Without any false modesty, I've had a stroke of pure genius regarding the resting system. Hear me out.
So, from the game mechanic's point of view, a long rest should be something you have to earn and can't spam. Otherwise, it breaks the balance between classes that restore resources on short vs long rest. It also makes sense from a roleplaying perspective - we are under constant threat of turning into Illithid scum. Just taking the rest of the day off after killing 2 lvl 1 goblins shouldn't be an option. Currently, the way that this "earning" of rest is implemented is through camp supplies. I shan't waste too many words deriding that system, I think we're all aware of its many inadequacies. A much better way of implementing this "earning" of rest would be by collecting Rest Points (TM).
What are these? I'm so glad you asked.
So, say that you start each day with 0 Rest Points, and you need to collect a 100 to do a long rest. When you get to 33 or 66, you can do a short rest. And how do you collect these? By playing the game, not by actually collecting anything. So, there would be 2 ways to earn Rest Points - by earning either Combat or Story Points, both of which translate 1:1 to Rest Points. So, basically, to do a long rest, you would need to get a combined 100 Combat and/or Story Points.
Combat Points are earned, obviously, by doing combat. The harder the encounter, the more Combat Points you get. So, say, perhaps Ethel or the Githyanki patrol would give a 100 points, enabling you to do a long rest right afterward. That also makes sense from the roleplaying perspective - these are boss fights you're not going to engage in willy-nilly in the middle of adventuring, your characters would want to spend a hefty part of the day preparing for these, and hence should be granted a rest afterward. Fighting the goblins to free the gnome strapped to the windmill might bring you, say, 35 Combat Points, enough to do a short rest. Killing the 2 goblins at the side entrance to the Blighted Village might bring, say, 5.
Story Points are earned in every way other than combat. So, discovering new areas, engaging in new conversations with NPCs, getting Inspiration points, taking or turning in quests or otherwise progressing the storyline, reading a new book (finally, a practical use for all these books lying around), crafting an item, etc. These are all things that take time, and doing them should bring you closer to nighttime and rest. Obviously, Story Points should be awarded far more sparingly than Combat Points, but having them reflects the fundamental truth that adventuring is more than just combat, and that you can have full adventuring days with barely any combat.
All of this also works really well with the fact that you can bypass combat encounters with conversation. If you do, you wouldn't get any Combat Points, but you'd get some Story Points. The amount could be based upon how difficult it is to avoid the fight, difficulty of ability checks during the conversation, or something to that effect. Which again makes perfect roleplaying sense - if you've spent half an hour talking your way out of the fight - you should receive the amount of Story Points reflecting this time passage and effort, and it should be lower than if you've spent 3 hours fighting the same foes.
Another unexpected benefit of implementing the rest system this way is that the rest system could be used to scale difficulty really well. Instead of buffing the HP of foes or other approaches which might be very hard to balance, you could simply increase or decrease the difficulty of the game by increasing or decreasing the number of Rest Points needed for short or long rest.
If you like this idea, please help me turn this thread into a hundred pages of "+1" comments so that it sticks to the top and Larian has no choice but to implement it. Thank you.
