D&D 5E DMG excerpt: Carousing!

[DM_]

Loving the carousing table. Can't wait for my players to spend their downtime living like rockstars. With every one of these excerpts that arises, my desire to have a copy of the DMG doubles.

 

[Dire Bare]

I think the construction rules are unclear since people have provided two or three conflicting explanations of what they clearly mean.

They're clear. Some folks are just over-analyzing them. After reading all the "but that means the work will never end" posts in this thread, all I can say is, "WOW". But then again, I have lots of gamer friends who over-interpret simple rules like this all the time, it never ceases to amaze me.

I don't want my D&D rulebooks written in legally precise language to avoid this kind of nonsense, and I'm glad 5E isn't bothering. Perhaps an FAQ would be useful to clear up what doesn't really need clearing up, but some folks are stuck on.

 

[Windjammer]

Steeldragons is right - passage on construction times is worded as it is for more reasons than just one. For one, it's a thinly veiled self reference to the writing and (non-?)completion of the book the passage appears in:

"Every day the book author is away to give some online interview or write a PR fluff piece adds 3 extra days to the completion time of this DMG."

And in small script: "Warning: While completion time grows exponentially towards infinity in this way, the duration until release day remains finite."

 

[MasterTrancer]

This is just one of the times I am being pedantic. Back in math and algorithm classes we were tasked with writing an algorithm for making a PB&J sandwich for an alien that we could only communicate with through the algorithm. The alien had never seen a PB&J sandwich before but had all the tools and ingredients necessary. The prof then went through a few of the submissions followed the instructions literally. Several of the attempts ended up looking nothing like a PB&J sandwich.


It continuously adds time to the point of never finishing.

But at day 1600 you will have 400 (Initial cost) - 1600 (work completed) + 1600 * 3 (days away penalty = 3600 days to go

Obviously they didn't mean it as written (each day away adds 3 days), so it is left to figure out what they meant.
If each day away is only 1/3 as effective, then construction of the abbey would be completed in 1200 days. (Contracters, eh?)

If each day away adds 3 days only up to the initial 400 days, then construction would be completed in 1600 days.

Making each day only worth 1/3 of the work makes more sense to me, but your mileage may vary. I imagine this might come up for some "Sage Advice" at some point.

Actually the day is worth 1/4th without the PC (just to nitpick...hehehe...)

 

[MasterTrancer]

Lotta people here never actually worked with contractors building something from scratch, have they.

The rule makes perfect sense.

This, exactly

 

[MasterTrancer]

Ok, finally read through all the comments...and is still amazes me how many people keep nitpicking words just for the sake of it: from what I'm seeing, no one should be able to even eat without a leaflet detailing EVERY step for EVERY edible thing they could stumble upon.

I'm with one of the first critics though: I would have liked a more detailed construction table (like the one in BECMI), but I think it could be borrowed with a little fuss (and beside, not everyone I know of would be bothered by actually designing a building).

 

[MasterTrancer]

...oh, and I LOVE the carousing table!

 

[Wyvern]

So low level characters will likely be making enemies, waking up unconscious, or forming romances, whereas a high level character will bypass those bad ones entirely.

Forming a romance is bad?

Also, kudos to having the player make up the relationship partner and have the DM approve it.

I agree. I also like the rule for making enemies: "The DM determines the offended party. You decide how you offended them."

One thing I want to know, however, is what the repercussions of getting arrested are. When it says "You are jailed for 1d4 days at the end of the downtime period," does that mean that the last 1d4 days of your predetermined downtime period are spent in jail, or does it mean that the start of your next adventure is delayed by 1d4 days? And if it's the former, why would any player pay the fine to avoid it -- since it happens "offscreen", and seems to have no effect ruleswise on your character?

Wyvern

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Just once by RAW. However you can exploit the system by removing your laugh and then laughing again. So you can make sure to have the last laugh. With this exploit, the XP system is hopelessly broken.

/ragequit

Actually the XP and Laugh systems are completely separate.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

They're clear. Some folks are just over-analyzing them. After reading all the "but that means the work will never end" posts in this thread, all I can say is, "WOW". But then again, I have lots of gamer friends who over-interpret simple rules like this all the time, it never ceases to amaze me.

I don't want my D&D rulebooks written in legally precise language to avoid this kind of nonsense, and I'm glad 5E isn't bothering. Perhaps an FAQ would be useful to clear up what doesn't really need clearing up, but some folks are stuck on.

Technically right is the best kind of right!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Also, I did not expect this thread to be 60+ posts of people discussing the "maths" of construction.

 

[S_Dalsgaard]

Also, I did not expect this thread to be 60+ posts of people discussing the "maths" of construction.

I'm fairly new to this forum, but in my experience so far, that is exactly what I would expect :-/

 

[Uchawi]

It's a game and some people like discussing rules. Go figure. And the DMG is intended to add more rules or customization.

 

[fjw70]

We need a pregnancy option on the carousing table.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Technically right is the best kind of right!

[video=youtube;hou0lU8WMgo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hou0lU8WMgo[/video]

Also, Everybody Sing: Jamaica!

 

[Neonchameleon]

Clearly this is one of those times when they thought that simple common sense would rule over an overly explained rule. Although they could have added "original" into that sentence and made it perfectly clear with only one extra word.

The problem is that it demonstrates that the rules writing is half-assed. That no one went through the rules checking that they said what they intended to. If they didn't bother to do it here, we know they haven't' tested at deeper levels.

 

[Reynard]

I feel like it was worded this way because the assumption is that the PC is available since this is the downtime section of the book. Construction is something you do when you have nothing else going on. The PC not being there is supposed to be the edge case which the rule covers.

OMG This! They are downtime rules.

"Okay, you guys are in downtime while the wizard crafts his Staff of Take That! for 100 days. FighterBob, you said you wanted to spend 60 days building your Trading Post. During that time, you get called back to town by the baron for his second daughter's wedding for a week. That means the trading post actually takes 81 days, plus the week, so FighterBob you have 11 days left to carouse. Roll."

EDIT: The spelling, it burned!

 

[Reynard]

We need a pregnancy option on the carousing table.

No, we don't.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

We need a pregnancy option on the carousing table.

Now I'll have to create my own carousing table, just to include pregnancy!

 

[Eejit]

If they didn't bother to do it here, we know they haven't' tested at deeper levels.

You should compete in the Logic Olympics with a long-jump like that!