.

 

[S'mon]

Rock on you crazy diamond Capn.

Yeah I agree those Just Add Time Constraints to Every Session Or You Are A Bad GM guys who spam several forums can get really annoying.

I have had some good adventures with natural time constraints. Currently my Varisia PCs need to get through a big dungeon to reach Tirana of Seven Swords of Sin before she can complete the binding ritual in about two days time. Another time the PCs were being chased by the forces of evil Archmage Oriax the Lecherous when they ran into a dungeon in the wilderness and decided to investigate it - ended up with 6-8 encounters in one Adventuring Day!

 

[S'mon]

Things I've done rules-wise:

1.In one campaign I made short rests 15 minutes & limit PCs to 3/day.
2.I've rebuilt the Fighter as a long rest class so he can keep up with all the LR tank classes like Barbarian & Paladin.
3. In my 4e campaign I've limited healing surge recovery in the wilderness to 1/4 of max surges per day (rounded down). Maybe I should do that in 5e too. It works really really well to allow for attrition within the time scale of a typical adventure.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Yeah I agree those Just Add Time Constraints to Every Session Or You Are A Bad GM guys who spam several forums can get really annoying.

Yep! Almost just as annoying as those Why Don't The Books Give Me The Rules That I Want And Don't Tell Me To Just Make It Up Myself guys who spam the forums too.

 

[S'mon]

Yep! Almost just as annoying as those Why Don't The Books Give Me The Rules That I Want And Don't Tell Me To Just Make It Up Myself guys who spam the forums too.

Naw, those guys are fine.

 

[TwoSix]

Naw, those guys are fine.

The beef between the WDTBGMTRTIWADTMTJMIUMG and the JATCTESOYAABGG can only be solved by the ELAUOEIFG (Extremely Long Acronym Users On Every Internet Forum Guys).

 

[DEFCON 1]

The beef between the WDTBGMTRTIWADTMTJMIUMG and the JATCTESOYAABGG can only be solved by the ELAUOEIFG (Extremely Long Acronym Users On Every Internet Forum Guys).

WDTBGMTRTIWADTMTJMIUMG JATCTESOYAABGG is the name of my Yngwie Malmsteen cover band...

 

[S'mon]

3. In my 4e campaign I've limited healing surge recovery in the wilderness to 1/4 of max surges per day (rounded down). Maybe I should do that in 5e too. It works really really well to allow for attrition within the time scale of a typical adventure.

I have just implemented this across my campaigns.

 

[Caliban]

Or in other words "I can't be bothered to actually think for myself as a DM and want the published adventures to hold my hand every step of the way."

Ok, that's an exaggeration.

Sorry, I'm not going to be much help - I never used published adventures in my home game, and I lately I avoid DM'ing for Adventure League because I don't like using their published modules.

I created everything in my home campaign from the ground up (except the deities - I use the FR pantheon for now). A hefty amount of improv is involved in all my sessions and rests occur when they seem appropriate - and if I don't think it's appropriate the players find out when they get interrupted. (On one memorable occasion a T-Rex came tromping through their rest spot - they chose poorly.)

Sometimes they even avoid taking short or long rests that I've told them they have time for because they know the clock is ticking and even if they can safely rest, there will be consequences. Other times they only have one or two encounters per day and go crazy with their spells and abilities.

So far, they seem to enjoy it.

I'm afraid I just don't experience the issues with "attrition" and "resting" that seem to annoy some people. Not every adventuring day is the same, and I think that is a good thing.

 

[ExploderWizard]

The simplest answer is usually the best.

Question: I want a game featuring attrition, and generally more deadly consequences?

Answer: Play AD&D or B/X.

Question: I want that game featuring attrition and generally more deadly consequences to be 5E?

Answer: Modify the rules so that 5E plays more like that.

Question: I want that game featuring attrition and generally more deadly consequences to be 5E and I am too lazy to do the work?

Answer: Understood, and people in hell want ice water.