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
I’m currently running a campaign that involves a lot of exploration, travel and a dash of politics.
Cramming a full “adventuring day” of 6-8 encounters into each calendar day was just not feasible - “interesting days” will have one, maybe two encounters, occasionaly with several days of travel/downtime in between.
So I’ve adjusted to “SR = a night’s rest” and “LR = 24h of downtime” and it fixed the problem immediately.
A LR requires more creature comforts than a fire and a blanket, but if the party invest into supplies and hirelings, they can set up a “base camp” that allows a LR even in the wilderness.
As for spell duration: I’ve just set all spells that are supposed to cover most of an adventuring day (like Mage Armor) to last until the end of the next Long Rest and this has covered all problems so far. Remember to adjust the recovery of charge-based magical items, too.
This sounds like exactly what I’ve got in mind, cheers! Any other adjustments you made or pitfalls I should watch out for?
Try to hit the aforementioned 6-8 encircled per LR.
Apply common sense whenever you find a mechanic interacting weirdly with this.
Don’t spring an altered test model on your players unannounced.