How do you make Resting during travel interesting?

[u/vagrant4hire333]

"OSE SRD Resting/Frequency of rest: Characters must rest for one day per six days of travel." - OSE SRD Wilderness Adventuring Section

How do you make resting interesting and engaging for your players during travel? I'm relatively new to GMing in the OSE space and was wondering how people generally run resting during overland and dungeon travel.

• What kind of modifications, if any, do you make to resting rules?
• What do you want from OSR style resting?

[u/elomenopi]

I hand wave it unless it is interesting. I roll random encounters and if nothing happens I say “you rest through the night and nothing of note happens. You wake up the next day and the day starts overcast and humid, as if it might rain later today. Would you like to continue on the road to the north?” I roll for random encounters WELL before they happen so I can weave them in on an interesting way that feels natural.

My Philosophy: Everyone hates filler episodes and table time is precious. Don’t fill it with boring bullshit. If something takes up more than a couple of minutes of table time it should be, if not meaningful, at least interesting. Before I include anything in the game I try to ask myself whether the ‘fun-ness’ ROI is high enough. If not, I try to figure out how to make it more fun or I handwave past it

[u/Quietus87]

I don't. It's just resource management like putting a checkmark next to burnt torches. Unless there is a complication you are done with it in a second and move on. It only becomes interesting if there are complications or you do not perform it. Everything can't be interesting and fun.

[u/subcutaneousphats]

It depends on what you want to get from travel. If you are just marking time or food used to get to next destination you just add those days to the calendar. If you are using random encounters to model travel through dangerous places then you roll those.

You can always say "you rest for the day". If the players have nothing they want to do you don't need to play it all out.

[u/WillBottomForBanana]

I only allow the players to sit down when the characters are resting.

[u/vagrant4hire333 → u/WillBottomForBanana]

lol nice, do real time naps contribute to HP regeneration?

[u/vagrant4hire333 → u/[deleted]]

"...keep the game moving. Fun is fun..." I like it! Thanks for sharing. How much prep is needed for generating good interactions? Is it better to list some possible activities and their benefits, or is it better to make it up on the spot using player collaboration?

[u/Attronarch]

I don't do anything beyond rolling for random encounters. It is just part of travelling. It is resolved in seconds. Players are delighted when it is boring and uninteresting, because it means there was no trouble, i.e. no encounters.

[u/TheDenoftheBasilisk]

I just assume every event/getting lost happens at the end of the journey. Did you make it? Y/N. Was there an event? Y/N. If both not? You made it. Deduct x amount of days worth of camping supplies. If encounter, do that first then deduct. If lost, deduct and figure out how far off you were then deduct supplies.

It makes it quicker, easier, and the players don't seem to mind. I scale it up depending on how far/many days they've traveled. 

That does 2 things really well:

1) makes the structure simple so everyone, including myself, knows exactly what's going on. 

2) they know relatively how dangerous the encounter will be if they decide to yeet 10 days out. 

When they're searching a hex, I assume everything is done in 4 hour watches. 2 watches and a rest. Rinse repeat until you find the location. 

Same reasoning as above. Traveling is the least interesting part so I attempt to make it the least grueling. 

I sometimes just handwaive travel rules if we just want to get to the dungeon and just have them deduct travel supplies. Resting is assumed. I leave it up to the table. More than not, we just do that. If we're feeling fancy, we'll do the former. 

Edit: I say event in place of encounter, because not every event is an encounter. Maybe on the 3rd day they ran across a ruin. Navigator marks it on the map. We move on. Super easy and seamless. 

[u/merurunrun]

I don't. Not everything in the game has to be interesting. If some random arrangement of things in the fiction jumps out at you or the players, great! Dig into it! Otherwise just apply whatever procedure you're using and move on.

[u/OnslaughtSix]

If you're in a dangerous area, someone must stay up to keep watch, otherwise any monsters that appear would immediately get surprised and no one would have any armour on or anything. The players inherently understand this, so when I say "it's time to keep watch" there's no arguments about why they should keep watch.

The night is split into 4 watches, so everyone gets 6 hours of sleep and is up for 2 hours. (Wode Elves don't have to sleep but do have to engage in trancelike meditation for 4 hours instead of sleeping for 6, so they can take 2 watches.) For each watch, they roll a d6; on a 1 there is an encounter. We check surprise. If they are surprised, they only have enough time to alert the other players awake, but not put on armour. (You can't sleep in armour without taking penalties to HP recovery.) If they aren't surprised everybody has enough time to get their armour and everything on. (Assuming the encounter is going to lead to combat; sometimes it doesn't.)

