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Resting and the frikkin' Elephant in the Room
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<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7120887" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p>Back when they did competitive D&D (in the 1e era) they forced some limitations to prevent resting. Like the poison gas of Lost Shrine of Tamoachan. Or just docking points. Gamists solutions to the "problem", and not very workable in a campaign situation. </p><p></p><p>This is the issue of the <a href="http://www.5mwd.com" target="_blank">5 minute workday</a>, which D&D has always struggled with to some degree. Every edition. 4e tried its hardest with milestones and encounter powers, but the appeal of a total recharge and more daily powers is too strong.</p><p></p><p>Because if they players *really* want to stop and rest after each dungeon room, you can't stop them. They will find a way.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The big problem with the hard coding it into the adventure just makes it a way to fail.</p><p>Groups can be unlucky. They hit every trap and they have a couple encounters where the rolls nothing below a 15 and they roll nothing above a 5 and need to spend an extra day or two resting. Or the cleric (or bard) rolls a 1 and gets turned to stone and the party needs to spend a week heading to a temple for a greater restoration. Suddenly, they haven't just failed an encounter because of the dice, they've failed the whole damn campaign because the book *says* the princess gets eaten in three days.</p><p>Failing should be a result of the players' choices. Or there should be an obvious causal relation, not an unknown and unforseen consequence that comes after the fact. </p><p></p><p>A good and skilled DM implies there's a time limit, but that time limit only counts down during wasted time. "You need to rescue the Dwarven Delegation and every day you waste, another might die." With a flexible deadline, the time limit is implied but not firm, so the party can do what they need to do. It doesn't become solid and "real" until endgame. </p><p>Besides, unless the players are reading the adventure, they don't know one way or another if they arrived too late because there was a countdown or because the DM decided they were wasting time. If the DM needs to point to text in the book, that's just an excuse. (After all, the DM could have changed the text, so the final decision rested with them.) </p><p></p><p></p><p>First off, there ARE resting variants in the DMG. </p><p>The catch is, there is zero practical differences between a variant printed in the DMG and a homebrew version. Except that you can tweak the homebrew version to perfectly fit your group.</p><p>If your group isn't happy with you using rules you created, they're not going to be happy with variant rule from the DMG. </p><p></p><p>As for how the game allowed resting to work like it does, the answer is simple: player feedback. People *really* wanted a long rest to fully recover hit points. Or the largest minority did.</p><p>Personally, in my game, resting in an unsafe place (like a dungeon, the wilds) restores 1/4 of your hp, resting in a safe place (an inn, a guest room) restores 1/2 your hp, and leisurely resting in a very comfortable place for 12+ hours restores all your hp. Because I wanted slower healing while adventuring.</p><p></p><p></p><p>So do that. That sounds fine. </p><p>The rules are the baseline. By design there are meant to be exceptions. They can't include rules for every environment or situation in every campaign in every campaign setting for every DM.</p><p></p><p></p><p>One of my early introductions to D&D gaming was the videogame Eye of the Beholder II. There was a nasty section of the dungeon where you couldn't rest (because nightmares) and were trapped by a sealed wall. That was the challenge: do the area without resting. </p><p>And it was hard. Never quite got passed that maze… </p><p></p><p></p><p>This edition does make it slightly more difficult. Teleport is a higher level spell and you decide where teleportation circles are in the world. If any. </p><p>And there's a long history of DMs saying "long range teleportation doesn't work in my world". That's an assumption of Kobold Press' Midgard setting. </p><p></p><p>But that doesn't prevent stuff like tiny hut or rope trick or magnificent mansion. Those spells are pretty classical, so I'm not sure how they could be omitted from the game. But they just make resting safe. However, if the party *wants* to rest nothing can stop them (short of ongoing poison damage).Those spells just make it easier and safer (but cost a spell slot). Removing them will just slow things down as the players try and find an alternative to allow them to safely rest. </p><p>Any solution will be artificial because it's it literally is: the time limit will always exist solely to stop rests. </p><p></p><p>As an aside: working around teleportation is a big issue D&D has always struggled with, especially at high levels. So many DMs and adventurer writers just forgot it existed. I found this particularly awkward when running through the original Dragonlance modules.</p><p>The catch becomes you have to change how adventures work at high levels. D&D has regularly struggled with this. The authors at Paizo have discussed this a few times. An adventure that is designed for high level characters needs to require high level magics like teleportation. To even succeed at the adventure you need to be able to fly and teleport and use divination.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Those spells were thrown out. They became rituals in 4e, which were almost never used. And despite having an all-you-can-eat hamburger fest with sacred cows, 4th Edition STILL DIDN'T FIX THE 5 MINUTE WORKDAY. It still didn't remove the potential of the nova followed by a rest. </p><p></p><p>This is because resting early isn't a mechanical problem. No mechanics are entirely going to stop it. You can't expect a rule patch to fix a social issue. If one player is being abusive to another, or a player is metagaming, or one player is optimized by the others aren't, or one player spends all their time on their smartphone then turning to the rulebook won't solve anything. There's nothing in the DMG, no house rule or narrative fix, that will solve the Facebook issue. </p><p>The issue exists at the table with the players, and in the unfolding narrative, and the solution needs to take place at the same level.