Copying this from a comment I made a few months ago, I’d like to try having an “adventuring week” rather than an “adventuring day”, i.e. have X encounters per in-game week(ish) rather than the same number per in-game day. The Gritty Realism variant rules basically provide this though I think the name really puts people off; I’m not trying to add realism, just make it so you can have actual meaningful resource-draining encounters as part of something like a week-long travel (currently I’d need to throw in so many encounters that it becomes tedious, or have one-encounter days which we all know the problems with!)
Has anyone tried Gritty Realism before, and if so how did you implement it and how did you find it? My main question would be:
- How many days did you have per long rest?
- I’m thinking probably three (so two short rests per long rest) but that’s more a guideline for me the DM when planning rather than mandating a minimum time between long rests.
- How long were your long rests and did they need to be in a “safe haven”?
- I think something like at least 24 hours of downtime in a safe-ish place (including two sleeps), though again it’s on me the DM to make sure safe havens are common enough.
- How did you adjust spell times?
- 1 minute stays as 1 minute, it’s meant to last a single combat
- 1 hour up to several hours, could last multiple combats but doesn’t persist after a short rest
- 8 hours up to several days, lasts most of the adventuring week (e.g. mage armour)
- 24 hours up to several days, at least as long as the adventuring week
…yep, basically they take a ‘week’ to long-rest and recover, including downtime activity, and the DM chooses the appropriate narrative moment to resume their uptime…
…also note that by these mechanics, exhaustion checks for forced marches happen after each additional six-to-ten hours travel without a short rest, which feels much better-balanced narratively…
If the DM is choosing how long the long rest takes then is there much reason to pay for the better lifestyle which gives a half-duration long rest?
Also do you apply similar things to the short rests? For example if they’re just camping in the woods then that’s probably squalid, but if they make some good rolls to find a nice location, forage some food etc then it could improve the situation.
…wealthy lifestyles have the benefit of recovering long-rest resources more quickly than a narrative week, which may be worthwhile depending upon how quickly the party wants to turn around their next adventuring week…
…yes, short rests are subject to the same lifestyle mechanics, which give tangible benefits to class or background features enabling rest improvements…