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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9406250" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/HsKya2m.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The next system in this book is a kind of mini-downtime that takes place during a Long Rest, particularly when the party’s camping somewhere for the night. PCs have the opportunity to undertake two different tasks during this time: Bonding and Campcraft Activities. Bonding focuses on character development between PCs, and after some appropriate roleplay the DM can reward participating characters with one Bonding Die each. A character’s Bonding Die is tied explicitly to that other PC, and can be spent as a free action to add 1d4 to their attack roll, ability check, or saving throw if both characters are within 5 feet of each other.Campcraft Activities are things a PC does in the wee hours, and only one can be done per PC per Long Rest. They’re usually an extended series of die rolls whose total number of successes determines the progress and/or magnitude of success. Additionally, many Activities have a Goal, a value that can be the same as or different from the DC. The difference between a d20 result and the Goal adds or subtracts Progress, and at the end of the Extended Test the total Progress is added up. If the Goal isn’t met, the Activity fails. If the result meets or is greater than the Goal, the Activity succeeds. Activities that require no checks or a single check don’t have Goals, and most with Goals require three die rolls.There’s an awful lot of Campcraft Activities to choose from, 30 in all. They have explicit benefits and rewards, albeit some of them are dependent on other factors such as location. You can’t Go Shopping if you’re in the middle of the wilderness, for instance.Some of the more interesting Campcraft Activities include Alchemy (roll three Alchemist’s Supplies tool checks to create a common or uncommon potion, a few of which are unique to this book and not in the core rules), Chronicle Adventures (write a series of your exploits; no check required but gain advantage on History checks related to your adventures), Crash Course (teach another party member about a skill, tool, or weapon with which you are proficient; they add your Proficiency Bonus to checks made with that skill, tool, or weapon until your next long rest; both of you perform this Campcraft Activity together), Forage (Survival or Nature checks that can either be used to make medicine granting one additional Hit Die restored during the rest, or finding a number of rations equal to your Wisdom bonus, minimum 1), A Moment’s Meditation (single Insight check, success grants advantage on next Constitution or Wisdom save), Mourn the Lost (requires the corpse of someone the party feels pity for; Investigation, History, and/or Religion checks perform a funeral rite that can prevent the deceased from rising as undead for 10 days, success by 5 or more causes their patron deity/ancestors to make their presence known and grants each party member Inspiration), Repair Vehicle (requires a vehicle, successful Strength or Intelligence checks restore vehicle to original status, advantage if proficient in vehicle, if already fixed it gains +1 AC for a week), Scope the Battlefield (Stealth check, success grants one helpful hint regarding the next encounter, can also possibly avoid it), and Write Home (no check, but doing it grants Inspiration regardless of whether or not the letter is sent).Out of curiosity I decided to compile the various required checks by skill and tool:No check 6Open-ended/any that can be justified 2Animal Handling 1Deception 1History 2Insight 2Investigation 1Medicine 1Nature 2Performance 1Persuasion 1Religion 2Sleight of Hand 1Stealth 1Survival 4Alchemist’s Supplies 4Cobbler’s Tools 1Cook’s Utensils 2Glassblower’s Tools 1Herbalism Kit 1Smith’s Tools 1Tinker’s Tools 1Weaver’s Tools 1Woodcarver’s Tools 1As you might notice, the system is weighted in favor of mental ability checks, and outdoorsman style characters such as Druids and Rangers have a pretty good array of options. Some of the broader skills like Arcana and Perception have no associated Activities, nor do the purely physical ones of Acrobatics and Athletics. As for tools, they’re overall evenly spread save when it comes to Alchemist’s Supplies, and while where’s a Performance skill there are no tool checks for musical instruments. The Activity in which you’d expect this, Put On a Show, has Performance as a skill but none for musical instruments, which feels weird. There are quite a few tools with no Campcraft Activity: Brewer’s, Calligraphers, Carpenter’s, Cartographers, Jeweler’s, Leatherworker’s, Mason’s, Painter’s, and Potter’s.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/qWdgfop.