I've seen some allegedly-osr games, like the 'black hack', where even things like arrows are handled abstractly (with a die that will randomly result in you being out of arrows). But I think that most OSR gamers think resource management is very important.
Do you agree?
To what extent do you think it's important? Do you have players keep meticulous track of food rations and arrows? More than that?
Or do you actually want to defend the random ammunition dice idea?
Very few players count stuff if the number is over 10.
That's why I use 10 arrow quivers. You roll D6 for arrow retrieval with 50% recovery (sometimes modified).
I am not meticulous, but resource management/pushing luck is a big aspect. But I assume PC competence, so if the players (all urbanites who've never camped) don't know to bring necessary supplies, I am happy to have NPCs remind them. "The Lair of Badness is 3 weeks journey, and with all the neon orcs rampaging around, there won't be much hunting, would you like to buy my overpriced mule, potatoes and rat jerky?"
Very. Tracking resources like arrows, torches, food and time are critical in my games.
Hm... as player I'm happy to track resources. As old school GM I expect players to do, but I rarely GM stuff where it's a big issue - dungeon expeditions are only a few hours so water & torches (if needed) will not run out, arrows are usually reuseable IMC as IRL - I'll charge say 5gp for a quiver and PC recovers & repairs arrows after battle.
Running new school esp 4e D&D it does bug me a bit that the Hunter ranger is apparently shooting 9 arrows/round with his area saturation attack and the game clearly expects - BUT DOES NOT SAY - that we should be ignoring ammo and treating it like a superhero movie. I like this stuff to be explicit.
Its very important in Dragon Storm as the RPG is 95% overland travel so you need to track food and water.
In D&D we tracked food and water on a weekly basis. Do we have enough rations for one week? Though I still have no clue why we hit on that. I think because you could buy a weeks rations and so it became our yardstick for supplies. Ammo was another one we tracked.
Resource management's very important when I run my O/AD&D games (and close variants like S&W or AS&SH). Resources would include exhaustable items like arrows, torches and rations, but also time.
Resource management is not important for my fun. That being said, resources liked objects are something I'd rather track without abstract rules.
I find resource management to be part of the fun. Don't run out of food, light, water, ammunition, etc.
My players want to hand wave all of that and also any overland travel, etc. They are only interested in playing the "mission", don't trouble them with logistics, etc. They are all avid video game players and I am not. I wonder if CRPGs feature logistics or if it is straight to teh fighting?
I want it to be a part of the game, as I want the threat of dying of hunger/thirst or running out of ammo to be real threats, but in practice I find it incredibly tedious to keep track of. Since having fun is the most important part of the hobby, I am constantly trying to think of ways to portray these dangers without all the bookkeeping.
Quote from: DavetheLost;1033274I find resource management to be part of the fun. Don't run out of food, light, water, ammunition, etc.
My players want to hand wave all of that and also any overland travel, etc. They are only interested in playing the "mission", don't trouble them with logistics, etc. They are all avid video game players and I am not. I wonder if CRPGs feature logistics or if it is straight to teh fighting?
Depends on the game, I'd guess:).
At least ammo and mana are almost always accounted for, or used to be a few years ago when I last played anything. Food and water, however, are not tracked nearly as often;).
I usually tend to remind those people that they're in a sandbox, and the mission is what they decide to do.
Quote from: Technomancer;1033294I want it to be a part of the game, as I want the threat of dying of hunger/thirst or running out of ammo to be real threats, but in practice I find it incredibly tedious to keep track of. Since having fun is the most important part of the hobby, I am constantly trying to think of ways to portray these dangers without all the bookkeeping.
Same, except I don't mind the bookkeeping. In fact, there's probably more bookkeeping in my game than in most. Honestly, I don't see that bookkeeping is
that difficult to manage. Is it really so hard to keep track of a few numbers? It takes all of a second or 2. Resource management should be part of playing an RPG. It can be a source of tension, aid in immersion, and make use of skills that might typically be ignored.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1033233Or do you actually want to defend the random ammunition dice idea?
