D&D 5E Water Management? :)

[Guest 6801328]

That doesn't mean some dumb straw man like managing every ounce of water. But hand-waving away everything but the combat is a wasted opportunity. Even the 'heroic' LOTR had a significant plot driver with starvation and running out of Lembas bread.

I agree. And as I suggested at the end of my post that you snipped, in circumstances where the possibility of starvation/dehydration adds to the dramatic tension then it makes sense to implement some rule, including perhaps a simple abstraction. But making players manage it essentially all the time, in case it becomes an issue seem...well, un-fun. YMMV.

You cite LOTR and Lembas. Tolkien, being a good storyteller, introduced the Lembas at one point in the book, but not for many chapters was calorie-counting necessary. The heroes don't spend the entire book(s) worrying about running out of food.

Of course, he used combat in the same, sparing manner. How many D&D games would benefit from that as well?

 

[BookBarbarian]

Of course, he used combat in the same, sparing manner. How many D&D games would benefit from that as well?

At least few I think. If I have a battle where there are significant portions of the fight that are not involving the PCs, I might roll two dice to decide the outcome between the "bad" NPCs and the "good" NPCs.

 

[LegionError121]

Something I've found helpful when this sort of thing happens is asking the DM to set the stakes up front.

"Hey, I want to hunt for us all. What type of DC would I need?"

On the other hand, Outlander doesn't even require a roll, so your DM really doesn't get it. Is he the sort where a gentle reminder would be useful?

You have just saved my party Thank You

 

[schnee]

I agree. And as I suggested at the end of my post that you snipped, in circumstances where the possibility of starvation/dehydration adds to the dramatic tension then it makes sense to implement some rule, including perhaps a simple abstraction. But making players manage it essentially all the time, in case it becomes an issue seem...well, un-fun. YMMV.

When it really comes down to it, we did every single bit of that stuff on one piece of graph paper. If you can track Wizard 'spell recovery' after a short rest, you can put a hash mark in the column marked 'rations'. It's not a big deal.

And it becoming an issue or not depends how well people plan, and how well they protect their gear, and the types of hazards they face. Knowing they have to prevent backpacks from being dunked or crushed or burnt makes them make fundamentally different choices than if they only have to worry about hit points.

You cite LOTR and Lembas. Tolkien, being a good storyteller, introduced the Lembas at one point in the book, but not for many chapters was calorie-counting necessary. The heroes don't spend the entire book(s) worrying about running out of food.

Of course, he used combat in the same, sparing manner. How many D&D games would benefit from that as well?

Speaking of which. If you know getting bashed by a Troll can break your potions, or even destroy your rations, you start to explore options for how to deal with them other than 'go toe to toe in combat, and expend hit dice to get hit points back later'. Maybe it's by creating more devious ambushes, maybe it's by fleeing, maybe it's by parleying.

Again, it's all about incentives. If you give players more reasons to be careful, they will be. If you eliminate every little inconvenient thing from the game because they're, well, inconvenient, then you remove reasons to be careful.

 

[Eltab]

Of course, -Tolkein- used combat in the same, sparing manner. How many D&D games would benefit from that as well?

When I was DM'ing Tiamat, my group pretty much expected some kind of combat every session - even if the primary task for the night was Travel.
It became my problem to create a fight that would advance the plot, or at least be examples of "The whole world suffers due to the Bad Guys' actions".

 

[Eltab]

double post

 

[Oofta]

Again, it's all about incentives. If you give players more reasons to be careful, they will be. If you eliminate every little inconvenient thing from the game because they're, well, inconvenient, then you remove reasons to be careful.

And if you include tracking every annoying little tidbit of information in my games you are getting in the way of the important stuff. You know, like story-line, exploration, social interactions, investigating the latest mystery or getting caught up in the latest courtly intrique.

I find nit-picky paper pushing to be boring, unnecessary and takes me out of the game. The more I can stream-line the meta-game aspects of D&D the better.

 

[Yaztromo]

I actually assume characters will refill their waterskins with no problem when crossing most lands apart from deserts and particularly nasty / poisonous swamps, where I do track water supplies.
I hate bogging down games with admin tasks, unless they are a specific motive of the specific adventure (such as in desert, as mentioned): if I loved doing admin tasks I'd choose a different life, and when we play we want to have fun.

 

[Yaztromo]

Again, it's all about incentives. If you give players more reasons to be careful, they will be. If you eliminate every little inconvenient thing from the game because they're, well, inconvenient, then you remove reasons to be careful.

I guess it's also a matter of balance and fun: I guess that if you walk carelessly you can trip on a pebble on the path, so the DM may want to have each time a "tripping roll", but if the players end up having to declare every time they start a walk that they walk carefully, doing their best to avoid tripping on pebbles, it won't be that fun.
On the other hand, Homer, in the massively heroic fight between Achilles and Hector, tells us that Hector tripped on a stone (and Achilles urged him to stand up, as he wouldn't let a stone rob him of the glory of beating him), but that was part of the climax and it worked well in that sense. I think that there was a very good reason why Homer didn't tell us also of Hector tripping on the stairs or going to the toilet.

 

[tardigrade]

On the other hand, Homer, in the massively heroic fight between Achilles and Hector, tells us that Hector tripped on a stone (and Achilles urged him to stand up, as he wouldn't let a stone rob him of the glory of beating him), but that was part of the climax and it worked well in that sense.

Hey, natural 1 sometimes mean you trip and fall prone. I've used that.