My thoughts are as follows...
on the "its so cute the adventures are taking time off, having a rest, and not going and going like an energizer dragon" or the "its mor realistic" and so forth warm and happy...
IMO.. poppycock (no offense)
this wasn't "wow the big bad is done and we got a break, lets hole up in a friendly town and get sone warm baths hot meals and do a little wenching to blow off steam" decision at all. its "bob wants to work on magic items for a while so lets all sit on our hands while he beefs up, he gets 2-1 for gp when he makes them."
the mage is working day in and day out, only not being shot at a few hours each day. he isn't taking a vacation or getting a much needed rest. and you can bet the 40 days was based on how long it takes to make the items he wanted, not how long before his stress levels drop.
On the "what do the toher characters do" front...
i think its pretty much nonsense to have a time period designated (even unofficially) as "only this guy gets to do anything usefiul" by having 40 days pass and only one character get to use his abilities for profit.
if the mage is allowed "guarantted free and safe time" to exercise his crafting abilities and turn a profit (converting gp resources into useful magic item resources at lower than the buy rate) then EVERY cjaracter should also be allowed the same "guarantteed free and safe time" to turn their abilities for profit.
if Joe the fighter says "ok so we got 40 days, i plan to spend half that time taking muscle-for-hire jobs to turn some money and xp", he should be allowed to, with loot and xp on the table.
if matilda the bard says "i play to spend my time socializing, playing , looking for money, contacts and secrets and who knows, maybe a little mystery solving", she should be allowed to with contacts allies, loot and who knows what on the table.
if Minsey the thief says "40 days, sure, lets case three or four jobs, or maybe one or two good ones, and try and russle up some "soon to be lost" jewels, magic items, and who knows what" , he should be able to.
yet, in practicality, what i think usually happens is all these get lumped into "we would need to rp them and we aint rping the downtime." and so we get exactly what was described above... a period of time where the one character (or several if they have item feats) is the only one permitted to convert his "time resource" and "gp resouce" into material useful even maybe tactical gains.
IMO... poppycock. (no offense)
if the mage can turn his "40 free days, gold, and xp in a city" into magic iterms, why cannot the thief turn his "40 days, thiefy skills and feats and tools in a city" into items, magic and mundance, too?
A few die rolls and a treasure chart later... are we done?
Finally, consider that the time prerequisite for making items is, like the casting time requirement for casting spells, a REAL thing. its not imaginary. its there for a reason and that reason, like the GP limit and the xp limit, is to be a limit. if you provide enough "free and sade guaranteed downtime" for the mage to convert all the gp and xp he wants to spend into magic items, then you have in fact removed the time requirement. you might as well have white-outted the 1000 gp per day limit. Same as if you had allowed him no limit on wealth and let him solely use time and xp as "reasons to stop magic item making."
so...
how i handle it is simple. there isn't any "guaranteed safe and easy downtime". you dont get to say "we winter up and forty days later we got these items" because you got no clue that things will remain happy for you for forty days. you can make whatever plans you want, but whether your character's sister is about to be kidnapped, whether a rift opens to the netherworld in the north forty, or whether the bad guys take their time and arrive two weeks from now as opposed to one week is not a known thing until it happens.
and you get interrupted enough for time to have meaning.
As such, breaks fall when and where they fall. Maybe you get two days rest in the clutch of hovels for someone to come for a meet or maybe it turns into a week and a half. Sometimes you might indeed get a month off or maybe a week into it you are called to duty.
the future is not known to you.
so, this tends to make TIME an issue. PCs with craft feats look at "quick to produce items" as "easy to make" or "safe" and tend to stock up on materials for those, while viewing very expensive big items as "hard to make and rare" and only embark on those when the odd circumstance presents itself.
an item which takes a day or two or at most no more than a week is considered, maybe even routinely, while items that are a month to make are considered rare treasures, not attempted often as part of "routine" and as such become much more "oh wow" when found.
IMX this works well for balance, for play, for common sense decisions, and for helping keep a kind of "oh wow" factor to magic treasure, for the occasional find which falls outside the realm of "i could make that".
the time prereqs remain "meaningful".
on the "its so cute the adventures are taking time off, having a rest, and not going and going like an energizer dragon" or the "its mor realistic" and so forth warm and happy...