I won't defend random ammunition, but I will defend abstracting resources. :D
There's a lot of overlap between the two ideas (in theory and in practice), but they aren't quite the same thing. You don't have to got full Burning Wheel style, complete resource abstraction. I use dice-based depletion of arrows, food, water, magical charges (such as in wands), damage to equipment, and the list is expanding all the time. It works very well for creating a sense of urgency when it matters, but not worrying about it when it doesn't. I'm thinking about switching to currency working the same way, and for the same reasons.
Most of the time, the players have a solid handle on resources. They have a good but not overbearing amount, and make a point to replenish them when they can. Rather than roll for retrieving arrows, we merely abstract that into the depletion roll. If you've got a quiver with 20 arrows, rated as a d8, then after the fight we roll the d8 one time to see if it depletes to a d6. Otherwise, you retrieved enough arrows to keep the current rating. If the fight was long or the character especially focused on using one resource or the party had to retreat, I might require 2 or even 3 rolls. It's even possible to get a succession of depletion hits and run out rapidly, though unlikely. If it's really bad, just say they are out.
The key to making this work for resource intensive play is that when the situation changes enough that exact numbers matter, make a ruling and convert. Or sometimes the players can even ask for it, if they need to plan. Of course, with magic charges, they don't know. Those stay the abstract roll, unless they use an identify spell to get an exact number. If everyone is sitting there with d4 rations left, that's either 2 or 3 days worth. Based on what they've been doing, I'll make a ruling, and then we start tracking exact numbers. If the archer has a quiver down to d6, with no way to borrow some, and none of their foes use arrows, and they keep running, the player might want to know. That's about 10 arrows, give a take a couple. Give them a number, and they track. In the intervals, the dice depletion thing is merely a way to keep that approximate score until it matters, with a whole lot less fuss and bother.
Its not that hard to track resources. In Dragon Storm players used pennies or whatever was handy to track supplies.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1033233I've seen some allegedly-osr games, like the 'black hack', where even things like arrows are handled abstractly (with a die that will randomly result in you being out of arrows). But I think that most OSR gamers think resource management is very important.
Do you agree?
To what extent do you think it's important? Do you have players keep meticulous track of food rations and arrows? More than that?
Or do you actually want to defend the random ammunition dice idea?
If TFT & GURPS fantasy games count as D&D, then yes I agree.
I usually do at least a bit more than track rations and arrows. Usually the GM tracks equipment and his versions of the sheets are what actually exist except when the players have done a better job tracking/remembering and then the GM corrects his version. Pretty much all equipment is tracked, such as spell ingredients (if playing with those), water (if traveling where water isn't easily available, fuel (torches, oil, wood), and coins. Sometimes healing supplies.
Players who don't want to track can not track their own stuff very carefully, and ask the GM. It can even be a Disadvantage your character could have to not be able to count their coin or keep track of their supplies. Oh, and players could even delegate tracking stuff to NPCs, if they have NPCs they trust to do that. Actually it's also ok with me if players want to say their PC will pay attention to their supplies and let the GM do it for the PC, in which case I'll do it like the PC is an NPC as far as tracking supplies.
Sometimes there have been some pretty funny situations where some players are trying to accurately count and divide the loot (including spending time counting coins and saying "count count count count..." while other players and NPCs are guarding but starting to get up to some hijinks and the counting players are trying not to lose concentration while overhearing what's going on in the meantime. :-)
For our group, no one really got into tracking resources. The only thing we really care about taking an inventory on are gold/treasure and defeated monsters:)
Quote from: RPGPundit;1033233Or do you actually want to defend the random ammunition dice idea?
I'll defend it -- at least for certain types of ammo.
1) Ammo where the player doesn't know how much he has to begin with. Example: charges in a wand or staff that they've found and are using but have no idea how many charges are left in it. Rolling "depletion dice" after its used is less work than having to keep track of it myself as I have enough to track as GM.
2) Ammo like arrows or crossbow bolts where the characters try to recover spent ammo for reuse. To track it I as GM have to either decide on an arrow by arrow basis where an arrow is recoverable or not -- or (much more likely) roll for each arrow. Since by rolling I'm already introducing randomness to determine where each arrow is recoverable, depletion dice might as well be used as it requires less die rolling.
