Resources

Resources are an important part of Olde School gaming, the most important part, according to some. Many game elements revolve around resource management. Wandering monsters harry the characters, wasting spells, wand charges, and hit points. Traps force them to find a different, usually longer, way to their objective, which can mean more wandering monster checks. Traps and wandering monsters are also typically treasure light, so you don't even get a decent reward for defeating them. Several of these in a row by a party that tarries or consistently finds the wrong rooms can even lead to the death of one or more characters.

Recent iterations of D&D have eschewed 'save or die' effects for a similar reason. No one wants to lose a character to a string of bad rolls, but even less so to one bad roll. But here is the problem: from that same side of the argument, we also hear that raise dead and the like are too cheap, to where it is only a minor speed bump for mid- to higher level characters. Hence, it was hard coded into the new rules that death is a minor speed bump at higher levels. Bringing someone back from death was a minor inconvenience, with a moderately steep price tag. Now, even the price isn't all that steep.

There are many effects under the 'save or die' rubric, naturally, including petrification and the like, where you aren't killed outright, but certainly aren't in the action anymore. Few effects short of a deck of many things or certain artifact level powers will outright permanently kill a character. There is a chance you could fail your resurrection survival roll, and Constitution placed a hard limit on the number of times you could be raised. Death was supposed to be so harrowing, in fact, a point of Constitution was to be deducted permanently for each raising. I recall our group didn't deduct the point, but we did keep the number of previous raises in mind. Naturally, if your group wasn't keeping track of the to hit bonuses for certain weapons versus AC, or the weapon speed of their ranseur, checking for resurrection survival was likely forgotten by the wayside as well.

And why not? Taking the broader view, 'save or die' was just another resource to manage. You weren't earning xp while the others hauled your carcass around, and just try to argue for a full share of treasure when your big contribution for half the adventure was 300lbs less gold to haul away. I don't see it really matters how often someone gets raised, really. In and of itself, that will act as its own penalty on advancement, without having the possibility of permanent retirement. Perhaps keep the hard limit on the number of times they can be raised, just so they don't get careless. Unless your DM was a complete hardcase, there really wasn't a lack of money, so it would be difficult limiting things that way.

I don't find resources like money or land to be very effective limitations anyway. Why would anyone want to be an adventurer if they were getting the equivalent of a 5gp per month stipend? When your income is no better than a common labourer's, the incentive to go out tomb raiding is lacking. Naturally, you want to make sure players don't haul out enough to demolish the economy of any region smaller than a kingdom, but fistfuls of gold are the best reason to kick the dust of the farm off your boots and pick up a sword. Severely limiting gold is worse than limiting magic items.

Raise Dead and Resurrection are both spells, of course, which are another resource. Once the party Cleric can cast those, you no longer have to seek out a town, but you still need a pile of diamonds on hand. So, it isn't really simple matter of just casting a spell to retrieve the character from the last save point. Depending on the adventure at hand, they may not even be the best choice for spells.

As any Magic User or Cleric player will tell you, spell selection can make or break the adventure. This is another resource that must be carefully monitored, as the daily selection of spells is pretty limited until somewhere above mid-level. Naturally, this is what makes playing a spell-caster so attractive for a certain type of player. It is probably one of the longest range strategy elements in Olde School play, and requires careful deliberation. There is no perfect mix of spells that will get the party out of every situation. Non-spellcasters have to monitor their hit points and ammunition, which can be as detailed, but rather more immediate.

With the power creep that seems to invariably follow each new release, these kinds of resource management seem to be progressively stripped away. For myself, the resource management is precisely what keeps me interested in Olde School games. It can get too fiddly at times, but nothing beats hashing out spells, torches and wineskins as a party while preparing for the assault on the well defended subterranean financial opportunity. It largely defines the 'game' part of role-playing game for me. It is also what I find distinctly lacking in most current RPG design.