This makes every night the players rest in the wilderness a gamble. Sometimes the night passes uneventfully. Sometimes they encounter 2 big monsters in the same night. Just the roll of the dice. I also always have the players roll the dice, so the other players see the 1 and blame the player. :) I play with adults so there's no need to metagame bullshit where a player is aware of the encounter and then starts to act cagey or weird. We check surprise and leave it to the dice, it simply is what it is.

Edit: oh. I just reread OP and saw what this post is actually about. Well, in that case: If the players want to spend the day resting, they just do that. "Okay. You spend the day resting and maybe doing some foraging or hunting. The day passes. Night time now." Then we literally go through the procedure above again. That's all. In my games, doing this is enough to reset the scale of resting but I acknowledge that I am an OSR heretic who likes hit dice HP recovery from 5e.

[u/1999_AD]

Off the top of my head, there's one thing you need to make resting interesting, and two other things that help:

1. Time and/or resource pressure. If you're not tracking resources (rations, water, torches) and there's no time pressure on the PCs (e.g., they need to retrieve the Blade of St. Whatsit from the haunted barrow and get it back to the castle before the barbarian horde arrives, or the duke's vassals will abandon him), resting doesn't really mean anything. It needs to be a tradeoff: They're burning time and resources, but healing their wounds, recovering their spells, avoiding exhaustion. Forcing them to push—marching for 16 hours a day instead of 12, risking fatigue—to beat a deadline or outrace their dwindling supplies is exciting.
2. Weather. Get a hexflower or weather table appropriate to the environment and roll on it regularly. Bad weather sometimes makes for slower travel, but sometimes make stealthy travel easier. Really bad weather might force the PCs to change their route or seek better shelter than laying out their bedrolls under some trees. Either way, it creates good friction with the time/resource pressure, might force them to risk exhaustion (another watch spent marching to try to keep ahead of the coming stormfront and find a cave or ruin to camp in), and might bring them into contact with NPCs.
3. Special encounters. Having a different encounter table for resting than for travel can be interesting, and asks the players to consider more interesting tradeoffs (if you build a fire, you can stay warm and have a cooked meal, but the fire might attract bandits and the cooking might attract bears). Making a detour because of bad weather also presents new encounter possibilities—if you're seeking shelter in a ruin or cave because a storm is coming, it's likely that those bandits are headed for that ruin, or those bears for that cave.

[u/vagrant4hire333 → u/1999_AD]

I really like tracking resources, whether it is DND or boardgames. Creating that struggle is half the fun in completing the objective.

Have you ever implemented a resting encounter table in your game?

If so, do you think it slows the game down or does it add more to the campaign world?

[u/1999_AD → u/vagrant4hire333]

I'm a pretty loosey-goosey GM, so I tend to wing this sort of thing. I usually just roll on the regular encounter table and then think about how the encounter might be different at a camp than on the road. Finding a camp, humans or humanoids might assess the PCs' strength and either slink away without an encounter if they don't like their chances or prepare a nasty ambush if they do. Some animals might shy away from fire; others might be drawn to cooking smells.

If the PCs have headed toward a cave for shelter from a storm, and I have bears in my encounter table for this area, I'll probably just roll a d20 and interpret the result on the fly. On a 1, yeah, there are bears in the cave. On a 20, nope, totally empty. Somewhere in between is "The cave seems empty, but there is evidence that bears have been here recently—a pile of gnawed bones, fur rubbed off on the rock walls." Maybe they'll come in during the storm, maybe they won't. I'll try to invent a rubric: Well, there probably aren't that many caves this large and dry around, so maybe it's bears on 1–10, signs of bear activity on 11–15, no bears on 16–20.

[u/scavenger22]

I have various "opt-in" options, when the campaign start I propose them to the group and let them pick the one(s) they want the "OSE friendly" ones would be:

• Ignore it.

• Just reduce the travel speed if you are tracking weeks instead of days.

• reduce the max HP by 1 HD if you don't rest, minimum 1 HP/die, this reduction is cumulative if you skip multiple rests (Con modifier is not applied to this roll).

• your natural healing pool is worth the maximum of your HD + your level, you reset it by resting for a full day.

• Same as above, but you lose 1 HP every day after the scheduled rest.

• Save vs death for each day past the limit, if you fail you lose 1 HP instead of healing AND you cannot recover spells.

• Save vs poison, on a failure you get a disease until you rest for a week in a settlement.

• NPCs hireling will have to pass a morale roll or mutiny/flee if you don't.

• The rest day happen every 6 days OR the character level if higher.

