Assigned Camp Roles For Long Rests

1/27/2019 Assigned Camp Roles for Long Rests : DnDBehindTheScreen
Search r/DnDBehindTheScreen
r/DnDBehindTheScreen
Posts
Posted by u/zonbie11155 4 days ago
Assigned Camp Roles for Long Rests

Mechanics
Hey all, I've been working on some revised rules for Long Rests that aim to create more interesting
evenings for adventurers. I borrowed this concept from the Pathfinder Kingmaker video game. Feel free
to review this set of rules and provide feedback. DCs of course are variable based on your location and
preferences. Thanks!
TLDR Changes:
1. Long Rest now allows you to regain only up to half your max HP instead of all of it.
2. Camp Roles created, allowing skill roles to improve the conditions of the camp.
a. Foraging for food
b. Concealing the campsite to reduce random encounters
c. Cooking meals to improve healing
d. Defense, which is basically an attempt to provide structure to overnight guard duty
Things in bold are either changes to the original text or specific skill checks.
-----
Long Rest. A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character
sleeps or performs light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch. If the rest is interrupted by
a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting Spells, or similar Adventuring
activity—the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it. Each long rest is
assumed to contain 6 hours of sleep and 2 hours of downtime (1 hour before sleep and 1 hour
after sleep).
At the end of a long rest, a character regains lost Hit Points, equal to half of their total Hit Points
(rounded down). The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the
character’s total number of them (minimum of one die). For example, if a character has eight Hit Dice,
he or she can regain four spent Hit Dice of his or her choice upon finishing a long rest. A character can
never have more Hit Dice than their character level. A character can’t benefit from more than one long
rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its
benefits.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/aj4alq/assigned_camp_roles_for_long_rests/ 1/11
Camp Roles. During a long rest, characters can take on certain Camp Roles to improve the quality of the
camp site and the long rest. These Camp Roles include Foraging, Concealment, Cooking, and
Defense. At least one character must be assigned in the Camp Role for the camp to receive a benefit
from the activity, and additional characters assigned to the same role grant advantage to the primary
assignee. One character cannot be assigned to multiple Camp Roles, but multiple characters can be
assigned to one Camp Role. Activities performed in support of Camp Roles are generally not considered
Adventuring activities, and will not interrupt a long rest.
1. Foraging. Characters assigned to the Foraging Camp Role spend 1 hour hunting or foraging for
food and water within 500 feet of the camp site. After 1 hour, the character rolls a DC 15
Survival or DC 15 Nature skill check; characters who use fishing tackle, hunting traps, or
herbalism kits may receive an expertise bonus on the skill check. The DM should feel free to
modify the DCs based on the availability of resources.
a. Critical success: You find fresh rations equal to 2d6 plus the assignee’s Wisdom modifier.
b. Success: You find fresh rations equal to 1d6 + 1.
c. Failure: You find 1 fresh ration only.
d. Critical Failure: You immediately risk a random encounter located 1d6 x 100 feet from
