Depleting Resources

Managing resources in Dungeons & Dragons is a drag. This is a drop-in system to easily handle depleting resources without having to do lots of micro-managed paperwork.

The Resource Die

Instead of always knowing exactloy how much of a particular expendable resource you have, instead, simply use a resource die. The value of the die represents how much of that item you have. If it’s a lot, maybe you start out with a d12 or d20. If it’s not very much, maybe you start out with a d4 or d6.

After each long rest, a PC that uses a depletable resource – and has used an amount of that resource since their last long rest – must roll on their resource die. If the roll fails, the resource die changes to the next lowest denominator (e.g. a d12 drops to a d10, a d8 drops to a d6, and so on). On a successful roll, the DC to beat on the resource die roll increases by 1, similar to a wild magic roll for sorcerors.

Example

Dean is a Gunslinger who uses black powder for his guns. He also has a limited amount of bullets which he must craft himself during his downtime. The DM has determined that he is starting out with a d10 resource die. At the end of his long rest, after a day fighting dinosaurs in the jungle, he must roll his resource die for both his black powder and his bullets. He rolls a 4 for his black powder, but a 1 for his bullets. He used a lot of bullets yesterday and his supply is running low. His resource die for bullets is now a d8 and the DC after his next long rest for bullets will be reset to 1. On the other hand, he still has a good supply of black powder left, but the DC for his next black powder resource roll will be 2.

Keeping Track

On your character sheet, you should make sure to note which resources are depletable, the resource die for each, and what the DC is currently so it’s easy to remember after each long rest. After failing a resource roll on a d4, the character has run out of that resource and has none left.

Purchasing more of the resource will increase the resource die an amount determined by the DM based on the quantity the character was able to acquire.