Sustenance - Tracked or Handwaved

[Mark CMG]

I know some DMs make sure their players make sustenance purchases in-game and others don't even require players to buy any food at all. Are you at one extreme or the other . . . or somewhere in between?

 

[Draxo]

My DM's dont bother with it, sadly.

I kinda like the idea of that kind of thing.. or at least want to try it out.

I dont know.. i guess i just like the idea of immersing myself more. not to a great extend, but just knocking off a ration per day, etc.

My next game i'm going to run will include it, as an experiment, if we like it.. maybe the DM who runs me and will be playing will include it in his game.

 

[Voadam]

Generally no.

Resource tracking is not the fun part of the game for me.

 

[Baron Opal]

At the beginning of the adventure I make the characters spend a certain amount of gold and silver for supplies and repair of goods. Then I pretty much ignore it unless they are sealed off. That happened with the current adventure. They triggered a trap that sealed off the dungeon entrance so I had them start the countdown of their foodstuffs. I told them I assumed that everyone had seven days food and two days water with them and now we would keep track. Once they made it back outside, and therefore had access to game, we didn't worry about it.

 

[darkseraphim]

Tracked in the wilderness, handwaved in civilized lands. (Deducting decent inn prices; if they want to save money and chow rations or hunt, I slow it down and they can either track or have a quick encounter.)

Sustenance can be a nice "danger clock" to build tension while adventuring - food in the arctic, water in the desert, sleep in a bandit-infested thicket, even air in a poisonous cave. But it can get tedious, so handwaving it in civilized lands gives a distinct impression of the differences. "You're in the Borderlands now, everyone start tracking food and water ..."

 

[el-remmen]

Sustenance all the way!

I would not hesitate to kill off PCs due to starvation or thirst! Well, maybe I'd hesitate, but I'd do it anyway. . .

 

[Umbran]

When the party could easily obtain food if they wanted it, it is handwaved (actually, covered by the Upkeep rules from the DMG). When they don't have the opportunity to resupply (either they're poor, or supplies simply aren't available to them), then it is tracked.

Basically - tracking any resource when it isn't going to affect the plot is annoying bookkeeping busywork. When it will impact the plot, it is a source of drama!

 

[amethal]

Basically - tracking any resource when it isn't going to affect the plot is annoying bookkeeping busywork. When it will impact the plot, it is a source of drama!

I was going to post something much longer, but there's no point now Umbran has masterfully set out my position (in a lot fewer words).

 

[Bad Paper]

Every once in a while in civilization I will swipe some cash out of the PCs' till for upkeep, repairs, etc. Don't track it very much. I never track arrows either.

Only out in the boonies am I careful with tracking resources, e.g. the Standing Stone specifically states that food is nonexistent. It helped the druid's hungry wolf companion to track down a certain cannibalism operation, though. Not that the party cared much. <sigh>

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

No, I dont like wasting time with copper pieces, mundane arrows, or whether a belt buckle survives a fireball either. Its not an issue until it is (ie, an event occurs which removes the players supplies).