Allow me to preference this post & all near future posts by stating (hopefully for the last time as I don’t want to come off like a broken record) that I’ve been studying the rules of D&D due to my total obsession w/ the game for the past 7 months however, I have yet to actually play. I feel my time is coming soon.
My DMing style I plan on adopting is to make my campaigns as realistic as possible… using as many variant rules as possible to bring realism to my games whether difficult or not.
I’d been searching for rules re: bedrolls & its benefits but haven’t found a single thing.
Like why would any of my (soon-to-be) players spend money on a bedroll or risk encumbrance?
Reading Xanathar’s Guide To Everything, I came across rules for sleeping in armor.
I believe I’ll use this rule in conjunction with not having a bedroll.
XGTE - Sleeping In Armor (pg. 77)
"When you finish a long rest during which you slept in medium or heavy armor, you regain only one quarter of your spent Hit Dice (minimum of one die). If you have any levels of exhaustion, the rest doesn't reduce your exhaustion level."
Generally, D&D does not offer that simulation kind of rules approach.
There are no specific rules for bedrolls. It is up to the DM if you want to give your players penalties, if they are taking long rests without proper sleeping environment.
While we have no rules for bedrolls, we have rules for uncomfortable sleeping, from Xanathar's: a long rest spent in medium or heavy armor both a) only restores 1/4 of your spent hit dice, rounding down as normal, but always restores at least one, and b) does not alleviate exhaustion.
We also have rules for temperature, from the DMG: Cold air is a DC 10 Con save every hour or exhaust 1 level, cold water is the same but every minute.
The Icewind Dale module has rules for cold weather clothing, which makes you immune to the save vs cold air.
So, you can basically use these rules to homebrew how you want bedrolls to work. For example, you could have bedrolls grant the same immunity cold weather clothing does, or you could have sleeping without a bedroll penalize you like sleeping in medium armor does. Or both! By the same token, you could simply have tents be waterproof and have cold rain occasionally fall.
You're totally fine to ignore misc. equipment like Bedrolls, or to make them a Really Big Deal if keeping track of equipment is something your game is about. Here's a few quick-and-dirty ways that you might bash together a misc. effect like this in 5E (not all of these, probably just one of these, or something similar):
Advantage/Disadvantage on rolls: maybe if you wake up stiff on the ground from not using a bedroll, you have Disadvantage on athletics and acrobatics checks that day, or on Constitution or Dexterity saving throws?
Exhaustion: maybe if you don't get a good night's rest, you suffer a level of Exhaustion?
Failing to receive some or all of the normal benefits of a Long Rest: maybe if you don't get a good night's rest, you don't recover all your hit points as normal, maybe you miss out on.... I dunno, you heal half of what you normally would? Or -1d10? Or maybe, you start the day with one fewer Level 1 spell slot than you normally would? Or you tell them they start the day having used up one unit of one of their limited-use class features, like Ki?
A flat modifier: maybe you have a -1 AC or a -1 to attacks in the first combat of the day?
If the DM is the reason that the party doesn't have bedrolls, it's probably not a good idea to punish players (unless some temporary discomfort is part of the narrative). But, if you're trying to tell a story where supplies and making it to the next town are important, but you have one or more players who are bucking the theme by being like "nah, I'll just sleep in my armor, there's no penalty for that"... feel free to come up with some minor penalties like that to give their decisions some mechanical impact.
I find these "you can't sleep in armor/sleep without a bedroll/etc." rules to be extremely biased and unrealistic. Sure, I couldn't sleep in a suit of armor... but I am not a trained and experienced soldier. There are many cultures throughout history who have slept on nothing more than a mat on the floor, and they haven't been dying from exhaustion.
I find these "you can't sleep in armor/sleep without a bedroll/etc." rules to be extremely biased and unrealistic. Sure, I couldn't sleep in a suit of armor... but I am not a trained and experienced soldier. There are many cultures throughout history who have slept on nothing more than a mat on the floor, and they haven't been dying from exhaustion.
But in the real world, sleeping on the ground will generally, honestly either kill you or lead to a very bad day the next day. The ground is very, very cold, just about the world over, at night. That's why sleeping bags worth a damn force a cushion of air between you and the ground - or you can use a hammock. Sleeping on the ground directly is something absolutely zero experienced campers do.
