u/Tokomagi

TLDR: Players messed up their resources on the first 2 encounters. I want to educate them on resource management but also not take away from the fun.

Hi all. I recently started running WDH for a party of 4. One person in the group is experienced in DnD, one is experienced in games & BG3 but the other 2 are inexperienced in the game. I am running the Alexandrian Remix. We just played through the gang brawl and the Troll + Stirges. I ended the session with Volo greeting them and saying he has a proposition for them.

During the combat encounters of the last session, they used most of their resources. Despite Durnan's prompts (which I repeated twice), some of them chose to focus on the troll rather than leaving it to Durnan and dealing with the stirges. They also used some resources during the gang fight as well. The bard even cast Tasha's on a fleeing bandit (I don't know if she felt she needed to stop him or if it was just for fun). By the end of the fight, they were all assuming they were going to get a long rest afterward. The experienced ranger player even urged the newbie paladin to "smite the shit out of the troll".

Here is my conundrum, the mission Volo hands out is obviously time sensitive and they have the Zhent hideout and more importantly the sewers + a boss fight on their hand. They have now depleted most of their resources and should definitely learn to manage them more effectively, especially in a campaign like WDH. So I feel like there should be at least some consequences to face. However as I've said some of them are newbie players and I don't want to make the first chapter a harrowing experience for them that puts the game itself in a negative light.

What I have considered:

1. Leveling them up now and tuning the next 2 encounters slightly to accommodate. This way they can get some tiny amount of extra resources & capabilities. (Edit: They are level 1 now)
2. Retconning a little bit to have Volo show up the next day. (I already had Volo greet them at the end of the session so I would have to actively retcon)
3. Relax the timing aspect of the mission a little bit. Say that the Yawning Portal encounters took place in the afternoon and the players can take a rest and go to the Docks Ward (I think the Docks ward mission merits nighttime for the proper vibe)
4. Give them a choice to rest or carry on. If they rest, there will be some consequences, albeit not as major as losing Floon. (Maybe even play off the warehouse being raided and Floon being taken as them being too late).

I am looking forward to reading about how you would handle this situation.