D&D 5E Downtime: When, How, and How Much?

[iserith]

A complete lack of downtime would indicate that the DM provides lots of adventure hooks that are available for the PCs to pursue like the items on a check-list. When they’re done with one adventure, they tell the DM which adventure they’re going on next. Is that about right?

Speaking for my current Eberron campaign, we don't use downtime activities because it doesn't fit with the pacing and focus of the adventures as I see it. Time passes between cases the PCs take up, but we don't fill in that time with downtime activities. The focus of the game is really on the amazing stuff the PCs do, not what they do when they're not doing that amazing stuff. That's better for other campaigns in my view such as the one I'm planning next (see above).

 

[cmad1977]

Depends on the scenario.
For ToD sometimes a few weeks of downtime made sense. I used the rules in... one of the supplements. They worked well and introduced interesting NPCs to the campaign.

For CoS the pace is much higher and downtime doesn’t seem to be a thing for the characters.

 

[dave2008]

I generally require downtime to level (training, practice, etc.). At the same time they can gather information or manage businesses / stongholds, search of clues and/or jobs/adventures, etc. We haven't formalize it, but my rule of thumb is 1 week/level full time training to gain a level or 1 month / level if it is part time (doing other downtime activities). Because of this, almost all of our downtime activities happen between levels.

 

[Nebulous]

A complete lack of downtime would indicate that the DM provides lots of adventure hooks that are available for the PCs to pursue like the items on a check-list. When they’re done with one adventure, they tell the DM which adventure they’re going on next. Is that about right?

In the current campaign they're trying to find Wave Echo Cave so they can put a stop to the Black Spider. Every session since the first one is leading up to the conclusion of that plot thread. There's no resting for weeks or months to train for levels or learn a new language or whatever happens in downtime. It is all one adventure with different components that make up the whole, interlocked like a jigsaw puzzle. There's no checklist of plot hooks.

 

[Shiroiken]

It is very campaign dependent. My current campaign has some downtime, but not a lot. My first campaign had one winter, but that's all. I have an idea for a Game of Thrones style game that will likely have a lot of downtime.

My suggestion on downtime rules would be to use days, rather than the "workweeks" from XGtE. Sometimes players only have a few days of downtime available, and requiring an entire week makes things awkward.

 

[Hriston]

In my upcoming hexcrawl with megadungeon, downtime is tied to long resting which is 1 week long. So if you take a long rest, you get a work week of downtime. There are three towns on the hexmap and each one offers different downtime activities which increases the incentive to travel outside of the main hub. The PCs can opt to spend additional weeks on downtime if they want, but the megadungeon has a restocking mechanic and there's a "season" for going there (the terrain is impassable in the winter). Spend too much time in town and the dungeon repopulates and resets. This makes it a meaningful choice.

That’s a nice interaction between long rests and downtime. A couple of questions:

Say the PCs travel to one of the towns to rest for a week. Do you ask the players what they do with their downtime and then resolve the entire week in one go, or are there smaller units of time in which you sometimes resolve things?

Also, do you use complications or events that occur during downtime?

 

[Stalker0]

In my current campaign its a mission driven type of game (think Mission Impossible style). So the party has a big mission which is several sessions, and then they have 2 weeks to 1 month of downtime.

 

[iserith]

That’s a nice interaction between long rests and downtime. A couple of questions:

Say the PCs travel to one of the towns to rest for a week. Do you ask the players what they do with their downtime and then resolve the entire week in one go, or are there smaller units of time in which you sometimes resolve things?

Also, do you use complications or events that occur during downtime?

Everything is handled in increments of weeks and hopefully resolved as quickly as possible so we can get back to the traveling and delving. I do use complications for some downtime activities.

 

[Hriston]

I do longer downtimes this for a few reasons. I assume people are training and learning between levels but also it just never made sense to me that you go from the equivalent of high school graduate to seasoned professional at the top of your field overnight. I view story arcs much like The Dresden files and similar books, things are chugging along and then the poo hits the fan for a few days or weeks.

So my campaigns typically have weeks, months or even years between adventures. However I don't have hard-and-fast rules about downtime, I just have people narrate what they've been doing most of the time. I also assume separate accounts for off-season time. Your business may be going gangbusters, but it's assumed all the money is tied up on the business. I've tried using the downtime rules from the DMG, but in most cases there just wasn't enough there to justify their usage.

There are exceptions to the "loose" downtime rule of course. In one campaign the party raised a small army for a rebellion, in another they renovated an abandoned keep they had "requisitioned". People may do something as simple as making armor.

Maybe when my current campaign gets high enough level I'll try to figure out stronghold rules or similar, but it's really up to the players whether or not they want to pursue something like that.

It sounds like when you cover downtime in your games that it’s done in retrospect, something like:

“It’s been quiet for a few months. What have you all been doing?”

And then the players tell you what they did during the downtime. Is that correct?

 

[Oofta]

It sounds like when you cover downtime in your games that it’s done in retrospect, something like:

“It’s been quiet for a few months. What have you all been doing?”

And then the players tell you what they did during the downtime. Is that correct?

Pretty much. Occasionally, depending on the player, I'll throw in unexpected complications if I think they'll have fun with it.

Occasionally it's something we'll resolve at the start of the game. For example if they're opening a bar and there's uncertainty about how well it's going to go we'll do some quick checks. But if I think that will take more than a few minutes, we'll deal with most of it offline.

There are also times when there are gray areas. For example when the group was funding a small army as part of a revolution, some of the paperwork and logistics were handled as part of the game some of it was handled offline.