Different Kinds of Rest

As covered in my previous post on "the one rule," holding players to strict resting rules drastically improves the dungeon crawling (or hex crawling or point crawling) experience. So, it's worth diving into more depth on my current rest procedures.

Games tend to break rests down into two types: the breather (a short rest) or the full recovery (a long rest). With those options, however, why would a party ever go through the rigmarole of setting up camp if they can plop down for 10-60 minutes right outside the dungeon entrance, munch on a ration, and regain their hit points? For flavor?

A person pondering all of the fun things one can do around a campfire

My resting rules mechanize the benefits that come with setting up a campsite and building a campfire. They currently look like this:

Resting: PCs can spend at least one hour resting. If they make it through uninterrupted, they may expend resources to roll Hit Dice and regain Hit Points. They must expend a resource such as rations, bandages, or medicine for every Hit Dice rolled. PCs can only expend each type of resource once per rest.

For every resource expended, the character rolls their Hit Dice, then adds their Constitution score and regains that many Hit Points.

Sleep: PCs must spend a wilderness turn sleeping every day. If they do not, they must make a Constitution check trying to exceed 10 + the number of days without sleep. If they fail, they suffer a point of Exhaustion.

Exhaustion: Adverse conditions, such as going without food, water, sleep, or protection from the elements cause a PC to accrue Exhaustion. Each instance of Exhaustion takes up one item slot and imposes a cumulative -1 penalty to all checks and saves.

If you accrue more Exhaustion than your level, you cannot move and must make camp.

Campfire: PCs gain extra benefits for taking their rest around a campfire. Cooking and eating fresh food instead of rations allows PCs to spend another Hit Dice (without expending additional resources). Singing and making merry grants yet another Hit Dice but requires an instrument and may increase your chance of a random encounter.

Rest spent around a campfire also removes one instance of Exhaustion.

Full Rest: One week spent in modest lodging in a safe haven returns a PC to maximum Hit Points, restores all spent Hit Dice, and removes all Exhaustion. Living in luxury may confer additional temporary HP, while squalid conditions may not fully restore the PC.

One thing is missing: PCs all have some sort of "special" ability that they can only use during a rest taken around a campfire. A wizard can re-learn a forgotten spell, a fighter can repair weapons, and so on. This provides even further incentive for players to choose the option of making camp.