the camp site.
2. Concealment. Characters assigned to the Concealment Camp Role spend 1 hour building
camouflage for the camp site. After 1 hour, the character rolls a DC 10 Survival or DC 10 Stealth
skill check; characters who use carpenter’s tools, cartographer’s tools, or disguise kits may
receive an expertise bonus on the skill check. If the camp starts a fire, the DCs are increased by
5. If the camp cooks a meal, the DCs are increased by another 5.
a. Critical Success: You completely avoid random encounters during the long rest.
b. Success: You reduce the chance of random encounters during the long rest.
c. Failure: You had no effect on the chance of random encounters during the long rest.
d. Critical Failure: You accidentally increase the chance of random encounters during the
long rest.
3. Cooking. Characters assigned to the Cooking Camp Role spend 1 hour cooking a nourishing
meal for the party. The camp must provide 1 ration for each character who plans to eat the meal,
and the assignee must have at least 1 ration to cook a meal. The camp must have a heat source
to cook. After 1 hour, the character rolls a DC 10 Survival or DC 10 Nature skill check;
characters’ who use cooking utensils, alchemist’s supplies, or brewer’s supplies may receive an
expertise bonus on the skill check. If the camp was successful in Foraging, the DCs are reduced
by 5. If the camp lacks cooking utensils, the DCs are increased by 5. If the meal lacks 1 ration per
character who plans to eat the meal, the DCs are increased by another 5. If the camp lacks a heat
source to cook with, cooking is not possible.
a. Critical success: Characters who eat this meal regain all of their Hit Points and Hit Dice
at the end of the long rest and gain advantage on all Constitution checks until the next
long rest.
b. Success: Characters who eat this meal gain an extra 2 Hit Dice at the end of the long rest
and gain advantage on all Constitution checks against diseases until the next long rest.
c. Failure: Characters who eat this meal do not gain any special effect.
d. Critical Failure: The meal has been spoiled in the making, wasting the rations used for
Search
the meal; The r/DnDBehindTheScreen
group must eat cold rations. In addition, the failed meal creates a stench,
increasing random encounter chances during the long rest.
4. Defense. Characters assigned to the Defense Camp Role spend part of the night standing guard
over the camp site while the rest of the group sleeps. Having watchmen on duty increases the
chance of the camp responding well to potential threats. You must assign enough watchmen to
cover all hours of sleep. Groups traveling without elves need to cover 6 hours of sleep, while
groups traveling with elves only need to cover 4 hours of sleep. Characters who forego sleep
entirely gain exhaustion as normal.
a. 2-hour shifts. Watchmen who take 2-hour shifts run no risk of exhaustion after the long
rest.
b. 3-hour shifts. Watchmen who take 3-hour shifts must succeed at a DC 10 Constitution
saving throw at the end of the long rest to avoid gaining one level of exhaustion which
lasts 1 hour.
c. 4-6-hour shifts. Watchmen who take a shift longer than 3 hours, but sleep for at least 2
hours, must succeed at a DC 15 Constitution saving throw at the end of the long rest to
avoid gaining one level of exhaustion which lasts 4 hours.
 47 Comments  Share  Give Award  98% Upvoted
Comment as spiff2112
What are your thoughts?  Switch to markdown COMMENT
SORT BY Best
 chaos6008 154 points · 4 days ago

