And then you have a nice winter, whilst the wizard slaves in the lab...

[Li Shenron]

1. what do all of the other players do while that's going on
2. it's what the character can do not his stuff that the story is supposed to be about.

so just wondering how do you guys resolve these points

1. I don't understand what's your problem... if it takes 400 days to the Wizard, how long does it take the players? A few minutes I guess, why is it boring for the others? Or do you mean it's boring for the characters? But who cares? Seems that you're thinking that a character must be adventuring all the time, but is it really?

What about just saying that characters are going on with their lives in the meantime: for the fighter it includes practicing, for the rogue it may include some mundane adventuring (easy stuff, no xp), for the cleric it's church administration. IMO adventuring is still a minority of the time spent by characters.

If it help, what about saying that in the downtime everyone is learning his next feats/skills/spells/etc.? It's wrong to think that a PC goes adventuring, puts some xp in the backpack, then goes home take the xp out and paff! the xp turn into a new feat.

Try to imagine that everything "new" or "better" you get at level X doesn't happen in one instant, but it is the result of what you've been studying/practicing/etc during the previous level, and suddenly your characters have a very busy time during downtime.

The key point is that you don't have to roleplay or even mention this all the time.

2. I absolutely agree. At least however the item creation thing are still much better than buying magic items from this point of view. It's still "their stuff" by at least it's made by them personally instead of bought, which makes it part of themselves in a way.

 

[MerricB]

Somehow, after fighting their way to Hell and back, when given a choice between having a holiday or doing it again, my characters chose to fight to Hell and back again...

...Not!

Cheers!

 

[Breakstone]

I've always had trouble planning out "Downtime" in my past campaigns, but I'm thinking of really applying it in my new one.

The characters just witnessed the death of the Spire Council (the government of the kingdom, basically), were framed for it, escaped guards, waged through "The Gauntlet," a series of trapped dungeon (actual dungeon) rooms set up by the actual murderer of the Council, escaped guards, fought off a battalion of bounty hunters, were set up by a maniacal imp Wizard, and, well, escaped a bunch of guards.

I'd say it's time for some good ol' downtime.

I'm thinking of implementing a "training" option for downtime. Maybe, during each month of downtime, a character can:

- Add a miscellanious +1 to any skill he has ranks in.
- Add a +.5 to attacks with one weapon (so two months would give a +1)
- Add a +.5 to one saving throw.
- Gain 1 permanent hit point (can only be done once every other month).
- Master one arcane spell so it takes half the time to prepare.
- Commune with their god (a free Augury with 100% accuracy)
- Re-equip: They can exchange a number of items at full price for new items (but not for money)
- Exchange spells: an arcane caster can exchange one spell with another of an equal or lower level.

Or something like that.

 

[Mr. Lobo]

Just out of curiosity how much real time did the 40 days downtime take?

I imagine someone had to crunch all the numbers after deciding what items to make, etc. Was all of this done at the gaming table or pre-done via internet?

 

[kigmatzomat]

It seems I'm one of few dissenting opinions here. I have a problem with spellcasters taking 400 days making scrolls for two reasons.
1. what do all of the other players do while that's going on
2. it's what the character can do not his stuff that the story is supposed to be about.

Answering out of order: what if what you do is make stuff? For some characters it is completely in character to make things and for it to be useful in the game.

As for the first, it depends on how long. Realize that if you spend 400 days making stuff then you are creating roughly 400,000gp worth of items and burning about 16,000XP. If the mage was *almost* 17th level this would just about bleed them dry. So in all rationality, what mage wants to burn off that much XP?

What you usually get is someone saying "I want downtime" and the party negotiating a reasonable amount of time, on the order of a week or two. If it requires more than 2 weeks the general consensus is the character should wait for winter, the agreed downtime.

This cuts both ways; I don't have magic shops so if a fighter wants armor+4 he commissions it and it takes 16 days of a mage's time to enchant. If the mage is already working on something or has things he wants to take care of, the fighter might be waiting a week or two for the mage to get to him.

