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S3 Ep 7: Food, Water and Encumbrance...oh my. · Bards and Barrels

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Coming up on this episode of Birds and Barrels, food.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: What is good for absolutely nothing It was because I tried to do a left-handed film.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, look at that today.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's the first triple crack we've ever had.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Ah, that's beautiful.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: So look a mock of fellas.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: The tricrack.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Brett, how's it going today?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in the trick.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: So today we are talking about food, water, beer, and encumbrance.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not the beer, but food and water and meat.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Meat, ale.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: What else?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think they call it drink in the book, but we all know it's drink.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's ale.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_03: It is absolutely ale.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: Or mead, I guess.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So food and water.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Is it good for anything?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: In Dungeons and Dungeons and Dragons.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it depends who you ask.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we don't use it.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why would you?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think there's a time and a place and a campaign setting, perhaps.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: So hindsight is always 2020.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: And when I think back to running our descent into a Vernus campaign where you were literally traveling through uh one of the layers of the nine hells and would have had limited access to food and water, that I maybe should have used the rules for food and water, but I also didn't want to keep track of it, and didn't feel like you guys probably wanted to keep track of it, so I said, eh, screw it.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's fair.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's one of those things like if it fits, it fits, but if it doesn't, it's an annoyance.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like if we were going through a desert, or in this case advernus, like, yeah, that could have been fun, but we ended up getting into canter of endless water, and so done.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: I I I also struggle with the fact of like okay, today is starting.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: The sun has come up.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Now go hunt something that you need to eat today, or else you're going to you know what I mean?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's or you guys have to earn enough gold to purchase enough food, which I guess would be a good way for you not to just be able to use all your gold for fun stuff, and which is my weakness, obviously.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: But it it's it's like dealing with a minutia, right?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like no nobody really wants to do that.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: I feel I feel like food and water in DD is kind of like my drinking habits.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: It only comes up socially for the most part.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you go into a tavern, you need to buy somebody a drink, it shows up, or if you need to eat because you're there, you do it.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: But really, for the actual practicality of playing the game, it very rarely comes up for us.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the a little bit of the actual rules behind, let's start with food and drink.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, food, you need one pound of food per day to make uh, and you can make the food last longer by sustaining uh half rations.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but if you're not going through that much, you're ending up with exhaustion.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the exhaustion can cause everything from disadvantage on ability checks all the way up to uh reducing your speed, reducing your health point maximum, and then finally death.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Exhaustion can get pretty serious, like yeah if you don't take care of it.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: I I think that I like to operate as a DM under the assumption that you can provide food and water for yourself day in and day out.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: But I would say, like in harsh environments or something like that, that would be more challenging and could be worth tracking.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you were on like a nautical adventure and you had to potentially fish for your food in the middle of the ocean, like the ocean's kind of a desert of animals, so or of fish, so potentially that could even improve cause a problem.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: I think it I think there there's a couple ways you could play it.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: So the first one is like, you know, if if if much of your campaign is not in a climate or something like in a desert or in a Virtus or something like that, if you're hanging out in Baldur's Gate for most of your campaign or for large chunks of it or something, right?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_03: If you're staying at the Low Lantern, it's probably safe to assume that every night when you go back to the Low Lantern, you're probably eating.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, probably not worth worth tracking by any means.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_03: But if you're going on a nautical adventure or if you're going on a long adventure up into the mountains, if you don't want to track it, you could do something where like you need to purchase the supplies to last you however long you think you're gonna go.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: And so instead of tracking like day to day, you could be like, you have enough supplies to last you for a week, and then after that week, you gotta figure something out.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, much more like a ration style.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: I also think, too, uh you're kind of talking about this nautical adventure, and as much as I think like tracking this stuff I don't like doing, it kind of comes down to your players too.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like fishing in a nautical adventure could be a great role-playing opportunity, actually.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I kind of glance over that.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Those rangers actually have a purpose.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it'd be fun too to like throw in the occasional like sea monster while they're fishing, too, right?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: You could even create encounters around that.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I had never really given it a lot of thought.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So the other side of it is with water, you need one gallon of water per day, or two gallons per day if the weather is hot.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, like if you're going through a desert, that sort of thing.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but with all that food also comes encumbrance, which is another thing on how much can you carry, which is a similar but separate conversation a little bit, but they're kind of almost a little bit tied together too.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and then so this is one of those things where it's like uh when you wonder why fighters, paladins, those are the main two that come to mind, why they tell you to buff that strength score when you're rolling, is because you're probably proficient in plate armor, which is heavy.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: You may be carrying a shield and a great sword and all these things.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_03: So you need to be strong to do those.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: If you dump stat your strength and you're one of those, it's gonna be very hard to do those things and not be encumbered, and you're gonna hurt yourself in the long run if you're following the rules to do that.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, one of the reasons I think this kind of gets slumped with food and water is because a lot of people choose to just ignore it or just rely on beyond.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you're playing online, like you checked the little encumbrance box, do I ignore my coin weight or not?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yeah, and everyone just moves on.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think the really the only time this really comes into play is if you're stress testing it, stress testing it.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're trying to carry 13 kegs of gunpowder on your back, no little halfling is able to do that.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're not gonna have the strength to do that, probably.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: I would also say, so there's a published campaign, Storm King's Thunder, that a lot of the items in the campaign are giant-sized as well.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: And in those instances, like if you are looting a giant's fortress, right, you're only gonna be able to carry so much.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but that's where it comes into play.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in a normal quote unquote type of setting, normal, like fantasy average setting, average loot, average stuff, you're probably going to run into this a little bit later on once you accumulate a lot of junk on your character.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: But at that point, it's m I would almost just encourage your characters to sell off some stuff.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, you've got three sets of plate armor, sell one.