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 7120887, member: 37579"] Back when they did competitive D&D (in the 1e era) they forced some limitations to prevent resting. Like the poison gas of Lost Shrine of Tamoachan. Or just docking points. Gamists solutions to the "problem", and not very workable in a campaign situation. This is the issue of the [url=http://www.5mwd.com]5 minute workday[/url], which D&D has always struggled with to some degree. Every edition. 4e tried its hardest with milestones and encounter powers, but the appeal of a total recharge and more daily powers is too strong. Because if they players *really* want to stop and rest after each dungeon room, you can't stop them. They will find a way. The big problem with the hard coding it into the adventure just makes it a way to fail. Groups can be unlucky. They hit every trap and they have a couple encounters where the rolls nothing below a 15 and they roll nothing above a 5 and need to spend an extra day or two resting. Or the cleric (or bard) rolls a 1 and gets turned to stone and the party needs to spend a week heading to a temple for a greater restoration. Suddenly, they haven't just failed an encounter because of the dice, they've failed the whole damn campaign because the book *says* the princess gets eaten in three days. Failing should be a result of the players' choices. Or there should be an obvious causal relation, not an unknown and unforseen consequence that comes after the fact. A good and skilled DM implies there's a time limit, but that time limit only counts down during wasted time. "You need to rescue the Dwarven Delegation and every day you waste, another might die." With a flexible deadline, the time limit is implied but not firm, so the party can do what they need to do. It doesn't become solid and "real" until endgame. Besides, unless the players are reading the adventure, they don't know one way or another if they arrived too late because there was a countdown or because the DM decided they were wasting time. If the DM needs to point to text in the book, that's just an excuse. (After all, the DM could have changed the text, so the final decision rested with them.) First off, there ARE resting variants in the DMG. The catch is, there is zero practical differences between a variant printed in the DMG and a homebrew version. Except that you can tweak the homebrew version to perfectly fit your group. If your group isn't happy with you using rules you created, they're not going to be happy with variant rule from the DMG. As for how the game allowed resting to work like it does, the answer is simple: player feedback. People *really* wanted a long rest to fully recover hit points. Or the largest minority did. Personally, in my game, resting in an unsafe place (like a dungeon, the wilds) restores 1/4 of your hp, resting in a safe place (an inn, a guest room) restores 1/2 your hp, and leisurely resting in a very comfortable place for 12+ hours restores all your hp. Because I wanted slower healing while adventuring. So do that. That sounds fine. The rules are the baseline. By design there are meant to be exceptions. They can't include rules for every environment or situation in every campaign in every campaign setting for every DM. One of my early introductions to D&D gaming was the videogame Eye of the Beholder II. There was a nasty section of the dungeon where you couldn't rest (because nightmares) and were trapped by a sealed wall. That was the challenge: do the area without resting. And it was hard. Never quite got passed that maze… This edition does make it slightly more difficult. Teleport is a higher level spell and you decide where teleportation circles are in the world. If any. And there's a long history of DMs saying "long range teleportation doesn't work in my world". That's an assumption of Kobold Press' Midgard setting. But that doesn't prevent stuff like tiny hut or rope trick or magnificent mansion. Those spells are pretty classical, so I'm not sure how they could be omitted from the game. But they just make resting safe. However, if the party *wants* to rest nothing can stop them (short of ongoing poison damage).Those spells just make it easier and safer (but cost a spell slot). Removing them will just slow things down as the players try and find an alternative to allow them to safely rest. Any solution will be artificial because it's it literally is: the time limit will always exist solely to stop rests. As an aside: working around teleportation is a big issue D&D has always struggled with, especially at high levels. So many DMs and adventurer writers just forgot it existed. I found this particularly awkward when running through the original Dragonlance modules. The catch becomes you have to change how adventures work at high levels. D&D has regularly struggled with this. The authors at Paizo have discussed this a few times. An adventure that is designed for high level characters needs to require high level magics like teleportation. To even succeed at the adventure you need to be able to fly and teleport and use divination. Those spells were thrown out. They became rituals in 4e, which were almost never used. And despite having an all-you-can-eat hamburger fest with sacred cows, 4th Edition STILL DIDN'T FIX THE 5 MINUTE WORKDAY. It still didn't remove the potential of the nova followed by a rest. This is because resting early isn't a mechanical problem. No mechanics are entirely going to stop it. You can't expect a rule patch to fix a social issue. If one player is being abusive to another, or a player is metagaming, or one player is optimized by the others aren't, or one player spends all their time on their smartphone then turning to the rulebook won't solve anything. There's nothing in the DMG, no house rule or narrative fix, that will solve the Facebook issue. The issue exists at the table with the players, and in the unfolding narrative, and the solution needs to take place at the same level. [/QUOTE]
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