Level Advancement and In-Campaign Time
I look at the fast leveling like this. The PCs are mercenaries. Why do people hire mercenaries? Because they are disposable. A mayor of a town is not going to send their guards to clear out a cave full of goblins, and risk their town being defenseless. We need this caravan to make it to the next city safely, hire mercenaries to protect it.
The thing I'm getting at is, mercenaries become much more experienced in a short period of time, because they make their living doing dangerous things. It's like the average cop in a large city sees far more action than a cop in some small town in the middle of nowhere (even though in the fantasy world, the opposite can be true). So when a situation comes up that requires violence, the cop with a couple years experience in the city, may be able to handle it better than the veteran of the small town.
For one shot adventures, the PCs can come into town, look at the bounty board, and say "hey I can take care of all of these in a week or two." Or in a campaign, where they are constantly in the middle of combat, they gain experience very fast.
Training can teach you things, but it only takes you so far. Doing is a much better teacher. For example, someone can teach you how to fight trolls. The first troll you encounter, you're trying to remember what you been taught. You can fight 10 trolls in a year, and still have questions, or forget tactics, but if you fight 10 trolls in a week, there will never be a question about trolls again.
The thing I'm getting at is, mercenaries become much more experienced in a short period of time, because they make their living doing dangerous things. It's like the average cop in a large city sees far more action than a cop in some small town in the middle of nowhere (even though in the fantasy world, the opposite can be true). So when a situation comes up that requires violence, the cop with a couple years experience in the city, may be able to handle it better than the veteran of the small town.
For one shot adventures, the PCs can come into town, look at the bounty board, and say "hey I can take care of all of these in a week or two." Or in a campaign, where they are constantly in the middle of combat, they gain experience very fast.
Training can teach you things, but it only takes you so far. Doing is a much better teacher. For example, someone can teach you how to fight trolls. The first troll you encounter, you're trying to remember what you been taught. You can fight 10 trolls in a year, and still have questions, or forget tactics, but if you fight 10 trolls in a week, there will never be a question about trolls again.
Uller
Adventurer
I guess the thing I've always found about having to train to level is it limits the game. We like some adventures to be extended over a couple levels. Lots of published adventures over the many editions have this built in. I just played Sunless Citadel, for example...it assumes you start at 1st and finish at 3rd level, so there is at least one level-up built into the adventure. It's sequel, Forge of Fury seems to have the same assumption (start at 3rd, finish at 5th).
It just doesn't seem very interesting to me after the PCs have gained enough XP to level and the players are all excited about it to say "well, you have this time pressure built into the adventure so if you want to level you either have to press on at your current level or you can leave to spend <some non-trivial amount of time> training...by that time the BBEG will have reinforced his lair or seen his plans come to fruition...but hey, you'll have gained some hp and new spells!"...it just doesn't seem to jive with me...YMMV, though. Maybe others have made this work.
I am considering allowing Training/Study as a downtime activity where gold can be converted to XP. I'm not sure how to do it and it should have diminishing returns to discourage too much use of it, but it seems a viable way to spend gold earned during adventuring and time between adventures. But it shouldn't be the only thing available to PCs to use those two assets.
Emerikol
Adventurer
Well one approach you could use is allow training ahead of time before the adventure starts. The breakthrough comes during the adventure and the character levels based on the training he has already done. So if you had a downtime activity that is training you just fill up a bank and then draw on that back with x.p. expenditures. I probably also would allow for 1st to 3rd without training because you really are going from neophyte to essentially trained. I don't buy the D&D false premise that humanity survives in a world were the military is primarily 1st level. I tend to have higher levels in my campaign worlds. That doesn't mean there aren't 1st level NPCs but those NPCs are green.
Tony Vargas
Legend
The first 3 levels go /really/ fast....
...which reminds me of another old-school idea, though one not in any book I'm aware of, that was, I suppose, related to training: the brevet. The idea was that you could start at 2nd level (I suppose, in 5e, at 3rd would be fine, too), but with 0 exp. You've had the training, not the experience. When you get enough exp for 4th, you have the experience, not the training, and it's time to spend some money & take some downtime.
But, yes, everything about the game limits what you can do with it in some way, the trick is to cut, paste, and mod all those things so the game is limited to what you want out of it for your campaign.
That can certainly include a campaign arc of years out to a lifetime, instead of a month or so.
S
Sunseeker
Guest
One thing I do when I have included "training" in the past is that:
You get your HD/HP and Proficiency/BAB&Saves right away, to indicate that your experience has made you tougher and better in a general sense. If you are at an ASI point you can gain an ASI, but not a feat. To gain feats and class features, you have to train. This also allows for a presentation of a world where a wildman can be really tough, really strong, and swing his sword really hard but he has not learned any specific knowledge and thus lacks cool feats or class features.