We track most everything. Ammo, rations, water, ale, light, time, hireling wages, room rentals, equipment upkeep, the weather, the seasons, age, the relentless entropy of the world.
Quote from: RandallS;1033407To track it I as GM have to either decide on an arrow by arrow basis where an arrow is recoverable or not
Why do you as GM have to deal with that? Players can manage their own resources.
Quote from: under_score;1033409Why do you as GM have to deal with that? Players can manage their own resources.
The GM has to either whether each arrow/bolt fired is recoverable/reusable or rolls need to be made for each to see if it can be reused. If left to the players, they are going to (naturally) decide that all arrows they used can be recovered and are in good enough shape to reuse -- if for no other reason than it makes bookkeeping easier.
Quote from: RandallS;10334072) Ammo like arrows or crossbow bolts where the characters try to recover spent ammo for reuse. To track it I as GM have to either decide on an arrow by arrow basis where an arrow is recoverable or not -- or (much more likely) roll for each arrow. Since by rolling I'm already introducing randomness to determine where each arrow is recoverable, depletion dice might as well be used as it requires less die rolling.
I've certainly played without tracking ammo at all, and even sometimes in games with high tracking, I don't track ammo for everyone all the time but sometimes use the GM guesstimation "system" unless/until it matters.
On the other hand, sometimes it can be enjoyable and interesting to track arrows in detail. Also I have had players who get really into their arrow tracking, and want to know where each arrow went, what it hit and how broken it is, etc. Fortunately, that's fairly easy to do especially since I use hex map combat. Some obsessive players end up making decisions on where to fire from, who to fire at, and whether to fire based on what's behind them, where they're wearing metal armor, etc.
Quote from: Graewulf;1033357Honestly, I don't see that bookkeeping is that difficult to manage. Is it really so hard to keep track of a few numbers?
It's not a question of difficulty, it's a question of enjoyment.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1033233Or do you actually want to defend the random ammunition dice idea?
Moved to the front of quote because is an aside to main theme.No. The roll-a-dice-to-see-if-you've-run-out mechanic was used for gas in Atomic Highway (an otherwise very solid simple/osr-level-simple post-apoc game that is a nice alternative to GW or GW-alikes), and it did not add to the game.
QuoteI've seen some allegedly-osr games, like the 'black hack', where even things like arrows are handled abstractly (with a die that will randomly result in you being out of arrows). But I think that most OSR gamers think resource management is very important.
Do you agree?
To what extent do you think it's important? Do you have players keep meticulous track of food rations and arrows? More than that?
As usual, the most important thing is shared understanding and agreed-upon assumptions. If the DM is not asking us to track our rations (or encumbrance down to the pound), I will half-ass it (and probably pay for it by buying a whole 'as-much-as-I-usually-carry's worth of rations every time we hit town, regardless of whether my old stock would have been used up). If the DM wants the game to be about tracking food and rations, then I am all for it (and regularly do so when I DM BECMI or BtW).
The thing for me is--OSR gaming is highly focused on tracking and managing scarce resources, but what those scarce resources specifically are is less important.
I started with BECMI. XP was how much gold you could successfully drag out of the dungeon (and thus your encumbrance total going
into the dungeon was fairly important. But, up until you were looking to buy your castles and pay for your armies, once you got the gold out of the dungeon and to town, what you did with it was relatively unimportant. Thus If you wanted to consistently block out a block of encumbrance for 'more than enough' of rations and arrows,' and also over-spend on them when you get to town, you can make it not a big deal.
Someone who started with (or transitioned to) 1e AD&D, with the level-up training costs (being right around to just a little more gold than you'd earn to get the xp to get to that level-up point) might see it differently. There, any gold you waste on over-buffering your arrows and rations is gold taken away from your training. And the training costs just roughly equaling xp-to-level is supposed to be one of those hard decisions (and what I feel OSR gaming is
really about is those tough decisions one has to make with managing scarce resources) about things like 'do I sell this magic item to afford to pay for training, or do I instead keep the magic item and do some adventuring where I can't earn xp to get gold to pay for the training?' Both are valid, just incentivizing different things (being a pre-name-level adventurer to me is all about gaining vast fortunes and then squandering it on beer and women and song or diamond encrusted servants or whatever, and the penny-pinching model breaks that emulation).
