Running Out of Daily Resources: Good or Bad?

[FireLance]

On the one hand, if you can run out of daily resources, you have an incentive to carefully manage them to ensure that they don't run out, and this should result in more strategic gameplay.

On the other hand, if you can run out of daily resources, you have more incentive to rest when you are low on them, and this could result in the fifteen minute adventuring day.

So, in the final analysis, do you think that running out of daily resources is good or bad?

 

[Jimlock]

I'd say its EXTRA good. Players should be challenged in every possible way.

The way I see it, there is nothing negative about it... whatever forces out the players' ingenuity is a good thing.

 

[Pentius]

I'd say it's group dependent. If your group is either unwilling or unable to strategically manage resources, there's generally either going to be 15 minute workdays or a lot of grumbling. Often both. In this case, it's bad. If they are willing and able to strategically manage resources, then it's another thing for them to play with, and is probably good.

 

[delericho]

Resource management is interesting only if there's a chance of running out.

If your players are the sort who will react to ammunition rules by carrying thousands of arrows, or who react to an encumberance system by immediately seeking out bags of holding or other mechanisms to bypass the issue, or who react to "daily resources" by adopting a strict 15-minute adventuring day, then you're probably better off without daily resources.

Personally, I'd be inclined to have at-will powers, per-encounter powers, and per-adventure resources. That removes the incentive for the group to 'nova' and adopt the 15-minute adventuring day, while at the same time retaining the concept of diminishing resources that need to be managed.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Comes down to how it is managed, I use "cost of living" figure on what it takes for the player to maintain a clean and heathy life. Failure to follow my house rules means, things like equipment failure, infestation (lice and such) and lost of CHR & CON.

Other resourses like food stock, does have a shelf life. Iron rations will have to be replaced. Arrows, are kept by the players.

 

[I'm A Banana]

What's the challenge in the game?

If the challenge is to succeed, and running out of daily resources means you fail, then it's essential to the challenge of the game that there's some actual risk of running out of daily resources. How likely that is dictates the game's difficulty level, but at least some risk is probably required.

Of course, in that case, having a full rest to recover those resources should also be a failure.

 

[ThirdWizard]

In some cases, resources are like a PC's life. The threat of losing it builds excitement, but when it it lost, actual play becomes boring. Thus, the optimal state is teetering on the edge of losing the resources without actually going over that threshold. Of course, the threat of going over that line has to be real, or at least perceived to be real, or there is no tension in walking the line.

The trouble with these resources is that they are player controlled. Different players are going to have different ways of using those resources, and yet those resources aren't tailored to the players' styles, instead the players are expected to mold their sometimes wildly divergent playstyles to the resources they are given. Either that, or worse yet, pick a class based on its resource system.

Now, this isn't always, or even usually, going to be a problem. But, it does lead to the "optimal situation" observed above, where players are running out of resources at the climax of a session, to be more of a nebulous maybe it will maybe it won't happen thing in D&D. That's fine. There's nothing inherently wrong with that: players should be in charge of their fates, after all.

If players could choose their own resource mechanics, regardless of class, that matched their own playstyle, that would be my preferred system. That's a lot of design, a lot of balancing, and probably impractical, but it would be interesting if there were at least a few choices in resource management that weren't tied to class and could be played with. So if a player's style was too much of a hoarder when given dailies, he could avoid a Vancian system for his wizard, or a fighter who really enjoyed balancing resources could have some dailies to choose from (but not be required to).

This would be my perfect resource management.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I think for the kind of games I run, running out of daily resources is analogous to dying, though clearly not nearly as severe. That is, I think the threat of either should be a lot more common than the actual occurrance.

The players should be worried about running out of daily resources. To pull this off, they necessarily must occasionally so run out. But you can also get somewhere with the same tricks that make dying seem more likely than it is: Uncertainty, color, dramatic reversals, etc.

I've said before that when you play any edition of D&D as if it were a boardgame, you'll get an experience that is a lot more like a boardgame. If you use every resource (every pawn, knight, etc.) at your disposal, every time you sit down to play, then you'll move the game closer to a boardgame. If you push the characters to their limits every time (actually push them, not make the player think they are so pushed), then players will drift into trying to milk every resource.

This is true of any edition of D&D, though in my opinion, 4E and 1E (using the random dungeon generator tables) will work a bit better under such limited conditions. That is hardly an endorsement for playing that way, though, or at least not when more engaging options are open for the taking.

So that is the long way around for me to say that if running out of dailies is occuring on a regular basis, it is a symptom of another issue. In itself, it really doesn't matter that much, which is why it can happen some (and really should) with no problem whatsoever.

 

[RangerWickett]

Yeah, I like the suggestion that it should be possible to run out of daily resources, but it shouldn't happen all the time.

I'm running a LOST-based game, and the party has no daily resources, but they do have limited resources in the form of 'how many bullets do we have,' and 'oh crap, there's no magic healing so I'm injured and can't do much for days now.'

Maybe we shouldn't have daily resources, except for healing surges. Perhaps get rid of daily spells, and just use rituals, which have component costs. Does it really matter to gameplay whether you can throw a fireball every encounter, or only once per day?

 

[Dausuul]

So, in the final analysis, do you think that running out of daily resources is good or bad?

I break this question down into two smaller questions:

1: Do you think that running out of resources is good or bad?
2: Do you think the appropriate way to limit resources is per-day?

My answers to these questions are "good" and "no," respectively. Resource management is a fun part of the game that adds strategic and tactical depth. But daily limits are artificial and clunky, and lead to the aforementioned 15-minute adventuring day among other problems.

Here are some other ways to limit resources. Strong limits are ones that are difficult or impossible for players to evade by such means as the 15-minute adventuring day; they are mostly self-enforcing. Weak limits are relatively easy to get around unless the DM makes a special effort to enforce them.

• By DM grant. You have what the DM gives you, until you run out or the DM gives you more. A very strong, highly customizable limit, but can be demanding for the DM and seem arbitrary to the players.
• By money. Similar to DM grant, but with much more scope for enterprising players to game the system or careless DMs to let things get out of hand; as such I consider it a weak limit.
• By level. Each time you level up, your resources are renewed. A strong limit, but hard to justify in game why you suddenly get all your stuff back.
• By downtime. Just sleeping a night isn't enough, you have to go chill in town for a week or so with nobody chasing you. A medium-strength limit, stronger than per-day but not as strong as DM grant or level-up.
• By combat action. This is a strong limit for a small segment of the game. In general, it's a weak limit, because it only applies in combat; any ability that has any noncombat use whatsoever is a potential exploit.
• By beef gate. You have to kill something big and beefy in order to replenish your resources (e.g., kill a dragon for its blood). A medium-strength limit, depending on how easily exploited the combat system is and how hard it is to find the beef gate. Also, this limit scales hard with level, since high-level characters can often wipe the floor with a beef gate that would be a real struggle for lowbies.