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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 8751556" data-attributes="member: 20564">Ideal rest mechanics:1.  None.  Remove attrition based resource management as one of the themes of the game, since it forces certain DMing styles.  Games like Hero use END primarily, which comes back during a fight and all comes back after a fight.2.  Synchronized between classes.  4e (pre-Essentials) had attrition resource management, but all characters had the same resources in the same amounts.  So you could run one encounter or 14 encounters between rests and all of the characters had the same resources to divide across them all - no classes had advantages or disadvantages based on fewer or more encounters between rests.3. Game-focused.  Attrition based resource management is very much a mechanical gaming aspect, what I mean by that is that it is a game that is played, trying to maximize utility and efficiency.  Do I use my high levfel spell now or later?  I only have one Rage left, do I use it now against these guards or might there be a better time later?  So instead of putting recovery of those resources into a non-game-focused aspect like time passing, link it directly to the resources.  I've played with a house rule where each character can trigger a short rest that takes 5 minutes, but only twice a day.  I've seen a house rule where a short rest automatically happens every two combats.  13th Age has a rule where a full heal up (equivilent of a long rest in terms of resource recovery) happens every four encounters, with the DM having an option to make it sooner based on how challenging they were, and the players having an option to take it sooner as the cost of a campaign setback.Really, "rest" as the trigger for recovery mechanics is a poor idea in terms of the gaming aspect and the narrative flow aspects, even if they meet simulation goals.  The idea that an arbitrary amount of time available in the adventure allows the reset of resources in such a heavily attrition based game like D&D does not match all DMing styles or narrative pacing choices.  As an example, a three week trek across a desert might have a total of four encounters, but with rest based they are either spread out and therefore trivial in final impact and not worth of the session time spent on them, or unrealistically all gathered into the same day.</blockquote>

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