Gritty Realism Rests

[Protato]

Has anyone used the gritty realism rest variant (i.e 8 hour short rests, one week long rests) here? If so, how'd you balance it? I'm doing a hexcrawl game with site-based objectives and thought the rest variant would be a good way to not have 5 minute adventuring days, but now I worry about TPKs. Is there any way to maybe make it easy enough on the players, without detracting from the resource management and difficulty?

[Sigreid]

It's really just like the normal balancing techniques. If you would do 2 encounters per short rest, do the same to encounters per day. Try to make sure every 3 days they have a week to rest.

One thing it will change is it will drain money faster as they will need to spend upkeep gold per long rest.

[Naanomi]

Gritty realism is where you have one or two sword fights, then spend years in intensive rehab and never fully recover right?

[Protato]

Well, there's probably not encounters every single day, although there will be random encounters based on environments, some combat and others not. My thoughts are that they have to be wary about not using their resources on the map because they don't want to run dry when they reach their objective. I could perhaps let them take a long rest, travelling at half speed, and risking objectives being harder or loot being diminished. Also, I had thought for some random encounters, they might be able to sneak around them at the cost of half experience and no treasure.

[Sigreid]

You just have to make sure they don't have to fight more than 2 to 3 normal encounters in a day. If you go a few days and several fights (more than 6 or so) before giving a long rest that will be very hard on long rest casters. Warlocks won't care much.

[Armored Walrus]

It's the site-based portions that will be out of whack with that variant. Your sites either need to be small, or they need to have multiple Easy to Medium encounters so each one has a small chance of using up some resources but none are overwhelming on their own.

Or, you have to be ok with your PCs dying, or having to run away and consider a better way to approach a site/come back when stronger. Players will have to adapt to a more combat as war mentality. They can't just walk in to a place expecting its difficulty to adjust to suit them - they need to find ways to approach clearing a site that aren't necessarily spelled out on their character sheets.

I think either approach can work. It really depends on what you're going for.

[Malifice]

It's really just like the normal balancing techniques. If you would do 2 encounters per short rest, do the same to encounters per day. Try to make sure every 3 days they have a week to rest.

One thing it will change is it will drain money faster as they will need to spend upkeep gold per long rest.

Every three days [featuring encounters]. A day that only has the one encounter counts as half a day.

Theoretically they could spend 3 days exploring and having no combats, have a combat encounter on day 4, nothing on day 5, two combat encounters on day 6, nothing on days 7-9 another 2 combat encounters on day 10, and then return home (getting one more encounter on the way back, and taking a further 9 days).

They've effectively gotten 6 encounters between long rests, and had 3 effective short rests. Over the space of 20 days.

For Hexcrawls Gritty realism is the way to go. Most hexcrawls feature no more than 1 or 2 checks for an encounter per day, and many days feature no encounters (0-2 encounters per day [short rest] is the norm). An adventuring 'day' is quite often close to an entire month (taking the whole week of rest into account, days with no encounters etc).

Where it gets tight is when the party discover a dungeon (tightly packed encounters; designed to be dealt with in rapid succession). They either have to go really slow on those days (and be extra cautious) or you can elect to switch to 'Normal resting' when zoomed in to such a location.

Lack of HD healing between encounters can really be drain on party resources elsewhere (spell slots for healing and lay on hands etc). Potions of healing become standard fare.

This can be ameliorated somewhat by also using the Healing Surge variant as well for a limited pool of healing on multi-encounter days:


As an action, a character can use a healing surge and spend up to half his or her Hit Dice. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character's Constitution modifier. The character regains hit points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll.

A character who uses a healing surge can't do so again until he or she finishes a short or long rest.

Under this optional rule, a character regains all spent Hit Dice at the end of a long rest. With a short rest, a character regains Hit Dice equal to his or her level divided by four (minimum of one die).

Each day (game day) you get to use a single healing surge to heal up to (half hit dice). After a nights sleep, you regain 1/4 of your Hit Dice (and can use as many as you want to heal).

After an entire weeks rest, you gain a long rest, restore all HP and recover all HD.

It takes some of the sting out of the Gritty rest variant, and allows for smallish dungeons to be tackled with a little more safety.

[Mr_Fixler]

I've done a similar variant where a long rest can only be taken in a "safe zone" like a town or inn or something to that effect. A short rest can be taken on the road as part of travel or anywhere the PCs can sensibly make camp or hole up.

It makes it harder to do a longer dungeon style adventure, but it adds tension to overland travel and long journeys. The relief when they finally arrive and get back to town is palpable.
It also allows you to spread the "Adventuring Day" over a week or so of in game time.

One week seems a bit too long for a long rest if the plot continues to move on at a realistic pace while the PCs rest. A lot can happen in a week.

[Sigreid]

Yes, I did mean every 3 fighting days or 6 encounters.

[Malifice]

I've done a similar varient where a long rest can only be taken in a "safe zone" like a town or inn or something to that effect. A short rest can be taken on the road as part of travel or anywhere the PCs can sensibly make camp or hole up.

