Classic Dungeons and Dragons and Old School Gaming

D&D etc.


"Heir to a crumbling summit: to a sea of nettles: to an empire of rust: to rituals' footprints ankle-deep in stone."

-Mervyn Peake

"...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped."

-Sir Bedevere in Monty Python and the Holy Grail



Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Fantasy Medieval Glamping



We allow for a roll of each character's Hit Dice to recover/heal every morning.  The way we've been doing it you get advantage or disadvantage dice for good or bad sleeping conditions. The idea is you get penalty or disadvantage dice if your roughing it and bonus or advantage dice when you stay at a cozy inn. Normally, when the PCs have been in town and resting up for a week or two in between adventures we just say their at full health rather than roll all those dice.  The thing I've noticed is that rolling Hit Dice tends toward the average so unless their really hurt they don't roll.  Also the bonus/penalty for accommodations seems minimal.  And Jeezy Creezy, my Players do not like to pay to stay in inns. They would feel perfectly Ok about camping right outside an inn.

So, I'm going to change how camping works juuuust slightly.  Instead of replacing your current total these Hit die are going to add or subtract from your current total, and instead of getting an extra die and dropping the highest or lowest like with advantage or disadvantage you actually loose or gain Hit Dice or Hit Points.

You gotta remember that in my book Hit Points are not physical damage. Whether it’s in a knife fight or a bad night’s sleep, your loss of HP represents getting tired, sore, and stressed out. Real physical injury is something that you are only at risk of when at 0 HP.

Here are the new camping rules:

For each of the Penalty conditions that are present, it's -2 HP in the morning.
For each of the Normal conditions that are present it's +1 HP in the morning.
For each of the Bonus conditions that are present, +1 HD in the morning.

You can't exceed your maximum and you can't go below 1 HP no matter how good or bad the accommodations.

HIT POINT RECOVERY
 FULL NIGHT'S REST
  Penalty  
(-2 HP)
  Normal  
(+1 HP)
Bonus  
(+1 HD) 
Bed
Sleeping on the ground
Bedroll or Inn common room
Real bed
Weather
Camping outside in hot or cold, rain or snow,
Camping in Dungeon
Camping with or without fire in warm weather,
Camping with fire in cold weather,
or with tent in extreme weather, Camping in a cave
Inside
Food
Spoiled standard rations
Iron rations
Home cookin
Recreation
or
Activity
If sleep is interrupted more than momentarily
Evening Recreation: Music performance, poetry reading, religious ritual, storytelling, etc.
*Must make noise and only one per night
(+1 HP)
DAYTIME REST


Resting in fair conditions


10 Minute Short rest, max. 1 per day (+1 HP)
2 hour long rest, max 1 per day (+1 HP)
Full day of rest (+1 HP, cumulative w/ recreation) 
Recreation


Daytime Recreation: swimming, napping, sport, gaming, good conversation, meditation, etc.
*2 hours min. each activity. Up to two per day
(+1 HP each, +2 HP Max.)
Recovery

Special: for Wounded characters, a full night and day of rest counts as 2 days toward their recovery time.

Examples:

Camping in a bedroll with a fire in cold weather, eating iron rations, but sleep is interrupted:
+1 HP

Sleeping on the ground, in the rain, eating standard rations (not spoiled):
-4 HP

Sleeping on a real bed, inside, with good food and some guy reciting sonnets:
+3 HD +1 HP

A full day of rest with swimming and napping: +5 HP



This got sort of baroque, I'd like to see if I can simplify it. It does make Inns great especially for higher level characters and the recreation bit encouraged common room and maybe even camp site shenanigans.  Low level characters with just one or two Hit Dice aren't so fancy and they can get by just fine camping with some good food and a bit of music. Roughing it can whittle you down, even higher level characters over time. And everybody likes to recreate but for the low level folks it's especially beneficial!  Also, tents are handy! Also, poetry gets you bonus HP, seriously? Sure -  I'm already planning on introducing a poet who's so bad you actually loose HP, Ha!

2 comments:

  1. Does this work for monsters, too? Can a were rat who stays at an inn go from 3+1 to 6+2 hit dice?

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    Replies
    1. Sure, wererats can stay at an inn. To clarify though, staying at an Inn doesn't increase your permanent HD, it just lets you roll that many HD to add to your current HP total, and you can't go over your maximum. So a wererat or anybody else with 3D8 HD (for example) can stay at an inn as long as they want but they'll never go over 24 HP.

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