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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 3477418" data-attributes="member: 22882">Basically, you have four main models of resource management:Per EncounterHP, MP/spell slots and status effects refresh between encounters.  Mook battles do not exist except as opportunities for players to show off their characters' abilities (and may be handled purely in narrative form).  Every encounter worth playing is a climactic encounter, interesting in itself from a tactical perspective or dramatic because of the storyline building up to it (possibly both).  Resource management occurs in the course of an encounter and can be quite complex; when it's generally understood that you only bother with the most significant encounters, those encounters are expected to take every last drop of your renewable resources.  Casting Fire on the second turn, even if it eliminates an enemy, may mean you can't cast Cure on the second-to-last turn and you'll lose the battle; on the flip side, NOT eliminating the enemy on the second turn may mean you'll lose the battle because you have to cast more Cure spells earlier.In electronic games, you see this in the vast majority of tactical games: Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Fire Emblem - going back as far as X-Com at the least, perhaps further.The only things that carry over between encounters are item charges (usually one-use 'Potion' type items, although X-Com ammo is an exception), money (for buying items/equipment) and character death (many of these games, such as X-Com, Fire Emblem and Tactics Ogre, are much less forgiving about death - there's no resurrrection available and no 0 to -10 hp threshold).  These expendable resources generally NEVER refresh; items must be re-bought or, if they can't be purchased, are lost forever; slain characters never come back.Per Time IncrementThe system used in World of Warcraft and most MMORPGs, as well as a few games of other types (most recently Final Fantasy 12).  This is difficult and cumbersome to track in a tabletop RPG, and doesn't offer a lot of benefits over 'Per Rest Period,' which is probably why it rarely shows up in that media.In a Per Time Increment game, encounters tend to be of the 'whittle the party down' variety, but major encounters are often also intended to challenge a full-powered party.  'Magic points' or 'technique points' and sometimes even hit points recover over time; it's not unusual to run in circles (or stand still) waiting for these points to regenerate.  Unsurprisingly, these games often use random encounters.  Non-point-based resources are generally refreshed with cash; resurrection in non-single-player-or-character games is almost always very easy.This system is very difficult to balance for because it's almost impossible to predict character resources.  One's resources are mostly based on one's patience.Per Rest PeriodFamiliar to D&D players, mainline Final Fantasy players prior to FF12, and players of the vast majority of tabletop and electronic RPGs.  It's more accurate to say 'per rest period' than 'per day' because a D&D day doesn't represent 24 hours - it represents the amount of time it takes for spellcasters to use up their spells.In this system, individual encounters tend to whittle down party resources, the intention being that PCs will have a certain number of encounters in between rest periods.  In electronic RPGs, this is often enforced by only allowing characters to rest in towns, while in tabletop RPGs it is usually enforced via a combination of time limits and random encounters.This system is probably the second-easiest to design properly for.  It places about the same number of constraints on design as per-encounter balancing, but those constraints are different.  Per-encounter means removing resource-ablation encounters, whereas per-rest period mandates them.  Per-rest period also requires some means of preventing characters from resting after every encounter.Per GameUnder this extremely harsh model, all or most resources are carried over from encounter to encounter and even from rest period to rest period.  'Hit points,' if they exist at all, do not heal or heal very slowly.  Staple items either have very limited effects or cannot be bought (or money is intended to be cripplingly tight); even weapons and armor wear out with use.  Death is almost certainly permanent.  Magic usually carries with it a permanent cost in life or sanity, or is accessed from rare single-use items.This type of system is very hard to design adventures for, because how the characters fared in a previous scenario directly impacts their power level in the next.  It's been done admirably in Call of Cthulhu (both d20 and BRP) and, in a very different style, in Wild ARMs 3 (until the last third of the game).</blockquote>

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