Level Up (A5E) Restricting Long Rests To Havens For West Marches

[Miirik]

Hey y'all!

Been loving A5E so far, but I wanted to poke your brains on something. I've been thinking of running a West Marches game for a long time for friends and it's nearing completion. Previously a rule that I had was that adventurers could not take Long Rests until the were in the "main town" of the Marches.

What do people think about preventing Long Rests unless the party is in a Haven? I want to make sure that they are expending resources day-by-day along the journey and arrive at their destination just a little short on class resources. I have done this before in O5E to much success, but is there something I may not be considering about A5E which would mean this wouldn't work or would be annoying for the players?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Faolyn]

I've never played in a West Marches game, and know little about them beyond the basic premise. With that it mind, it seems like it really will depend on how common havens are. Exhaustion, in my experience, wasn't that common in o5e, and long rests were mostly there to regain hp and race/class abilities. However, from what I've been reading in LU so far, strife and fatigue are a lot more common (especially as a result of failure during Journeys and exploration challenges), and they can only be regained at havens by RAW.

So if your havens are relatively common, then you might not have a problem. But if it takes days or weeks of travel to reach a haven, and this travel isn't just handwaved (thanks to the above mentioned journeys and challenges) you may find that it's far more deadly.

 

[bassplayer]

What you could apply is a nerf to the Long Rest and create a Full Rest.

So short rests would work as they do today. Long rests would recover all of their Hit Dice and they could spend any amount of them at the end of the Long Rest. And the Full Rest would be the regular LR, but taking 24 hours of inactivity in a safe place.

I'm not sure if this is balanced at all, but it's a idea. I would also let them recover from fatigue and strife just like it works in A5e, during a long rest in a haven.

 

[Timespike]

I think you'll suddenly see a LOT of short-rest classes like Warlock in your game. The haven rules as-is are already pretty strict.

 

[Jacob Vardy]

When appropriate to the campaign, i use the Gritty Realism rest rule variant (DMG267) for travel. A short rest is 8 hours. A long rest can only be taken every 10th day, and takes 8 hours. This makes 5-6 encounters over the "adventuring day" of 10 days challenging. Resources have to be husbanded. Unlike the standard rule where there would be a long rest between each encounter.

So i don't think restricting long rests to havens would be too hard. As long as the players know this is a thing, and can plan for it. Players who enjoy resource management tend to enjoy it. "¿Do we hit the bandit queen now that we've killed half her troops? Even though our mage is exhausted? Or rest up in town and risk the queen getting reinforcements?" And limping back to a haven because someone got hit with exhaustion can be suspensful. Especially if there is a risk that otherwise low level encounters could wipe the party.