D&D 5E DMG excerpt: Carousing!

[SigmaOne]

As others have said, this is clearly not what they intended. It adds three days to the original time, not to the days that have been added since. I'm starting to think some people enjoy being overly pedantic!

No!! Not on an RPG forum, never!

Seriously, people. You're perfectly correct in saying that "RAW it takes forever to complete when your PC isn't there", but get over it... every precious ounce of correctness comes of a pound of obnoxiousness. They clearly meant it adds three days to the original time for each of the (originally scheduled) days the PC is gone.


Also, the rules on Carousing are awesome. I love how so many of the "extra" or "RP" mechanics feed back into potential adventure hooks.

 

[SilverfireSage]

That still means that work can never be completed unless the PC is there. It would still eternally freeze at the orginal time until the PC comes back and they start from scratch

Uh, no. Once all of the original time has been tripled, the work continues until that triple time is done, at which point the structure is completed.
Example: a 100 day structure needs to be completed. The player stays for 50 days, leaves for 50 days, then comes back for the remaining 50. It will take 300 days for the structure to be completed.
Or, a 100 day structure needs to be completed. The player tells them to build it, and leaves for a year and a half. He comes back, and it's completed, the structure having taken 400 days since each of the original days had 3 days added to it. The extra days do not get additional extra days added on. See how much more complicated that was when simple common sense would make anyone realize "of course it doesn't take forever, it will just take longer to complete."

 

[Mirtek]

They clearly meant it adds three days to the original time for each of the (originally scheduled) days the PC is gone.

Maybe it's because I am not a native speaker, but what's the difference? The original time will still outgrow the completion and become infinite. Or are you saying it can never be more than original time +3 no matter how long the PC is away?

 

[guachi]

Silverfire, I'm not certain what they meant. It's so badly worded and without examples I can't tell if they meant what you mean or not. If they do mean what you mean, the math involved if the player leaves and comes back repeatedly is a mess.

Mirtek, I think what Silverfire is saying is that if a project has 2 days left and the player leaves for 2 or 200 days that the time will be extended by no more than 6 (2x3) days.

However, what if the player leaves for 1 day and then comes back. How many days are left?

 

[Sitara]

So what are Bonds & Flaws as mentioned i this preview?

 

[guachi]

In the PHB, the Backgrounds described on pages 125-141 list a Personality Trait, Ideal, Bond, and Flaw for each character to take.

 

[GX.Sigma]

As written, the project could never be completed as long as you weren't there.

Other oddities - you supervise 59 of 60 days constructing a trading post. You leave for three weeks. When you come back your trading post now has 64 days until completion. You'd be better off starting a new trading post from scratch.

Obviously, the way it's intended to work is thus:

You supervise 59 of 60 days of construction. You leave for three weeks, so you're not there for the last day, so it takes them three extra days to finish it (total construction time: 63 days). The workers go home and find other jobs. You come back and cave rats are already living in the basement.

Technically, the rule should be written like this: "The work takes the specified number of days. For each of those days the character is absent, add 3 days to the construction time. Therefore, if the character is not involved in the construction at all, it takes four times as long."

 

[MortalPlague]

I'd also allow PCs to track down a qualified foreman for a per-day rate to keep construction on track.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I like what I see. Release the DMG!

 

[occam]

I think it adds three days to the construction time. The base time is assuming the PC is on hand to supervise. If you're building an Abbey but will be gone the whole time it will take 1600 days to complete.

If that's how it's supposed to work, then an easier way to calculate the construction time would be:

Quadruple all the construction times. Every day the PC is present counts as four days of construction work.