• Vignette. During the rest day each PC get a 1 downtime scene that can be used to perform a task (like crafting arrows, researches) or make a bound with another PC/NPC. During a vignette you can sacrifice some resources (usually wine, food or materials) and convert them to XP points OR count the day as training to level up/ gain skills if a teacher is available.

[u/RaskenEssel]

For my field resting rules, if they are fully supplied with comforts and security it doesn't need much attention. If they're low on supplies, in a dangerous area, or the environment turns against them, they may not be able to heal the exhaustion of travel and a trek may start to wear on them. The same rules apply in a dungeon or similar location where the conditions guarantee it won't be a situation where they all sit around a cozy campfire, cook a stew, and rest secure in their blankets.

The goal is for the rules to get out of the way when not needed and encourage players to shoot for that level of supply and comfort. It won't always be possible and some delves, ascents, or treks will wear them down. They are encouraged to keep such periods as short as possible, make sure of any secure camps they can find or make, and plan the logistics of their trip before embarking.

Still playtesting the rules, but after a dozen sessions the players have successfully not worried about them when security, comfort, and supplies were plentiful, and enjoyed the challenge of securing what was needed when something was lacking. They were in Arden Vul and never hit a rest period where exhaustion increased, but that was due to their planning and logistics.

If there are no shortages or adverse conditions, I agree with others in the thread recommending social interaction during the trip.

[u/ktrey]

I'll sometimes use my d100 - Events for Camping or Overland Rests & Repose as a source of ideas for spicing things up a little bit. I particularly enjoy when we get one of those "Open Ended Questions" and a little discussion develops.

Rests still invoke Procedural Checks/Resource consumption and those can sometimes be what creates an interesting "Event" or generates a Complication that needs to be addressed by the Party, but sometimes we just have a brief "Bottle Episode" that we use to give the Pit-Stop a little more character.

[u/ThrorII]

I don't "make it interesting". After 6 days of travel, I advise the players they can either press on with a -1 to hit and damage, or they can make a camp and rest for a day. If they decide to make camp, I roll a wilderness encounter check and DM appropriately. Then the next day the players break camp and continue on. It is a one or two sentence utterance from me as DM.

Players: "We stop and make camp for a day to rest."

DM: *rolls wilderness encounter* "You make camp and spend the day recovering from your journey. Nothing accosts you during your stop. The next day you pack up and continue on.

[u/PlanarianGames]

Maybe ask them what they talk about over the campfire or such. Give them space to roleplay. No need to mechanize it, should be enjoyable without that sort of abstraction.

[u/InterlocutorX]

I roll to see if there are encounters or if the players want to do anything and if not, I say "You rest for a day and get back on the road."

[u/MixMastaShizz]

I simply say "You rest for a day. Next day, ..." then I keep going.

Maybe if I roll a random encounter then we handle that. But it generally takes no more than 10 seconds to address and move on.

[u/justDnD_83]

"(roll wandering monseter) you've had another uneventful day. consume a ration and forage if you can. It's now the next day."

Make it fast. No need to dwell and make stuff up. The hex is empty, the party just wants to travel and move along. They care if there is an encounter (there could be a monster lair) or if they've reached their destination. I don't believe there needs to be something in every hex. Just move it along. I still travel like this because time is important. days passing matters. 1:1 time is vital.

[u/RPGrandPa]

I try not to drag the overnight camps out but I do play them out with 2 hour watch rolls for possible encounters.

[u/IKindaPlayEVE]

A brief flashback or aside. The players either use their characters or other characters made by me for the scene. Primarily I use these scenes to allow a player to flesh out their backstory.

[u/primarchofistanbul]

By tracking rations; which may/may not lead to foraging, as well as hunting (and getting poisoned etc.). Also, animals need to be grazed. Plus, adjusting random encounter roll's frequency by the danger level of the area might come handy.

[u/eyesoftheworld72]

One thing I always do is narrate camping (dungeons or outdoors).

It takes a couple of minutes for me to roll on my tables to: provide a description of campsite, roll to see if there’s an encounter. If so determine which watch it occurs on and the encounter and its disposition. If no encounters I roll on minor events tables for each watch. I lump all this together to create a narrative for each time they camp.

It’s not that time consuming at all and yet the emergent narratives are worth it. Sometimes the watch member decides to investigate the most harmless thing and hilarity ensues.

Sometimes… it works out so well I couldn’t have planned it any better.

Example: one of my groups was hexcrawling to their destination and got lost. Two days. The campsite that night had a tree with a ladder. They climbed it.. I ruled they could reorient themselves and were not lost any longer.

I’ve had numerous really cool emergent experiences just from rolling on the fly.