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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9406979" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/rnnNdXZ.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />This chapter brings the concept of a Base into 5th edition, a stationary dwelling for PCs to rest at and commit to various projects. A Base’s primary characteristics are its Size and Rooms. A Size determines its initial cost to buy (unless the PCs get it for free as a reward) and how much it costs to Upkeep for each period of Downtime. Rooms are physical spaces that can be customized for specific needs and usually provide some kind of in-game benefit, and the total number of Rooms is based on Size.There are different sizes which are roughly determined by square feet and general building type, ranging from 1,000 square feet to 20k+ or more at the highest end. The first 4 categories are rather evenly spaced out in terms of price, from 750 to 5,000 gold, but the last two categories are much more expensive at 20,000 and 100,000 gold. Fortunately the Upkeep cost doesn’t rise exponentially, generally being 1.5 to 2 times the prior value (20, 60, 90, 120, 250, and 500 gold).There are 30 different Room types, some of which have specific requirements but all of them need a set amount of gold for construction. The Rooms don’t differ drastically in cost, generally being 100 gold for the cheapest to 600 as the most expensive. Some of the more interesting ones include Bathhouse (gain advantage on all Constitution saves to resist Exhaustion at the start of each Downtime period, ends when you take your first level of Exhaustion), Greenhouse (advantage on Herbalism Kit checks while in room, restore 1d10+2 charges to a Healer’s Kit at the end of each Downtime period), Mage Tower (add double proficiency on Arcana checks while in the tower, required gold for copying and scribing spells is halved), Map Room (advantage on Calligrapher’s Supplies and Navigator’s tools while in room, can accept Chart Course Preparation without counting towards preparation limit if using the Uncharted Journeys rules), Storage Room (reinforced iron door with DC 20 lock, can hold one type of consumable resource if not used to store treasure), Training Room (can impart two proficiencies instead of one when doing Crash Course Campcraft activity, advantage on tests to Train An Apprentice Downtime activity), and Watchtower (advantage on Perception checks while in tower, nobody can approach the Base unseen without the use of magic if at least one person is standing guard here).There’s also seven Features, modifications to the Base as a whole which are unconnected to any Rooms in particular. They’re much more expensive, being in the thousands of gold piece range for costs, but include some rather nifty boosts such as Hidden Passageways which connect secret doors to every Room in the Base and require DC 17 Investigation or Perception checks to find. Or Defenses, which can be purchased twice: one option forces invaders to overcome a relevant ability check in order to get inside, while the other grants people inside a +5 on saving throws to resist magical intrusion and spying. There’s even a Portal that magically links to a place within the Base, an established teleportation circle, or similar magical transportation on the Base’s plane of existence.This chapter ends with a d100 table of Local Events that can crop up while the PCs spend a period of Downtime in their Base. These events affect everyone in the party, and only for the current period of Downtime. They generally resolve automatically as opposed to requiring an adventure or encounter to alter. For example, a poor harvest imposes disadvantage on Farming and Farmhand Downtime Activities, and food-based businesses treat their Income Level as one lower.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/OatlJ9U.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />This chapter is similar to but distinct from Contacts in that it covers a new NPC type, the Patron. Unlike Contacts, Patrons deal with the party as a whole rather than one specific PC, the benefits and hindrances they give are thus group-based, and there’s more material to flesh out their backstories and personalities given their increased importance. Patrons can be made either via random dice table results or the DM picking what feels best, and the book suggests that a Patron be made with the input of players at the table. The rationale is that it helps create a clear objective and reason for the Patron and PCs to work together.Each Patron supplies each PC with a Salary during a Downtime period, whose amount depends on the party’s current Tier. The funds come with strings attached, intended to be discretionary spending for tasks and adventures in line with the Patron’s interest, and payment can be withheld if they lose trust and confidence in the party. Each Patron also has one of twelve Types, reflecting their occupation and area of influence, such as a feudal baron, high priest, or a powerful extraplanar entity. A Patron’s type comes with a series of suggested Boons which grant the party both implied and explicit benefits. No Boons are locked into or restricted by type, as it comes down to how the DM justifies their influence and resources.The twelve Boons are quite open-ended and a few have explicit mechanics. For example, Esoteric Archives grants the party access to a secret storehouse of knowledge, giving them advantage on Investigation checks for relevant research. Safe Passage, meanwhile, lets the party safely go through