As for what happens, that's up to the GM and players. For downtime of a week or two most folks are more than happy with their characters relaxing, resting up, or commissioning new gear of their own. The rogue loves alchemical concoctions and tends to purchase more than is on-hand, the bard tries to learn new songs, the archers always need craploads of arrows, etc, etc.

 

[Mythmere1]

Another benefit of downtime:
When the players answer the question of what they're doing in their downtime (while the wizard slaves), they begin to answer some roleplaying questions for themselves. I try to get my players to tell me at the outset what their characters do for a hobby. When you later ask what they do during downtime, they suddenly ask a few questions related to their hobbies, and you get a bit of actual investigation of the town beyond the local tavern.

This, in turn, can add greatly to their feeling of "belonging" in the fantasy world. "We can't let a dragon attack the Town on Inderon, my favorite tailor lives there!"

 

[MerricB]

Just out of curiosity how much real time did the 40 days downtime take?

I imagine someone had to crunch all the numbers after deciding what items to make, etc. Was all of this done at the gaming table or pre-done via internet?

About 10-20 minutes, I think. Greg (the Wizard's player) was crunching numbers (not very difficult) and asking the other PCs if they wanted anything made for their characters.

Cheers!

 

[Barmy Gith]

The Eberron game I've started is actually the first time I've incorporated downtime. I basically decided to give it a shot because

a) I hadn't ever before
b) My last campaign which went from 3rd-18th lvl took less than a year of game time
c) I hope it might encourage item creation feat selection
d) I hope it will aid in developing the characters' backgrounds

I'm trying to place downtime between each adventure, and even using some training rules. At first I tried the ones from the DMG, boy did those not work. My 1st lvl players couldn't even afford to advance to 2nd lvl under those rules, and apparently the rogue was going to take at least 11 weeks to train. In the end some form of house rule was created.

So far it seems like this downtime thing could be very interesting. Though I can't help but feel that at some point the rogue is going to end up spending his downtime in jail.

 

[F5]

Downtime, or the lack thereof, is a pet peeve of mine.

The game is built with the assumption of downtime; certain aspects of the game in particular. In just about every game I've played in for the past 5 years or so, the campaign has consisted of a race against impossible odds to save the world from inescapable evil. Really great, epic (not 20+ level epic, but the original meaning of the term) adventure arcs, with all sorts of heroics and drama and butt-kicking fight scenes. This is cool. What's not cool is that once the world has been saved (or not...) the game ends. The DM says "well, that's all I got", and we start up something new. It makes it almost impossible to play a wizard. Or, at least, to play an effective wizard.

In the current campaign I've used up most of my scrolls, and gone for about 5 levels without scribing a single new spell in my spellbook, other than the 2 free per level. I sunk a couple of feats into Item Creation, and they're basically wasted. When you only have a few days to find a way to stop the evil army, taking a week out to craft a Headband of Intellect is just not an option. The characters have built absolutely no connections with the wider world, because there just isn't time. How can you justify taking time to get to know the mayor of Bumbletown, when you have MERE SECONDS to reach the crystal whatzit, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!?!?!?

Anyway, ranting aside, this is purely a function of the game I'm in, not anything about the rules themselves. I guess the point I'm making is that, to all those dissenters who feel that taking long stretches of downtime is a bad thing, the opposite can also be true...

 

[eris404]

I try to build downtime into my campaigns. One key thing to making it work is to let the players know that its OK to take some time - - very often they get into the mindset that everything needs to be dealt with immediately, and that they're on a major set time table, when in most cases they're not. You sometimes have to "give them permission" to take the time off.

I like that in your current game that there's been time in between adventures, whether we ask for it or not. I just wish we had players/characters who were willing to use the time to do things like craft items. It's a whole element of the game that I don't think we explore/take advantage of enough.