That is absurdly too long to have anyone bedridden and out of commission in a game.

And we've gone over that in other threads anyhow.

Even high level characters would not be down quite that long. Though depending on the system they could be down white a bit.

In BX is was 1d3 HP per day. A fighter level 10 would have on average 42 HP.  Or with con bonuses 51, 60 or 69. So they could be down anywhere from a little under a month to a little over a month to a little over a month and a half on average.

In AD&D it was 1 hp per day. and con bonus or penalty at the end of each week. And fully healed at the end of 4 weeks (28 days) An AD&D Fighter had on average at level 10 a total of 51 hp without con bonus. and upwards of 91 with an 18 con. Even at 1 hp/day and no full heal at 4 weeks theyd only be down about a month and 3/4ths at dead average no con bonus - to just about a month for that 18 CON fellow. (due to the speedier recuperation from the con bonus). Even removing the con bonus theyd be down only about 3 months max.

Now 5e with its glut of HP you could end up down quite a while with the AD&D. A level 10 Fighter could have anywhere from on average 55 HP to 105 HP with a 20 con. Using 1 hp/day and +con/week that would be anywhere from a month and three quarters again to about 2 months due to the CON bonus. (4 months at level 20)

The DMG variant only stretches a full heal out to a week. Which to me feels to short. Though 5es HP are even more exhaustion/stamina than prior. One player suggested just getting rid of long rests, and extending short rests to 8 hours and just spending a single HD+CON bonus. Haven't had a chance to test that out yet.

Quote from: Omega;1072680With the death of my sister

My condolences, I'm sorry to hear that. 'Hope you're doing ok with everything!



@Others shame on you all for not showing just a little bit of compassion to the OP! This forum sometimes, I swear...

Quote from: Omega;1072680So does anyone actually enforce lifepans of PCs and NPCs? If so. How much or how little? Seems alot of DMs ignore that. Or the nature of a campaign is such that it never becomes an issue?

Well, in my new setting, Orcs live into their 50s and 60s given a somewhat peaceful life -- less because of natural lifespan and more because of stuff that has mutated them in the setting. Humans live standard lifespans into their 80s and 90s. If I were to enforce these guidelines, I'd just have the players roll after some time has passed (before and after a Scenario, most likely). In fact, I may even design a sub-mechanic around this very thing, I'll see if it fits.

It also is very uncommon for PCs to ever experience their sunset years due to the nature of running RPG campaigns. Compared to real-life, life is quite cheap in RPGs, dying before 40 (even 30!) is quite common regardless of setting (accounting for genre-specific species lifespans, obvs).

Quote from: Omega;1073060That is absurdly too long to have anyone bedridden and out of commission in a game.

Why do you assume that the time must represent being bedridden and out of commission? Long rests are not only about healing. Consider the time that professional boxers spend preparing for a title fight; consider the time that might be needed to find a suitable adventuring objective, to procure the proper equipment and to travel there; consider the time to prepare spells and replace potions (in our OD&D house rules, we expected the time to prepare spells to take, by spell level, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15 etc. hours, and that this was at the rate of 8 hours per day, so a wizard would take almost three weeks to completely replace their prepared spells - plus any time spent on spells cast during the preparation time).