D&D 5E Variable Short and Long rests

[GameOgre]

I use this system for my games.

The default short rest takes 1 hour.
The default long rest takes eight hours.

In practice however it's far different.

Most of the time as long as it's not abused I let it take a few minutes only. In other words the party has been into some major battles and burned some resources, as a rule of thumb after the second battle of the day. Then again after the fourth battle of the day.

A long Rest after 6-8 Battles takes about one hour.

In general I would limit them to one long rest per day. I would break this guideline if I feel they had earned it and it would be more fun to do so.

Once or twice I have let them get in a Long Rest in seconds. Mostly this was done because we had long play sessions and to be honest taking even one hour to rest up would have been cataclysmic to the storyline and to not get in a long rest would have been a campaign ender. We used those few minutes to run a montage of campaign memorable moments that had built up to this final encounter and taking deep breaths the player characters calmed down, threw off their fatigue and weariness and steeled themselves for what was to come.

In short. I use no ironclad rule but a rough guideline and for us that seems to work very well.

What about you guys?

 

[Shiroiken]

If that is the style of play you want, go for it. Myself, I prefer a grittier game, where choosing to rest can have serious consequences. In my game, as well as the one I play in, we seldom take more than 1 Short Rest per day using the default rules. If nothing is going on, spending an hour might not hurt, but when exploring somewhere, monsters have a tendency to suddenly show up

 

[Lezta]

I like an hour rest for a short rest - it forces the players to think about when they're going to rest, because I will roll for the chance of a random encounter if appropriate (and if they're 'in the wild' as it were, it usually is!).

A long rest has potentially an even greater chance of an encounter, so they'll usually try to make it to somewhere safe, or at least take adequate precautions.

 

[Goemoe]

Did we ever had 6-8 battles a day? We use an hour and 8 hours and it works fine. It forces the players to think, not just burn anything in sight

 

[GameOgre]

Did we ever had 6-8 battles a day? We use an hour and 8 hours and it works fine. It forces the players to think, not just burn anything in sight

Well I don't have those kinds of issues anyway. I don't use encounter guidelines as anything more than very rough guidelines. It's not unusual for my players to parley, negotiate or just plan run away.

I would however suggest that hard and fast rules limit you as the DM.

For instance what about the old your wife has been captured by bugbears adventure idea. The PC arrives home to find the door busted in and the wife gone to be made into stew! Using the hard and fast rule of short is a hour and long is eight hours this had better be one SHORT and fast adventure or guess what? The Wife tasted Good!

If however you are more flexible with things you could have a entire mini-campaign that took place over the next twelve hours! It could be like the TV show 24 but with D&D!

Also you always have the option of using the default!

Just food for thought.

 

[Inchoroi]

I use the short/long rests as detailed; but I also added in a five-minute breather rest, which functions like a short rest, but imposes a level of exhaustion.

 

[Goemoe]

I would however suggest that hard and fast rules limit you as the DM.

If anything, rules limit the players, never the DM. If I want them to refresh extremely fast, I will let something happen, they embrace happily and move on. If I don't want them to rest at all, encounters will make sure of that. But for most occasions in our game, one hour and 8 hours work fine, as it is intended for the balance of the classes.

And those rules matter depending on your group. A fighter doing his action surge once or twice a day does good beside a paladin. A fighter doing 4-6 action surges a day makes a paladin wonder, why he picked his class at all. But it is your group. Do as you all enjoy the most

 

[Meliath1742]

I can't wrap my head around a long rest being anything less than 6-10 hours. I understand we are playing a game of Fantasy but it has to be based on some physical truths. Unless some type of magic is being used, characters could not go without long periods of rest without incurring fatigue or worse. I like the idea that if the scenario is limiting the group rest time that it starts to "grind" the characters down. Being an adventurer isn't for the meek ;-)

 

[delericho]

I don't use a fixed duration for long or short rests, either, though I wouldn't be as extreme as the OP! A short rest may get as short as 5 minutes, or as long as 2 hours, while a long rest is, broadly speaking, an "overnight rest". (And, indeed, I would limit long rests to one per day.)

But perhaps more important than the exact duration of the short or long rest, IMO, is that when the PCs choose to take a break, this has consequences. Specifically, if the PCs take a short rest, this allows for their opponents to regroup, to move their forces into more advantageous locations, or otherwise better deploy their current forces (and triggers a random encounter check, if applicable to the location). A long rest allows for their opponents to do all of the above, but also allows them to call in additional reinforcements, pull back their scouts/raiding parties, and otherwise bolster their available forces.

So, yeah, taking a rest allows the PCs to recover some of their expended resources... but it also allows the bad guys to take equivalent steps.

 

[iserith]

I generally run rests as-is, but sometimes I will include opportunities to gain the benefits of a short or long rest without the necessity of spending time on it as a result of achieving a particular goal or as a reward for engaging with the exploration pillar (finding a magic fountain of rest and healing or the like).

My adventures generally have countdowns as well, so when and how often to rest is a meaningful, sometimes tough, choice.