Bedrolls have been around since 1e days. It was just assumed you bought one, but there wasn’t really any mechanical benefit or penalty attached to it. Though I want to say there was an option to buy nicer bedrolls in 2e that might have given you a boost — Aurora’s Whole Realms Catalog had lots of weird stuff to buy.
That said, if you’re going to homebrew a rule that you need a bedroll, you could always let people buy different quality versions that could allow small benefits. Like a the PHB version does the job, but is nothing extra. But a really good bedroll gives you advantage on your first initiative check of the day. Just price it like a common magic item.
You could check out Rime of the Frostmaiden for some rules about dealing with cold climates (and things like avalanches and blizzards), and maybe adapt them to whatever climate you’re using for your campaign. There’s not a lot there, but it’s a start.
I wish the PHB would take character size into account when it comes to equipment weight. A gnome bedroll should not weigh as much as a human's. Same with armor... a half-size suit of armor should weigh much less than a human-size one. Luckily in my game we pretty much ignore encumbrance as long as everyone is being reasonable.
Simply put, you should ask yourself, "Does this rule/feature add interesting gameplay/roleplay?" If not, then it may not be a good idea.
NOTE: I specifically mean INTERESTING gameplay. Not EASIER or HARDER gameplay. Just INTERESTING.
If imposing penalties on sleeping in armor encourages players to seek more comfortable ways to rest, that could lead to some interesting situations, such as an ambush where the heavy-armor-tank has to resort to battle without said armor.
If forcing your players to take into account their food and water needs makes them think carefully about their travel routes, it can make Rangers/Druids/Paladins feel more valuable (hunting/summoning for food), as well as lead to situations where your players decide to take a "shortcut" through the woods and run into a pack of monsters.
If you give large amounts of magic items to players, and impose encumbrance, your players may have to be willing to abandon some gear or perhaps purchase/"borrow" a horse or mule.
Interesting gameplay, more often than not, is fun gameplay.
I wish the PHB would take character size into account when it comes to equipment weight. A gnome bedroll should not weigh as much as a human's. Same with armor... a half-size suit of armor should weigh much less than a human-size one. Luckily in my game we pretty much ignore encumbrance as long as everyone is being reasonable.
But when that gnome and that human can have the same str score, it puts humans (and all larger creatures) at a serious disadvantage. And the encumbrance issue ends up evening out in other areas. For example, while gnomes might get screwed on their armor weight, it doesn't make sense that a gnome and human have the same reach, but they do, so there, the gnome is coming out ahead.
Older editions used to make much bigger distinctions between PC sizes. Equipment for small creatures was lighter, but they had a lower carrying capacity. There were changes to your AC and to-hit when fighting creatures of different sizes. It just ended up being more stuff to track. There was some more "realism" but I don't remember it making the game any more fun.
The biggest thing you'll see is once put into an actual game does it impacts the flow and will it take away from the fun by making extra rolls or extra conditions for well... a bedroll and rest.
Very quickly you'll see how these realistic rules really impact the gameplay for the players if a penality does occur. It's easy enough to adjust once you get a good idea of how it plays out in the game but I'd make sure you are open to making changes if the 'fun' starts to be taken away from the players.
You just do not want the players to go "Ah, man. It's bedtime what do we do now? Which dice do I roll? Wait did the rogue get the only comfortable spot in the dungeon?"
I think all of the general adventuring kits come with a bedroll so nobody should be without one.
If the party somehow loses their equipment - that's an entirely different conversation, you have to ask yourself if the loss of bedrolls will progress the adventure.
I think a success on a Survival check would provide a safe and comfortable place to rest regardless of bedrolls (see the bajillion survival, man vs nature shows).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
The thing is I’ve excluded the choice between choosing equipment or gold & strictly having my players roll for their gp
It kind of forces them to spend their gold wisely
I did this to kind of get a gauge of what kind of people they were & also to remind them that this game will be rooted in “realism” or as much as possible
For instance, one friend purchases medium armor, a shield & 4-5 weapons (none of them ranged)… went over budget & was encumbered
I asked her how she plans on carrying the weapons & what will she sleep on, how will she eat, how will she climb up a mountainside, etc.