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Similar yet larger in scope than the prior chapter, Downtime represents projects undertaken by characters in a montage-style fashion between adventures. For the purposes of this system, Downtime is a vague period of time that takes place while the characters are “off-duty” when it comes to onscreen heroics, and each PC may take up to 3 Downtime Activities during this time. Downtime Activities take a week to complete and cannot be undertaken more than once during the same period of Downtime unless otherwise noted. For periods that may last longer (months or years), the DM is encouraged to expand the scope of the activities in a narrative fashion. If two or more PCs wish to work together or want to request the aid of an allied NPC, this doesn’t have any mechanical impact by default. For example, if the Barbarian PC asks the Wizard PC to come along as moral support for musical lessons in the Learn An Instrument activity, the Barbarian must spend the Activity and roll the check. The Wizard cannot mechanically aid the Barbarian in any way, but doesn’t have to spend their Downtime slot just for being there. The exception is if the aiding PC will stand to gain something; if the Wizard also wants to learn to play, they’d also need to Learn An Instrument.There are 60 unique Downtime Activities, and vary more in both scope and unique mechanics than Campcraft Activities. While several of them involve rolling appropriate ability or tool checks, just as many do not or have their own sub-systems for resolution. Even on a failure, a lot of them have a “fail forward” or “no, but” consolation prize, such as granting the PC advantage on the next roll for when they perform the same Activity due to learning from their failures.Some of the more interesting Activities include Adopt a Pet (PC buys an uncommon monster whose cost is determined by type and a random roll; training it is a separate Activity known as Train a Companion), Construction (build a room in your Base, a future sub-system in this book, at 75% cost), Forge a New Path (undergo a significant life change that allows you to retrain some mechanical aspects of your character as well as gender or appearance), Let Loose (roll a series of Constitution and skill checks where spending more gold lowers the DC, gain a new Ally on a success or Rival on a failure [both part of a later sub-system in this chapter], regardless of result gain +1d4 bonus on Charisma saves until next period of Downtime), Meditate (Insight or Religion checks, success lets them hold 1 additional Inspiration until the next period of Downtime), Perform a Heist (series of checks to pull off the heist, undertaking related Activities beforehand can grant an edge on some of these; there’s a Final Twist d6 table determining an unforeseen challenge that pops up at the end of the Activity), Purge Curse (cure a curse, disease, or other persistent condition via Arcana or History research; success points you in the direction of someone or something that can cure it), Return to Nature (leave civilization to find yourself for a time; gain a persistent benefit until the next period of Downtime that’s either dependent on class, such as a bonus use of Wild Shape for a Druid, or proficiency [or expertise if already proficient] in Nature or Survival skill), Teach a Class (roll an appropriate check to teach three students in a skill or tool, get paid gold for your time and on a successful roll they become proficient on a success until your next Downtime), and Volunteer in the Community (open-ended skill or tool check, success grants Inspiration and an Ally, an Ally on a failure, and a Rival on a failure of 5 or more).Like Campcraft, I compiled a list of Activities and relevant skill and tool checks:No check 8Open-ended/any that can be justified 12Acrobatics 2Animal Handling 4Arcana 6Athletics 8Deception 1History 2Insight 8Intimidation 1Investigation 7Medicine 1Nature 3Perception 4Performance 2Persuasion 11Religion 2Sleight of Hand 3Stealth 3Survival 6Alchemist’s Supplies 1Musical Instrument 1Thieves’ Tools 1Tinker’s Tools 1There’s a lot less specific Tools for Downtime, but every skill has some representation. The latter category is heavily weighted in favor of Athletics, Insight, Investigation, and Persuasion. Sagelike characters relying on Intelligence have a plethora of options, although non-Persuasion Charisma checks are quite sparse. We do have a lot more Activities that are broad in nature to allow for imaginative players to come up with justifications, which helps balance out the weak spots.I would like to call out several Activities as being potentially abusable: Arcane Experimentation represents a PC learning the inner workings of a known spell, learning to apply it in unforeseen ways. A successful Arcana check (uses primary casting modifier of relevant class) lets them change either its damage type, saving throw, school of magic, or casting time from an action to a bonus action and vice versa, and certain changes can increase or decrease the default spell level. It is treated as an entirely new spell, automatically learned or always prepared without counting against existing spell limits. The book even notes that this Activity in particular is the most subject to abuse, and that the DM should pay more attention and work closely with the player.Another Activity, Learn a new Spell, is exactly as it sounds. The PC chooses from either the Warlock or one of the primary casting classes (Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard) for the