 This seems like a really interesting idea for a group that wants to have a more involved resting
period. I know for my groups its simply a way to get back the HP we’ve lost over the day of
adventuring and the idea that one doesnt get everything back at the end would be terrible.
I like the idea that this gives both positives and negatives to long rests. Maybe an alternative to
this would be it always fully recovers life and a good “cooked” meal would allow for Temp HP
instead for the day? That way youre incentivizing using this? Just an alternative thought.
Good work though!
 Reply Share Report Save Give Award
 BoxofJoes 29 points · 3 days ago

 Search
So a Monster Hunter or r/DnDBehindTheScreen
Final Fantasy 15 situation where eating cooked meals provides
temporary stat buffs provided you have the ingredients. I’m into it.

 Yeah, i think this provides incentive to do an “expanded long rest” if you will, without
taking anything away from it or making it a struggle. Im fine with everything else as
written though
 BoxofJoes 2 points · 3 days ago

 So theoretically if we fought and killed an oblex, we could make a kind of jello using
any kind of chilling magic after boiling the fucker.

 I mean... sure, it might still be poisonous as fuck though. who knows what Oblexes
are made out of, that's up to your DM.
 whollyﬁctional 5 points · 3 days ago

 It's a little bit of ob with a whole lot of lex.
 Cruvy 2 points · 3 days ago

 I do this in my campaign. Eating normal food just keeps you alive, eating good food gives
you temp hit points, while not eating enough or eating food gone bad will decrease your
max hp, until you rest and eat.
I do the same with beds. If a group is sleeping in the wilderness with no sleeping bags, tents
or something, they’ll lose max up, sleeping in the wilderness in a sleeping bag does nothing
but save you from lower max hp, and sleeping in a proper bed will grant you temp hp.
 Liaxiarmo 19 points · 3 days ago

 There must be something in the water, because I wrote about rest mechanics the other day,
too! But with a very different tack. I was looking more at the qualitative experience of resting,
and ways to draw the players and the characters closer together. Come take a look and let me
know what you think? :)
 zonbie11155  2 points · 3 days ago

 Fascinating concept. I usually use milestone leveling though. But your idea is great.
 Volcacius 2 points · 3 days ago

Search
 really liked your write r/DnDBehindTheScreen
up, and I'll probably being using it in my upcoming campaign.
 Liaxiarmo 1 point · 2 days ago

 Let me know how it works for you! I haven't had the opportunity to try it out yet (I'm not
playing D&D at the moment) so if you find it needs tweaks and adaptation I'd love to hear
what you come up with :)
 hexjunki 31 points · 4 days ago

 It's a good idea to make resting more important and involved. I find resting too easy in 5e
especially where a group can instaheal nearly everything after 8 hours resting anywhere.
The main issue I see with your system is the heavy reliance on skill rolls. This effectively just
becomes a series of 4 rolls the characters have to make in hopes of getting a bonus. There's no
real choice or decision points involved.
Like how are they concealing the camp? What defences are they building? What are they
foraging for and how are they doing it? How are they making their fire? Where's the wood
coming from? What are they cooking? Could fire attract or repel predators?
Food for thought. I think you can resolve most of that organically without needing rules beyond
encounter checks and such.

 Most of your concerns can be addressed by the discussion and roleplay that these rules
foster. The DM can decide what they find in the terrain and help them stretch their
imaginations. Support that with skill checks. But by all means tailor this to your liking or
disregard. :)
How are you concealing the camp? "I'll grab some tarps i have in my inventory and drape
them across some trees." "I'll collect foliage." "I scout out a dip in the terrain and we make
our encampment there." "I'll look for a small cave or something where we can camp inside."
What are you foraging for and how are you doing it? "I lay a hunting trap and wait in the
distance." "I'm going hunting with bow and arrow." "I'm colelcting fruits and roots." "I'm
going fishing if there's a place to fish."
Are you making a fire? How? "No we don't need a fire tonight, we're hardly missing hit points
so there's no need to cook." "Oh but its gonna be cold right?" "I'll use prestidigitation to light
the fire." "Might as well cook then."
What are you cooking? "Soup!" "I'll throw in some of the meat from tonight's hunt." "I
brought some spices from home."
Do you think the fire will attract or repel predators? "Well its going to be cold so we really
need a fire." "I can keep myself warm with winter blankets." "Leave the fire going... It will be
easier for them to see us, but it will be easier for us to see them as well." "Right, no
darkvision...hmmm, ok." "Maybe an extra guard tonight? We can all pull an extra hour of
Search
guard duty without r/DnDBehindTheScreen
too much trouble, and have double guards."
 you-vandal 8 points · 4 days ago

 I really like this, may steal it. Thanks for sharing.
 TricksForDays 6 points · 3 days ago

 So let’s see. Cleric of Trickery, stealth blessing 1 hour for concealment, check. Single use create
food, check. Create bonfire for heat source, check. See no reason to not be able to spice up the
bland food for a heartier meal. Ritual up a leomunds hut and we’re gtg! ;)
 KingSmitty 2 points · 3 days ago

 Dont forget to ritual an alarm also for even more security
 Koosemose Chaos Incarnate 4 points · 3 days ago

