Narrative Resting
WIP Homebrew rule.
The goal of this is to decouple resource recovery from in-game time and instead couple it to natural breaks in the narrative. It relies on two definitions: Scenes and Arcs.
Definitions
A Scene is a set of interconnected events/challenges where everything is happening in the main game loop (narrate -> act -> resolve -> narrate). If there's a notable gap or scenery change, it's probably a new scene. This includes things like "you walk on down the road for a while..." or "you set up camp and watches for the night" or "you hole up in this side room and take a breather, listening carefully for signs of patrols". Note that camping in the wilds is only a Scene transition. Every Scene contains at least one challenge--something that you could conceivably spend resources (spell slots, daily uses, HP, etc) to overcome. A challenge still counts as a challenge even if you bypassed it without spending resources.
An Arc is a set of Scenes (generally 2+, but not always) that ends with the party in a safe, fortified spot. Somewhere where they don't need to set up watches or significantly worry about threats. It's unlikely to have an Arc transition inside a dungeon unless everything's dead there. Even tiny hut doesn't fully provide a safe spot, since it can be taken down by various means. This means camping in the wild doesn't count as an Arc transition unless you have enough people with you that the party doesn't need to take watch (so camping in a military camp might work, even if the camp moves). Often, Arc transitions are coupled with downtime.
Resource Recovery
Between Scenes of the same Arc, you get the benefit of a Short Rest. Between the last Scene of one Arc and the first Scene of the second Arc, you get the benefits of a Long Rest.
Exceptions
There are some magic items, boons, and class features that can provide resource recovery during a Scene. For example:
- The potion known as Apprentice's Friend provides the benefits of a short rest as long as you're not in active combat, but cannot be used more than once per Arc per PC (as it's horrifically addictive).
- The blessings of the gods have been known to grant partial or full benefits of a Long Rest during a scene.
- <potential> class features for monks, fighters, and warlocks could grant a SR in the middle of a Scene; similar features for other classes might restore Rage uses, spell slots, etc during Scenes or recover some LR resources on a SR (such as Arcane Recovery).
