À Boire et à Manger

Following in the tracks of last post, I set the bearings for a gameplay experience that accounts for resource depletion and ended up slapping together an inventory system, acting, like I said, simultaneously both as cause and consequence to this design choice.

Now, riffing on my own fuzz, it led me to reflect on certain unavoidable routines inherent to what I proposed - namely, the most mundane and repeatable depletion of all: provisions of food and water and the effects of the lack thereof.

For characters that are wont to do some travelling, it’s pretty unavoidable. Even whole fights might go by where luck and pluck dictate that no hit-points are lost, but food & water are pretty near the taxes of an old school exploration game: they’re as certain as death.

So I went looking at what the official books had to say on the matter. Once again, it’s proven that 5ed’s idea of realism is akin to a distant celebratory rifle shot fired up from the back of a speeding limo, barely even hoping to graze the broadest side of the concept. I understood this to be deliberate and there was at least the system of Exhaustion that I found interesting and decided to preserve.

From the basis of underwhelmed dismay at what I had read, it followed that I should go on looking for something better. The low-set bar pretty much condemned me to succeed.

It came in the shape of a semi-serialized string of blog posts by Eric Diaz, from the blog Methods & Madness.

Here, yes, things get a treatment that is much more relatable, thought-out and apt to see table play. His input towards unifying the systems and hammering them into a cohese rule feels perfect and totally in line with the level of grit I’m looking for. I set about dialling the lawyer, ‘cause I was about to commit some grand theft.

He first tackles the problem here and then extends it to a broader approach here. I can’t recommend Eric's blog enough, it is a goldmine that follows the grain for the sort of approach that I intend to take with my campaign.

Standardized timings for checking starvation/dehydration, good interface with the exhaustion mechanic, it’s all there, really. The spinning off into sleep deprivation and disease are equally nice.

I did the merest of adjustments (starvation checked every three days, instead of the mnemonic-friendly week) and here’s what I’m going to go with:

- Starvation, Dehydration, Exposure and Suffocation

Characters who spend more than three days without food, one day without water, one hour under extreme weather exposure without adequate clothing or one minute without air suffer two levels of exhaustion (see appendix A). This is repeated for each of the described periods (DC 15 Constitution saving throw to halve this effect).

Exhaustion caused by suffocation lasts until the character takes a Breather, exhaustion caused by lack of food or water can’t be removed until the character spends a day eating (or drinking) the full required amount.

Mind you, this is almost strict paraphrase. The hack is just that good.

What was left was the concern for the space taken up by provisions. It might seem like two whole slots of provisions (one for food, one for water) per day out of a total of twenty could be a tad on the punishing side, but I'll be sticking with it for now, since all I did was streamline things to fit the pattern: knowing that two slots translate to roughly 10 pounds, and confronting this with the fact that the (roughly) realistic totals for one day of water would account for nearly ten pounds on its own while food would be closer to three/four pounds to the day. This might be slimmed down to 1/3 slot for food in the shape of special rations, but that is about as much rope as I’m willing to give the matter.

One place where complexity rears its ugly head is in accounting for characters of small size. You’ll recall that I gave them only 15 slots to work with in the Inventory sheet, which means it would only be fair that they should waste less of what they’ve got on rations and drink but I’m simply not going there just now.

Besides, the option for going on half-rations exists to be a viable tactical choice, not strictly a last resort. For more than that, any sensible party ought to acquire a beast of burden.