IMO.. poppycock (no offense)
this wasn't "wow the big bad is done and we got a break, lets hole up in a friendly town and get sone warm baths hot meals and do a little wenching to blow off steam" decision at all. its "bob wants to work on magic items for a while so lets all sit on our hands while he beefs up, he gets 2-1 for gp when he makes them."
the mage is working day in and day out, only not being shot at a few hours each day. he isn't taking a vacation or getting a much needed rest. and you can bet the 40 days was based on how long it takes to make the items he wanted, not how long before his stress levels drop.
On the "what do the toher characters do" front...
i think its pretty much nonsense to have a time period designated (even unofficially) as "only this guy gets to do anything usefiul" by having 40 days pass and only one character get to use his abilities for profit.
if the mage is allowed "guarantted free and safe time" to exercise his crafting abilities and turn a profit (converting gp resources into useful magic item resources at lower than the buy rate) then EVERY cjaracter should also be allowed the same "guarantteed free and safe time" to turn their abilities for profit.
if Joe the fighter says "ok so we got 40 days, i plan to spend half that time taking muscle-for-hire jobs to turn some money and xp", he should be allowed to, with loot and xp on the table.
if matilda the bard says "i play to spend my time socializing, playing , looking for money, contacts and secrets and who knows, maybe a little mystery solving", she should be allowed to with contacts allies, loot and who knows what on the table.
if Minsey the thief says "40 days, sure, lets case three or four jobs, or maybe one or two good ones, and try and russle up some "soon to be lost" jewels, magic items, and who knows what" , he should be able to.
yet, in practicality, what i think usually happens is all these get lumped into "we would need to rp them and we aint rping the downtime." and so we get exactly what was described above... a period of time where the one character (or several if they have item feats) is the only one permitted to convert his "time resource" and "gp resouce" into material useful even maybe tactical gains.
IMO... poppycock. (no offense)
if the mage can turn his "40 free days, gold, and xp in a city" into magic iterms, why cannot the thief turn his "40 days, thiefy skills and feats and tools in a city" into items, magic and mundance, too?
A few die rolls and a treasure chart later... are we done?
Finally, consider that the time prerequisite for making items is, like the casting time requirement for casting spells, a REAL thing. its not imaginary. its there for a reason and that reason, like the GP limit and the xp limit, is to be a limit. if you provide enough "free and sade guaranteed downtime" for the mage to convert all the gp and xp he wants to spend into magic items, then you have in fact removed the time requirement. you might as well have white-outted the 1000 gp per day limit. Same as if you had allowed him no limit on wealth and let him solely use time and xp as "reasons to stop magic item making."
so...
how i handle it is simple. there isn't any "guaranteed safe and easy downtime". you dont get to say "we winter up and forty days later we got these items" because you got no clue that things will remain happy for you for forty days. you can make whatever plans you want, but whether your character's sister is about to be kidnapped, whether a rift opens to the netherworld in the north forty, or whether the bad guys take their time and arrive two weeks from now as opposed to one week is not a known thing until it happens.
and you get interrupted enough for time to have meaning.
As such, breaks fall when and where they fall. Maybe you get two days rest in the clutch of hovels for someone to come for a meet or maybe it turns into a week and a half. Sometimes you might indeed get a month off or maybe a week into it you are called to duty.
the future is not known to you.
so, this tends to make TIME an issue. PCs with craft feats look at "quick to produce items" as "easy to make" or "safe" and tend to stock up on materials for those, while viewing very expensive big items as "hard to make and rare" and only embark on those when the odd circumstance presents itself.
an item which takes a day or two or at most no more than a week is considered, maybe even routinely, while items that are a month to make are considered rare treasures, not attempted often as part of "routine" and as such become much more "oh wow" when found.
IMX this works well for balance, for play, for common sense decisions, and for helping keep a kind of "oh wow" factor to magic treasure, for the occasional find which falls outside the realm of "i could make that".
the time prereqs remain "meaningful".