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I think a a really good example of that is if you play Baldur's Gate 3.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: It's like if you have too much stuff in your pack, your speed drops because you're carrying too many things, and then your options are you either drop it or you sell it.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_03: Or use it.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: You could use it like as in consuming food or something like that, too.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: But that that's that's a really good way to visualize it, visualize it, especially if you play.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think and the actual rule is pretty close to that when you talk about encumbrance.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: So if you end up carrying weight that's in excess of five times your strength score, you are encumbered, and all that does to you is it reduces your speed by 10 feet, just drops it by 10 feet.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you carry more than 10 times your strength score, now you are heavily encumbered, and then your speed drops by 20 feet, but now you also have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use strength, decks, or constitution.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: So when you become heavily encumbered, it's a real deal.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: When you're just encumbered, you're just a little slow.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's really all it is, right?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're the movement, yeah.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm encumbered.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Ross, you were talking about um Baldur's Gate, and in Baldur's Gate, another factor that they have changed a little bit adapted uh for the video game is that when you're at a short or long rest, you need to eat food to regain your health.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a little bit of a difference.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you've if you're coming to DD from Baldur's Gate, that's a little bit different.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: You don't necessarily have to eat.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to eat to regain health in DD.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that's just the video game aspect of it.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like if you're going through the fight or you're in the middle of a fight, you can access your inventory and and replenish HP by eating food.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_03: Doesn't work as well in the middle of a DD game.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just like pictures taking an action like I eat a loaf of bread.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: Plus two, HP.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that would be an interesting home brew brew rule, though, is like if you're keeping track of your food and you're losing health and you take a full action in the middle of a battle to like replenish yourself, especially if you're a non-spellcaster.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: But isn't that just consuming a health potion?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it'd be the same thing.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we give it less, yeah, sure.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: Depending on which one.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it's very like Breath of the Wild of you.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: You could even like have them cook things to make the food give you more hit points.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: That's true.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_03: That's also true in Minecraft.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: Mushroom soup.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it's it's kind of one of those things where the if you don't really care as a DM or as a party, you can pretty easily get around this.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even in the the rules Phil's Phil was talking about, it's a what what did you think it's a variant, it's not actually just a base rule.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Encumbrance is not a base rule.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so very easy to ignore this setting, but also if you were a DM and were to happen upon a bag of holding, a bag of holding doesn't really have weight, uh, other than the weight of the bag, but anything inside of it doesn't count.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very easy to get around this if you want to.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Up to up to 500 pounds.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's an easy way to buff your party and not have to worry about this, but still semi-stay within the rules.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: I and there's other ways like like the bag of holding to get around it, like tensor's floating disc, I think, which is a wizard spell, can hold up to 500 pounds.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there's things like the belt of giant strength.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like there's some some magical items that can help you subvert that a little bit.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um if you're part of getting too complacent, don't just give them a bag of holding, give them a bag of devouring that looks like a bag of holding and see where that lands.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Fair.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: When somebody loses an arm or something like that.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: I can't make it too easy.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so what do you guys think about when to use it?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in a long-term campaign, is there a way to use these rules, use these rules in certain times, but then ignore them at other times?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're going into a desert, what do you think about telling your party, hey, we're going into a desert, you're gonna have to think about these things, and we're gonna enforce these rules during this time period?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's appropriate to do.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, as long as you give them a little bit of warning so they're not blindsided by it, just noting, like, hey, this is a harsh environment, you know, we're gonna follow these rules because it makes sense to.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think that the party would be, uh at least I know the party that we play with would probably be on board with that.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: It fits for that setting.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: I I love the idea of it being situational.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_03: I agree.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_03: Just because it it it like relieves you of like the constant having to deal with it while still being able to use it somewhere.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Ross, you were talking a little bit before we started about some of the veteran players that you've talked with and about how this is kind of like the level up.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, once you are very familiar with all of the spells, you're all familiar with pretty much all the monsters you've been playing for years and years, this is kind of a way to level up your game to add an additional level of scrutiny, detail, push upon your players.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I I think what that boils down to for them is like if if you remember back to the first time you played, or maybe this is your first time playing, like how much stuff there is to keep track of.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_03: I'm trying to figure out how to use spell slots, I'm trying to figure out what this spell means.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: Having to deal with food and water on top of that just seems like a royal pain in the butt.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but if you're an older player and like, like you said, I know all these spells.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: I don't need to reference rules.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: I I'm just playing my character.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: This gives me something to do that just adds a little bit of a level of difficulty to everything.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And immersion.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're especially if you're playing a sort of character that fits this really well, like a ranger, that would have some advantage on survival checks, would be able to cook their own food, like that could be fun to lean into.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_03: And you know what?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: I love the idea of immersion for that because it does make it feel like a real world.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_03: Because I'm gonna throw this one here, prepare yourselves.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_03: How many of us have pooped in our campaign?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Nobody.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Because why would you worry about that?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: If I'm not gonna worry about food, I'm definitely not gonna worry about taking a shit.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: So, but that but that's a good example.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: But if you want to become immersed to that level, you can add detail like that.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like your character has to stop on the road because this is a six-hour trip, and I gotta go find an oak to take a crap behind or something.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: You guys just wait for your next constitution check.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: Been holding it for two and a half years, man.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Finally failed that baby.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Alrighty.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, with that poop check, we're gonna call that the end of this episode of Bards and Barrels.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can listen to at the past episodes of the show anywhere a podcast can be found.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at Bars and Barrels.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: We'll catch you next time.