What do your heroes do when they're not adventuring?

mmadsen · May 24, 2004

From a previous thread, it looks like most campaigns' heroes spend their "off time" in one of three ways:

Off Time?
The DM strings all the adventures together quite tightly with no off time between them. There's no time for crafting magic items, etc.

Ale 'n' Whores!
Everyone assumes the party just blows of steam; ignore the time between adventures.

Warm 'n' Fuzzy Roleplay
Players can play out noncombat downtime: interacting with dignitaries, going shopping, seeing plays, etc . They can choose to craft magic items, etc. too.

One of the Pendragon game's interesting features (besides its mechanics for personality traits) is its concept of a Winter Phase. Knights adventure and quest throughout the Spring, Summer, and Fall, but in Winter they return to their castles for an "off season".

What would make for a good Winter Phase in D&D?

In Pendragon, the Winter Phase comprises nine steps:

Perform Solo -- Participate in a solo scenario, maybe administering your own estate, serving your lord in some manner (escorting someone, border patrol, etc.), starting (or continuing) a romance, challenging all who pass a particular bridge (for "love of battle"), etc.
Experience Check Rolls -- Characters improve between adventures.
Aging -- Pendragon campaigns don't squeeze dozens of adventures into a year or two.
Check Economic Circumstances -- Pay cost of living and collect income.
Stable Rolls -- Horses age and injure themselves, and they're very important to a knight.
Family Rolls -- There are rules for marriage, children, and family events (births, deaths, marriages, scandals).
Training and Practice -- Players can direct some of their characters' progress.
Compute Glory
Add Glory Bonus Points

Some of those steps are very game-mechanic-specific (Experience Check Rolls, Training and Practice, Compute Glory, and Add Glory Bonus Points) and would probably get rolled up into one D&D step: Level Up. Others would carry over quite easily: Perform Solo, Aging, Stable Rolls, and Family Rolls. Either they'd use the same rules (Stable Rolls and Family Rolls), or they'd use D&D equivalents (Aging). The solo scenarios are obviously quite open ended. Checking Economic Circumstances might take some work, but you can start with the Upkeeps rules.

So, what do your heroes do in their off time now, and what could they be doing? What solo scenarios do you recommend?

mmadsen · May 24, 2004

More specifically, how, by class, could the various classes spend their "off season"? And what random things might happen to them (or their estates)? Do you have any good game mechanics for any of this?

Fighters:

Train (i.e. level up): Choose combat Feats to train and learn.
Cost of Living: Decide how much to spend on clothing, food, ale, gifts, etc. Social standing for the next year should flow from these expenses. (See Variant: Upkeep, DMG, p. 142)
Income: Roll to see how productive your estate is, how much tax money is coming in, etc.
Stable: Roll to see how healthy your mounts (horses, hippogriffs, etc.) remain, if any get stolen (adventure seed!), etc.
Social: Does our noble knight start courting a lady love? Does our mercenary spend all his money at the bordello? Does our established hero start a family? Or risk his family life with infidelity? Or get cuckolded? A death, birth, or scandal in the family!
Garrison, Border Patrol, Armed Escort, Tournament, Raiders -- there any many small, local encounters that aren't grand quests.

I suppose a Rogue's "off season" wouldn't bear much resemblance to a knightly Fighter's. A swashbuckling Rogue might woo paramours, while a thug might settle for ale 'n' whores. His social standing is important in its own way, but being "mack daddy" isn't quite the same as being a magnanimous lord. I suppose a mob-esque guild thief might have the equivalent of an estate with tax revenue: extortion, gambling, drugs, smuggling, etc.

I guess the most interesting "off season" activity for Rogues would be urban adventure: spying, thieving, etc. The Rogue doesn't need to raid faraway temples when he can sneak into local temples.

res · May 25, 2004

I suppose what they do depends on what type of character I play.

One could be a wanderer who moves from place to place. Sometimes the journey is full of adventures where he would be out doing whatever the DM has planned. Other times, his journey is rather uneventfull and he arrives with no misshaps or distractions (ie, the Down Time) If this character was with a party he might spend some down time exploring the local area. Wandering the woods or getting to know the locals.

Other characters may spend their time attending to their affairs, running a manor, dealing with government or any thing that is general day-to-day stuff.

The Warm 'n Fuzzy Role-Play tends to be part of our games. Its not all go to teh dungeon, loot the dungeon, buy stuff.

Down Time is just time between adventures and encounters the DM has designed. We generally relax, and do what needs to be done (ie buying and selling items)

Crothian · May 25, 2004

REsearch, vaction, train, check in with NPCs and see how old plot threads are doing, fight crime

Hand of Evil · May 25, 2004

Getting into trouble, bar fights, burning down a tavern or two, running away from jealous lovers. Also training, making contacts (NPC), checking on their investments.

Thanee · May 25, 2004

This depends a lot on the campaign.

It's usually no off time for us, which doesn't mean there really is no off time, because the players still choose what to do and if they want to go shopping, they just do once an opportunity is there and time is not running short.

All the "between adventures" stuff is happening during our adventures, tavern stays during a journey, magic item creation, romance, etc.

It's more intermeshed into a whole, I'm inclined to say, not adventures divided by off-time seasons.

Bye
Thanee

Fenes · May 25, 2004

Thanee said:
This depends a lot on the campaign.

It's usually no off time for us, which doesn't mean there really is no off time, because the players still choose what to do and if they want to go shopping, they just do once an opportunity is there and time is not running short.

All the "between adventures" stuff is happening during our adventures, tavern stays during a journey, magic item creation, romance, etc.

It's more intermeshed into a whole, I'm inclined to say, not adventures divided by off-time seasons.

Bye
Thanee

We handle it exactly the same.

Silver Moon · May 25, 2004

In our main campaign they live on an island, around 30 miles in diameter, where they reside. The island has a small town, various businessess, a school and several farms.

In our second campiagn they live in a city where they own and manage a sculpture shop. Another PC in that campagin is the priest of a nearby church.

In our third campaign (the western) they just hang out at the tavern where they reside.

Zappo · May 25, 2004

Well, one of them owns a weapon shop and works at it. Though, since he's often adventuring, the shop is often closed and he doesn't get much clientele. Another works as a warden at Criminally Insane wing of the gatehouse, while another is a clerk at the hall of registers, copying magic items' certificates. They have to bitch with their supervisors a lot about not showing up for days or weeks, and while the bleakers just don't care enough, I think the fated are going to place the other one on another job. The rest either spend their time on ale'n'whores, or do some odd job here and there.

diaglo · May 25, 2004

we played 3-4hrs per session; 5 sessions per week; 50 weeks per year; for 10+ years.

we roleplayed everything.

the PCs avg. 900 hrs of roleplay for 1 lvl of gain. 78.56% of the PCs were human. one of the surviving PCs took time off to research a spell 78 years in the campaign he returned.