Sustenance - Tracked or Handwaved

[was]

don't usually bother tracking it

 

[Slife]

I don't even track clothing, let alone food.

Shut up, you lot.

Note that he isn't only talking about the game...

 

[Gerion of Mercadia]

In most of My campaigns, there is someone with a high enough "survival" check taking 10 it isn't a problem to get along in the wild.

It generally isn't a consideration unless the survivalist is incapacitated, in which case most of the party has some backup supplies and/or healing magic. It might "sit them down" for a day - but not much more.

Because most of My groups have engineered to avoid the problem, It is effictively handwaved. If they don't or something disrupts this "engineering", I track it.

 

[The Human Target]

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 ..."

This is pretty much how I feel/handle it.

Unless its a MIDNIGHT game, then they can keep track of every bit of food/gear they have.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I take an abstract middle approach.

In urban environments, I charge the PCs a monthly upkeep cost, based on level and lifestyle. This includes things like food, drink, armor and weapon repair, replacement of mundane adventuring gear, and so on.

In wilderness environments, as long as there's someone which a good Survival score, and the PCs are willing to take the time required to use it, they're fine. Otherwise I track rations. (I don't worry about water ... create water is only an orison, after all. I'd worry about it if there were no cleric present.)

 

[hong]

Note that he isn't only talking about the game...

Hey, the game I'm DMing, I said to the players that their 4th level PCs had 2000 gp worth of gear. One guy spent it all on a handy haversack....

 

[The_Gneech]

Eh, my group has a ranger and a druid. I'm sure that between the two of them, they can scrounge up something in most situations. The occasional bit of "you round up a couple of rabbits" flavor text usually does the job.

If they were crossing a desert or stuck in a lifeboat or something like that, then it would be tracking time.

As for hanging around in town, any money they spend on taverns or gear repair or that kind of thing, we also treat as "flavor text" -- I just reduce the amount of treasure they pick up commensurate with what they would spend. Since I'm the one who "gives them" the money and then "takes it away" in the form of merchants, I figure why not just cut out the bookkeeping that nobody wants to deal with anyway.

If one of the players wanted to buy a house or something (and, in fact, one of them did), that would count as an extraordinary expense and have to be paid for with treasure.

-The Gneech

 

[atomn]

In the Ptolus game I'm in, our GM has been making us keep track of money spent on sustenance and I'm enjoying that dyanamic. Since we're all brand new immigrants and starting PCs with little starting money left over, I like that we can't just shell out money for weapons and equipment because we have to deal with urban survival (aka rent, food, etc.) It's helped to bring honest reactions as we and our PCs learned more about what it takes to live in the big city (i.e., "The Inn" seems like a great place to get a room but eventually we discover that it's like living in a hotel; that a few nights in the Inn is equivalent to a month in an apartment.) It also forces some of us which have no sponsors (like a priest would) to mercenary ourselves before we can focus on our personal goals. That's giving our group a good reason to adventure together and gives the GM the option of running a money earning dungeondelve or bodyguard job, or focus on the PC's goals. All in all, for me, it brings an aspect of realism to the game that lends itself to some additional roleplaying situations but thus far hasn't gotten so nitpicky that it slows the game. Although I can definitely see it becoming a hassle if we gain sufficient funds where cost of rent and food wouldn't matter anymore.

 

[GlassJaw]

Depends on the game.

Standard D&D: totally handwaved, especially with spells like Create Water being fairly easy to come by.

Low-magic/gritty/survivalist campaign: definitely tracked, since day-to-day survival is usually the baseline challenge for the campaign.

 

[Rothe]

Tracked in wilderness/dungeon settings. I track encumbarance so it's more a matter fo how much they can carry. I pretty much assume they each carry a half liter of water on them, just in case they fall down a trap etc. (I also assume they do alot of other survival oriented things like always keeeping an eye on the ceiling).

I'm not too harsh on the starving, the adventurers being folks from a hardy rural society going a few days without food is not fun, but not really a detriment to their performance.

After the current adventure, I'm pretty sure they will carry more fancy foodstuffs, not to eat but trade. In a remote dungeon with no shops the best barter items they had (after weapons) were food and wine. After a lifetime of rat on a stick, old beef jerky is a gourmet feast.

I track arrows too, especially since I treat bows and crossbows as more powerful than in typical D&D.

I'm also not so hard on resupply. I assume that many PCs have some hunting or fishing in their background; others Druids, etc., know about edible plants, and many can fashion at least a crude arrow (-2 to hit) in a pinch.