Resting should only happen at specific camp sites you have to travel to. If you rest some generic enemies should repopulate areas you’ve cleared. This makes distance traveled feel more real.
This fixes literally everyone’s complaint. No ones going to trek back to a campsite unless they really have to. However, if you get some bad rolls and get your ass kicked, you can travel back, no artificial timer keeping perpetuating how long you’re in dire straits. But some monsters will repopulate, so it’s not just a refresh button.
Given the number of bedrolls I accidentally get into while looting I hope this is already on the works.
Maybe even throw in some possible unintended consequences like food spoiling, supplies being stolen/or found, a rare creature encounter, a nighttime ambush by a faction you pissed off. Nothing complex.
I object to "the should only happen" but I don't know whether you meant it that way. There should be a possibility of rest in the wilderness depending on how good you are at making camp (investigate the area (investigation & survival skill challenge) and if you are out of food you could check the surroundings for food with a perception and nature challenge.
repopulation is a very pc-gamey way to deal with cleared out areas. if we only talk in game difficulty and no-cheese solutions to this problem, you could always just disallow the rest. if you think that restricts player agency and doesn't feel in-world - so does a magical repopulation by the same monsters that won't seem to care that their kin was slaughtered. a cleared out area where no you are the danger should be relatively save for rest bar some roaming encounter.
