D&D 5E Downtime Rules - loads of fun!

[Weiley31]

In our last session the characters were finally going to realise some downtime, after just over a month of adventuring and so I decided to explore the downtime rules within the DMG and XGtE. The characters only had several days of downtime due to an important event they had to attend and I wanted them to be able to experience much of the possibilities and so I broke down the time available for each day into 6 Time Units (Morning, Late Morning, Afternoon, Late Afternoon, Evening, Late Evening) and further analysed the Downtime Activities into specific Time Unit costs (TU) with a revised gold cost. I also added a slew of additional Downtime Activities such as
Joining a Faction - we are currently playing RoT/SKT so this is always an option
Earning Renown (within a Faction) - Renown as per the DMG.
Meditation - The possibility to increase one's Sanity score (as per the DMG)
Increase Loyalty - Improving the Loyalty score of a Henchman
Earn Piety - Improving one's Piety score
Relaxation - Improving Inspiration to greater Inspiration (ability to roll after)

I modified Carousing to include the possibility of allowing the player to create an NPC (lower class, middle class, upper class, other) with which they had an acquaintance / relationship with. Furthermore I introduced possible story elements that the players could choose to engage with that would use up some of their Time Units. Story elements could lead to information, side plots, persuance of character goals, improving one's standing with various NPCs...etc

I have to say the system seemed to work beautifully, ofcourse it took me a day to customize it for our campaign/needs BUT I can honestly say it was time well spent. I would definitely recommend this way of downtiming rather than having to adlib it all as was done in previous editions. The feedback I received from the players was positive. They enjoyed the options available and the structured mechanics of it all.

Gambling and Wild Mages
Our table's wild mage sorcerer decided to pursue the DT activity Gambling since he had TU available after all the necessary. In his first stint he earned 3 successes and he enjoyed the translation of the mechanics into narration. Pretty confident, he decided to try his luck again - but this time things started going a little pair shaped. He used up Inspiration and then attempted the sorcerer's class feature Bend Luck expending 2 sorcery points. He failed to alter the result but our in-house rule is if you spend sorcery points you need to see if you activate a Wild Magic Surge. Given the current setting is high in wild magic the rule is (x + 1) on a d20 where x is the amount of sorcery points spent on the action. So 1-3 on a d20 would activate a Wild Magic Surge. Sure enough he rolled a 3 and followed up with a 91 on the WMS table.

All of a sudden he goes invisible and the gambling house goes mad given the no-magic policy at the door and a frantic search begins for him. He decides this is the perfect moment to make an exit, knowing the invisibility will not last long. Trouble is, this halfling character is somewhat attention/validation-seeking, he often announces himself (even to complete strangers) as a Hero of Baldur's Gate due to previous heroic exploits. Furthermore the party's presence and location within Waterdeep is not difficult to uncover. So, that is where I decided to end our online session - we will likely pick it up next week with a visit from a magister and a retinue of town guard. Fun, fun.

I forgot to mention he is supposed to attend the 3RD council meeting from RoT as he is one of the leading heroes. It would be funny if he missed the meeting due to being imprisoned. I'm thinking of turning the encounter with the Magister into a skill challenge, where failure will result in his imprisonment while a success would mitigate the punishment to a fine.

Did you use mostly and original system or was it mostly from the DMG/XgTE? Any tips personally for running it?

 

[Fenris-77]

Blades in The Dark I'm assuming.

Yup. Downtime in BitD is firmly connected to greater narrative of the game and a bunch of the core mechanics. It's elegantly designed and it actually matters. I'd use it as a model for sure if I wanted to hack the D&D downtime rules.

 

[HomegrownHydra]

How do the downtime rules in Blades in the Dark work?

 

[Fenris-77]

How do the downtime rules in Blades in the Dark work?

Every character gets two downtime actions, each of which effects the game in different ways. You can train, reduce stress, heal, reduce how wanted your crew is, craft things, gather information etc. All of the results feed back into improving your character or crew, or have a positive impact on your crew's next job. The mechanics are generally a single roll of some kind that either has an immediate effect or fills a project clock for progress toward a greater goal.

The reason I like it so much is how tightly the downtime is woven into the larger fiction - it all matters, some of it crucially. By comparison the effects of D&Ds downtime system are a little nebulous and limited.

 

[Sadras]

Did you use mostly and original system or was it mostly from the DMG/XgTE? Any tips personally for running it?

1. I looked at the options offered in the DMG/XGtE and determined which of them were relative to the group and listed a few more activities that would be of interest. I removed the pit fights - that was not going to appeal to any of my players. All in all I had 20 downtime activities.

2. I determined the characters' available downtime and adjusted the cost based on lifestyle expenditure in the PHB and the cost of the activities per the books.

3. I emailed the downtime list with the time unit cost and gold cost and basic mechanics to the players ahead of game time and answered any follow up questions they had. So at the session they had already an idea of what they wanted to do and how it all worked - saving us play time.

4. Then in order, I let each tell me 1 downtime activity they wanted to perform, we resolved them (with 1 exception - refer 7) and deducted the necessary time units from their tally and I would let the one that had spent the least time units go first until his/her time units spend equalled to or reached close to the others - that way everyone was performing their activities round about the same time as everyone else. Here and there I provided some narration for colour.

5. As a surprise to the players, I introduced some interesting roleplay encounters that the characters could choose to pursue or not. The lure ofcourse was the possibilty of them furthering their personal or party goals at the cost of time units.
For instance, the halfling sorcerer (mentioned upthread) had his two drinking buddies (PC created NPCs - a pair of dwarvern brothers) pressure him into spending an evening with them (costing 2 Time Units) hinting they had a surprise for him - "Another Hero of Baldur's Gate". Sure enough this peaked the halfling's interest wondering who they were talking about and so he joined them to discover the surprise was an old PC/now NPC who was indeed a companion during the time they saved Baldur's Gate (MiBG).* Uitlising the character's flaw of enjoying drinking - I told the player to roll a Constitution check for his character to see if he lost time (an additional 2 time units) the next morning due to a hangover/alcohol poisoning.
These chance enounters provided additional interesting decision points for the players - which is always a good thing.

*(Refer 6 below) This old friend and PC engaged in a lengthy dialogue in which the PC learned some pertinent information that would be valuable to the group's goals and put the PC in a difficult position of betraying a friend.

6. I resolved particular actual roleplaying encounters as in 5 above (20-25 minutes of actual time) on another day (easy enough with quarantine) so as not to give 1 person too much spotlight in our downtime admin session.

7. I resolved all the downtime activities on the spot except the buying magical items (that was to be rolled for afterwards in private).

8. After time units were all practically spent - I ended the session. In private I compiled all downtime activities with their relevant costs, rolled for the magical items sources (refer 7) giving a description of the item, it's powers and cost and sent them an email with it all. They would revert to me which item they inteded on purchasing.

9. I rolled in secret for the 10% complications for each activity and they will unfold at a later stage.

Hope some of this helps - good luck!