 I would add Proficiency with Cook's Utensils to the cooking section. Though I also probably
wouldn't include Nature in there either, as I could see someone with Nature being able to
identify what's safe to eat, but nothing notable as far as preparing the food goes.
When I focus on camping, beyond just "You regain Hit Dice" and such, I usually make a
difference between cooking with Survival and with Cooking Utensils Proficiency, usually more
on the RP side, with food cooked with Survival being just basic stuff that, while nourishing, is
only a little better than eating rations, whereas something cooked with Cooking Utensils
proficiency will also be a tasty and mentally satisfying meal. If I were to use a system where
benefits are gained, I would most likely add some minor extra morale flavored benefit to
success with Cooking Utensils proficiency.
 zonbie11155  1 point · 3 days ago

 I usually treat proficiency with a tool as being a situational bonus you can apply to a skill
check or ability check, in the same way a crowbar grants advantage on Strength checks to
pry open objects. For example, in my game, proficiency with cooks utensils would allow you
to roll your survival check with an extra bonus equal to your proficiency bonus. So if you are
proficient in survival and have a decent wisdom score you would have maybe a +7 at first
level, and then you add an extra +2 if you’re proficient with cooking utensils and use them to
cook. For a total of +9.
I like the suggestions I’ve gotten on cooking and healing, will incorporate those into the
revision.
 b_rids 5 points · 3 days ago

 As cool an idea as this is, the only thing I find fault in would be the inclusion of features like
trance. Trance makes it so a character only needs 4 hours of rest instead of 8 for a long rest.
The thing is, everyone is asleep for only 4 hours if they take the 2 hour watch and the hour
before and after, without penalty. It kinda negates the benefit of trance unless you say an elf
only needs to actually sleep for 2-3 of the 6 hours instead of the usual 4.
 thuhnc 3 points · 3 days ago

 Something that should maybe be considered more is the issue of whether your character
will be caught figuratively (or literally) with their pants down, without wearing armor or
having easy access to weapons, because an encounter happened while they were sleeping.
It's definitely arguable, but I'd say anything other than light armor you wouldn't be able to
comfortably sleep in. There isn't really any armor besides a shield that you can equip quickly
enough to benefit from it during imminent combat. If this particular aspect of realism is
observed the benefit to the elven trance is that you don't need to take your armor off. The
PHB also says you "maintain semiconsciousness" while trance-ing; I'd say that's probably
good for a perception roll with disadvantage. You can be a last-ditch lookout in case
everybody else fails.
Anyway, looking at it now the wording of the trance feature is kind of weird. It seems to
imply that other races need 8 hours of sleep, but RAW they only need 8 hours of "downtime".
I guess the implication is supposed to be that elves can do 4 hours of light activity during a
long rest where other races can only do 2. So an elf can pull double duty on watch, or up to
quadruple duty and be spaced out half the time.

 Yeah I kinda ignore the part that calls for 8 hours of sleep for non elves. For elves, I
consider them to gain all the benefits of a long rest after 4 hours of trance. If an elf
forgoes the trance then they gain the exhaustion as normal.
 sunglazzez 3 points · 3 days ago

 This is so good. A lot of potential for RP and allowing different party members to contribute
skills beyond just perception checks.
 ThePlumbOne 3 points · 3 days ago

 I like this but I do have one suggestion. I wouldn’t let someone use a disguise kit for concealing
because they help you disguise who you are, not where you are.

Agree
  Reply Share Report Save Give Award

 Iustinus 2 points · 3 days ago

 I'm always against crit failures, but aside from that I like the ideas. It does make having
someone with Leomund's Tiny Hut or Create Food & Water even more important though, which
further trivializes martial classes. 2 elves in a party should be able to each do one 4 hour shift
on watch to cover 8 hours.
I am not sure I would use the Cooking. Every time I have been in a game that tracks food we've
either had an Outlander or everyone keeps 10 days of rations with them. Rations don't need
cooked so there's no reason to do so unless you really need your Hit Die the risks outweigh the
rewards.
 C4Aries 3 points · 3 days ago

 I agree, crit success and failures on skill checks drive me mad.
 thuhnc 2 points · 3 days ago

 This is my gripe. My rogue literally can't roll lower than an 11 stealth check but
SOMEHOW failed spectacularly to camouflage the camp.
 C4Aries 2 points · 3 days ago

 And you'll fail spectacularly once every 20 times you camp. I sure wouldn't trust
anyone who fucked up like that once every 20 nights.

