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


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Ycore Rixle

First Post
The characters in our campaign are all 12th-14th level, and they are, by now, pretty important figures in their home city. Their typical actions while not on a more focused adventure,mission, or quest, include:

Lawful dwarven cleric: Got married, converted a St. Cuthbert acolyte, gave the local goblin bard his first big break (chanting at the cleric's patriarch cermenoy), keeps his temple guard from clashing with the city watch when the watch isn't quite lawful enough.

Halfling rogue: Ascended to the head of Procurement in the Guild of Insurers, Procurers, and Beggars; gambles; sends his underlings out on missions; springs his underlings from jail; fights off the amorous advances of one of his underlings.

Human barbarian: organized exchange program between his tribe and the city (that went really badly), settles disputes in his tribe, getting married, gambles, sews garments out of dead foes' scalps.

Hm, lots of romance in our campaign... Also, we have two festivals per year, the Neverlight and the Althing.
 

Jürgen Hubert

First Post
The PCs in my group mostly visit the local ale- and whorehouses (except for one character, who is more into self-flagellation)...

Inevitably, something horrible happens that drags them into the next adventure kicking and screaming. :D
 

novyet

First Post
Some of them, go back to their old lives and professions, before being dragged back into action by one member or another. Profession checks, crafting items, family life, temples, training, all sorts of stuff.
 

Noldor Elf

First Post
There has been very few downtime in our campaings so far, normally most time is spent travelling.

I have always had an idea of campaing where heroes would be needed some 20-30 years later, their old arcenemy has returned, and they knew (back when they were adventuring) how to defeat him, but can they do it now, after they have all settled down, have families and so...
Campaing would start when a member of the old party appears at the door of the fighter (now a local baron).

I never had a campaing that had lasted long enough to work as background for such a campaign. Sad. ;-(
 

Virginia Wilde

First Post
Hood (the Chaotic Good fighter/mage) usually eats and sleeps. A lot. And chases butterflies. At least until she gets bored, when she sleeps some more. In odd places. I mean, it is called "downtime." She even refers to it as such. Naps and Snacks!
 

Gothmog

First Post
IMC, the PCs usually go on adventure spurts of 4-6 game months, then have 2-6 months of down time. Some things the PCs have done with their down time:

* The ranger is a trophy hunter who decorates his home with the stuffed animals he takes on the hunt. He also started his own brewery, and crafts bows by commission.

* The wizard is a specialist in all sorts of obscure/occult lore, and often hires her services out as a sage. She also has numerous ties with other scholars, and they have formed an informal society where they meet twice a year to discuss topics of importance to them. She does very little item creation/spell research.

* The PC paladin and NPC cleric of the same deity often do religious research, prayer, and help to train initiate priests in their temple. They also have started up a bakery/pastry shop in their home town, with half of the proceeds donated to their church, and another 25% of the money they recieve donated to local charities. They have raised far more money for their church in this manner than they ever would have from adventuring.

* The witch (a nature-oriented semi-divine spellcaster) often wanders the country near her home, making contact with other spirits, learning of events in the spirit world, and occasionally venturing to the spirit world for several weeks. She is also an expert herbalist, and offers her services to those who seek her out, as well as brew potions.
 

bensei

First Post
My Bard performs for money. This is nice at low to mid levels, since - when being is a rich city - the bard character makes quite a good amount of money compared to the other characters. And a maxed out perform with a masterwork instrument gives quite good values at level 5.
 

wolff96

First Post
I'm working on rebuilding and consecrating a circle of menhir from an older age. (Think of a Stonehenge that works -- rules from Masters of the Wild.)

The money is raised by my occasional adventuring. :)
 

Sanackranib

First Post
downtime/winter

In my Scarred Lands game I keep track of the days/seasons. the party started out in FR and were gated here at the begining of winter and were ready to train for level 2. They also had to learn the local language which I told them would take 2 months at the monestary they were at. It is now the end of winter and they were among the first to travel and are quickly finding out that traveling at the end of winter sucks. The ranger/rogue halfling has already gotten sick and almost went into hypertheria. That caused some down time (a week).

Usually the players will want some down time between adventures to make new scrolls buy potins use their craft/profession skills or just to gather information or make new contacts. In the past some have started their own inns or other businesses. I try to find out what the characters goals are early on so that they can work towards them in the game. this adds all sorts of adventure hooks for me over the course of the entire year. Because the game becomes player driven it gives them more options for character growth and developement.
 

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