TL;DR:
The Problem:
Long resting is a very important aspect of BG3. Mechanically, long resting is tied to replenishing resources, as spell slots and other in-game resources are replenished only when taking a long rest. Naturally, this encourages players to take long rests when they are out of resources, or near to it. Furthermore, the story telling of the game doubles down on this idea that long rests should be used sparingly by constantly emphasizing time-sensitive plot lines. Even the underlying premise of the game pushes this sense of time-urgency: the player is imminently going to turn into a mind flayer, unless they resolve the tadpole issue quickly. A number of other seemingly time-sensitive events are introduced throughout the game later on and further help to enforce this idea that bad things will happen if you long rest too much.
Quite the opposite proves to be true, however, as most of the narrative content in the game is tied behind long resting early and often. A lot of companion or main story narratives are only triggered when the party makes camp for the night. What makes it worse is that the number of narrative events that can occur each night is capped at one. This means that, if the player has progressed far enough within the span of an in-game day where multiple narrative events can trigger, only one of them can be played out when the player makes camp for the night, and the remainders are left in a queue to wait to be played the next time the player makes camp. This sounds good in theory, however, if the player continues on with the story before making camp for the night and resting again, it is likely for them to trigger even more narrative events that get stuck behind the ones that are already queued up. If this continues for a number of in-game days, the queue can get so large that, by the time the character leaves the Act those narrative events are tied to or even finishes the game before they take the required number of long rests to clear the queue, the player will miss out on story content altogether.
For the main story points, this isn't very problematic as they tend to take priority over more optional narrative scenes. When it comes to advancing a companion's non-essential narrative, however, it can be quite frustrating because if the player does not long rest enough, they may miss out on important parts of their companion character's development. One method of preventing this from happening that is common on this sub is to "spam" long rests, in which the player will take a long rest solely for the story elements that may be tied to it, then upon waking up the next morning, immediately take another long rest, or multiple others, for the same reason. This feels not only like a waste of resources, as it replenishes spell slots and other resources that haven't even been spent yet, but also directly contradicts the time-urgency that the plot of the game so preciously sets up.
Locking narrative events behind the long-rest mechanic when it also serves as the only reliable method to restore player resources punishes the player for being too resource-efficient in their encounters, and actually rewards players that deplete their resources more quickly. As a player, expending your resources more quickly results in taking long rests more frequently, and consequentially, allows a greater number of narrative events to be encountered throughout the game. In contrast, if a player is efficient in the use of the resources that are given to them and also takes heed of the games story telling in that time is of the essence, they will take less long rests throughout the course of the game and run the risk of missing valuable narrative content.
This is a backward-reward mechanism. In videogames, it is universally considered that being more efficient with the resources at your disposal and being able to accomplish more with less is a good thing. Its the separating difference between a good player and a bad player. Here is an over-simplified example: all players are given xyz resources, but Player A is able to accomplish more than Player B while utilizing the same xyz resources. The results of this would indicate that Player A is a better player than Player B. This is how videogames (and basic efficiency in anything, really) work, and why more efficient players are often rewarded over less-efficient players. It makes no sense that the more efficient players be punished by missing out on story content in BG3.
The long-rest-dependent narrative elements aren't a problem in of themselves, however. In fact, from a story telling standpoint, it makes sense that a lot of these narrative events occur in the player's camp at night.
The problem isn't that player resources being replenished are tied to long rests, either. The game needs a mechanic of limited resources that can only be replenished sparingly, otherwise the game would be too easy.
The problem isn't even that the game narratively pushes you toward time urgency. This is an important plot element that helps raise the stakes.
The problem is this: the number of narrative events that can occur every long rest is capped at one narrative event per long rest.
The Solution:
The solution is really simple. Like stupidly simple. And this is it: remove the cap of one narrative event per long rest in favor of allowing multiple narrative events to be played out each long rest.
This would accomplish a few very important things:
1. It would allow more of the story's plot points to occur over a fewer number of in-game days, which better fits the time-sensitivity that is baked into the game's main plot line and side plots.
2. It would remove the feeling of being punished if the player does not take enough long rests, which at times can feel like the player is being punished for being too good at the game.
3. It would make it a lot easier for the player to experience more of the narrative events of the story, and make it a lot more difficult to accidentally miss out on important cut scenes.
4. It would eliminate the need to take long rests solely for the sake of advancing the narrative and not for replenishing game resources, which feels backward and totally against both the game's mechanics and also the time-urgency built into its story.
Obviously, certain long rests would still require only one narrative event be played out during them, namely the Goblin or Tiefling party long rest in Act 1, the long rest when transitioning between the Act 2 zone and the Act 3 zone, and I'm sure a few others that I can't quite recall right now. For the most part, however, there is almost no reason why a generic long rest can't have multiple narrative events play out on the same night. Why can't I both have a dream, and then also be woken up by a certain companion in the middle of the same night? This solution just makes too much sense.
I'd love to hear what others think about this idea, perhaps there are some major downsides that I have completely missed altogether. Feel free to comment, critique, criticize, and share your opinions.
