D&D 5E (2024) Carousing in 5E

[nevin]

I suppose the thing is I don't see any entertainment value in the system. I see the purpose to bleed resources. But I don't see any real entertainment or fun value out of it. It is obviously not a system for someone like me. If others like it then my opinion doesn't invalidate that.

 

[beaumontsebos]

Your tables of outcomes are half the work already. make a bunch of npc's or buy a book of npc's and generating npc encounters isn't any harder than monster encounters. Its not any more work than generating dungeons or other encounters, once you get through a couple and get comfortable with it.

Exactly. We flesh out the table results with improvising NPCs, scenarios and appropriate consequences. I don't need help with that.

And no need to try to convince me to not use the Carousing tables. I am using them.

I'm just looking for ideas for an appropriate replacement for the XP award.

 

[Marc17]

Not familiar with Shadowdark or their Carousing tables, but plan on using the regular D&D Carousing downtimes for my own Urban Campaign game, increasing the results for an assortment of things. You already have the charts and everything, perhaps it would be possible to weight the outcome by a bonus or penalty based on intent of what the carouser is wanting to find or by how much they are willing to accept the stakes involved.

 

[beaumontsebos]

Not familiar with Shadowdark or their Carousing tables, but plan on using the regular D&D Carousing downtimes for my own Urban Campaign game, increasing the results for an assortment of things. You already have the charts and everything, perhaps it would be possible to weight the outcome by a bonus or penalty based on intent of what the carouser is wanting to find or by how much they are willing to accept the stakes involved.

Oh yeah! I forgot that the 2014 DMG and XGE had official 5E carousing and downtime rules. Time to take a dive and see what's the what.

 

[Marc17]

Oh yeah! I forgot that the 2014 DMG and XGE had official 5E carousing and downtime rules. Time to take a dive and see what's the what.

IIRC, they just allow for gaining contacts. I was going to expand to do contacts or information. Better rolls would be needed to get the specific information a PC might go out seeking. There are other specific downtimes for things like gambling or doing crimes with financial rewards.

 

[Tonguez]

Is the chance to get new allies, loot and new adventure leads not enough? what else are they going to do with all that gold?

 

[beaumontsebos]

Is the chance to get new allies, loot and new adventure leads not enough? what else are they going to do with all that gold?

Yeah, you're right. But there's also a chance they end up with a pretty bad result. The idea of at least getting some XP out of it as a salve when they end up in jail or in debt. So, since my characters don't rely on XP to advance, I need something else to entice them to take the risk.

 

[aco175]

Introduce:

Just one card at a time. Go carousing and maybe get lucky enough to gain one of the cards in the deck that is scattered around the city. Gain them all and then hope they are high enough level or destroy the party.

 

[Smackpixi]

Hi all,

I'm running a public game that has rotating players. For downtime, I decided to use Shadowdark's carousing rules and tables to make things simple.

For those not familiar, players contribute monetarily to a night (or more) of fun and roll to see the outcome. The outcomes can be good or bad. They can gain allies, gain enemies, gain treasure or lose treasure. But they always gain some XP to entice them to risk carousing. This is where I need some advice.

In my public game, character advancement is based on how many times the player has shown up to the table. So, XP awards are not an enticement. Carousing is too risky without gaining SOMETHING even when it turns out bad.

Any ideas on something that can entice them to risk carousing other than XP? I was thinking inspiration (although if they already have inspiration, this is no good) or temporary HP (although temp HP after days of drinking doesn't really fit)...

Thoughts?

Is it too simple to just update the tables so that all “bad” results have a consolation prize? Like, “you’re in jail, but hey, now have a thieves guild contact” or “you lost a finger, but impressed the mayor’s daughter”. Give all bad results a consolation prize. Seems like in the end, would be better than 50xp consolation prize. In the spirit of even failures move the game forward.

Could have a consolation prize table for people to role on. Lost a finger, but hey, 20lbs of freshly caught fish on the consolation table. And, cool story when you talk out how that must have transpired.

Admittedly more work than the initial plan of just borrowing a table involved.

 

[Tonguez]

Yeah, you're right. But there's also a chance they end up with a pretty bad result. The idea of at least getting some XP out of it is a salve when they end up in jail or in debt. So, since my characters don't rely on XP to advance, I need something else to entice them to take the risk.

I think the answer is to make every negative lead to an adventure seed - if you get in to debt, its not financial - instead you owe a pirate lord a favour, or you get home after a wild night and discover that your arm is now tattooed with a map, that someone else wants.
And going to jail is a great start to a new adventure (try to escape? plead with the court/Baron? get 'recruited' for a secret mission? thieves guild notices you?)