My house rules for resting. Fun!

[brautigan1]

For anyone like me who finds the core mechanics of resting too loose and unfocused, this is a fantastic system for resting that adds much opportunity for both RP and strategic thinking from your players. Of course, they must know the rules of this system fully:

Short Rests


Short Rests are one hour long, during which time anyone may keep watch over the party.
During a short rest, encounters are possible (2% chance -- this much can be kept from the players, nothing else, though).
If no one is watching over the party, everyone is surprised by an encounter.
If an encounter interrupts a short rest, no one receives benefit from it.
Anyone keeping watch over the party does not benefit from the short rest.


Long Rests


A long rest is at least 8 hours long, and will be measured in short rests.
All the rules for short rests will be followed each and every hour.
Anyone keeping watch must subtract one hour from their long rest for each hour they keep watch.
No one who receives less than 8 hours of uninterrupted rest benefits from the long rest.
Anyone keeping watch is free to exchange or abandon their post at the end of a short rest period (1 hour).


Now, when the party settles down to rest, they will ask themselves:


"Is there anyone here who doesn't even need the rest? Keep watch, please..."
"Is there anyone here who could make due with just a short rest? Great. Watch us for 8, we'll watch you for 1."
"Does everyone need a short rest? Hrmm... 2 hours it is then (for safetey's sake).. or, should we just chance it for an hour?"
"Valine and Nabulis only need short rests. They can trade watches while the rest of us snore."
"We all need a long rest, but Nabulis is barely stable." Someone simply must keep watch."

Etc...

Using this system, I recommend a table of light encounters, because a 2% chance really isn't as unlikely as you'd think. Even a light encounter, when a short rest is needed, can often be quite harrowing (or even deadly). The point here is not to place the party's entire campaign at risk, but to keep your players in the game during this oft-disengaging moment.

Not that deep breaths of relief can't be had during these times. But under the right circumstances, when they see you rolling those dice as you count off...


DM:"(rolls) One hour has passed, and all seems well... (rolls)Two hours have passed, and Valine (who is keeping watch) has been hearing menacing howls somewhere in the distance. (rolls) But whatever it was, it seems to have moved on, as another hour has passed..."

..it can be quite unsettling (and therefore engaging!) for your players.

And that's really the point of this little system: to keep as much of the game as you can engaging.

Let me know how it goes if you use it in your games.

Thanks!

[Zacchaeus]

This would be too deadly for most groups especially low level parties. Without long rests to regain hit points, spells etc most of them will be dead within a few encounters. Certainly in the Campaign I'm running just now (Tiamat) the whole party would be dead several times over without the full benefits of long and short rests. Last night for example 4 out of the 6 fell to one encounter and only the ingenuity of the groups Paladin and some inspirational death saving throw rolls kept them all alive. Next time they'll be starting with some of them having one a couple of Hit Points. A long rest will be essential if they're going to make progress.

[brautigan1]

But these rules don't say you don't get a long rest. Only that the long rest is measured by the GM in increments of short rests for the purpose of rolling for encounters and players keeping watch. For everyone in the party to get a long rest over 8 hours, you would have to take your chances and not keep watch. Or one person could take a short rest along with the party, keep watch for the group for 7 more. In that case, everyone but the person keeping watch will have had a long rest.

Or everyone could get a long rest AND have someone keeping watch.... that would take 16 hours (8 for the watcher, 8 for the rest). Keep in mind that while you are long resting, you are also short resting. So the first hour of anyone's long rest IS a short rest. The short rest is simply built into the long rest, and the long rest is comprised of many short rests.

And every hour that goes by gives a 2% chance of an encounter.

By having someone keep watch, all you are doing is avoiding a surprise attack should an encounter happen.

Honestly, I just went back over my original post, and I can't see how you thought it meant you don't get a long rest...

Statistically speaking, under these rules, the odds of having a long rest interrupted isn't very high at all. But it would happen occasionally, and very rarely, more than once.

[demonsbane]

I see the danger of resting as depending of the context and the adventure. I mean, in some places-situations is safe to rest, but not in others, and it may be dangerous in varying degrees.

[brautigan1]

I agree. I think 2% is a good baseline. You can adjust encounter tables and bump the %chance up or down accordingly.

[damned]

No one who receives less than 8 hours of uninterrupted rest benefits from the long rest.

Are you saying that if you slept for 4hrs, watched for 2 and slept for another 4 it would not count as a long rest in your description?
Or if you watched for 3hrs - had an encounter in the 4th, and slept for another 5 you would not count as a long rest?

[Zacchaeus]

Well, it did seem to me that what you were saying was that if a PC didn't get a full 8 hours rest because for example they set watches then anyone who was set to watch didn't benefit from the long rest at all - only a short one. This would mean that if the party all took a turn on watch then no-one would benefit from the long rest. According to the PHB any player who takes a long rest would benefit from that rest provided they didn't do anything strenuous (such as combat). A long rest is defined as a period of at least 8 hours but they would still benefit fully from the long rest provided they didn't go on watch etc for more than 2 of those hours. Personally I don't like too much random stuff in adventures so I usually ignore things like wandering monsters and such like. This is probably why I would be adverse to introducing something like you have suggested :)

[epithet]

Are you saying that if you slept for 4hrs, watched for 2 and slept for another 4 it would not count as a long rest in your description?
Or if you watched for 3hrs - had an encounter in the 4th, and slept for another 5 you would not count as a long rest?

Yeah, that's how I read his post.

In my opinion, there's nothing to be gained by making this change other than annoying your players. I would also like to point out that some races only need 4 hours, and at least one race (Warforged) can rest and keep watch at the same time.

[JohnD]

It's your game; do what you want. There's nothing that says you need wide spread approval; as long as the players accept it you're fine.

[darrenan]

I agree with JohnD. I would never use this system in my games, as it's too crunchy for my tastes. But if you and your players dig it, that's all that matters.

You mention this is an "oft disengaging moment". When my players need to rest, they tell me how long they are resting and I push the appropriate button, then we move on, no disengagement necessary. I also rarely use random encounters. If I feel like there should be an encounter to spice things up, then I do it, end of story.

[Zacchaeus]

It's your game; do what you want. There's nothing that says you need wide spread approval; as long as the players accept it you're fine.

Well said!

[Shadranar]

I agree with JohnD. I would never use this system in my games, as it's too crunchy for my tastes. But if you and your players dig it, that's all that matters.

You mention this is an "oft disengaging moment". When my players need to rest, they tell me how long they are resting and I push the appropriate button, then we move on, no disengagement necessary. I also rarely use random encounters. If I feel like there should be an encounter to spice things up, then I do it, end of story.

This is how I run mine as well. Unless there's something interesting to convey during their rest period, or if in a dangerous place, a random encounter pops up, its "OK, you rest and FF 8 or 4 hours...". What's suggested above is too crunchy for my tastes as well. However, if your group likes it, have at it.