The 5-Minute Work Day: Solutions

One solution is to remind the players that the rest of the world doesn’t rest when they do. I DMed an LFR game where the party had to save an NPC who was being sacrificed as the party deliberating taking a rest, and then proceeded to take two 5 short rests. Suffice to say that the NPC was well carved up by the time the party arrived and the bad guys successful in their ritual. Game over.

In my personal games (running 2 4E games with different players) I have not had a problem. I tend to keep the players in a constant state of “hurry up or you will lose out”.
In one campaign the heroes are taking a “shortcut” to try and save a person being taken to the headquarters of their enemy. There is also an enemy army slowly taking over the region. Any delay is seen as one more day they fall further behind both of these situations. Before this they were chasing an enemy and didn’t want him to get away.
The second group is in a sandbox, exploring. They get extra rewards (xp and gold) for each “hex” (25 square miles) they explore. However, there are a couple of NPC adventuring groups doing the same thing, so they hurry along so they don’t miss out on opportunities.
So, I guess, instead of giving out-of-game benefits (or along with doing so), you can also give in-game incentives to not nap. Instill and maintain a sense of urgency and I have found the situation resolves itself.
Also, you need to keep in mind that you can only take 1 extended per 24 hours, so each extended is really a full day wasted. So, if the party takes an extended rest 10 minutes after their last one, they are in fact resting/sleeping for 6 hours and then sitting around for another 18 “as they fully recover”. I know my players don’t like wasting a whole day.

It is possible that some DMs will ignore the 12 hour rule. Even I do sometimes.

However, I’m also starting to require more than 6 hours of recovery time. At level 1 perhaps a good night of rest was enough, but one of my tables has now entered paragon tier. I’ve been narrating their rests as weeks and months of downtime in stead of just a good night’s rest. They are seeing huge changes in the setting occur and are often included in the stories of new notable merchants and dignitaries.

I’m enjoying is the D&D encounters. The story is written with the extended rests only available at certain chapter breaks. (he he, the group wanted to hole up in the recent tomb for an extended rest before returning with treasure to Benwick; guess what happens when you hang out in the tomb of restless dead?)

In my home game, I will often listen to the players asking for an extended rest and see where that fits into the story best. That means they can sometimes get their rests sooner rather than later. Most of the time it ends with, “okay, we’ll see. Next week we’ll get that covered.”

I decided to wait and see what the second article was about before I commented.

I think the first step is to identify the problem. I think that both the DM and the Players have a responsibility to make sure the 5 minute work day does not occur.

The only responsibility for a DM is to balance the encounters. Create a couple of hard and a couple of easy and a couple of just right encounters. You would be surprised what your party of seasoned adventurers can accomplish. Our group currently completed 7 encounters (1 skill challenge, and 6 combat encounters) before having to rest. Unfortunately, we also (even being experienced) encountered DM ‘GODHOOD’ with and encounter that took 2 sessions to complete, 6 levels higher than the party level. Our party Warden managed to absorb 375 worth of damage, using all his dailies, 11 healing surges, and 3 daily magic items, etc… By the end only 2 party members standing. We are currently doing P2 and an encounter like this should not have happened. The DM thought the encounter looked too easy and added monsters to make a 17th level encounter a 22 level encounter.

The players however, have a greater responsibility than the DM. All the above are mentionned in the above articles so I won’t go into those anymore. The one we seemed to miss thought is the experience of the players at the table. I have played D&D for years, and all the players we play with are experienced and we 98% of the time follow the 12 hour rule. D&D Encounters however, changes the dynamic at the playing table. How many of you have gone to encounters and sat at a table with a NEWB player? Unless this person has past experience, they will do stupid things and screw up the resting for the rest of the party. I have new players at my school tables who used their dailies (and they have since learned to conserve it for appropriate time) because they thought it was cool looking and just wanted to try it. I also have the players who will use healing surges like they were going out of style.

If you have a group of players who are not regulars, it can screw things up also. Player dynamics and cooperation sometimes goes down the tube. That is what makes D&D Encounters so difficult (Just read Ameron’s recaps of Encoutners every week).

I think that time and experience moves the players and the DM away from the problem of ‘narcolepsy’ and allows them to adjust to each other and the situation to allow them to adventure longer and with less need for rest.

The solution presented are pretty much all sensible, but once again, it depends who you are playing with, players that know what you are talking about and players that don’t.

I have another solution: Instead of giving the players bonuses for staying awake, make sleeping dangerous.

By increasing the party’s chances of being attacked overnight, increasing the difficulty of the encounters when they are attacked, or some combination of the two, you force the players to reconsider the merits of using up all their powers and then sleeping. Of course it is the DM’s responsibility to ensure that safe resting places do exist. If the players trust and fear the DM in just the right proportions, they will hold out.

It makes me think about tracking time in general, over both a short and long time frame. I must admit my group does not do much of it at all, but I always feel funny about it.

Do you use time persistently in your games? I am going to try it at my table.

I think there are advantages to keeping an accurate game clock. It both anchors and adds a great deal of depth to the game world. Here are some springboard ideas from the top of my head:

If the players are in an encounter just before sunset, a ranged attack facing west may have a penalty imposed.

Certain roads are harder, or impossible, to travel in certain times of year – encouraging the players to stay a while in the towns that we spend so much time crafting.

Do owlbears hibernate in the winter?

A watch is a pretty expensive object; what methods will the players use to keep time?

A watch with magical powers sounds awesome. What kind of magic would someone put in a watch?

I personally try to make frequent, extended rests boring, or extremely hazardous.

Boring Approach: The players can’t extended rest (sleep) more than once in 12 hours, SO… ask the players what they are doing with the rest of their time until they can rest again. Once you figure they would have done whatever they told you for long enough to get bored/tired of it, tell them that their character is getting bored, and ask “what next”. By dragging out these extended rests in real time, you do two things. First, you cut down on the amount of “fun gaming” that actually takes place (negative incentive for players), and two, you actually simulate the boredom the CHARACTER would face, and if the character is being RP’ed at all correctly, you’ll notice a tendency for SOME characters to start wanting to push on. Another pleasant side effect is that some inter-character RP can also take place (practical jokes, pranks, disagreements).

The Hazardous Approach: Don’t let the PC’s rests actually give them that many net resources back. Instead, “waste” their time and resources with lots of random encounters that give no loot. Play these out. You can also fudge the XP if you need to, so they don’t get full benefits for the encounter (since it’s not part of the main plot). I often do this just by having the bad guys flee so that they aren’t “defeated”, and they can just come back later and be annoying. Even if the PCs use something to keep their campsite “safe” (even an extradimensional space), they can be ambushed while coming out, or the item can malfunction occasionally so that more time passes in the game world than in their safe-space. Eventually, the players themselves decide that they’ve had quite enough of this place, and would really like to move on and do something else… and their decision to take rests (or not) will reflect that.

You can also use food, and encumbrance, to ensure that the characters CAN’T actually rest that often unless they carry a ton of supplies to feed themselves for the whole time. Food costs money, too – a nice way to burn PC cash. Having to use rituals to feed yourself also burns gold and reagents.