D&D 5E DMG excerpt: Carousing!

[guachi]

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."

Ok, then. What about my example above. Two days remaining. Leaves for one day. Comes back. How many days are left?

 

[Zaran]

My solution if you are away. Hire someone to manage the project while you are gone. There are rules for hirelings. Maybe they embezzle maybe they do you a good job. New roleplay hooks are formed.

 

[guachi]

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.

And this is better than using fractions. Just start with the highest number possible and make it look like the PC's presence is a benefit rather than his absence a penalty. For all the flaws of the 2e Castle Guide at least the construction times made sense.

 

[SilverfireSage]

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?

It's actually x4 because its three additional days. But if they leave for just one day and come back, add 3 days to the original time. That's it. Every day they're gone, add another 3 days.
think of it like this. Every day that you're there takes away a day from the original time. Every day that you aren't there adds three days of additional time. There will come a point when the original time is up and from then on out, it's simply extra time that doesn't matter whether you're there or not, that's just as long as it will take now. I'm on my phone so I can't make an example, but suffice it to say that I doubt the developers really intended for it to be this complicated and just wanted to say that it takes longer to Complete when you aren't there.

 

[SilverfireSage]

Ok, then. What about my example above. Two days remaining. Leaves for one day. Comes back. How many days are left?

Three days.
1st day: you leave. They complete the day, but add three more because you were absent. There are 4 days left, three extra, one original.
2nd day: you come back. They take this day off the original days needed. Since you are present, no extra days are needed, but there are still 3 remaining. This three days occur regardless if you are there or not. If you leave, three more days are not added to each of those days as they are not part of the original days.
But seriously, what is the point of arguing over such a small thing?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Man, some folks on this thread could more constructively spend their time carousing than in trying to nitpick rules language.

I suppose this is why people don't have drinks with contract lawyers who are on the clock, though.

 

[guachi]

So how many days are left? 5? Your workers are so incompetent they've actually set the project back 1/2 a week. They'd be better off not doing anything at all while you were gone.

 

[Mirtek]

It's actually x4 because its three additional days. But if they leave for just one day and come back, add 3 days to the original time. That's it. Every day they're gone, add another 3 days.
think of it like this. Every day that you're there takes away a day from the original time. Every day that you aren't there adds three days of additional time. There will come a point when the original time is up and from then on out, it's simply extra time that doesn't matter whether you're there or not, that's just as long as it will take now.

Which still makes for a strange progress. If the PC starts a 60 days project and isn't present even a single day of construction, then after these 60 days his original 60 day project has now 180 days left to completion. If left alone it's finally completed after these 180 days.

If the PC returns on the 61st day, it's still better for him to start from scratch than to continue building.

 

[guachi]

Three days.
1st day: you leave. They complete the day, but add three more because you were absent. There are 4 days left, three extra, one original.
2nd day: you come back. They take this day off the original days needed. Since you are present, no extra days are needed, but there are still 3 remaining. This three days occur regardless if you are there or not. If you leave, three more days are not added to each of those days as they are not part of the original days.
But seriously, what is the point of arguing over such a small thing?

Because the rule is insane as listed and requires extra bookkeeping of "original days" and "extra days" How incredibly incompetent do your workers have to be to actively set back the construction time of something? "I'm leaving for a day. Don't touch anything! When I come back, we'll only have two days of work whereas if you idiots do anything I'll have four".

It's so crazy, I'm not certain it's RAI even if it's RAW.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

It can get a little weird based on how you interpret it. Let's say you're a PC who is having a 60 day structure built but are gone during those first 60 days. When you get back you find it will now take 60*3=180 more days to finish. But your being there now does nothing to speed up the work...