@OP:
As a player, and I suppose as a DM, my biggest issue with "time passing between events" is "What do you do with players who want to keep adventuring?" Aside from of course, having players who are totally into this kind of stuff. Lets say you're using XP right? So every dungeon, every gold piece, every quest, every monster kill equates to some kind of advancement.
Johnny and Jimmy decide to settle down for the winter, help out around the town, maybe find love, who knows.
Sue and Jane on the other hand want to face the winter wilderness and hone their skills, kick monster butt and find treasure.
Do you award Johnny and Jimmy equitable XP to Sue and Jane? Or does "around town stuff" give them nothing?
-Followup: how does "life" get reflected on their sheets? Do they earn any kind of increase in their skills?
Or do you restrict Sue and Jane's XP to reflect the low amount Jhonny and Jimmy are earning?
-Do Sue and Jane simply wander around in the woods, finding nothing, as you not-so-subtly try to press them to return to town?
Do you add more PCs? Have Sue and Jane roll up some "around town" PCs? Have Jimmy and Johnny roll up some more adventure-oriented PCs?
-Again: how do you reconcile that the people off in the woods have been earning XP, and the people in town havent?
--I frame it this way because I rarely find a DM who awards XP or milestones or ANY form of advancement when it doesn't include "killing stuff".
And how do you reconcile players who want to get detailed (we all know the guy) about their downtime shenanigans, and the guy who's just like "Yeah I'm gonna do some farming and stuff for a year." and isn't interested in the specifics of it?
I guess you could just say "I'm not going to run a split party, so go to town or I'll stop the game." Sure, it's kinda a jerk ultimatum but it's your right as DM to do it.
Oofta
Legend
I can't speak for the OP, but what I do is have the players tell me what they did during the break. Settled down on the farm? Great. You may have heard some rumors from that traveler who asked for shelter that stormy night. Hunted orcs? Awesome. You were never able to find "king" Grozzle but you did manage to gather a little more information which might come in handy. Spent time at the gambling tables? Cool. You made a small fortune and then lost it all while making a new ally. Or are they?
As far as details, put in as much or little as you want. Want to write a short story? Go for it. Post it where everyone can read and be ready to give a brief summation for the group at the session for those who didn't have time to read it. Don't care? Not a problem, but I will ask for a brief outline and may fill in some details for you.
The only restriction is that you don't gain or lose money unless it's something pertinent to the game (e.g. built a castle) and you don't gain any XP. I don't care if you fought a thousand goblins in your off-time, it doesn't count. Sorry but the game doesn't work that way. There was no real risk, so there's no gain.
I also ask people OK an outline of what happened because I may nix some ideas. The cleric isn't going to be teleported up to Valhalla to have tea and crumpets with Thor. But if you want to have a whirlwind romance and now you're married? Fantastic, describe them for the group.
I'm not the (sole) author of the campaign, I am narrator and set boundaries. How much or little players want to add to the story is up to them.
Irda Ranger
First Post
I haven't run into this issue. Everyone has Backgrounds and they're tied into the setting. They from somewhere. They have goals that aren't related to what the group is doing. The down-time between adventures is perfect for that.
Moreover, see the post above about "You don't find adventure. Adventure finds you." Gandalf shows up with a quest when he shows on, on his schedule, not yours. There isn't always an adventure to be had.
I'm not using XP.
They could pick up a Tools or Vehicles proficiency or something if they want, sure. Maybe an extended downtime and career change could lead to a second Background.
I think you're picturing a much more adversarial relationship between me and the players. I just say "Okay guys, you won. The bad guy is defeated and the town is safe. No obvious threats around right now. What are you doing to do with your new free time?" and the players understand this is an opportunity to pursue their individual character development.
Then I basically just say "Six months pass .. and you see the bat signal."
I think I was pretty clear in the OP that this is exactly what I'm doing.
Both are fine. It really doesn't effect anything. Downtime is an opportunity to have a different kind of fun, not homework.
On the contrary, the PCs are all split up during downtime, off pursuing their solo stuff. The wizard is off to the Tower of High Sorcery to take his Test; the barbarian is following a prophecy into the desert; the cleric is rehabilitating the shrine they just finished clearing of monsters; and the bard is returning a sword they found to its rightful owner.
I guess if you think my running the campaign this way is a "jerk ultimatum" you can go play somewhere else then. My players seem to like it. Good communication and setting expectations ahead of time about how the campaign will function is always key (not just for this, but for anything).
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
If it was just level imbalance it wouldn't be as big a thing, as you say. But it's also wealth imbalance: a character who's been in 12 adventures (and thus got a share of 12 treasuries) is going to be much wealthier than each of another player's three characters cycled through those same 12 adventures (so, 4 each).
Pile this on to the level imbalance and yeah, it's a headache.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Ignoring the hard E6 limit, this is almost exactly what we've been doing for 35+ years.
Worked OK so far...
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