I feel, as long as you are managing scarce resources (be it every arrow and pound of encumbrance, or just very rare Hit Points, healing potions, and gp coming
out of the dungeon), and making important cost-benefit decisions, then you are living by the spirit of OSR-style gaming, regardless of the specifics.
Quote from: RandallS;1033416The GM has to either whether each arrow/bolt fired is recoverable/reusable or rolls need to be made for each to see if it can be reused. If left to the players, they are going to (naturally) decide that all arrows they used can be recovered and are in good enough shape to reuse -- if for no other reason than it makes bookkeeping easier.
We're currently using an abstracted model for this, borrowing from DW systems a bit. "Ammo" has basically 5 (sometimes more) "tick marks." At the end of combat, you normally tick off one Ammo, regardless of how many shots you actually fired. Then you roll a d6 for recovery. Bows/Bolts have a good chance to be recovered, negating the tick mark (arrows of better make [i.e., "Elvish arrows," for ex], have a better chance of being recovered). Our firearms (pistols and rifles) are tagged "ammo eaters," so you always tick off an ammo. Your roll determines whether you tick off a second Ammo blip. It a complete abstraction, which only exists to grant an advantage to using a Bow/Crossbow (you buy less ammo). Our guns also have a chance to jam/malfunction, etc. The upside to guns? More damage, naturally. The advantage is no tracking of ammo during an encounter. The disad is that it's not realistic, but that's okay, because resource management isn't a primary aspect of our play. We DO track encumbrance, though, and that has very much come into play, with the consequences of overloading one's self being severe.
Every game I have ever been in did in some detail that being said my old group had long stretches where we would be adventuring in town or what have you and in situations like that we didn't track trail rations because it was assumed we where eating out as it where.
Quote from: DavetheLost;1033274I find resource management to be part of the fun. Don't run out of food, light, water, ammunition, etc.
My players want to hand wave all of that and also any overland travel, etc. They are only interested in playing the "mission", don't trouble them with logistics, etc. They are all avid video game players and I am not. I wonder if CRPGs feature logistics or if it is straight to teh fighting?
Honest anwser depends A lot on the game money is pretty much always tracked same with useful items. Food and water don't get tracked in A lot of games but in A lot of games it wouldn't make much sense to track it take persona 4 for example the characters are highschoolers fighting monsters in an extra dimension after school and then go home so an dungeon delve is maybe 3 or 4 hours max (not irl play time) then they go home need less to say they aren't counting trail rations(though there is soda and snack food that count as healing items and get tracked). Ammunition is kind of an odd one because weather of not it's tracked tells you A lot about the game and it's intended form of play your average final fantasy or tails game dosen't but thoughs games arn't about logistics at heart they are about exportation of an amazing world and storytelling (not as strange as it may sound) and don't track them. on the other hand you have games like crimson tears or gorky 17 that track ammo on A pershot basis and make it very important to manage it properly.
PS: on food and water there are also A few games I have played that had running out of food / water effect regeneration in A negative way.
Hope that helps and other questions or would you like some clarification on some details?
I'm still a stickler for resource management.
I tend to be really detailed about it narratively, not just how many days worth of rations but what kind of rations. Mainly because I wanted my players to understand the conditions of travelling/adventuring life vs. life in the city so they'd appreciate it more. Sure you can say you're eating "hard tack" but explaining what that is vs. going to an inn and having an actual meal, where you can describe those differences between eating sizzling greasy meat off of a roasted pig over mold-scrapped hard salted beef strips tougher than your boiled leather... has a psychologically pleasing touch.
Likewise with being covered with road-dirt, and smelling like shit, and being mud-spattered, while townsfolk might be a lot cleaner. It prompts players in my games to interact with things - getting bathed and cleaned up, actually wanting to relax and not be in dungeon murder-hobo mode. It gives a lot of opportunities for simple roleplay that can turn "things to do" into adventure seeds.