They must have had a super-low Strength. You can carry Strength times 15 pounds without being encumbered. Normally you can't go below an 8 score. That's 120 pounds of gear.
Hello all.
Allow me to preference this post & all near future posts by stating (hopefully for the last time as I don’t want to come off like a broken record) that I’ve been studying the rules of D&D due to my total obsession w/ the game for the past 7 months however, I have yet to actually play. I feel my time is coming soon.
My DMing style I plan on adopting is to make my campaigns as realistic as possible… using as many variant rules as possible to bring realism to my games whether difficult or not.
I’d been searching for rules re: bedrolls & its benefits but haven’t found a single thing.
Like why would any of my (soon-to-be) players spend money on a bedroll or risk encumbrance?
Reading Xanathar’s Guide To Everything, I came across rules for sleeping in armor.
I believe I’ll use this rule in conjunction with not having a bedroll.
XGTE - Sleeping In Armor (pg. 77)
"When you finish a long rest during which you slept in medium or heavy armor, you regain only one quarter of your spent Hit Dice (minimum of one die). If you have any levels of exhaustion, the rest doesn't reduce your exhaustion level."
Please let me know what you all think.
Be well.
Generally, D&D does not offer that simulation kind of rules approach.
There are no specific rules for bedrolls. It is up to the DM if you want to give your players penalties, if they are taking long rests without proper sleeping environment.
While we have no rules for bedrolls, we have rules for uncomfortable sleeping, from Xanathar's: a long rest spent in medium or heavy armor both a) only restores 1/4 of your spent hit dice, rounding down as normal, but always restores at least one, and b) does not alleviate exhaustion.
We also have rules for temperature, from the DMG: Cold air is a DC 10 Con save every hour or exhaust 1 level, cold water is the same but every minute.
The Icewind Dale module has rules for cold weather clothing, which makes you immune to the save vs cold air.
So, you can basically use these rules to homebrew how you want bedrolls to work. For example, you could have bedrolls grant the same immunity cold weather clothing does, or you could have sleeping without a bedroll penalize you like sleeping in medium armor does. Or both! By the same token, you could simply have tents be waterproof and have cold rain occasionally fall.
You're totally fine to ignore misc. equipment like Bedrolls, or to make them a Really Big Deal if keeping track of equipment is something your game is about. Here's a few quick-and-dirty ways that you might bash together a misc. effect like this in 5E (not all of these, probably just one of these, or something similar):
If the DM is the reason that the party doesn't have bedrolls, it's probably not a good idea to punish players (unless some temporary discomfort is part of the narrative). But, if you're trying to tell a story where supplies and making it to the next town are important, but you have one or more players who are bucking the theme by being like "nah, I'll just sleep in my armor, there's no penalty for that"... feel free to come up with some minor penalties like that to give their decisions some mechanical impact.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I find these "you can't sleep in armor/sleep without a bedroll/etc." rules to be extremely biased and unrealistic. Sure, I couldn't sleep in a suit of armor... but I am not a trained and experienced soldier. There are many cultures throughout history who have slept on nothing more than a mat on the floor, and they haven't been dying from exhaustion.
You make a valid point which I hadn't thought of & will now take into consideration.
Thanks for this perspective. 🙏🏾
Thanks all for chiming in.
I was definitely considering using the sleeping in medium/heavy armor penalty w/ sleeping without a bedroll.
The blanket idea was cool as well (pun totally intended).
I had no idea tents were in the equipment list. This has given me another idea of "realism".
But in the real world, sleeping on the ground will generally, honestly either kill you or lead to a very bad day the next day. The ground is very, very cold, just about the world over, at night. That's why sleeping bags worth a damn force a cushion of air between you and the ground - or you can use a hammock. Sleeping on the ground directly is something absolutely zero experienced campers do.
Good counterpoint to a good point.
Ooh... this is getting good. 🍿
I feel like I'm learning real life survival lessons here.
Let's keep this going. 😉👍🏾
Bedrolls have been around since 1e days. It was just assumed you bought one, but there wasn’t really any mechanical benefit or penalty attached to it. Though I want to say there was an option to buy nicer bedrolls in 2e that might have given you a boost — Aurora’s Whole Realms Catalog had lots of weird stuff to buy.
