Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Ashes of Zeitgeist: Campaign Thread
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="RegularPerson15" data-source="post: 8594755" data-attributes="member: 7029955"><p><h2>HOMEBREW SYSTEM: DOWNTIME PHASE</h2><p>Before I get going with the recap, I have a couple homebrew systems for downtime that I've incorporated into Zeitgeist that I'll explain here. Hopefully, if someone is looking to get started in Zeitgeist and are interested in adding to what players can do for their chosen factions in the setting, or upgrading during the many weeks/months off they'll have between books, this will provide some ideas.</p><p></p><p>In between every adventure (and maybe in the middle of a adventure, depending on if a future mission gives them the breathing room), I let my players take 3 <em>DOWNTIME ACTIONS, </em>one of each of the following:</p><h3>Tool and Tinker</h3><p>This is an action they can take to better their equipment/training. I made several tables of "upgrades" they can apply to different types of weapons/spells that will increase their damage/accuracy/apply different cool conditions (e.g. they can add <em>suppressed</em> to a firearm, dampening its noise, or <em>explosive</em> to a spell, increasing its damage). This action also allows them to upgrade the RHC Head Quarters itself (which the players have lovingly nicknamed, and will hereafter go as, <strong><em>RHQ</em></strong>). Most of these upgrades are just for combat, but I like the idea of RHC constables putting in their "off-season" training and getting better. The following is a screenshot from the PDF I made for them. Currently, the players have upgraded RHQ with a Tier Two Engineering Bay.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]154822[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><h3>Personal Project</h3><p>This action basically lets a player take care of something specific that they think their character would be interested in. I have different tables for inspiration that lets them pick from a list of project types (e.g. <em>Gather Information</em>), and then roll to find out what kind of benefits they get if they rolled well, and what kind of consequences they might face if it goes poorly. For example, in the last downtime, one of my players rolled to Gather Information about witch oil, and did not do too well (as I'll explain later in the recap).</p><p></p><h3>Faction Favour</h3><p>This action allows players to perform a favour for a known faction, where succesfully doing so increases their prestige for that faction. I should mention that I reworked the official <em>prestige system</em>, because I felt like the way it was presented in the book was not enough to fully hook my players. So rather than just decreasing the time it takes to request things, I also had tiers of prestige unlock different abilities/powers. For example, this is a screenshot from what I have so far for Vekeshi Mystic prestige (I called it Renown):</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]154825[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Typically how I play out this Favour action is to have a player either tell me exactly what they'd like to do for a faction if they already have something in mind, or I have them roll on random tables I made for each faction, which would give them a general prompt for inspiration. I had a lot of fun (perhaps too much fun!) coming up with these random tables, and the players have really enjoyed them too so far. Based on the favour, the player and I will then go through a short scene where we roleplay through the task they've undertaken, I'll have them make some skill checks, and in the end, I'll decide how well they managed to do. Below is a screenshot from some of these faction favour tables (I have a faction for each of the Character Themes, as well as some of the nations, the City of Flint, and the RHC):</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]154826[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>These downtime actions are supposed to represent what they get up to between the long stretches of time that occur between adventures. I didn't want to have them feel like their characters were just shuffling paperwork around for 3 months, then save the king, then shuffle paperwork for 3 months, then bring down a mayor (etc.) - it felt a bit jarring for me. The hope is that this system allows them to feel more immersed in the wonderful Zeitgeist setting, and more inclined to pursue private endeavours that make the game more fun.</p><p></p><p>We usually take the first session of every adventure to go through this Downtime Phase.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RegularPerson15, post: 8594755, member: 7029955"] [HEADING=1]HOMEBREW SYSTEM: DOWNTIME PHASE[/HEADING] Before I get going with the recap, I have a couple homebrew systems for downtime that I've incorporated into Zeitgeist that I'll explain here. Hopefully, if someone is looking to get started in Zeitgeist and are interested in adding to what players can do for their chosen factions in the setting, or upgrading during the many weeks/months off they'll have between books, this will provide some ideas. In between every adventure (and maybe in the middle of a adventure, depending on if a future mission gives them the breathing room), I let my players take 3 [I]DOWNTIME ACTIONS, [/I]one of each of the following: [HEADING=2]Tool and Tinker[/HEADING] This is an action they can take to better their equipment/training. I made several tables of "upgrades" they can apply to different types of weapons/spells that will increase their damage/accuracy/apply different cool conditions (e.g. they can add [I]suppressed[/I] to a firearm, dampening its noise, or [I]explosive[/I] to a spell, increasing its damage). This action also allows them to upgrade the RHC Head Quarters itself (which the players have lovingly nicknamed, and will hereafter go as, [B][I]RHQ[/I][/B]). Most of these upgrades are just for combat, but I like the idea of RHC constables putting in their "off-season" training and getting better. The following is a screenshot from the PDF I made for them. Currently, the players have upgraded RHQ with a Tier Two Engineering Bay. [ATTACH type="full"]154822[/ATTACH] [HEADING=2]Personal Project[/HEADING] This action basically lets a player take care of something specific that they think their character would be interested in. I have different tables for inspiration that lets them pick from a list of project types (e.g. [I]Gather Information[/I]), and then roll to find out what kind of benefits they get if they rolled well, and what kind of consequences they might face if it goes poorly. For example, in the last downtime, one of my players rolled to Gather Information about witch oil, and did not do too well (as I'll explain later in the recap). [HEADING=2]Faction Favour[/HEADING] This action allows players to perform a favour for a known faction, where succesfully doing so increases their prestige for that faction. I should mention that I reworked the official [I]prestige system[/I], because I felt like the way it was presented in the book was not enough to fully hook my players. So rather than just decreasing the time it takes to request things, I also had tiers of prestige unlock different abilities/powers. For example, this is a screenshot from what I have so far for Vekeshi Mystic prestige (I called it Renown): [ATTACH type="full"]154825[/ATTACH] Typically how I play out this Favour action is to have a player either tell me exactly what they'd like to do for a faction if they already have something in mind, or I have them roll on random tables I made for each faction, which would give them a general prompt for inspiration. I had a lot of fun (perhaps too much fun!) coming up with these random tables, and the players have really enjoyed them too so far. Based on the favour, the player and I will then go through a short scene where we roleplay through the task they've undertaken, I'll have them make some skill checks, and in the end, I'll decide how well they managed to do. Below is a screenshot from some of these faction favour tables (I have a faction for each of the Character Themes, as well as some of the nations, the City of Flint, and the RHC): [ATTACH type="full"]154826[/ATTACH] These downtime actions are supposed to represent what they get up to between the long stretches of time that occur between adventures. I didn't want to have them feel like their characters were just shuffling paperwork around for 3 months, then save the king, then shuffle paperwork for 3 months, then bring down a mayor (etc.) - it felt a bit jarring for me. The hope is that this system allows them to feel more immersed in the wonderful Zeitgeist setting, and more inclined to pursue private endeavours that make the game more fun. We usually take the first session of every adventure to go through this Downtime Phase. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Ashes of Zeitgeist: Campaign Thread
Top