D&D 5E Downtime home brew

[Antonlowe]

Hi all! Started working on my downtime homebrew rules and thought I would share.


Living Expenses

· Wretched (0cp/day): You suffer Disadvantage on all downtime activities. You spend most of your time just trying to find food and a place to safely sleep. You are often the subject of harassment by others. You risk disease from your standard of living.
· Squalid (5cp/day): You suffer Disadvantage on all downtime activities except “Earn a Living”. You suffer from poor nutrition and substandard living conditions, making most activities difficult for you.
· Modest (10cp/day): You have adequate food, shelter and clothing.
· Wealthy (50cp/day): You live a lifestyle that gets you access to the wheels of power.
· Aristocratic (100cp/day): Your rich, and people know it!
· Noble (10,000cp/day): You burn gold just for the fun of it.

 

[Antonlowe]

Earn a Living
You may spend a day of downtime working to earn money. This is always an ability check which may add your proficiency bonus if its related to the work you are doing. You earn your check result in copper pieces each day you spend earing a living.
1d20 + Abl + Prof. = CP Per Day

Joining a Guild
Guilds are powerful organizations that control the levers of commerce and industry. If you join a guild, you gain a number of benefits whenever you decided to Earn a Living.
In order to join a guild you must first go through an apprenticeship. This is a 30 day period in which you work under the supervision of a Grandmaster. Your master covers your living expenses while you are working for him. You must meet allthe requirements to complete your apprenticeship.
• have proficiency with the skill or tool commonly associated with that guild (Blacksmith tools for the Armorers Guild for example).
• Pay a onetime fee of 150cp
• Spend 30 days working under the direction of a Guild Master.

Journeyman: If you complete your apprenticeship, you become a Journeyman guild member. You gain advantage on all checks made to Earn a Living.

Master: If you have been a journeyman for at least a year, you may attempt to become a master.
You must spend 30 days working on a masterpiece. At the end of this period make a skill check DC 15. If you succeed you become a master. If you fail, you must start over.
If you are master guild member, you may subtract 10cp from the costs of living any day in which you attempt to Earn a Living. This feature stacks with the one you got from journeyman.

Grandmaster: If you have been a master for at least a year, you may attempt to become a grandmaster.
You must spend 30 days working on a masterpiece. At the end of this period make a skill check DC 20. If you succeed you become a grandmaster. If you fail, you must start over.
If you are a grandmaster, you may attract 1d4+CHA apprentices each month. You earn an amount equal to 5cp times the number of apprentices you have every day, twice that if you decide to Earn a Living.
As a grandmaster, you are also expected to help run the guild and cast important votes regarding guild affairs. Talk with your DM about this.

Buying a business
By spending 1,800cp you can buy a business. Whenever you decide to earn a living, you gain a +1 bonus to your check result. Each 1800cp you spend on your business increase the bonus by +1.
You can hire an assistant for 300cp per month. If you do so you make all Earn a living checks with advantage. Any day in which you don’t decide to earn a living, you still get to roll as if you did, but you so so with disadvantage.

 

[Antonlowe]

Training
Gain a Level
To gain a level, you must spend a number of weeks training equal to your current level. Of course, you must have sufficient XP to gain your new level.
Earn XP
You can spend a day of down time to earn XP. You automatically earn a number of XP equal to your Intelligence score. You must have a teacher or sparing partner of a level at least equal to your own.
Learn a Tool
By spending 30 days of downtime, you can attempt to gain proficiency with a new tool. At the end of this period, you must make a DC 15 Intelligence check. If you fail, you must start over.
Learn a Skill
By spending 90 days of downtime, you can attempt to gain proficiency with a new school. At the end of this period, you must make a DC 15 Intelligence check. If you fail, you must start over.
Learn a Language
By spending 7days of downtime, you can attempt to gain proficiency with a new language. At the end of this period, you must make a DC 15 Intelligence check. If you fail, you must start over.
Learn a Weapon
By spending 30 days of downtime, you can attempt to gain proficiency with a new martial weapon. At the end of this period, you must make a DC 15 Intelligence check. If you fail, you must start over.

 

[Ancalagon]

You can't change living expenses... UNLESS you change the price for everything else. Those basic costs of living values are the foundation upon which the rest of the game's price lists lies upon.

AND BY THE WAY - those values in the book are pretty sound. A common laborer in Greece would earn a silver piece a day. The D&D value (poor lifestyle) is 2sp, which is very reasonable

 

[Antonlowe]

You can't change living expenses... UNLESS you change the price for everything else. Those basic costs of living values are the foundation upon which the rest of the game's price lists lies upon.

AND BY THE WAY - those values in the book are pretty sound. A common laborer in Greece would earn a silver piece a day. The D&D value (poor lifestyle) is 2sp, which is very reasonable

Thanks for the reply. I do plan on changing all of the base prices, so no problem there.

