Downtime

[Bodah]

It comes up every now and then, those sessions where seemingly nothing gets done. Players restock equipment, search around town for this and that. Meet new people. Basically they spend an entire session taking care of all the stuff that they have neglected while out adventuring. As a DM I still have some issues with these downtime games. Last few campaigns they have been a 'necessary evil' However I know they could be something actually much more enjoyable if I could work out these few issues I have with them. The first and foremost issue I have with them is a general lack of interest from some players, or a left out feeling. Usually when it comes to downtime half the group will decide "well I need to go buy some more supplies" while the other half of the party has nothing to take care of at that time. So I end up DMing half the party taking care of their affairs while the other half of the party is bored out of its mind. Have any of you had similar issues? If so what do you do to keep interest for the rest of the party?

The second issue is.. often the party feels like they accomplished nothing during those sessions. I am not sure how to deal with this.. on the one hand it was their choice in the first place to go and stock up and take care of their other business besides adventuring. Meaning they realize that its going to be a slow period while they do that. Yet they still end up having a feeling that they didnt get anything done. I am not sure how still give them a sense of accomplishment in these downtime games where they really arent doing much at all.

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[Shallown]

Usually most of my players are self entertaining during these times. either looking up information or talking (mostly quietly) about something non-game.

What I did last time I had this was design an encounter for each player that involved thier character. Something that focused on them for a part of the session. If they were non-proactive as some of my players are the encounter came looking for them It was 90% roleplaying that the enoer involved but it allowed each player to feel they did something that session. Also My players know that they get almost as much experience in town/downtime as usual so they don't feel cheated out of XP. It tends to balance out what I might short them otherwise. I give a great deal for roleplaying encounters that are important or taht develop the character. For example. The Groups wizard has an ongoing relationship with the shopkeeper of the universities magical supplies store (Closest thing to a magic shop but doesn't have lots of things available but can Find them). So the last time he was in the shop the Shop keeper was surly and sullen, not at all like himself. The Wizard thought Oh maybe he's having a bad day. He goes back later to see another person is working in the shop. This shop the wizard knows has no reason for two people. He eventually investigated and found the second guy was part of a guild who was leaning on the Shopkeeper and since the university was in dire straights (after a recent war) they didn't neccasrily know or even be able to do anything about it. The wizard dealt with the problem.

that was one vignette of 6 that I did involving the characters. 3 of those turned into longer term subplots (the players don't know this as of yet but are about to find out.) From these enough things developed to have something to engage all the players.

I think my point is you don't have to keep them busy the whole session just shift intensity for a short while during the session for the lower intenstiy over a whole session.

I think it works

later

 

[The Forsaken One]

I think this is that you don't have interesting PC histories and social lives. My players tend to interact with NPC's alot and are always glad to see people again.. or not. And even when people are effectively doing no adventuring or restocking, they are still going around talking adn checking on people (maybe picking up a new quest this way) and so on and so on.

This gives more depth to the game and makes the players feel their characters are more alive. At first they hated to talk IC or something or make stuff up on the spot but I encouraged them, and helped them out and stuff by making people start talk to them, like their old mentor that someone met after 10 years or a band of fellows from a similar organisation happens to be in town and have them approach them. Especially if they never bothered to roleplay with PrC's or never wrote up any real backgrounds or history. Leaves you to craete it a bit for them.

And after you did as such confront them with it. Worked for me

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

Do they visit they same town each time? How big is the town?

Continually coming back into town with money will surely drawn the interest of the local thieves guild, or a rival party of NPCs that wish to know your group's "secrets" for wealth.

How about eliminating or vastly increasing the cost of some mundane item the group needs restocked often? Such as arrows? Maybe the woodworker has died and there's no one to pick up the slack yet. Maybe lumber is getting scarce due to trade issues, or maybe someone came in a day or two before the party and bought the store out.

Adding a small wrinkle to what they're used to may make them pay a little more attention to what goes on in the town, and how they conduct their business.

Maybe the head priest at a temple of one of the players has passed on, or gone on a pilgrimage, and there's only alcolytes to look after the temple until his/her return?

