Fast Paced Game Options

[Centaur]

The core rules in most games contain a wide range of options for creating "Down Time" within a campaign. From fighter training, to building a stronghold to transcribing spells etc..

However... Our gaming group routinely ignores most of these. In a typical game, we will spend multiple levels out in the wilderness going from point to point before getting back to civilization. This invariably means that the PCs have a whole huge pile of loot to sell (they usually horde any bags of holding or portable holes they can find). It also means we have gone many levels without using training rules etc. so multiple levels have been gained in complete without taking a timeout.

The one part that hasn't been ignored is with respect to wizards copying spell books or creating magic items. This usually means that when the wizard wants to do some work, All the other PCs are left twiddling their thumbs... or getting into trouble and therefore disrupting the Wizard.

While it would be easy enough to just ignore this problem, I am wondering if anyone has experimented with eliminating or reducing the time it takes to copy spells or enchant items, so as to maintain the fast pace of the game.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I've always just found it easier to disallow item crafting for PCs. If you have a fast-paced lifestyle, then you don't have time to sit down and craft, so you leave that for other people.

 

[Centaur]

I guess that's an option, but doesn't really address the spell copying part which is currently more relevant in the game. Is there a way to make the 1 day per spell level scribing process a little less painful. Does it really break anything to shorten this to say 1 hour per spell level, and/or even allow a small amount of time outside of travel each day to dedicate to spell copying.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I have done sort of the opposite of Saelorn, opening up magic item creation to all characters. This gives everyone something to do.

I think that, assuming that your item creator doesn't make items just for himself, it shouldn't be too disruptive to shorten spell acquisition and item creation down to a few days at a time, or allow it to be done alongside adventuring (or both).

 

[Centaur]

I've considered doing the same thing. Plenty of stories out there where the non spell caster created something. Why shouldn't a fighter with the right skills and feats be able to make a magic sword or armor. Makes sense to me. Add in some special ingredients like special alloys or blood of a dragon or fire beetle or something and allow him to make a sword with flame power or fire resistant armor.... anyway I digress...

Thanks for the suggestion...

 

[Sunseeker]

I guess that's an option, but doesn't really address the spell copying part which is currently more relevant in the game. Is there a way to make the 1 day per spell level scribing process a little less painful. Does it really break anything to shorten this to say 1 hour per spell level, and/or even allow a small amount of time outside of travel each day to dedicate to spell copying.

The only thing it breaks is the potential amount of gold a character is able to amass over a given time period. 1/day into 1/hour increases potential gold via selling magical creations by 24 fold. That's a lot.

But part of the value in creating such things, and why they're so valuable to begin with, is that precise risk that you can't be disturbed for such a huge amount of time. It's one reason wizards tend to lock themselves away in a tower.

Personally I've found that the best way to balance out people who need to do a lot of things but can do them very quickly, and people who need to do one thing that takes a very long time, is to simply throw the brakes on doing the "easy stuff". In-game time can slowed without slowing the out-of-game pace through a few methods:

Everything you do takes a certain minimum amount of time, this can vary from city to city and task to task. If the party wants to hock their excess loot at the first merchant they find, maybe that guy gives them a bad deal (good way to reduce gold). Finding a better deal takes more time. Each attempt to find another merchant takes X amount of time (say 3 hours), so going to 3 merchants takes the better part of a day. Assume they're taking time to eat and throw another 3 hours on there. Every time the party starts chattering about what they're going to do, keep time moving. Maybe it takes them a couple hours just to decide on if they're going to Kaheem's Baubles or Phillips Pretty Things next. Make it take more time if they do it alone, this will force the party to attempt to do more things in a day, since everyone wants to do something and that something becomes more time consuming when on their own.

Sum up all these events with a simple d20 "find merchant" roll using some relevant skill (investigation, perception, etc...). The wizard goes off to scribe a spell for a day, and all it takes the party is 3 d20 rolls.

It's all a cost/benefit ratio for the wizard of being able to create, instead of being reliant on valuable loot drops. I mean how many days would one spend in the forest searching for an ancient tomb, looting said tomb, and returning to town?

