Between Adventures?

[Mark CMG]

Do the characters in your game (whether you're a player or DM) spend much time between adventures and, if so, what do they do during that time? (Training? Carousing? etc.ing?)

Would you prefer it to be more time between or less or about the same?

Is experience available between adventures and, if so, what warrants an experience reward?

 

[Li Shenron]

Do the characters in your game (whether you're a player or DM) spend much time between adventures and, if so, what do they do during that time? (Training? Carousing? etc.ing?)

When I DM, it usually depends on the adventures. I prefer long adventures that may took months for the characters to complete (like LotR), an probably span over a few levels. But necessity makes me run shorter adventures, usually with 1 level-up and taking a few days for the PC to complete.

Between those adventures I usually give enough time for the PCs to do whatever they want, such as crafting items for example. The downtime also helps explaining why characters have developed new abilities after levelling up, without the need to "roleplay training".

Would you prefer it to be more time between or less or about the same?

As a matter of taste, it'd be better for me to have at least weeks or months between adventures. Otherwise, I would have to explain why the game stops at level 20, if it takes a year only for the PC to get there.

Is experience available between adventures and, if so, what warrants an experience reward?

Well, if I need the PCs to be higher level for the next adventure, I have them level up during the downtime. I like thinking that the xp system is an abstraction, and people don't need to kill goblins before learning a new spell or crafting a magic item. The point is, it doesn't matter to me to explain how did they level up, they just got better somehow After all, NPCs can be high level without the need to be all ex-adventurers.

 

[diaglo]

life is an adventure.

no downtime unless the player isn't going to make it and they don't feel like having someone else play their character.


there is time set aside to train, to make items, to find or buy items, to hangout at the bar getting drunk and paying for whores.

 

[Gilladian]

I allow players to take time off between adventures when it makes logical sense. But frequently one adventure triggers another (ie a map in a treasure leads to another adventure) and the PCs don't want to take time off.

I've never given experience to a PC during downtime; however, once in a while if a PC expresses an interest in doing something special while nobody else is around, we'll run a one-on-one adventure - sometimes just a back and forth verbal exchange - and experience would be earned in that case.

Gilladian

 

[The Edge]

I tend not to use the term 'adventure' much, just about everything my players do is followed as it happens, with the ocasional 'fast forward'. Adventures are just something they do, and although obviously different aren't distinguished between with names. XP and level ups are handled at their first peaceful rest/sleep.

Experience can be given for all kind of things, eg once a player won a drinking competition (The drinkers guild, one of my favourites) and I felt that deserved a small xp reward.

 

[Kelleris]

One of my bad habits as a DM is structuring a campaign around a quickly-moving plot by some villainous organization or other. So there tends to not be much down time, because the villains are always busy and if the bad guys are up to something, the good guys must perforce be counter-up-to-something(ing).

So, while I would like them to have time to spend on "extracurriculars" and to make the level-up process somewhat more believable, I have to date not been terribly successful in that regard. I've started playing more than DMing lately, and the experience has caused my appreciation for in-character between-adventure development to grow, so I'll be paying more attention to this aspect of the game in the future.

 

[Vascant]

In my groups, we do not use the term adventures or modules. The idea is you are RP'g the life of your character, so you live out the many aspects of it. Some of my players have families, they run a business or two. They also pick and choose what they get involved in as well and sometimes even come up with tasks themselves, such as forging out a new trail for caravans or establishing a much needed trading outpost on the borders of civilization.

Experience points in my world are not based on what you kill, it is on how well you live.

 

[Crothian]

craft items, talk to people, drink and be merry...a variety of things

 

[shaylon]

Mostly craft items. That takes a while. Sometimes when a character doesn't make the weekly game his character spends some time "in the back".

-Shay

 

[Wombat]

Do the characters in your game (whether you're a player or DM) spend much time between adventures and, if so, what do they do during that time? (Training? Carousing? etc.ing?)

Adventuring takes up very little world-time (but most of game-time) in our games. At the beginning of each session we generally have what is called "schtick time", where the players slowly get into character by talking about what has been happening in their characters' lives. We have a series of recurring NPCs who have nothing to do with adventures -- pie sellers, bar maids, friends & family, all the rest, who make appearances during this part of the game. Most of the characters have actual jobs as well (freelance, for the most part) and they talk about what is happening there. In other words, the characters are part of a larger world, not divorced from it as "professional adventurers with no ties".

The players often write up small pieces between sessions regarding the characters' lives as well, including implications from adventures (such as, "How will I be able to talk to X ever again after being seen killing three members of her temple?").

Would you prefer it to be more time between or less or about the same?

We like the amount of time we spend on this -- roughly 15-20% of each game session is non-adventure related, as well as 75% of the between-game postings.

Is experience available between adventures and, if so, what warrants an experience reward?

Sure. I hand out XP for clever ideas, for new NPCs created, for stories about the characters' non-adventuring lives, etc. The amounts are small, but they add up.