I might mention that after weeks out in the field dungeon-stomping, only one PC actually mentioned "taking care of their armor" - so I'll tell the rest of the mail/plate wearers that they have some rust-spots or whatever (unless they're magic) and their armor needs scouring, or maybe some detailing or whatever - so off the to local smith. Then that becomes a potential intrigue, contact, point of exchange for news etc.
Gotta get those arrows replaced? Local fletcher might have something special on hand. News of a predator that is plaguing the town or whatever.
Resource management is a means for me to get the PC's to interact with the world *at their discretion*. A lot of my players, for this reason will make characters of great self-sufficiency, as they know what level of detail I'll put the PC's through. Which makes it more amusing for more casual players that never consider *any* of these things and it gets them pulled deeper into the game when forced to deal with these issues. The goal for me is to use resource management not in a tedious manner, but as a method of detail that forces more interaction within the game. I *want* my players to enjoy the detail in contrast with what their PC's are doing. Not just "I have X amount of arrows", "I have x amount of rations." - I want those things to exist in context with the setting and for it to matter, if even only in a narrative way.
Philosophically, I think that resource management can be a key part of the RPG experience. Hit points are very important. Spell slots are very important. Those elements are a big part of my campaign.
Realistically, it comes down to the specific campaign that I'm running. Sometimes I will do something post-apocalyptic and tell my players to count ammo and gallons of gas. Sometimes I will do something where gold is scarce and I tell them to track their gold, silver, and copper coins. I might track water use in a desert, but I don't bother to count fish caught in a seafaring game. For me it's a decision of what is important for that game and I choose carefully what ought to be counted and what ought NOT be counted.
Just my two cents.
Quote from: tenbones;1033985I'm still a stickler for resource management.
I tend to be really detailed about it narratively, not just how many days worth of rations but what kind of rations. Mainly because I wanted my players to understand the conditions of travelling/adventuring life vs. life in the city so they'd appreciate it more. Sure you can say you're eating "hard tack" but explaining what that is vs. going to an inn and having an actual meal, where you can describe those differences between eating sizzling greasy meat off of a roasted pig over mold-scrapped hard salted beef strips tougher than your boiled leather... has a psychologically pleasing touch.
Likewise with being covered with road-dirt, and smelling like shit, and being mud-spattered, while townsfolk might be a lot cleaner. It prompts players in my games to interact with things - getting bathed and cleaned up, actually wanting to relax and not be in dungeon murder-hobo mode. It gives a lot of opportunities for simple roleplay that can turn "things to do" into adventure seeds.
I might mention that after weeks out in the field dungeon-stomping, only one PC actually mentioned "taking care of their armor" - so I'll tell the rest of the mail/plate wearers that they have some rust-spots or whatever (unless they're magic) and their armor needs scouring, or maybe some detailing or whatever - so off the to local smith. Then that becomes a potential intrigue, contact, point of exchange for news etc.
Gotta get those arrows replaced? Local fletcher might have something special on hand. News of a predator that is plaguing the town or whatever.
Resource management is a means for me to get the PC's to interact with the world *at their discretion*. A lot of my players, for this reason will make characters of great self-sufficiency, as they know what level of detail I'll put the PC's through. Which makes it more amusing for more casual players that never consider *any* of these things and it gets them pulled deeper into the game when forced to deal with these issues. The goal for me is to use resource management not in a tedious manner, but as a method of detail that forces more interaction within the game. I *want* my players to enjoy the detail in contrast with what their PC's are doing. Not just "I have X amount of arrows", "I have x amount of rations." - I want those things to exist in context with the setting and for it to matter, if even only in a narrative way.
1st off I just got to say cool stuff.
Next if you get in to describing your travel food in detail I suggest taking A look at the townsends youtube channel he covers all sorts of historical recipes and have done several videos on soldier food and travel food on the 1700s and 1800s.
https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson/videos
A few good ones are potted beef, portable soup, hardtack(there some historical stuff on it that could be very useful like how it had 20+ different names) ,pemmican , no meat survival food part 1 and 2,and standing crust pie.
I would also point you to the soldier food videos he has done but there names escape me.
Quote from: kosmos1214;10340261st off I just got to say cool stuff.
