D&D 5E Water Management? :)

[The Human Target]

He might be already. I treat the world as a simulation as well, so its easy.

You track the water use of all NPCs and monsters the players interact with and all towns they visit?

 

[schnee]

You should demand your DM track the water supplies for his NPCs and settlements.

Seriously.

You track the water use of all NPCs and monsters the players interact with and all towns they visit?

That's ridiculous and borderline hostile.

Living things need water, so settlements always form where there is access to water. Period. If there is a settlement, they have water, otherwise it's a huge plot point that the settlement is falling apart because they lost access to water. (Duh.) Players are going *between* settlements, to places that may or may not have access to water.

Resource management is part of the game. So, it's perfectly valid to have players spend some degree of thought on things like that. Not to mention some 'grounding' in day-to-day life is pretty much why we play RPGs instead of board games.

Your insistence that the DM somehow should be punished for it is childish.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

If I'd be the DM, I would only enforce the management of water in areas where it would be a real challenge (i.e. arid areas such as deserts).

In areas with sufficient water, this is just a chore (a routine task), and I would not spend any roleplay on it. I would assume is done by the characters "automatically", just like I expect them to tie their shoes without roleplaying it.

 

[dagger]

You track the water use of all NPCs and monsters the players interact with and all towns they visit?

Yes. It's easy. All npcs and towns have water unless I decide they don't for adventure reasons or the party purposely disrupts the supply. Done.

 

[Oofta]

Unless lack of water is a major plot point to the campaign, water is readily available. With the exception of a world populated by modrons, every living thing needs water to survive. If water is so hard to come by, how are you getting water for your waterskins?

Unless you are crossing a Sahara like desert or in the middle of the ocean, any DM requiring tracking of water is just being a hostile ass.

Maybe he was just kidding. Ask him. Talk to him outside of the game.

Or just get a portable hole and make yourself a fortune selling the water to people who are obviously dying of thirst and retire from adventuring.

 

[jgsugden]

I make sure the PCS pack enough supplies on their first adventure aad then provide them with a ready magical sources that they do not need to worry about it further.

 

[dagger]

As a player I make sure my sheets equipment section is updated, because the other DM in the group ran a dungeon that had us trapped for like a month. It was awesome trying to survive.

 

[Savage Wombat]

My next campaign starts in a harsh desert region (SoCal) so water will be important. And by that I primarily mean that I will make sure to establish where the various cities and towns get their water supply. The PCs will probably just manage somehow. (The Outlander background is too powerful in this regard, I think.)

 

[LegionError121]

My next campaign starts in a harsh desert region (SoCal) so water will be important. And by that I primarily mean that I will make sure to establish where the various cities and towns get their water supply. The PCs will probably just manage somehow. (The Outlander background is too powerful in this regard, I think.)

Its funny that you would mention the Outlander background Its what I gave my Wizard due to her odd origins and nomad lifestyle The thing is though, is that my DM doesn't "get it"

Me: "I rolled a 27"
DM: "After hours of searching, You can only find this 1 rotting dear corpse in this vast wildlife. It also looks very thin"
Me: "Fine, I roll again. 28!"
DM: "You find some Mushrooms, you don't know if they are edible. Also a thing stole your book."

 

[Eltab]

If you are not on Athas (Dark Sun), where the facts that 'the environment is hostile' and 'even common resources are very scarce' are important worldbuilding points, there isn't really a need to track water / food carefully.

Most of the time.
You can certainly build an adventure around "You are stranded with no equipment in the middle of an unfamiliar jungle / savannah / desert. How do you survive?"

But I wouldn't drag the mundane details of day-to-day life into the campaign over and over again.