As for your example, I think it shoes more of a flaw in the DnD economy rather then a merit. That greek laborer couldnt even afford a poor lifestyle. That seems unreasonable.

Under my system he could afford a modest lifestyle, if he didnt pay his taxes, which would reduce him to a poor lifestyle. That seems much more reasonable to me.

 

[aco175]

Either way you base the prices it looks like adventurers would be at least wealthy. Has anyone played a character with a poor lifestyle, unless the PC was trying to.

It also seems like the PCs do not engage with most common laborers. They deal with the duke or merchant rather than the cook or the delivery person. All the background people nobody thinks of make the low pay.

 

[Ancalagon]

Thanks for the reply. I do plan on changing all of the base prices, so no problem there.

As for your example, I think it shoes more of a flaw in the DnD economy rather then a merit. That greek laborer couldnt even afford a poor lifestyle. That seems unreasonable.

Under my system he could afford a modest lifestyle, if he didnt pay his taxes, which would reduce him to a poor lifestyle. That seems much more reasonable to me.

Actually, I think it's a good thing. First of all, we don't know the weight of those silver coins - it might be a "fat" one. Second of all, even ignoring that, it's *very close*. Doubling might sound like a big difference to you, but it's very hard to get prices right. Some things easily get off by a factor of 10, 50, more. Having the poor cost being 2, vs 1, is pretty accurate.

Your change eliminates the level of poor, and reduces modest expense from 1 gp a day to 1 sp a day, which is a 10 fold reduction. 5 sp a day is now "wealthy" (vs 4 gp a day in the old system). Aristocratic is now 1 gp/day (vs 10 gp)

... so you are slashing prices by 10?

 

[Antonlowe]

Actually, I think it's a good thing. First of all, we don't know the weight of those silver coins - it might be a "fat" one. Second of all, even ignoring that, it's *very close*. Doubling might sound like a big difference to you, but it's very hard to get prices right. Some things easily get off by a factor of 10, 50, more. Having the poor cost being 2, vs 1, is pretty accurate.

Your change eliminates the level of poor, and reduces modest expense from 1 gp a day to 1 sp a day, which is a 10 fold reduction. 5 sp a day is now "wealthy" (vs 4 gp a day in the old system). Aristocratic is now 1 gp/day (vs 10 gp)

... so you are slashing prices by 10?

Basically I am. I already started updating the prices of things. My basic guide goes like this...
1-10cp: Common items, rope, hammers, torches, trail rations etc...
1-10sp: Any tool kits, weapons.
1+gp: big ticket items like horses, coaches, houses etc.

Over the course of 1st to 2nd level I expect each PC to earn about 300cp. Enough to spend a month of downtime training.

Basically, the copper piece becomes the currency used in day to day living.
The silver piece is used for professional level equipment.

 

[Ancalagon]

... but you aren't slashing by 10.

Let's take an iconic weapon the long sword. It's worth 15 gp. If you were slashing by 10, the price would be 1.5 gp. But you're in the 0.1 to 1 gp range, indicating that your price cut is by 2 orders of magnitude...

Using current data, the copper piece IS the currency used from day to day living! if a common laborer is making 2 sp a day, he's not spending silver on ordinary stuff.

Adventurers are not ordinary people.

 

[Ancalagon]

... I think I'm coming across as ab it harsh here... and I really shouldn't. It's great that you are looking at the economy and realizing it's not what you want it to be, and I don't want you to discourage you from doing it!

But it's hard to do, and it's harder to explain sometimes, which makes for challenging discussions.

Some perspective from my experience: In warhammer, prices were often similar (a basic sword cost 10 gp, for example), but they did two things to help a bit. First, they changed the scale. One silver is worth 12 copper, and 1 gold is worth *20* silvers. But more importantly, they changed income and reward. A competent, well paid sellsword on retainer by a noble to deal with problems? 50 gp a year (ie 20 silvers a week, or a few silvers per day...)

This lead to a second changes: rewards were small. So if a noble is hiring an adventuring party to deal with a problem, the reward will be a few dozen golds, not 500 or 1000. That had consequences on the feel of the game.

First, a single gp was meaningful, because it was a week's wage! So if you bribe a guard with 1 gp, it's a serious hit to your pocket, but also the guard will take the bribe very seriously.

Second, the character's starting equipment was very precious... a bit like a poor samurai in japan who's peniless but holds on dearly to his sword because he could never afford to replace it.

Third it was easier to motivate the party to do things. 5 gp to go look for a missing child in the wood? Sure we'll do it! And extra rewards felt more meaningful. Finding a sack with 500 silvers in it during that quest for the child? Sweet jebus, drinks for everyone!!

Lastly - and this was a negative - it could lead to obsessive looting. You fight off a few brigands on your quest for the missing child - not only will you take their sweet sweet sack of 500 silvers, you'll take their weapons (including daggers!), armor, heck even their clothes, and sell it to a fence...

Anyway, all this to say that if you want silver and coppers to be meaningful, all you have to do is make money rare