That said, if you’re going to homebrew a rule that you need a bedroll, you could always let people buy different quality versions that could allow small benefits. Like a the PHB version does the job, but is nothing extra. But a really good bedroll gives you advantage on your first initiative check of the day. Just price it like a common magic item.
You could check out Rime of the Frostmaiden for some rules about dealing with cold climates (and things like avalanches and blizzards), and maybe adapt them to whatever climate you’re using for your campaign. There’s not a lot there, but it’s a start.
I wish the PHB would take character size into account when it comes to equipment weight. A gnome bedroll should not weigh as much as a human's. Same with armor... a half-size suit of armor should weigh much less than a human-size one. Luckily in my game we pretty much ignore encumbrance as long as everyone is being reasonable.
Good point.
Maybe we should ask for that change.
I believe DND Beyond has a new site to post feedback but not sure if that would necessarily get to Wizards of The Coast.
Simply put, you should ask yourself, "Does this rule/feature add interesting gameplay/roleplay?" If not, then it may not be a good idea.
NOTE: I specifically mean INTERESTING gameplay. Not EASIER or HARDER gameplay. Just INTERESTING.
If imposing penalties on sleeping in armor encourages players to seek more comfortable ways to rest, that could lead to some interesting situations, such as an ambush where the heavy-armor-tank has to resort to battle without said armor.
If forcing your players to take into account their food and water needs makes them think carefully about their travel routes, it can make Rangers/Druids/Paladins feel more valuable (hunting/summoning for food), as well as lead to situations where your players decide to take a "shortcut" through the woods and run into a pack of monsters.
If you give large amounts of magic items to players, and impose encumbrance, your players may have to be willing to abandon some gear or perhaps purchase/"borrow" a horse or mule.
Interesting gameplay, more often than not, is fun gameplay.
But when that gnome and that human can have the same str score, it puts humans (and all larger creatures) at a serious disadvantage. And the encumbrance issue ends up evening out in other areas. For example, while gnomes might get screwed on their armor weight, it doesn't make sense that a gnome and human have the same reach, but they do, so there, the gnome is coming out ahead.
Older editions used to make much bigger distinctions between PC sizes. Equipment for small creatures was lighter, but they had a lower carrying capacity. There were changes to your AC and to-hit when fighting creatures of different sizes. It just ended up being more stuff to track. There was some more "realism" but I don't remember it making the game any more fun.
The biggest thing you'll see is once put into an actual game does it impacts the flow and will it take away from the fun by making extra rolls or extra conditions for well... a bedroll and rest.
Very quickly you'll see how these realistic rules really impact the gameplay for the players if a penality does occur. It's easy enough to adjust once you get a good idea of how it plays out in the game but I'd make sure you are open to making changes if the 'fun' starts to be taken away from the players.
You just do not want the players to go "Ah, man. It's bedtime what do we do now? Which dice do I roll? Wait did the rogue get the only comfortable spot in the dungeon?"
I think all of the general adventuring kits come with a bedroll so nobody should be without one.
If the party somehow loses their equipment - that's an entirely different conversation, you have to ask yourself if the loss of bedrolls will progress the adventure.
I think a success on a Survival check would provide a safe and comfortable place to rest regardless of bedrolls (see the bajillion survival, man vs nature shows).
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
😂 your last few lines killed me
Yeah, I get what you’re saying as the overarching point of the game is for everyone to have fun
Thanks for the tips 🙏🏾
The thing is I’ve excluded the choice between choosing equipment or gold & strictly having my players roll for their gp
It kind of forces them to spend their gold wisely
I did this to kind of get a gauge of what kind of people they were & also to remind them that this game will be rooted in “realism” or as much as possible
For instance, one friend purchases medium armor, a shield & 4-5 weapons (none of them ranged)… went over budget & was encumbered
I asked her how she plans on carrying the weapons & what will she sleep on, how will she eat, how will she climb up a mountainside, etc.
Her response: “Oh… I gotta buy that stuff too?”
My response: 😏
They must have had a super-low Strength. You can carry Strength times 15 pounds without being encumbered. Normally you can't go below an 8 score. That's 120 pounds of gear.
<Insert clever signature here>
I believe the first level of encumbrance is 5x your strength which would then reduce your speed by 10 ft.
I could be wrong but I’ll double check right now