 With three activity roles to fill in the camp, there should usually be at least one
extra person available to help someone else. Multiple characters can be assigned
to one role, granting advantage on the skill check for the primary assignee.
 C4Aries 1 point · 3 days ago

 So 1 or 2 out of the 3 crit fail once every 20 times, and the others once ever
400? That's really not much better. I wouldn't drive a car that had a 1 in 400
chance of losing a when each time I drove it.
Crit fails and successes on skill checks never make sense. Maybe some people
find it fun, but its not for me.
 alias-enki 2 points · 3 days ago

 this is the same for celebrating a "crit success" on skill checks for me. I'm not
against a small penalty for rolling more than 5 below the DC but normal
failures should simply be a lack of benefit. I like that OP doesn't just allow
everyone to roll all of the checks.

 The crit fails here don’t impose severe circumstances immediately, except
maybe the hunting one. It really just depends on the severity of your
random encounter table. Mine has a mix of positive and negative events, so
it is really a mixed bag.
 RaynMurfy 1 point · 3 days ago

 I use similar camping rules and what I do is have rations count as double when used for
cooking, so a party of 4 would only need to use 2 days of rations if they cooked with them.
 jamesja12 2 points · 3 days ago

 I started using rules similar to this found in dark dungeons. (A collection of rules to make dnd
more gritty)
I love them. They actualy make camp suplies useful and management matters a bit more.
 Thonkk 2 points · 3 days ago

 When I was dming the out of the abyss module, I wanted to keep things interesting on low lvl
survival. So long rests on a cave would restore only half of their hit points and ONE hit die. Long
rests on a bed would work as normal.
My players enjoyed it, they had to think about supplies, hit points and how fast they were
traveling to survive.
They are lvl 11 now, think about how badass they became after the whole foraging for survive
on lvl 1-4
 rster2002 2 points · 3 days ago

 I would replace "Constitution advantage against disease" to "you regain the rest of your hit
points" to make sure that you can still recover full health after a big encounter.
 jfraz1994 1 point · 3 days ago

 I created a system verryyyyy similar to this a while back. It didn’t last long tbh. Ended up feeling
like work rather than fun. I made it for this reason—to add something to rests, but it was a
burden. Was fun the first 2-3 times. :/
 Tralan 1 point · 3 days ago
 At low level, this is really good. After someone gets Leomund's Tiny Hut, though, only foraging
becomes necessary. And our cleric had Goodberry.
 Star_Tropic 1 point · 3 days ago

 This is great. I'm probably going to change some things to make it more fitting for my
campaign but the idea of making resting an actual party activity is great.
 runtotheparty92 1 point · 3 days ago

 I like it! I think you can supplement the defence section though, it seems a bit vanilla and I
know my rouge would complain... Why not add some trapmaking (pit digging, sharpened
stakes, snares, alarms etc.)? They can reduce the random encounter chance or have the
encounter suffer some damage before it gets to the party?

 I’ve thought about making specialized camp roles restricted to certain classes or even
backgrounds in addition to the ones set forth here. Rogues making traps before bed would
be cool and open-ended.
 spock1959 1 point · 3 days ago

 2 changes - maybe. Exhaustion is speed to last until you long rest again, but that is up to you!
Most combat encounters only last about a minute (10 rounds) at most 2 or 3 (20-30 rounds) so
the idea of a combat lasting an hour is ludicrous. I think a combat of any length would negate
the rest effects.