Next if you get in to describing your travel food in detail I suggest taking A look at the townsends youtube channel he covers all sorts of historical recipes and have done several videos on soldier food and travel food on the 1700s and 1800s.
https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson/videos
A few good ones are potted beef, portable soup, hardtack(there some historical stuff on it that could be very useful like how it had 20+ different names) ,pemmican , no meat survival food part 1 and 2,and standing crust pie.
I would also point you to the soldier food videos he has done but there names escape me.
Oh Lord Arioch, I want to make out with you Kosmos, in a totally Platonic way. Wait I guess that doesn't work.
Great link! thanks!
Quote from: tenbones;1034034Oh Lord Arioch, I want to make out with you Kosmos, in a totally Platonic way. Wait I guess that doesn't work.
Great link! thanks!
Glad it helps :)
I'm somewhere in between. I find very meticulous resource-management over-complicated, while on the other hand things like random rolls to see when you run out of arrows is totally unsatisfactory.
In our most recent session zero we agreed to track treasure and potions but not arrows and rations. And we're not tracking encumbrance at all, we've just agreed to not take the piss. It's early days but no problems so far.
So long as the PCs are under their own control, and going back and forth frequently to a town for restocking, I don't worry about the arrows and the rations.
This can change if they take a trip to somewhere desolate or otherwise separated from their resources, or, if an event in-game would leave them with meager stocks (e.g., AOE spells destroying equipment, etc.).
It depends a lot on the game you are playing, but I feel like resource management is to D+D as funny colored money is to Monopoly. If you play the game without it, you might be going through the motions but you aren't participating in the heart of the game.
D&D has ALWAYS been about resource management. How can it not be seen as important? That's why hit points increase, why spells are fire and forget missiles, why each adventuring party has to fill a niche, and why healing is mandatory.
Now, I admit, I don't like it beyond the bare minimum, because I'm lousy at book keeping, but if I'm playing D&D, then it's about the type of game I'm playing.
However, I've found over the years that less and less players actually want it though, they'd rather just keep the game/story/adventure going and being 'forced' to stop and recover is annoying to a fair amount of them, others just roll with it, considering it a evil to get over with as quickly as possible.
Not much except missiles. I've tried, but it's dull, and in 5e, if someone has got the Survival skill, it is extremely unlikely to run out of food during overland travel. People tend to be more interested in getting to the adventure site than foraging anyway.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1033233I've seen some allegedly-osr games, like the 'black hack', where even things like arrows are handled abstractly (with a die that will randomly result in you being out of arrows). But I think that most OSR gamers think resource management is very important.
Do you agree?
To what extent do you think it's important? Do you have players keep meticulous track of food rations and arrows? More than that?
Or do you actually want to defend the random ammunition dice idea?
I do think keeping track of rations and munitions adds to the game so I've been encouraging players to keep track of those and resupply when they get into town, etc. For the most part, the players have not gone on long expeditions where rations actually ran low, etc, so there haven't been dire situations yet.
However, they have been keeping tabs of a particular set of magic candles and have been rationing them very closely.
Keeping track of supplies is in my opinion only meaningful in situations where they're likely to run out or cause trouble because of weight. Hitpoints and spells are obvious and inescapable. There are some less obvious resources too which can be plentiful or limited depending on circumstances. Time is usually an infinite resource unless you have rivals or enemies who make good use of theirs. Reputation is something you can run into the ground screwing people over, it might not even cost you that much in practice if you're leaving and not coming back.
As an example, my players got lost in a deep dungeon and then spent many hours participating i faction warfare. I didn't count their light sources initially but after it was clear they didn't know the way back I counted backwards and then reminded them they only had 6 turns worth of light left. This lead to some creative problem solving and it determined their route (to a faction who might sell them lamp oil).
Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;1034868I do think keeping track of rations and munitions adds to the game so I've been encouraging players to keep track of those and resupply when they get into town, etc. For the most part, the players have not gone on long expeditions where rations actually ran low, etc, so there haven't been dire situations yet.
However, they have been keeping tabs of a particular set of magic candles and have been rationing them very closely.
