Partially respawning dungeons

[Bhazor]

I adore the idea of per rest abilities/spells. The idea of carefully building my spell book, planning out what I'm most likely to face is one of my favourite parts of PnP rpgs. Likewise the tension of deciding whether to cast that level 4 room clearing fireball or to save it for the big bad. It is honestly one of the biggest things I miss from the IE days. Something that has been largely forgotten in favour of cooldowns.

 

However, just like in the IE games the execution is too exploitable. Too many dungeons let you just run back to surface, rest, then return right back where you started. Meaning you can just spam per rest abilities so long as you don't mind running through five loading screens to the nearest inn after every fight. This is at its worst in the Endless Paths where the "inn" is right outside the short cut. What should be a long hard fought epic quest becomes a chain of disconnected fights broken up by back tracking.

 

My suggestion is an extension of the camping supply system. You can rest a limited number of times in the dungeon and nothing will change. However, if you rest outside the dungeon, the dungeon will partially respawn with appropriate monsters/encounters. A bandit fort will get reinforcements, wild animals will wander in to caves, the animancer will revive those ghasts you killed etc. The idea is to force the party to push onwards and learn to pace themselves rather than exploiting the system. Because leaving means having to fight your way back in rather than just running through an empty echoing hall. Large dungeons such as Endless Paths would have check points of a sort, secret exits where the party could leave to the inn and would be able to reenter at the mid point or bonus camping supplies dotted along on the path.

 

Are there any games that have implemented a similar system?

Edited April 5, 2015 by Bhazor

[Caerdon]

If you want to exploit the system by running constantly between the dungeon and the inn, then by all means, go ahead. No one cares. You can play the game any way you want to.

 

The inconvenience of doing so, however, is enough for most of us to resist the temptation of rest spamming, which keeps the game fresh and exciting. Honestly, I don't see any need for what you're suggesting.