D&D 5E Short/Long Rest in LMoP

[Nebulous]

I actually did that myself, when my players got TPK’d by the goblins in the beginning of LMoP. Little did I realize at the time what a terrible adventure OotA is

Is it bad? I thought the premise looked really interesting.

 

[Nebulous]

How funny, my group was in a similar situation. They had 2 sessions in WEC, they had not long rested, but they had defeated The Black Spider (and captured him). Outside WEC was a beefed up Glassstaff waiting for them (along with 4 red brand ruffians, 4 cultists, a half dragon, and a Bone Naga) with a beaten down Reidoth (the druid from Thundertree). I thought they were going to get the crap kicked out of them. In the end, Glassstaff had to flee, which I'm not too upset about. I suspect they didn't track resources meticulously enough, which kind of bothers me, and will be making sure to track spells more closely going forward. But in the end Glassstaff's still out there to keep annoying them.

It's always so interesting to see how other campaigns deviate so much from each other.

 

[Charlaquin]

I do (and did) use ample random encounters. They missed 12 in a row on the way to the mine, so if I'm going to make something dangerous I need to make SURE it is going to happen and not hope on the fate of the dice. Of course, that said, they'll probably roll 10 encounters in a row and get slaughtered next.

That’s precisely what makes the decision to rest an interesting one, though. If it’s guaranteed to be safe or guaranteed not to be, there’s no real decision to be made, you just rest when it’s safe and don’t when it’s not. But when resting carries both a risk of danger and a possibility of safety, it becomes a gamble. And sometimes gambles pay off, that’s the nature of it. I think not allowing the players the chance for that payoff cheapens the decision.

I do day and night encounters every day, and for the dangerous mountains I would probably go 15+ on d20. 30% of attracting the attention of something. I already have a random encounter checklist ready. Not all combat encounters either. But mostly.

A 30% chance once a day and once a night? I would consider that really low, and I’m not surprised your players would want to rest whenever they have the opportunity.

The mine is not in suspended animation, but most of the enemies are mindless undead or undead that won't leave. The Black Spider has some bugbear guards and void spiders, but they're going to stay inside the mine. The biggest wild card is the renegade drow faction who might venture out at night. But they're not a part of the scenario, I added them.

Sure, but like... That sounds to me like a scenario where taking a long rest when your resources are low would be a pretty effective strategy. If you don’t want it to be, I think modifying the parameters to make it a bigger risk would be a more satisfying (for your players) solution than simply posting monsters that are too tough for them outside the dungeon, and will have the added benefit of not putting you in a situation where the players absolutely need a rest but absolutely can’t get one.

 

[Charlaquin]

Is it bad? I thought the premise looked really interesting.

Some people like it, but I really didn’t. The players have no agency for the whole first half of the module, they’re just herded along from one scripted sequence to another where the players get captured, disempowered, and narrowly escape when a demon lord shows up to wreck the settlement. Then they get to slog through several days of overland travel before reaching the next such scripted sequence. The second half is less terrible, but it also relies on the players voluntarily deciding to go BACK to the Underdark when the first half of the story was all about trying to escape from it, to try to defeat the demon lords that are running amok down there, as like 5th level characters. Just the worst kind of railroad, in my opinion.

 

[HarbingerX]

While you need to adjust difficulty to the group as appropriate, I also really dislike "static dungeon" syndrome.

I understand it in video games, but in D&D actions have consequences and NPCs and monsters will respond appropriately to PC's actions or inaction.

I remember facing some orcs in the Caves of Chaos and making the poor decision to run deeper into their lair. That was a short life.