D&D 5E using the research downtime activity

Hi all,

I'm looking at the Research downtime activity, and I'm really not sure how to use it. I know it's up to me as the DM, but I really feel like I could do with some guidelines for setting DCs and the like. I miss 4e's monster knowledge check DCs.

How am I supposed to determine how many downtime days are required to find out about something? I can figure out for myself whether a check is needed or not depending on the PCs' approach and such, but it would be nice to have some indication of how long it might take to learn something that is, say, fairly common knowledge vs something that is rare. Like I imagine it wouldn't be that hard - or take that long - to find someone who knows a fair bit about goblin culture, whereas it might be much harder to find someone who knows anything worthwhile about the Shadowfell.

And yes, I realize that such specifics can vary from campaign to campaign - goblins might be ubiquitous in one world and all but extinct in another. The guidelines could still be something along the lines of: fairly common knowledge requires a DC 10 check and/or 5-10 days of research, while rare knowledge requires a DC 20 check and/or 30 days of research or something. You know?

What do you guys do when your players want to research something?


Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Jonathan

This is a great question!

Here's how I'd do it.

For DC, I'd look no further than the typical DCs table on page 174:

Now, what qualifies as "easy" versus "medium" versus "hard," etc.? I'd say it's based on who knows the information.

Each check takes 1d4 downtime days. You don't need to increase the time for the more difficult DCs: Just let the character repeat the check, taking another 1d4 days. Harder checks will naturally need to be repeated more often, taking much longer! (A 1st-level PC trying to make a DC 25 check with a +5 bonus has a 5% chance every 1d4 days of succeeding, and on average will take something like 14d4 days before figuring it out.)

For someone in a hurry, I'd let them research in 1 day by taking disadvantage. (To take your time, just repeat the check every 1d4 days, as above.) Another character can aid you to give you advantage, but they have to spend the same number of downtime days doing it.

If you're not in the correct place to learn the information, then your first successful check reveals this. Like if you're in a small town and trying to research a DC 15 item, your first success reveals that you need to go to the big city to do your research. Maybe someone in the town tells you this, or maybe you have just thoroughly exhausted the town's resources so you know it's time to move on. Note that moving to a new location may change the DC. For example, if you need to go to the City of Brass to find the information, it's DC 25 just to learn that. But once you get there, maybe it counts as a big city and you only need DC 20 to find the information. Basically, the more hoops the PCs have to jump through, the lower the DC gets. "The fiend's true name is inscribed on the statue standing before you" -> DC 0, no roll needed.

pukunui said:

Hi all,

I'm looking at the Research downtime activity, and I'm really not sure how to use it. I know it's up to me as the DM, but I really feel like I could do with some guidelines for setting DCs and the like. I miss 4e's monster knowledge check DCs.

How am I supposed to determine how many downtime days are required to find out about something? I can figure out for myself whether a check is needed or not depending on the PCs' approach and such, but it would be nice to have some indication of how long it might take to learn something that is, say, fairly common knowledge vs something that is rare. Like I imagine it wouldn't be that hard - or take that long - to find someone who knows a fair bit about goblin culture, whereas it might be much harder to find someone who knows anything worthwhile about the Shadowfell.

And yes, I realize that such specifics can vary from campaign to campaign - goblins might be ubiquitous in one world and all but extinct in another. The guidelines could still be something along the lines of: fairly common knowledge requires a DC 10 check and/or 5-10 days of research, while rare knowledge requires a DC 20 check and/or 30 days of research or something. You know?

What do you guys do when your players want to research something?


Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Jonathan

Click to expand...

If you're uncertain about how much downtime it takes to perform research, that's perfect for the stakes of the ability check - on a success, it takes (say) a half-day per point of DC, but on a fail, it takes a number of days equal to the DC. The DC is modified by the player's stated goal and approach relative to the information being sought. The location of a safe house of the thieves' guild might best be found via asking around, paying for drinks, and bribery, so the DC will be lower if the characters approach the research that way. Researching information in a library isn't the best approach for this sort of thing, so the DC is much higher. Flip that around when the PCs are seeking obscure knowledge on a magical curse or whatever.

Whatever the case, I suggest that all research efforts always pay off. It's just a matter of how much time and gold the characters spend in the process. To that end (and I say this a lot), make time matter.