 

[Katerek]

I dont know how digitally accessible your players are, but one thing I have done for my gaming style, which has completely revolutionized our games is incorporate email and the use of Yahoo Groups.

We take care of a lot of 'downtime' and behind the scenes stuff through the groups page and via email. This also allows for private contact between the players and me, without sacrificing time that is slated for other players.

This can be hard to deal with though if you have but a single player who has some type aversion to email.

 

[DanteHayes]

I'll second Katerek here. I don't know how we all gamed before the internet. What were we thinking?

In addition to be a great medium to have discussions and take care of game related business during the week. It also serves as a fantastic archives. I don't think a week goes by where one of the two long term campaigns I'm involved with does have a major discussion via the group In or Out of character or, I don't find myself called upon to reference some long forgotton piece of lore that was discussed months or, even years ago.

Very seriously consider adding Yahoo! Groups to the list of tools in your repetoir for good DMing.

DH.

 

[Nine Hands]

It comes up every now and then, those sessions where seemingly nothing gets done. Players restock equipment, search around town for this and that. Meet new people. Basically they spend an entire session taking care of all the stuff that they have neglected while out adventuring. As a DM I still have some issues with these downtime games. Last few campaigns they have been a 'necessary evil' However I know they could be something actually much more enjoyable if I could work out these few issues I have with them. The first and foremost issue I have with them is a general lack of interest from some players, or a left out feeling. Usually when it comes to downtime half the group will decide "well I need to go buy some more supplies" while the other half of the party has nothing to take care of at that time. So I end up DMing half the party taking care of their affairs while the other half of the party is bored out of its mind. Have any of you had similar issues? If so what do you do to keep interest for the rest of the party?

The second issue is.. often the party feels like they accomplished nothing during those sessions. I am not sure how to deal with this.. on the one hand it was their choice in the first place to go and stock up and take care of their other business besides adventuring. Meaning they realize that its going to be a slow period while they do that. Yet they still end up having a feeling that they didnt get anything done. I am not sure how still give them a sense of accomplishment in these downtime games where they really arent doing much at all.

Any advice is appreciated!

I find that downtime episodes are the most fun., Take for instance the Robotech game I am in. Last week, only 3 people showed up to play, so we went out (in character) on the town, goofed around, then settled in to some real work. Testing some of my character's Valkyrie designs in the simulators. I finally got to see the effects of taking the "Complete Meltdown" complication as EVERYONE'S Valkyrie suffered from catastrophic failures. Still, in the end, we beat the scenerio (I was pretty surprised as it was a female Zentraedi in Power Armor). Afterwards, one of the character's in game is yelling, tossing stuff from across the room at me, while I dodged and wrote up the bug reports. Meanwhile the player of said character is laughing his butt off. Good times.....

 

[Steverooo]

Gack!

Why in the world do your PCs feel the need to roleplay resupply? Unless I need something magical or specially made, I just "buy" whatever I need, and subtract off the coin, noting it all on my equipment sheet. I don't waste game time on it, unless the GM makes me...

Are you making the players play out every trip to the store? If so, no wonder they feel like they're getting nothing done! If not, just tell them to provide you with a list of what they spend, and take care of it out of game...

 

[Aaron L]

I love downtime. It's when you spend your loot (for hardened adventurers) and when you catch up on the the rest of the world and your friends.

 

[MarauderX]

Downtime is great for players with cash to spend or other personal objectives they want to explore (find a few spell, create a scroll, training, etc.) but the groups I like do it all online, away from the table. It give players the chance to do some work between sessions too, and makes them think about the direction the campaign is headed instead of showing up and saying 'so, before we start, can I get this, this and this first?'.

How do we do it? As a DM that just started a campaign up, I am trying to keep most discussions to me via email. It makes it more private, in case someone wants their agenda secret, and also allows me to respond when I have had a chance to review some things if necessary. I am using Yahoo groups to conduct most of the coordination, but individual emails for spicy stuff. And then I still have to get the campaign up on the story hour at your favorite website...