It makes it harder to do a longer dungeon style adventure, but it adds tension to overland travel and long journeys. The relief when they finally arrive and get back to town is palpable.
It also allows you to spread the "Adventuring Day" over a week or so of in game time.

In the times I've done it, adventuring days usually take around a month or so [including the week to long rest]. The players average 0-2 encounters every day for that month, and then rest for a week. Around half the days spent exploring are encounter free, and around half they get 1-2 encounters (and the occasional dungeon).

The trick is to place the dungeons near(ish) a safe zone. Not always of course, but certainly the first few 'closer' dungeons to the PCs because they've very fragile at low level.

In the town the PCs start in, they hear rumors of an abandoned [ruin] a few days outside of town rumored to be full of undead, and a band of mean goblins that lair in the nearby forest a few hours away (one hex distant). They can poke around those areas at low level, and stick close to town for safety while fragile.

It can be pretty ace for the party to be seeking new towns, or settlements, or shrines or other safe zones where long resting is OK. It might even be a side focus of a few locations (example - clear the dwarven ruins so the dwarves can re-establish their settlement, as a reward the dwarves offer the PCs a place to rest and explore the nearby area around the settlement; or a Mercenary group is encountered in a ruin and they offer the PCs a place to rest if they agree to help the Mercs deal with a problem nearby etc).

Scatter some safe zones around the map (including a few that need to be unlocked, via a quest of some kind). Effectively once you find the 'safe zone' you unlock long resting at that location, and can explore the hexes around the area a lot easier (than having to trudge all the way back to your starting town).


One week seems a bit too long for a long rest if the plot continues to move on at a realistic pace while the PCs rest. A lot can happen in a week.

Let them do downtime activities while they rest. Many of the ones in XGtE are pretty dope.

[Vogie]

Another option is to give some sort of story reason why your characters can, with relative consistency, get a week off.

Perhaps they're on a train, riverboat, airship or criss-crossing the sea (presumably "of Tranquility") on a boat or some other method of not having any encounters for long periods of time.

Alternatively, you can take cues from the West-Marches-style campaigns, where as you advance the storyline, a town/trading post is being built at a certain point, that eventually becomes a mostly-safe zone to recuperate (and, as a part of the WM campaigns, other random players can show up and join for a quick adventure then are never heard from for weeks). In your campaign, you take the same idea, but rather have the PCs develop relationships to better create the town. This town or trading post could be at the edge of civilization, deep into the wilds, or at the mouth of the dungeon, et cetera.

If you do that, that allows the PCs to have friends, guilds, retainers, contacts, resources and allies. Maybe you can steal the Social Merit options from WoD games, and apply them to the creation of this location, which helps the PCs recuperate & craft faster, research & train more, and generate funds.



Gritty realism is where you have one or two sword fights, then spend years in intensive rehab and never fully recover right?

You should have at least one character with proficiency in Medicare Paperwork

[Armored Walrus]

I don't think you need a very compelling story reason for why characters don't get into a fight for a week. After all, that's how most people live their whole lives, isn't it? The nice thing about a hexcrawl is that there is no fight until you go looking for one/go exploring. So they get a week off because they don't go anywhere for a week while they lick their wounds and live off their spoils. Then the wanderlust starts to itch at them again, they gird their loins, and dive back into adventure.

[Malifice]

The nice thing about a hexcrawl is that there is no fight until you go looking for one/go exploring.

You should still have time pressures though. You just have a lot more room to move with them, and they dont always have to be 'do this quest by midnight or else'.

And of course, sometimes a fight comes looking for you.

[Tetrasodium]

Has anyone used the gritty realism rest variant (i.e 8 hour short rests, one week long rests) here? If so, how'd you balance it? I'm doing a hexcrawl game with site-based objectives and thought the rest variant would be a good way to not have 5 minute adventuring days, but now I worry about TPKs. Is there any way to maybe make it easy enough on the players, without detracting from the resource management and difficulty?


I have a game around 7-8 that has been doing it from like level 2 or 3ish onward & have not had any problems. I do have a few additions to make it not like a unch of monty python's black knights though.