Activity, and if they succeed on the Arcana check they learn one 1st or 2nd level spell, and the spellcasting attribute they use is based on the class from which they took it. The spell is always counted as prepared, doesn’t count towards spells known, and is known until the next Downtime Activity. A failed result creates a Rival or vague magical mishap.While Learn a Spell doesn’t require one to be a spellcaster to take, it doesn’t say how the spell works if taken by a noncaster such as a Fighter or Rogue. Is it cast once per long rest, then? The other spell-based downtime activities have being able to cast a spell and a relevant ability score of 14 or more as a prerequisite, so I don’t know if this is an oversight.The third spell-based Activity, Master a Spell, lets the PC be able to cast it once per long rest without expending a spell slot, and this lasts until the next period of Downtime. The PC’s spellcaster level determines the maximum spell level they can Master in such a way.While one bonus spell or an additional use of a spell may not be the most drastic change in the world, being able to cast something like Fireball as a bonus action all the time is much more abusable, even if one cannot ordinarily cast two leveled spells as an action and bonus action per round.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/WCDBVwq.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Allies, Contacts, and Rivals are the other half of this chapter. In spite of sounding like three different types, Allies and Rivals are two specific types of Contacts, who are NPCs that can provide unique benefits and complications to the PCs. Characters can gain Contacts via Downtime Activities, but also as rewards and consequences upon completion of quests or even as part of one’s backstory. An Ally provides unique benefits that make a PC’s life easier in certain areas, while a Rival can impose additional challenges or make existing ones more difficult. The latter is more narrative in penalties, often involving certain NPCs having negative dispositions to the party. In several cases an Ally can be taken on as a worker at a PC’s headquarters for the Base system later in this book, often making certain rooms and their utilities cheaper or easier to do.There’s 18 different types of Contacts, with suggested statblocks of NPC types from the Core rules should their stats become relevant. Some of the more interesting ones include Farmer (as an ally you can spend rests at their place, gaining one extra Hit Die for healing and reduce the cost of a Greenhouse for Base building by 50 gold; as a Rival they disparage your reputation in rural communities and the party is no longer allowed to travel across fields or private lands), Mage (Ally lets them teach a cantrip to the PC and creating spell scrolls with them reduces cost by 50%, RIval causes rare spell components to become harder to find, rumors are spread that the PC is an incompetent spellcaster), Merchant (as an ally grants advantage for Procure An Item downtime activity, rival causes some merchants to refuse to do business with the party), Sailor (PCs can passage on their ships even in risky waters, advantage on Perception and Survival checks while on their ship, Rival makes it harder to find passage on ships), Soldier (Ally lets the PC gain +1d4 to Constitution and Strength saves if they or their fellow soldiers are within 30 feet of them, Rivalry causes the town guard and soldiers at outposts to believe that the party are untrustworthy or dangerous people), and Soothsayer (Ally lets the PC choose to automatically get a natural 20 up to 2 times on Downtime activity rolls per Downtime period, rival causes the PC to gain inaccurate information passed to them indirectly by the Soothsayer).Thoughts So Far: Campcraft, Downtime, and Contacts really fleshes out particular avenues of 5th Edition that had barebones rules at best in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. I do like how the former two categories have a plethora of options for just about every character type, and the unique benefits encourage PCs to engage with the system. I also like how they make tool proficiencies have more mechanical weight, which explains how easy they were to get in the last chapter’s Lifepath system.My major criticism is that despite the diverse options, PCs are inevitably going to gravitate towards Activities that they have the best chances of succeeding, which can end up making campcraft and downtime periods monotonous events of “time to roll three more Religion checks” again. While preventing Downtime Activities from being chosen multiple times per period helps with this, there’s no such limitation for Campcraft, which is more at risk of this. Additionally, the DM more or less has to prepare Allies and Rivals as fully fleshed-out characters ahead of time, who can be made at the end of an Activity, unless they’re fine with having them start out as stock archetypes thought up on the spot.Join us next time as we finish up the rest of the book in Chapter 4: A Place To Call Home, Chapter 5: Who Pulls the Strings, and Chapter 6: Hanging Up Your Sword!</blockquote>

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