Then as a GM you can take a hard look at that phenomenon and make a reason, if you're interested. Make an actual adventure out of it. By making PC's keep track and re-supply for its own sake without ever giving them an in-game reason to do so just to keep them apprised of why, makes the point of doing so moot.
So, again, if you're so inclined, ask yourself "In this area what exactly *are* rations?" - then figure out how to make a shortage. Consider the ramifications:
Rations are designed to have longer "shelf-life" than regular food which will go bad in hours if not a day. Rations tend to be hard-tack, bread, dried meat and fruits etc. That stuff has to come from SOMEWHERE. That stuff has to be stored enmasse for sale - otherwise locals keep it for themselves. Barring regional variances in product, you could have:
Resource shortage - something affected the local river, no fish. Predation on local herds, no meat. Bad crop yield, no flour.
Each of these things could have a subsequent reason that is itself an adventure seed. What caused the river to impact the fish? Something dammed up the river? This could impact EVERYTHING all by itself - irrigation for the farmers, water for the herds, etc. Predation? This is the bread and butter of conflict -
is marauding PC's to the rescue (or starve!). Bad crop yield? Maybe it's cultists poisoning the grain? Maybe it's a wererat infestation and the fields are flooded with rodents as a side-effect prompt for the PC's to investigate area which you can breadcrumb them out with further clues. The sky is the limit.
The added benefit is now the PC's are on a clock. Their food will last amount of time unless they're resourceful. This might be trivial if someone has Create Food/Water, but if you're part of a community - they won't have that option, now will they? WILL THEY???? Sounds like problem that needs to be solved - or the PC's if they're evil bastards can set themselves up as the only source of food/water in town to those that pay the most - or maybe both?
Resources are an opportunity to create adventures if you're interested. They can serve much greater purposes to your campaign beyond just scribbling down and erasing after every lunchbreak on the trail. Think of the campaign impact of saving a location from starvation simply because you had this idea to make rations important? The larger the location, the larger the scale, the larger the adventure, the larger the potential reward socially and lootwise. right? RIGHT? This goes for any resource - ammo, food, water, magic candles, etc. As a GM you can make these things as important as you'd like but you have to make it relevant in-game not just on paper.
Hit a town/region with a drought and make your players realize just how important water actually is. You'll never see them not fill up their skins again.
Unless the PCs have near-infinite resources or magic conveniences and/or in a position to receive constant resupply, it seems to me that (at least in the situations I tend to run), I just have to pay attention and think and have a detailed situation, and there will be supply considerations, without the GM contriving anything with that in mind. But it is possible to miss several situations that could come up by not thinking about them and not tracking things.
Tracking travel on a detailed-enough overland map that has terrain that gets considered, can lead to a lot of supply considerations. So can not having magic healing. Taking time to rest means eating food and possibly going on scouting, foraging, and hunting expeditions (using arrows), as well as guarding the camp, paying hirelings, and what may come up in that time (encounters, weather, developments between characters in the party, events in the rest of the world).
And knowing who's carrying what how, and what is on which wagons and pack animals, and having a combat system that takes into account encumbrance and the possibility of damage to those supplies where they are, an encounter can possibly end up endangering the supplies, which can end up creating a sudden challenge based on what's left (or how mobile it is, e.g. if the party's ox now can't pull the wagon).
The amount of supplies also sometimes defines what's possible or wise to do or not without arranging for more supplies, which can be interesting and missing if you're not tracking supplies. How many arrows does the party really carry around and how much space does that take up and where are they? Do they really know they have enough food and waterskins for the terrain they're crossing? What if they need to increase speed or split up, or use horses on a wagon for something else? Rope projects, etc etc...
Certain terrain obstacles, especially deserts, can pose some interesting supply challenges...
Exactly! Half the fun of traveling is getting there. Being prepared. It's very satisfying to have that level of detail and it actually matter.
Making things matter consistently is where it counts!
I personally enjoy tracking everything down to the last arrow or coin. My players... not so much.
Quote from: mightybrain;1035078I personally enjoy tracking everything down to the last arrow or coin. My players... not so much.
If I didn't say it already, welcome to theRPGsite!