I think the best Camping Resting suggestions were these:
1. Short Rest = time passes from Morning to Noon; Noon to Evening. You are out of Short Rests. After that, you cannot Short Rest again and can only Long Rest. This would require a Day/Night cycle of sorts; a transition of lighting, but it would show the progression of time based on Short Resting. No animations even needed, really. Just fade to black, and when it fades back the lighting has transitioned, indicating the passage of time. If there is a camp dialogue, it can be triggered during a Short Rest too, so that the player doesn't feel encouraged to Long Rest in order to see different dialogues. Each Short Rest should require some sort of Camping Supplies cost because according to D&D rules, Short Resting is about eating, drinking, tending to injuries and repairing armor/equipment. Although it should, based on original rules, only equal an hour or maybe two, this is a video game. A simple approach to the transition of time is probably best. I also think just doing away with the short rest button is good, making it so you have to interact with some sort of Short Rest Point on the map to take a short rest. Thus, not EVERY location allows for a short rest, so you don't just auto-heal when dangerous spiders are right above your head, as in the PFH we just watched. When I saw that, I was like, "Come on now! You aren't even trying to make this immersive, and you're just laughing about how ridiculous it is that you can even short rest while stealthing under vicious spiders that want to eat you. There are plenty of benches, chairs, etc. in the game that could be used as Short Rest Points.
2. Long Rest = Call it a day. Again, provide some sort of Long Rest Points on the maps and make them frequent enough that people aren't backtracking unless they absolutely need to, but not so frequent that people can just long rest after every battle. So, again, as said above, there are plenty of places throughout the map that someone could use as a Long Rest Point. Think of these as Save Points in old school video games. You select a bedroll or fireplace or campfire or whatever, and you and your party set up camp right there for the night. Game world transitions to night. Dialogues at camp can now be done. Camp Supplies are required, but more than Short Rests.
I agree with mrfuji3. Real-time clock is not very good to limit this kind of thing. In fact, it only highlights and accentuates time, making it stand out more than it should. Passage of time is best handled via the Resting system. If I Short Rest while at Waukeen's Rest after I trigger the "Save the Counselor" quest, by all the Nine, I've just let an hour or so go by. The Counselor should either escape on her own or die. The fire could still be burning after a short rest, but the people inside should be rescued or dead at that point, no thanks to you. That just makes common sense. You don't take an hour rest when there are people to save in a burning building. Certain events like these should have SOME sort of time constraints on them. It's your fault if you lock yourself out of the "Saving the Counselor" quest because you short or long rested AFTER triggering the quest. Until you trigger it, by no means should it be timed, but once you've triggered it, that puppy should be OVER if you rest.
That goes for other moments in the game. If I trigger Mayrina's quest, is the hag going to stick around waiting for me to casually make my way down to her lair? Should I be able to short or long rest while making my way down to confront her? If so, there should be something, at the very least, like Ethel saying, "By the Heavens, Child! Took you long enough. Fortunately for you, I'm enjoying our little game, so I was willing to wait for ya to saunter on down here. Sheesh! Takin' yer sweet time. It's only a girl and her baby's life on the line, but what do you care? Eh? Take a little rest, sleep for a bit. You've got all the time in the world." Just something to indicate the passage of time has meaning in the game.
