Do you go to the dungeon?

Fast Forage

This is a much faster system for D&D 5e for finding food and water in the wilderness that's designed to give similar results as the original system.

The first day is a little bit slower and more fiddly, but then each additional day is super fast, until the party composition changes or if the terrain changes (which changes the DC).

Go around the table and ask everyone for their Wisdom (Survival) check modifier and also ask for the just plain wis mod component of that. (Generally you need the former to find out whether they find anything, and the latter to find out how much they find.)

Then for each person, find the number from the tables below.

For "Modified DC", take the DC of the terrain, and substract the character's check modifier except the wis part

For example someone has wis +2, prof +3, and expertise so their check is +8 and she is in a DC 15 area? 15–6 is 9 so that means that you should cross reference 9 and 2 on these tables, and find a 4.

If they are consistently using Guidance, Bardic Inspiration and similar, subtract the average of those rolls. Round down if there's just one die. I.e. a d4 is 2, a d8 is 4, but both is 7.

For advantage and for (PHB-style) Favored Terrain there are separate tables.

Different characters are going look at different rows and maybe even different tables.

Normal edition

Modified DC↓|wis mod -5|-4|-3|-2|-1|±0|+1|+2|+3|+4|+5 -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|- 1|0|0|0|1|2|4|4|6|6|8|8 2|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|6|6|8|8 3|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|6|6|8|8 4|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|8|8 5|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|8|8 6|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8 7|0|0|0|1|2|2|3|4|6|7|8 8|0|0|0|1|2|2|3|4|5|6|8 9|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|4|5|6|7 10|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|4|5|6|7 11|0|0|0|1|1|2|2|3|4|5|6 12|0|0|0|1|1|2|2|3|4|5|6 13|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|4|4|6 14|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|2|3|4|5 15|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|2|3|4|5 16|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|3|4 17|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|2|3|4 18|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|1|2|3|3 19|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|2|3 20|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|3 21|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|2 22|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|2 23|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1 24|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1

Advantage edition

Modified DC↓|wis mod -5|-4|-3|-2|-1|±0|+1|+2|+3|+4|+5 -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|- 1|0|0|0|1|2|4|4|6|6|8|8 2|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|6|6|8|8 3|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|6|6|8|8 4|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|8|8 5|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|8|8 6|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8 7|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8 8|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8 9|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8 10|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8 11|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8 12|0|0|0|1|2|2|3|4|5|7|8 13|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|4|5|6|7 14|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|4|5|6|7 15|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|4|5|6|7 16|0|0|0|0|1|2|2|3|4|5|6 17|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|4|5|6 18|0|0|0|0|0|1|2|2|3|4|5 19|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|4|5 20|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|2|2|3|4 21|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|2|3|4 22|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|3 23|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|2 24|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|2 25|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1

Favored terrain edition

Modified DC↓|wis mod -5|-4|-3|-2|-1|±0|+1|+2|+3|+4|+5 -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|- 1|0|0|1|3|5|7|9|11|13|15|17 2|0|0|1|3|4|7|9|11|13|15|17 3|0|0|1|2|4|6|9|11|13|15|17 4|0|0|1|2|4|6|8|10|13|15|17 5|0|0|1|2|4|6|8|10|12|15|17 6|0|0|1|2|4|5|7|9|12|14|17 7|0|0|1|2|3|5|7|9|11|14|16 8|0|0|0|2|3|5|6|8|10|13|15 9|0|0|0|2|3|4|6|8|10|12|14 10|0|0|0|1|2|4|5|7|9|11|14 11|0|0|0|1|2|4|5|7|8|10|13 12|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|6|8|10|12 13|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|6|7|9|11 14|0|0|0|1|2|2|4|5|6|8|10 15|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|4|6|8|9 16|0|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|7|8 17|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|5|6|8 18|0|0|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5|7 19|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|3|4|6 20|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|2|3|4|5 21|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|2|3|4 22|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|1|2|3 23|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|2|3 24|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|2 25|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1

Both advantage and favored terrain

Modified DC↓|wis mod -5|-4|-3|-2|-1|±0|+1|+2|+3|+4|+5 -|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|- 1|0|0|1|3|5|7|9|11|13|15|17 2|0|0|1|3|5|7|9|11|13|15|17 3|0|0|1|3|5|7|9|11|13|15|17 4|0|0|1|3|5|7|9|11|13|15|17 5|0|0|1|3|5|7|9|11|13|15|17 6|0|0|1|3|5|7|9|11|13|15|17 7|0|0|1|3|4|6|8|11|13|15|17 8|0|0|1|2|4|6|8|10|12|15|17 9|0|0|1|2|4|6|8|10|12|14|17 10|0|0|1|2|4|6|8|10|12|14|16 11|0|0|1|2|3|5|7|9|11|14|16 12|0|0|1|2|3|5|7|9|11|13|15 13|0|0|0|2|3|4|6|8|10|13|15 14|0|0|0|1|3|4|6|8|10|12|14 15|0|0|0|1|2|4|5|7|9|11|14 16|0|0|0|1|2|3|5|6|8|10|13 17|0|0|0|1|1|3|4|6|8|10|12 18|0|0|0|0|1|2|3|5|7|9|11 19|0|0|0|0|0|1|2|4|6|8|10 20|0|0|0|0|0|1|2|3|5|7|9 21|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|2|4|5|7 22|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|2|4|6 23|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|3|5 24|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1|3 25|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|2

What to do with those numbers

So in the previous step you shoulda looked up one number per party member. Add them together and look up a dice expression in the following table.

Total|Expression -|- 0|1d4–3 1|1d4–2 2|1d4–1 3|2d4–2 4|2d6–3 5|3d6–5 6|3d6–4 7|4d6–7 8|4d6–6 9|5d6–8 10|5d6–7 11|6d6–10 12|6d6–9 13|7d6–11 14|7d6–10 15|8d6–13 16|8d6–12 17|9d6–14 18|9d6–13 19|10d6–16 20|10d6–15 21|11d6–17 22|11d6–16 23|12d6–19 24|12d6–18 25|13d6–20 26|13d6–19 27|14d6–22 28|14d6–21 29|15d6–23 30|15d6–22

So if they end up with a total of 10, instead of everyone making forage checks, just have one of them skip the d20 and just roll 5d6–7, that's how much food they find. A separate roll for water. It's always possible to find zero.

"But what if something weird happens so that one character is temporarily sick and can't forage" — well, yes, that's when then whip out the normal rules for that day.