To Track or Not to Track

Way back in the beginnings of time, when my husband, our college friends and I roleplayed we usually didn't keep track of how much rations we had or other supplies unless we were trekking somewhere that might bring us short on our supplies.  But we had one GM that loved to know that stuff, so we dutifully kept track of rations, days, supplies, feed for horses, etc.  It was time consuming and worst of all the GM could use such information against us!

So as a GM you should think on these factors before tracking every little thing:
1) Is it relevant to game play?  Like crossing a desert.  There are penalties for not having enough water and supplies in this case, so it would be relevant. Traveling on a road where there is an inn every night, not so relevant.

2) Are you just doing it to be a pain in the rear?  We once had a player who liked to say he was living the high life, even though our GM rarely charged us for food/drink/inns.  Thus the GM turned around and started charging what this "High Life" would cost.  The player finally realized how much money he was losing and stopped living the said high life.  But we also had a GM who liked to make the men in the party pay for inns, but for some reason he never charged me... Not exactly fair and I did mention it, several times.  So think on why you are doing it.

3) Does it slow down play?  Book keeping is never fun in the best of times, but if you are spending five minutes of ever hour keeping track of money/arrows/food your players may not have as much fun and may not come back.

4)Do your players want to do it?  Most players aren't cheep, they just don't want to take the time to keep track of it.  Some games have a monthly rate of how much it costs to live a certain life style.  I suggest you go with this.  It takes some of their gold (muhaha) but doesn't slow down game play deciding whether they have enough.  Very few players want to keep track of every little waterskin and apple they have in their pack.

Just remember this one firm rule: You are roleplaying to have FUN!
Happy Gaming