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!