Gryphon's wings(questionable legality): Another dirty potion not containing any substance derived from its namesake. Often taken by young apprentices hoping to squeeze in a few hours of extra study instead of sleeping. Drinking this sweet smelling brew grants benefits of a long rest in the time normally needed for a short rest, but some risks are involved. After the short rest is completed roll a d20, on a roll of 9-20 there are no further side effects; however a roll of 1-8 will result in the die used for saving throws to drop one step each time (1d20>1d12+1d6>2d8>3d4>2d4>d6>d4). This effect can be rolled back 1 step with a lesser restoration followed by a long rest. The smell is indeedsweet, but the taste is often compared to rotten carrion.
regular healing potions are 50gp
house Jorasco & some merchants (ie almost any of them) will sell the 4d4+4 greater healing potions for 120gp-150gp depending on which number springs to mind first. they are not always available in unlimited quantity
Blessed Bandages are single use buyable trinket that heals 2hp every other round for 20 rounds (2 minutes). I price them similar to greater health potions
I found these somewhere & think 3.5 had a similar item officially statted if not just menioned in one of the eberron sourcebooks:
Dragon's BloodDrug (ingested), 40 gp per dose (black), 400 gp per dose (blue), or 4,000 gp per dose (red)
While its alchemical makeup is still a mystery, what is known is that it is not actually the blood of a dragon. It comes in three varieties - tar black, midnight blue, and blood red. Each type of dragon's blood can be used to satisfy an addiction to the substance, and only one type of dragon's blood high can be experienced between long rests. After the first dose, any subsequent doses a user takes before they complete a long rest provides no high effect, but may still lead to an overdose. Dragon's blood is extremely dangerous and its high can only be experienced by sorcerers or dragonmarked individuals.
-Addiction (physical): DC 16 Constitution saving throw; Threshold - each use of dragon's blood may lead to addiction; Frequency - Repeat the addiction saving throw after every second completed long rest since the user's last dose; Effect - the user suffers one level of exhaustion (two if their last dose was red dragon's blood). Remaining addicted for one week causes the addiction DC to increase to 21; Detox - Succeeding on three consecutive saving throws without taking a single dose of dragon's blood ends the addiction. Overdose: Each use of dragon's blood may lead to an overdose. Failing the addiction saving throw by more than 5 causes the user to take damage, depending on the variety of dragon's blood imbibed: black -7 (2d6) poison damage, blue - 14 (4d6) poison damage, or red - 28 (8d6) poison damage.

Black: The next use of a least dragonmark or a sorcerer spell of 2nd level or lower is enhanced with the effects of Enlarge Spell and Extend Spell metamagic effects (PHB102) without needing or spending sorcery points. This high effect lasts for ten minutes or until the user casts a spell or uses a dragonmark.
Blue: The next use of a least or lesser dragonmark or a sorcerer spell of 4th level or lower does not use up a spell slot or a use of a dragonmark ability. This effect lasts for ten minutes or until the user casts a spell or uses a dragonmark, whichever comes first.
Red: All least or lesser dragonmark abilities and all sorcerer spells of 3rd level or lower are enhanced for the next minute. When the user casts a sorcerer spell from a 3rd level slot or uses a least or lesser dragonmark ability, they may choose to either enhance the ability or spell with the effects of the Maximize Spell metamagic effect (PHB102) without needing or spending sorcery points or cast the spell as if it was from a spell slot 2 levels higher than the one used (dragonmarked abilities are usually cast as if from their minimum spell slot level and can be cast as though from a slot 2 levels higher than normal using this option).

[Armored Walrus]

You should still have time pressures though. You just have a lot more room to move with them, and they dont always have to be 'do this quest by midnight or else'.

And of course, sometimes a fight comes looking for you.

Sure, you don't remove the pressure completely. You just have a lot more wiggle room. What I like about this kind of play is it's an answer for a lot of the "why does that exist?" rules. Training skills and languages for example. Most people look at it and go "A year of training to learn elvish? This campaign has been going on for three years of real time and the season hasn't even changed yet. Why would I do that?" Bam! "Gritty Realism" hexcrawl!

[strangebloke]

Has anyone used the gritty realism rest variant (i.e 8 hour short rests, one week long rests) here? If so, how'd you balance it? I'm doing a hexcrawl game with site-based objectives and thought the rest variant would be a good way to not have 5 minute adventuring days, but now I worry about TPKs. Is there any way to maybe make it easy enough on the players, without detracting from the resource management and difficulty?

I did this, and there were some serious issues, but by the end I had worked out all of the kinks.

Three main pitfalls:
1. Large dungeons are horrifyingly obstructive. You should either plan all dungeons around on long rest's worth of encounters, or create a thingy that lets them get 'quick' long rests between floors of the dungeon.

2. Spell durations are shot to all heck. You now have to use all of your spell slots to keep 4 skeletons controlled. Mage armor only lasts a single day, out of the 3-4 that you'll likely have between short rests, so the wizard will be extra squishy some of the time.

You don't have to fix this; I sure didn't, but I've been playtesting some rules that help with this:
-Magic items that regain charges each day, now do so at the start of each week.
-Spells with a duration of 1 hour now have a duration of “Until dawn of the next day”
-Spells with a duration of 8 hours now have a duration of “until the end of the week”
-Spells with a duration of 24 hours (including animate dead) now have a duration of “until the end of the next new moon or full moon” (15 days, roughly)

You'll need a calendar for this.

3. Weirdness with the gamey-ness of long rests taking a whole week. "What can I do during this long rest? I basically don't need to actually rest up, so can I like... do something?" Normally, everyone accepts, intuitively, that they need their rest/sleep. With a full week down the tube, though, the party members who get nothing more than hit dice back after a long rest are going to be very... restless. After all, the wizard is coming back from zero HP, hit dice, and spells, and the rogue is just regaining 2 hit dice.

I just let players take XGtE downtime activities (some of them, anyway) if they go into a long rest 'healthy' and they don't have any spells or anything to recover.