Alternatively, perhaps the wizard could create a "pen of scribing" that would scribe while he's out of the office and depending on how well he crafted that would determine how successful it is in going undisturbed while the wizard is away.

 

[Centaur]

Not sure about the "pen of scribing" idea as it seams to break from the idea of the wizard having to translate the spell into his own way of understanding...

Its a good point about the profit potential on the magic item creation bit though. Although I would say only a 8 fold increase if the wizard is limited to a 8 hour effective work day.

In the current game I am running, the Party had to wait around 28 days while the wizard transcribed spells from a discovered spell book. While it is easy enough to blow over this is session with just saying 28 days pass, the PCs in my group like to make sure their time is well spent.

Starting to wonder if the best solution may be to re-introduce some form of modified training requirements. But this may not help either as it should affect the wizard as well, but he is off scribing spells.

Might have to leave magic item creation alone, and just modify the spell scribing. That may be the safest route!

 

[The Crimson Binome]

In the current game I am running, the Party had to wait around 28 days while the wizard transcribed spells from a discovered spell book. While it is easy enough to blow over this is session with just saying 28 days pass, the PCs in my group like to make sure their time is well spent.

Why were they forced to wait? Why weren't they off doing something, potentially while the wizard player ran another character, during this time?

Time to scribe is one of the hard limitations on wizard power. You shouldn't necessarily have time to scribe every spell you want, just like you might not have enough cash to buy all of the supplies you would need to do so.

 

[Sunseeker]

In the current game I am running, the Party had to wait around 28 days while the wizard transcribed spells from a discovered spell book. While it is easy enough to blow over this is session with just saying 28 days pass, the PCs in my group like to make sure their time is well spent.

I put a hard stop on downtime activities. In last night's session although there were multiple instances of downtime, everyone got a certain number of actions to take during the day. That way one guy couldn't simply say "I'm going to lock myself in a brothel for the next 3 days and the rest of you get to deal." That's incredibly unfair on the rest of the party. If any player ever told me their character needed to spend nearly a full month essentially doing nothing, I'd tell them the rest of the party is under no obligation to wait and they better hope they have a spare character, because otherwise the game and the world is moving on without them, the clock is always ticking. Players shouldn't be able to hold the party hostage like that.

Starting to wonder if the best solution may be to re-introduce some form of modified training requirements. But this may not help either as it should affect the wizard as well, but he is off scribing spells.

Unless the table is receptive to introducing training montages, making everyone have to spend a month or more doing nothing isn't going to make the situation better. Worse, you will either A: gloss over the downtime, making it just as meaningless as it was before, or B: force people to role-play "getting trained". There's a reason that Rocky Balboa only spends 5 minutes on screen getting trained and the rest of the movie is about his life and its challenges.

Not sure about the "pen of scribing" idea as it seams to break from the idea of the wizard having to translate the spell into his own way of understanding...

The pen is made by the wizard, it's existence is defined by Mr Wizard's understanding of magic. Still, the means of production is what matters and the explanation less important. Heck, allow the pen to scribe for him, but say it takes double the time, and the Wizard has to spend 5 minutes per day checking on it's progress.
-This way the Wizard gets to adventure and gain profit from that, but also profit from magical spell replication.
-Likewise it still places a burden on the Wizard to "keep track" of his pen's progress, not entirely freeing him.
-There's a potential of "chasing the dragon" wherein the Wizard could create many of these pens, each scribing a different spell, but the pen still has to be personally created. Throw a twist on it potentially with a "magicians apprentice". If he doesn't properly concentrate, maybe the pens start to learn and do things they're not commanded to.

Still, what's important isn't how it works or what it is, but the end result of allowing the wizard to adventure for the majority of his day-time while he's still able to earn money.

Might have to leave magic item creation alone, and just modify the spell scribing. That may be the safest route!

Indeed, though I would adjust market prices somewhat, particularly in larger population centers with higher levels and higher-level casters.

 

[TailleferTheWise]

The crafter in the group I DM for is an elf, and does all his crafting at night, since he only needs half the resting time that the rest of the group needs.