an otherwise dangerous area due to the Patron pulling strings to remove obstacles in their path.Liabilities are the opposite side of Boons, where a Patron’s personality, organization, and restrictions come with setbacks that the DM can spring on the party. They’re generally personality types such as an Unforgiving patron who is particularly vengeful against certain groups and ideologies, and can hold a grudge against PCs who fail them or don’t act in line with their views. But one of them, Blackmailed, reflects someone extorting the Patron to act in counterproductive ways. This Liability is more temporary than the others, as it’s inevitable that the PCs will be called upon to deal with the blackmailer. There’s also a table of Patron Events that occur at the beginning of a Downtime period and last until the next one, such as lending the party a magic item for their next adventure in exchange for returning it undamaged. The other aspects of a Patron are less mechanical and more roleplay-centric, such as determining their long-term goals and desires, how PCs may gain or lose a new Patron, how a Patron can become an Ally, and short sentences of sample personality traits to flesh them out. Our chapter ends with Lord Kustap Van Rouque, a one page sample Patron who is the head of a librarians’ guild. He hires adventurers to look for rare books, first-hand reports, and other bits of valuable knowledge in the wider world.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/QyJDozv.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The final chapter of this book is also the shortest, covering how a PC may retire from play in a more fleshed-out way while keeping them in the story. A fair portion of this chapter is less about explicit rules and more general outlines of common reasons for an adventure to retire, how to best fit a new PC into the ongoing plot, how the former PC may still aid the party from afar, and also when it would be appropriate for the story to bring them back in for “one last adventure.”The only major mechanical rule in this chapter is a d12 table, How Have You Changed, reflecting how a PC’s time in retirement affected them should they come back into the fray. They tend to either be purely beneficial (walks at night help them see up to 30 feet in dim light as if it were bright light), or a double-edged sword (advanced age granting -2 on Strength saves but +2 on Charisma saves). Two changes that are stronger than others are training exclusively with a single weapon type, granting +2 bonus on attack rolls with it but -2 with all other weapon types. Another one has the PC lose their social filter, which lets them pester a creature that can hear and understand them, imposing disadvantage on that creature’s next ability check. This last thing doesn’t specify an action type, implying it’s a free action.This is the final chapter of the book. The remaining pages are an index and compilation of Campcraft and Downtime Activities, the latter being two large tables with short descriptions and page numbers for easy referencing.Thoughts So Far: Of the final three chapters, my favorite is the one where PCs can build and maintain their own Base. It’s a good means of giving players tangible benefits for spending money in 5th Edition, and given that it will take a while to save up funds for the largest buildings and features it has a sense of incremental advancement over the course of a campaign rather than being a one-and-done purchase. My only real criticism is that not all campaigns may be suitable for a stationary base of operations. While the Portal Feature is designed to accommodate for this, not all settings are guaranteed to have rapid long-distance travel. It’s easier for PCs in Eberron to take the lightning rail or airship to far-off countries without much consequence, but in the low-magic world of Dragonlance such an endeavor would be an adventure of its own.Patrons sound like a nice idea, but I would’ve preferred it if they had more explicit mechanical benefits rather than the paltry Salary. They basically feel like Contacts with a broader focus and budget. I have similar feelings about the Retirement rules, in that they’re more general advice that is of varying quality depending on the group in question. The contents could be thought-provoking for some, self-evident for others.Final Thoughts: A Life Well Lived is packed full of content, yet done so in a manner that feels like an easy read. The five different subsystems are individually easy to understand, and by giving mechanical rewards for things that would be glossed over in the typical 5th Edition campaign it can enhance the “role-playing” nature of PCs becoming fixtures in their local communities. The Campcraft and Downtime activities are broad enough to cover a variety of tasks and ideas, from running a business to offscreen dungeon crawls not important enough to cover in the main plot. And the Base building is definitely something I’d be tempted to use in a future campaign.The Lifepath and Patrons are more of an acquired taste, and I can’t see myself using them. The former in particular is a very different departure from how a lot of 5e gamers play, and its lack of Lineage options makes it suitable for more generic “Tolkien clone” settings vs more diverse realms.But with all that said, I found A Live Well Lived a Purchase Well Made, for it has enough ideas I’d like to implement in my own games. There’s a little bit of something for everyone here who wants to flesh out what PCs do “offscreen.”</blockquote>

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