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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9066558" data-attributes="member: 6877472">A friend of mine once came up with a complicated &quot;resource&quot; system for this game he was running, which took place in an Arabian-inspired setting with a large desert.&nbsp; You would have to make skill checks or purchase resources which would be expended on your journey.&nbsp; He made allowances for spellcasters, allowing them to convert spell slots into stockpiled resource points, figuring that was the best way to translate &quot;endure elements&quot; or &quot;goodberry&quot; into his system.&nbsp; The Druid (with help from the Cleric) destroyed this system utterly.&nbsp; The Druid's Survival was high enough that they often critically succeeded and provided enough Resources for the day.&nbsp; If they failed to do so, they could expend a spell slot or two to make up the difference.&nbsp; Since not every day had encounters, the casters were able to convert spell slots into Resource points.&nbsp; We generally left the desert better supplied than when we entered it, and that's when the casters saw a note in the DM's rules for &quot;selling excess Resources&quot;.After awhile the DM started wondering why we had so much gold to work with, at which point the Druid's player produced his spreadsheet, tracking Resources gained and Resources sold.&nbsp; Over the course of seven sessions, the two casters had generated a couple of thousand gold pieces while making sure the party never suffered in the wilds.I should point out that this wasn't just their doing alone; when the DM told us his pitch for a setting, everyone made sure to have Survival trained for their characters, and one player even chose a race that required less water to survive that the DM had made!The system was scrapped and the campaign ended two sessions later; the DM had apparently thought we'd make a bunch of clueless scrubs, spending much of our time trying to not die in the desert and was unprepared for a party of five survival experts and two spellcasters.TLDR; making survival rules that people want to engage with is harder than one might suppose.&nbsp; Never underestimate a players natural desire to optimize any aspect of play.&nbsp; If you tell an archer that he can make arrows with a skill check, expect that player to suddenly become the world's best fletcher, and never need to track arrows again!The only way you can make tracking resources viable in a game is if you make the task so difficult that one has to optimize, and even then, players will do it.&nbsp; It just makes logical sense to do so (&quot;If X happens my character dies, so I better do what I can to prevent X&quot;).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 9066558, member: 6877472"] A friend of mine once came up with a complicated "resource" system for this game he was running, which took place in an Arabian-inspired setting with a large desert. You would have to make skill checks or purchase resources which would be expended on your journey. He made allowances for spellcasters, allowing them to convert spell slots into stockpiled resource points, figuring that was the best way to translate "endure elements" or "goodberry" into his system. The Druid (with help from the Cleric) destroyed this system utterly. The Druid's Survival was high enough that they often critically succeeded and provided enough Resources for the day. If they failed to do so, they could expend a spell slot or two to make up the difference. Since not every day had encounters, the casters were able to convert spell slots into Resource points. We generally left the desert better supplied than when we entered it, and that's when the casters saw a note in the DM's rules for "selling excess Resources". After awhile the DM started wondering why we had so much gold to work with, at which point the Druid's player produced his spreadsheet, tracking Resources gained and Resources sold. Over the course of seven sessions, the two casters had generated a couple of thousand gold pieces while making sure the party never suffered in the wilds. I should point out that this wasn't just their doing alone; when the DM told us his pitch for a setting, everyone made sure to have Survival trained for their characters, and one player even chose a race that required less water to survive that the DM had made! The system was scrapped and the campaign ended two sessions later; the DM had apparently thought we'd make a bunch of clueless scrubs, spending much of our time trying to not die in the desert and was unprepared for a party of five survival experts and two spellcasters. TLDR; making survival rules that people want to engage with is harder than one might suppose. Never underestimate a players natural desire to optimize any aspect of play. If you tell an archer that he can make arrows with a skill check, expect that player to suddenly become the world's best fletcher, and never need to track arrows again! The only way you can make tracking resources viable in a game is if you make the task so difficult that one has to optimize, and even then, players will do it. It just makes logical sense to do so ("If X happens my character dies, so I better do what I can to prevent X"). [/QUOTE]

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