D&D 5E DMG excerpt: Carousing!

[Amheirchion]

I think it will be a while before my players are rich enough to build anything as our first session will be this Sunday. When and if we get to castle building though I'll probably go with something like; for every four days your pc is away, only one days work is completed. With the work being roughly rounded to quarter days.
Representing a mix of slacking off and unforseen problems.

 

[occam]

It seems to me that these are the best two competing interpretations of the "+3 days" rule. There is the simulationist interpretation: that the presence of the PC speeds up what otherwise would happen anyway. And there is the gameplay interpretation: that building is a downtime activity which requires the player to commit his/her PC's downtime, and the +3 days rule is part of the rules structure for enforcing that.

I'm coming around to this second interpretation, which makes the wording clear. The extra 3 days is meant as a disincentive, a punishment if you will, for skipping out on your downtime obligations. After all, if you're not putting the time in to get downtime benefits, then you're bypassing the primary cost of the downtime system. The rule is meant to handle unavoidable absences of a day or two, not a situation where you pay the money and then go off to adventure some more. At least, that's one way to look at it that makes sense.

I think this would imply that if you wanted to just pay someone to build a stronghold for you, or buy an existing one, without putting in the time, you'd have to pay more for it. And those absentee/used prices should be somewhere else in the DMG, although I don't know if they will be.

 

[MechaPilot]

No, we don't.

I agree that we don't need a pregnancy option on the carousing table, because I think a pregnancy option (if there were one) would layer easily onto the romance result of the existing table.

Another reason I think we don't need a pregnancy option on the carousing table is because DMGs have generally opted not to address the issue of pregnant PCs or male adventurers being approached by a small horde of townspeople carrying infants and demanding that the male PC "take responsibility" for them.

 

[MechaPilot]

If that's how it's supposed to work, then an easier way to calculate the construction time would be:

Quadruple all the construction times. Every day the PC is present counts as four days of construction work.

While I don't think that a PC's presence will speed up the labor, the way that you describe would have been far simpler than the way the excerpt is worded.

I also agree with others who have said that they would allow the PCs to hire a qualified foreman.

Also, am I the only one picturing a PC-foreman acting like the Lego pharoh from Robot Chicken?

 

[MasterTrancer]

I agree that we don't need a pregnancy option on the carousing table, because I think a pregnancy option (if there were one) would layer easily onto the romance result of the existing table.

Another reason I think we don't need a pregnancy option on the carousing table is because DMGs have generally opted not to address the issue of pregnant PCs or male adventurers being approached by a small horde of townspeople carrying infants and demanding that the male PC "take responsibility" for them.

...and to be honest, I'm fearing what the average party would do should the PCs are pressed for the surmentioned "responsabilities"

Besides, way back in time, there was an online book of rules named (warning: NSFW)

[sblock]"Unlawful Guide to the Carnal Sex"[/sblock]

or something like that which took care of pregnancy, its forecourse and much things related (it featured spells and magic items as well).

A little cheesy maybe, but overall it cointained interesting bits.

 

[Consona]

Only spellcasters can make magic items? I want dwarven blacksmiths to be able to make some magic items too!

 

[SkidAce]

Make the dwarves know a ritual version of the spell needed for the item.

 

[Ahrimon]

Only spellcasters can make magic items? I want dwarven blacksmiths to be able to make some magic items too!

Or just say that dwarves can make thematically appropriate (or any) magic items. That's the beauty of 5e.

 

[Tormyr]

I mean, imagine if, in the real world, every time I walked out my door Elminster and his friends kept asking me to help them save the world!

What, this doesn't happen for you on a regular basis?

[sblock][/sblock]

 

[MechaPilot]

Make the dwarves know a ritual version of the spell needed for the item.

If you want to be technical, that wouldn't fit in with the given rules because the given rules require one to be a spellcaster who uses spell slots, and ritual spells don't use spell slots.

Now, you can certainly alter the rule. I plan to throw out the caster requirement garbage; I don't feel there's any need for a caster if one is using special components. I mean, why would I need to be a caster to make a flaming sword when I could quench the blade in red dragon blood or treat it with oils made from the entrails of a hell hound as I forge it?