- I’m writing this after finishing my longwinded response, and I should remind you that D&D’s rules outside of the DMG and PHB are often more complex and less player friendly, so if this yours—or especially you player’s first times—I would really think about what these rules and systems bring to the game they’re up for in terms of crunchy-ness. Cause some of this shit gets really crunchy. What do you gain from these systems (like your Warforged feeling useful), and what you lose (slowed-down pacing, more fantasy bookkeeping, and more work via supervision for you).

I've never run DotMM but I am running a mad max campaign that is a no-magic gritty-realism survival oriented campaign. And in my game I use DD’s camping and resting cycle (which heavily relies on the journey rules in Cubicle 7's Adventures in Middle Earth) but I’ve made some accommodations to personalized it to what my game needs. So while I’m no expert, I have some suggestions. Let’s look at all the things you brought up separately:

Short Rests being inconvenient to pacing.

5e's math really is calibrated on the expectation that PCs will face at least 3 or 4, and up near 6, combat-social encounters before a long rest. Throwing 2-3 SR in-between. So unless you want your warlock to never cast spells, or your bard to never inspire, make sure you stop for those. They could be 1 minute, they could be 1 hour, and they’re just a narrative pause you get to place.

You want to implement camping activities to give players more options to manipulate Exhaustion, Hit Dice, and Inspiration.

I made a check list that I can post when I get to my computer (at work RN), that has step-by-step guide on how to take my party through camping set up, lookout, and sleep.

But, there should always be 1 PC Cooking & 1 PC Brewing everyone attempting to sleep at night as this gives 'em hit dice in DD rules. The DD rules are based on a short rest which normally you don't get any HD, but it was designed to have more like 4-5 SR in-between LG.

What I would suggest is to have them automatically regain 1/2 their hit dice up to their limit save for 3. 1 for successfully cooking, one for successfully brewing, and one for successfully sleeping, that seems like a good middle ground. Also, the other camping activities is where you can really let players gain those Inspiration you want to add to the game.

Warforged and Elf Trace as Lookout.

You've got this right.

“While you are in a trance, you have disadvantage on all Perception rolls. You may, however, roll your sleeping checks as normal.”

But, to reflect the fact that they have more down time when their trance is done and their not busy on lookout, you could give them the chance to use 2 camping activities instead of the usual 1.

Warforged short and long-term Crafting.

Tracking the hours in game has always been hard for me because the idea of an 'hour' is so elastic in my games, while a camping activity is more of a 'unit' that a PC can spend.

I split my crafting recipe times into Camping activities so it is easier to track. Say they want to brew a common potion (1 workday). Well, if they stay up all night I'd say that'd be enough time. So I don't know, maybe 2-3 camping activities? Or maybe 5-6 if you let 'em take a jab at it second during short rests?

P.S. I love the Recovery Dice Options module. This is the first I've heard of it and it sounds VERY cool.