Community Proposal : Full Rest Modifications

[metaquad4]

I think using the existing food systems to be able to fill some sort of pre-req to "rest anywhere" sounds like a good idea.

Keep existing resting how it is, and give the food systems some purpose. Maybe require the pitching of a tent item as well and/or some survival skill from a party member.

Dalelands Beyond had a neat system where if you had survival you could rest nearly anywhere (as could your party), that sort of thing would be neat.

Maybe survival and tent can determine "where" and food can determine "how often" (you choose to consume food or to not consume food to rest - if you consume food, you rest on 1/2 CD, if not you rest on the full CD).

[zhazz]

Didn't see this proposal until now.

I don't think we necessarily need to change the cost or impact of resting.
Rather resting should be possible everywhere, as it is in tabletop.
Similarly to tabletop, however, there should be risks associated with resting in unsafe areas.

Want to rest at an inn? No problem, go right ahead.
Want to rest in the Vaults of the Dead? High likelihood of getting ambushed.

Investing in Survival (only count base ranks) can then reduce the risk (but not remove it).
Having a party member with Survival reduces the risk for everyone.
Each party members adds to the risk.

[Mork]

I'd just like to add that "allowed resting everywhere like in tabletop" as proposed earlier should also mean "100% rest interruption chance" on top of 90% to wake up dead like I'd absolutely expect in some places.

Halving rest cool-down in "safe places" will in 95% cases have zero impact on anything. Tying stuff to high survival or rangers/druids feels silly. Unless it's like 1 point of survival required. It takes around 2 hours for normal human commoner to learn camping basics 101. I feel anything more than 1 point without any class req would be equivalent of setting DC for breathing to 40.

[zhazz]

Then perhaps allow resting everywhere, with an equal chance for everyone to get interrupted/ambushed. Survival skill then provides e.g. temporary hit points, a buff to Saves / AB, or some other benefit for being able to set a better and more comfortable camp than a basic one.

[Fire Wolf]

I don't think tying resting to a gold sink system would be a good idea, and definitely not requiring purchased camping gear in order to rest in random locations.
I feel like requiring the purchase of equipment to gain these types of benefits would exclude characters who do not use camping equipment. As an example, the Fist of the Forest according to the class description is required to live like an animal which would mean they likely do not use tents.
It also would make no sense in-character for camping equipment to be single use.

Additionally, I am not a fan of any gold sink system given that they tend to lean purely toward the ooc and get in the way of roleplay, even when they are opt in.
I also do not like the idea of tying a gold cost to resting in houses or guild halls, as it's up to the player to decide if their home or base is well stocked enough for their character to survive or not, as well as the source of their supplies. A druid, ranger, or survival expert would likely stock up on basic needs for free from the wild.

I think there is room to do something that adds to roleplay though.
Instead of having every safe location have a gold cost, you could add an option to innkeepers to charge an amount to instantly expire the rest timer and allow you to rest. Doing this excessively within a very short period of time could add a temporary debuff to your character for over resting, to discourage abusing the system.

This would give people a reason to use inns to rest, have a gold cost that makes sense narratively as you're paying to use the inn, and alleviate the pain that players feel when their character needs to prepare themself but is oocly blocked from doing so by the rest timer when there is no in character reason why they shouldn't be able to do what they need to do. I've experienced a fair number of awkward interactions where there is no explanation in character for the rest timer, so people just kind of do their best to hand wave it for a long time until it's over, especially if it was triggered by hitting rest by accident.

Camping gear could be used to reset the saves that you need to make when in areas with harsh weather. This gives the gear a use without forcing characters who don't use it to buy some to be capable in the wild.
I feel this would make more sense than using it to be able to rest at all, as it doesn't exclude more animalistic characters from resting in usual places, and it fully makes sense in character when they miss out on the benefits by opting out of using it, since not taking shelter from the elements will leave you to tough them out yourself.
Using the camping gear in this way would also encourage players to find a secure spot to set up camp to recover when the saves are too high, leading to a fun opportunity to roleplay the adventuring aspect of going to these areas and actually giving them something that's happening in game as a result of that choice.
It could also include a way to make your own camping gear from what you collect in the wild, allowing the freedom to play characters who buy tents, make their own shelters, or just go without.

In regards to the resting areas, we could definitely use more of them, or just stop limiting resting so much.
In dungeons, you are prevented from resting if any enemy anywhere in the dungeon comes within a certain distance of you, which means that in order to rest in an unsafe location you need to clear out the enemies and actively work to make it safe. You are already doing the work of securing the location to rest.
We could simply have open resting with specific safe zones where you can't have an enemy stumble onto your area and interrupt your rest.
If anyone feels a particular location should be dangerous enough to have a chance of ambush, you could have the ambush chance be reduced by a combination of ranks in Survival and Hide. Having one or the other would lower the risk to make it easier to rest most of the time, while having both skills could make it extremely unlikely to be ambushed at all.

Even without anything else added or changed, removing all the unnecessary resting restrictions would be excellent. They really don't make any sense most of the time. If you are in an obviously secure area but not allowed to rest, or you find a safe location and can't step one foot outside of it, there's really no explanation for that in character.

In short, I think that any mechanical benefit, opt in or not, should be accessable through character design rather than gold only, with gold being the option for a narrative purpose rather than an accessibility one. Not every character needs to buy supplies, and not every character can survive without buying supplies. There needs to be an option for both. As well as, not everyone has gold to throw away, and it doesn't always make sense for gold to be involved in the situation.