Are you looking for a per-session average, or per-Long Rest, or?

@lucasvw Due to the rarity of any option, I'd prefer to keep it open-ended. If there are multiple answers, the one with the most supporting evidence would be the better answer.

Why are you looking for this metric? (What problem are you trying to solve by having this information?)

@KorvinStarmast Nothing much more than Google searches. Most attempts to find or gather this information gets caught up in silly semantics (How many encounters vs. combat encounters, Short rest per Long Rest or per 24 hours, "Don't you know you're supposed to have 2 per day", etc) that prevented me from gathering any meaningful information. I'm hoping someone else has had better luck.

OK, yeah, I seem to recall a lot of discussion on that very topic off and on.

@Someone_Evil I make a lot of homebrew and DM resources. Recognizing how common Short Rests are can help determine how powerful a Short Rest magic item should be vs. a Long Rest version, or repeat the same for class powers.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because a poll does not fit the format of the stack.

@GCL I'm not asking to make a poll. I'm asking if there is factual evidence as to how many Short Rests players actually take. I'm unsure, but is that still against the RPG.SE rules?

Related: How many short rests can you take per day?, When to allow long or short rests?

Also related, of sorts: Do WoTC release any of their results/feedback regarding gameplay design?

@KorvinStarmast I wanted to keep it open-ended, answered by the best source with the most supporting evidence, due to the lack of surveys on the topic. Sure, it starts by defining it by "Day", then it's defined by "Adventuring Day", and whether or not an "Adventuring Day" is a Long Rest or a Day-Night cycle of whatever world it is. Before you know it, the 1-2 actually existing sources can no longer apply because they aren't specific enough. So I'll opt to keep my options open.

@KorvinStarmast I tried asking an almost identical question on the number of encounters a long while back, and it was nearly instantly closed for the very same problem I'm trying to avoid, simply because I was dumb enough to try and "refine" it. Some things are best left open-ended

I'm not sure that knowing what the average is from a survey will help with your specific table. Your tables short rest schedule is literally the only thing that matters for planning

@NautArch It's not for my table, necessarily. I create homebrewery and DM resources. Calculators and balance adjustments. It's a lot easier to account for an average table than it is to allow variance for a short-rest heavy-or-light table for every table.

I can see your frustration; I am going to suggest that your DM tools have selectable dials; the DM inserts how many SRs they will apply to a given Adventure Day and then the tool uses that as an input.

A table is an object. Only creatures can take short rests. Surely?

@KorvinStarmast I could do that, but right now I don't have much to base the weight of each Short Rest off of. Is 4 a lot? Is 1 a few? I was hoping to work off more than just my gut feeling, but I suppose that's all we get, sometimes.

@DanielZastoupil Yeah, unlike an online based game (like Diablo III) where an overarching data collecting repository exists to dig data out like this, this particular TTRPG seems not to have that kind of tool available in the wild.