Comfort/Discomfort Resting System for OSR-style TTRPG (Ft. Magic Items and Character Features)
Game assumptions: HP represents one's ability to avoid being physically harmed ("grit" or "luck"), not the ability to carry on despite wounds ("meat points" or "life"); HP is relatively low; the game focuses on equipment and resource use
Resting restores 1 HP per hit die that cannot be reduced by mundane discomforts.
You also regain 1 HP per comfort indulged in. For many, this may include comforting aromas, good food, good company, and whatever makes sense so long as they fit such a broad category.
You can only gain 1 HP per kind of comfort you have; comforts of the same kind (e.g. food, drinks, conversation) only ever count for 1 HP. Exceptions can be made for particularly luxurious resources, like the finest wines or the steam of holy water.
Discomforts, such as pests, stench, cold winds, distant screams, etc., may negate one comfort each. To have more comforts than discomforts, players should think creatively (Mulling wine with pieces of dryad bark, using rope and a sleeping bag to make a hammock) and dedicate resources to making their rests more beneficial (Spending gold on blessed water, committing downtime to learn music). Magic items and character features may also play a role in this, see examples at the bottom.
Certain species may have different comforts/discomforts: raw meat, being wet or muddy, natural lighting, beating walls… Use your best judgment here.
Example of play:
A party of three have holed up in the bowels of an ancient crypt to rest. It’s dirty and the moans of the dead are audible: 2 discomforts to make up for.
The Fighter (⅙ HP) brought along a wheel of cheese they can all eat, which will count for 1 comfort. The Magic-User (2/4 HP) has tobacco to share and anatomical knowledge enough to be a decent masseuse, which he’ll put to use for his fellows: 1 comfort for all (Tobacco), 1 more for the others (massage). While the Burglar (4/5 HP) keeps an eye out, she will regale her comrades with funny stories from the criminal underworld, 1 comfort.
On top of regaining 1 HP from their HD, there are 4 comforts for the Fighter and Burglar, subtracting 2 discomforts from that they heal 3 HP. The Magic-User, enjoying only 3 comforts vs 2 discomforts, only heals 2 HP.
After resting, the Fighter is at 4/6 HP, Burglar is at 5/5 HP, and MU at 4/4 HP. Much more fit to adventure now!
Relevant Features and Magic Items
- Gift of Gab: Whenever this character leads comforting talk during rest, the party heals 2 HP from it. Also, +1 CHA
- Cave-Adapted: Sunlight is a discomfort for you, but the climate and crampedness of a cave is never a discomfort for you
- Holy Water: Not only does this melt demons and undead, the steam of 1 pint boiled away acts as a 1 HP comfort for most characters and wards off 1 discomfort related to demons and the undead
- Island Lotus (As featured in Homer’s best-seller The Odyssey): Eating this during rest will heal 3 HP and lets you ignore any discomforts, but you have to make a save (Wisdom, Vs. Spells, Willpower, etc.) to stop resting. After 3 failed saves total, your only desire will be to lounge and eat more lotus.