1. Setup activities: The players decide which characters prepare the campsite, fetch firewood, and fetch water. Any applicable rolls are made.
2. Camp activities: Characters may build a fire. Optionally, someone may try to cook a meal and someone may try to entertain the group. Any applicable rolls are made.
3. Watches through the night: Players may decide to set a series of watches through the night.
4. Wandering monsters: The Referee makes a check for a nighttime random encounter.
5. Sleep: Characters bed down for the night. Depending on conditions, a Constitution Check may be required to get a good night’s rest.
6. Waking up: Characters who slept well heal 1 HP. Spell-casters may prepare new spells for the day.

Groups desiring a quicker method of resolving campsite activities may rule that if the party has camping gear suitable for the weather conditions, they automatically succeed in getting a good night’s rest. The full procedure may be used in adverse conditions.

At least one character must remain at the campsite to clear away branches and rocks, set up tents and bedrolls, prepare a fire pit, and so forth.

Finding wood suitable for building a campfire (i.e. not damp, rotting, frozen, etc.) can be difficult and depends primarily on the weather.

Amount of wood: Each character who goes fetching wood can collect enough to keep a campfire burning for 1d6 hours.

Bad conditions: The Referee may apply situational modifiers to the roll for the amount of wood found, for example: –1 for damp conditions, –2 in snow, –4 in heavy rain.

Dolmenwood is riddled with little streams, pools, and springs, making it easy to find water suitable for drinking. Characters may refill any waterskins or other containers.

Given a means of producing flame (e.g. a tinder box, magic) and a stash of wood (either gathered from the forest or carried in packs), a character may build a fire. In normal conditions, fire building automatically succeeds.

Bad conditions: In troublesome circumstances, the Referee may rule that there is only a 4-in-6 (or worse) chance of successfully getting a fire going.

Given a fire, cooking pots, and ingredients (e.g. foraged food, fresh rations, hunted game), someone may cook a meal. The cook should make a Wisdom Check.

If the check succeeds: An especially tasty dish is produced. Those who eat the meal gain a +1 bonus to any Constitution Checks required to rest (see Sleep), due to their hearty supper.

If the check fails: A palatable but not exemplary dish is produced. On a natural 1, the cook must Save Versus Doom or produce a ruined and utterly inedible meal (burned, spilled, etc.), wasting the ingredients used.

Time spent around the fireside with one’s companions may lift the spirits and induce restful sleep. A character may attempt to entertain with music, song, stirring tales, jokes, and so forth. The entertainer should make a Charisma Check.

If the check succeeds: All characters gain a +1 bonus to any Constitution Checks required to rest (see Sleep).

If the check fails: The attempt to entertain falls flat. On a natural 1, the entertainer must Save Versus Doom or incur ridicule and discord, incurring a –1 penalty to any Constitution Checks required to rest (see Sleep).

Characters often establish a series of watches through the night, with at least one character remaining awake at all times. The following rules may be used to handle this.

Watch durations: The party’s rest period typically lasts around 8 hours, with 4 characters taking 2 hour watches during that time. Characters who sleep for less than 6 hours fail to get a good night’s rest (see Sleep).

Spell-casters: Characters whose sleep is interrupted by taking a watch have difficulty memorising or praying for spells the following morning. See Difficulty Preparing Spells.

Groups wishing to add an element of slapstick and danger may declare a basic 1-in-10 chance of each character falling asleep during their watch. Characters with Constitution 15 or higher have only a 1-in-20 chance of falling asleep, while characters with Constitution 6 or lower have a 1-in-6 chance.

If a character falls asleep on watch, this may throw off the whole sequence of watches, as the character does not wake the next person in line, and so on.

If an encounter occurs, all characters who are asleep are automatically surprised (see Encounters). This may mean that some characters in the party are surprised while others are not.

See Wandering Monsters for more information.

Checks: One check for wandering monsters is made per night. If a nighttime encounter is rolled, the Referee may randomly determine when during the night it occurs (e.g. during which character’s watch).

Chance: The chance of an encounter occurring depends on the type of terrain the party is camping in—see the Terrain Types table.

Creature: The Dolmenwood Campaign Book includes tables to determine the type of creatures encountered.

Distance: Wandering monsters are encountered 2d6 × 30′ away. If both sides are surprised (see Encounters), this is reduced to 1d4 × 30′.

In ideal conditions of warmth and comfort, characters rest peacefully and awake refreshed. Ideal conditions are not easy to come by when bedding down among the roots and bracken of the forest, however.

When camping in the wild, characters’ ability to get a good night’s rest is determined by their equipment (whether they have a bedroll and/or tent), their warmth (whether they have a campfire burning), and the season. See the Sleep Difficulty table.

Easy: The character gets a good night’s rest.

Moderate: The character must make a Constitution Check to get a good night’s rest.

Difficult: The character must make a Constitution Check with a –2 penalty to get a good night’s rest.

Impossible: The character fails to get a good night’s rest.

The character awakes refreshed by the primordial woodland airs, with the following effects:

Recuperation: The character heals 1 Hit Point.

The character rises grumpy, tired, and uncomfortable, with the following effects:

Exhaustion: The character is exhausted until they get a good night’s rest (see Exhaustion). Failure to properly sleep for multiple days incurs cumulative exhaustion penalties (–1 per day).

Difficulty preparing spells: For each spell the character attempts to memorise or pray for, there is a 1-in-6 chance of failure. If the roll fails, the attempt to memorise or pray for the spell fails—the spell slot remains empty and unusable this day.