I highly dislike "per X" resource based design, e.g. per rest / per encounter. I prefer resources with a variety of ways that can raise/loser, but mostly just lower, to band those—and let resource regen tie to time/rest/etc.
How do you avoid it in your designs, or how do you embrace if it you enjoy that sort of design?
@lee_quadkorps I tend to like straight forward pacing rather than event [per rest/encounter] triggered. Ala World of Darkness with per scene or time segment. It's a very intuitive and simple pacing tool with minimal bookkeeping.
I'm a fan of "per X" where X is something determined by the particular needs of the game, as it gives the game what I think of as a heartbeat. That heartbeat can then be adjusted as needed.
To take two examples, Vampire the Masquerade and Werewolf the Apocalypse are popular TTRPGs originally by White Wolf. As the titles suggest, in the first you play a vampire and in the second you play a werewolf. Several mechanics in the first game have a "per night" heartbeat, because vampires are nocturnal. Several mechanics in the second game have a "per lunar month" heartbeat, because werewolves are linked to the moon. This ties the mechanics to the fantasy in a way that feels very natural.
@passenger ooh, I see! The heartbeat is a good way to think of it and perhaps part of why iDislyke it in d&d. Long Rests aren't the heartbeat of most of my campaigns, they're an incidental period of time the PCs are forced to go carve out.
@lee_quadkorps@passenger I think another thing is that it's unusually not abstracted and an area where less abstraction can be more efficient & easy to grasp.
A long rest or encounter is distinctly a game segment. In contrast, a scene or session is intuitive & natural, while discrete quanta of time passage is unabstracted and easy to grasp. An hour of Dominate control is an hour of control. Questions about the value of that hour are answered in spending it. It's all very direct.