[MENTION=12377]77IM[/MENTION]: I like the idea of making it random. Thanks. What if I were to use passive checks, rather than having them roll, though? Would that make any difference?
[MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION]: I agree that it should always pay off. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how I can make time matter in this instance. I'm running an episodic campaign, and I've chosen to use the downtime days resource that the Adventurer's League uses. So there's always an indeterminate amount of time that passes between each episode, and when the PCs use their downtime days on a downtime activity, it's just something they're doing in that indeterminate space. That being said, there is still sort of a limit, insofar as they may not have enough downtime days to spend on the research, or they may not have enough money saved up to cover expenses.

I consider downtime as a form of currency instead of literal time.

So for instance, research might take 10 days as a baseline and have a DC 15. If you beat the check, you find the answer in 5 days, if not, you take all 10.

Adventurers earn downtime as a form of non-gold reward.

Kids group is pooling their downtime together to build a castle!

pukunui said:

[MENTION=12377]77IM[/MENTION]: I like the idea of making it random. Thanks. What if I were to use passive checks, rather than having them roll, though? Would that make any difference?

[MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION]: I agree that it should always pay off. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how I can make time matter in this instance. I'm running an episodic campaign, and I've chosen to use the downtime days resource that the Adventurer's League uses. So there's always an indeterminate amount of time that passes between each episode, and when the PCs use their downtime days on a downtime activity, it's just something they're doing in that indeterminate space. That being said, there is still sort of a limit, insofar as they may not have enough downtime days to spend on the research, or they may not have enough money saved up to cover expenses.

Click to expand...

When used in that fashion, there is a trade-off: If you're spending extra days on research, you're not spending them on learning a language or tool proficiency, carousing for a potential benefit, or practicing a profession. So succeeding on the check potentially means time left over to spend on some other pursuit.

Bawylie said:

I consider downtime as a form of currency instead of literal time.

Click to expand...

Yeah, exactly. That's how I'm using it too. I've been going with 5 downtime days per session, awarded at the end of an episode. Most episodes only take 1-2 sessions to play through.

iserith said:

When used in that fashion, there is a trade-off: If you're spending extra days on research, you're not spending them on learning a language or tool proficiency, carousing for a potential benefit, or practicing a profession. So succeeding on the check potentially means time left over to spend on some other pursuit.

Click to expand...

Right.

I think if I used downtime days as a resource in an episodic campaign, I'd set the downtime days as the length of time between episodes and insert some kind of metric in the adventure that determines whether the characters get, say, 30 downtime days or half that after the episode ends. Then I'd provide the players with some upfront info on the doings of the next episode they could choose to research further for additional boons. Something like that.

Maybe. I'm happy doing it the AL way, though. I like having a vague amount of time between episodes because I can make more time pass in the campaign world and thus not have everyone levelling up so insanely fast. Basically what I've said is that if you're not actively using your downtime days, then you're assumed to be practicing a profession (which lets you maintain your lifestyle level at no cost) for the duration of the inter-episode period. [For the record, I've also adopted the AL's list of starting lifestyles - eg. depending on your background, you have a specific lifestyle level you're expected to maintain, though you can move up or down on the list over time.]

And really, the research downtime activity is the only problematic one for me, because the others all provide solid guidelines. With crafting, you can determine exactly how many days are required based on the cost of the item. Learning a new tool proficiency or language takes 250 days. Recuperating (which I've never seen anyone use) requires a minimum of 3 days. Strongholds have set construction times. With carousing, you can choose how many days you want to spend on it. Same with gaining renown. Performing sacred rites provides a specific benefit after 10 days. You can spend up to 30 days at a time running a business. And so on.

I get that the research one needs to be somewhat vague because it *is* fairly open-ended in terms of how many different things there to research. But, as I said in my OP, it would be nice to have even some very basic guidelines in terms of how many days are required to find something out. Using the magic item rarity and the DC table could help.

Common Knowledge: DC 5, 1 day
Uncommon Knowledge: DC 10, 5 days
Rare Knowledge: DC 15, 10 days
Very Rare Knowledge: DC 20, 20 days
Legendary Knowledge: DC 25, 30 days

Something like that.

I agree -- I wish the core rules had guidelines for this. I actually find guidelines more useful than rules themselves, because you can extrapolate from them; it's hard to extrapolate anything from "make an ability check."

You could go with a two-dimensional system:

So if you're looking for Asmodeus's true name in a small village, that's DC 40, good luck; at least you'll only waste a day. If you're looking for the village miller's mother's maiden name in the Library of Living Letters in the astral plane, that's DC 0 (automatic), but you'll spend an average of 22 days wandering the halls searching for for the right animated scroll.