 I think that would be too brutal honestly, especially having to lose your rest benefit due to a
combat.
 CensoryDeprivation 1 point · 3 days ago

 A DC 20 for cooking and concealment seems incredibly punishing, especially for low level PC’s.
Overall I think the checks should be heavily based on terrain. If the players are in a large
plateau or desert where it’s mostly flat and low coverage, then the DC should increase, whereas
a rocky or heavily wooded area where they find a cavern or ravine should be lower.
· 3 days ago · edited 3 days ago

 zonbie11155  1 point
 The cooking check is only DC 20 for those groups who both lack cooking utensils and also
lack 1 ration per person who is eating the meal. And the DC goes down by 5 if the foraging
check was a success, so, the cooking check should be one of the easier ones.
I agree about the situational modifier based on location and story. Weather should also play
a factor. I’m still working on all this.
 Aquaintestines 1 point · 1 day ago
 Long Rest. A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which
a character sleeps or performs light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch. If
the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, fighting,
casting Spells, or similar Adventuring activity—the characters must begin the rest again to
gain any benefit from it.
Each long rest is assumed to contain 6 hours of sleep and 2 hours of downtime (1 hour
before sleep and 1 hour after sleep).
I just want to point out that the second segment does not agree with the first. Because 59
minutes of fighting or similar is allowed each long rest it should be assumed that any proactive
adventuring party will be spending that time fighting or walking or climbing or whatever.
Thus a long rest can be assumed to be 6 hours sleep, 1 hour resting and 1 hour of strenous
activity

Assigned Camp Roles For Long Rests

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Assigned Camp Roles For Long Rests

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

1/27/2019 Assigned Camp Roles for Long Rests : DnDBehindTheScreen

Posted by u/zonbie11155 4 days ago

Assigned Camp Roles for Long Rests

 47 Comments  Share  Give Award  98% Upvoted

What are your thoughts?  Switch to markdown COMMENT

 chaos6008 154 points · 4 days ago

 BoxofJoes 29 points · 3 days ago

 chaos6008 12 points · 3 days ago

 BoxofJoes 2 points · 3 days ago

 chaos6008 2 points · 3 days ago

 whollyﬁctional 5 points · 3 days ago

 Cruvy 2 points · 3 days ago

 Liaxiarmo 19 points · 3 days ago

 zonbie11155  2 points · 3 days ago

 Volcacius 2 points · 3 days ago

 Liaxiarmo 1 point · 2 days ago

 hexjunki 31 points · 4 days ago

 zonbie11155  27 points · 4 days ago

 you-vandal 8 points · 4 days ago

 TricksForDays 6 points · 3 days ago

 KingSmitty 2 points · 3 days ago

 Koosemose Chaos Incarnate 4 points · 3 days ago

 zonbie11155  1 point · 3 days ago

 b_rids 5 points · 3 days ago

 thuhnc 3 points · 3 days ago

 zonbie11155  2 points · 3 days ago

 sunglazzez 3 points · 3 days ago

 ThePlumbOne 3 points · 3 days ago

 zonbie11155  2 points · 3 days ago

  Reply Share Report Save Give Award

 Iustinus 2 points · 3 days ago

 C4Aries 3 points · 3 days ago

 thuhnc 2 points · 3 days ago

 C4Aries 2 points · 3 days ago

 zonbie11155  1 point · 3 days ago

 C4Aries 1 point · 3 days ago

 alias-enki 2 points · 3 days ago

 zonbie11155  1 point · 3 days ago

 RaynMurfy 1 point · 3 days ago

 jamesja12 2 points · 3 days ago

 Thonkk 2 points · 3 days ago

 rster2002 2 points · 3 days ago

 jfraz1994 1 point · 3 days ago

 Star_Tropic 1 point · 3 days ago

 runtotheparty92 1 point · 3 days ago

 zonbie11155  2 points · 3 days ago

 spock1959 1 point · 3 days ago

 zonbie11155  1 point · 3 days ago

 CensoryDeprivation 1 point · 3 days ago

· 3 days ago · edited 3 days ago

 Aquaintestines 1 point · 1 day ago

You might also like