Long periods of downtime in genre novels

[jmucchiello]

Over in the Magic Item Creation time thread several posters have expressed this attitude:

I like that [magic item creation] takes time. Anything that promotes downtime is good.

And I was wondering what genre novels contain lots of downtime?

Before I get too deep into this, by genre I refer to "epic" fantasy. For this thread, I am assuming that the players and DM are attempting to create a story with "epic" feel. Where epic means there is something of significance whose destiny or fate is decided by the protaganists/PCs. The "usual" something involves saving the world from some evil.

Back to downtime, I also am not really interested in the early part of the story. I'm more interested in that part of the story when sides are drawn and the heroes have a target to takedown. In many games I've played in, the low level stuff sets the stage for the high level stuff. And as you get closer to the "ultimate" evil, there is an impetus to push ever forward so you can put an end to the evil before more innocents die. This time also coincides with the time when the wizard wishes he had 3 months to make a magic item.

So I ask, can someone point out to me a novel where there is significant downtime after the hero knows what he's supposed to do? Maybe I read the wrong books but the heroes don't usually take a vacation before/while hunting down known evil.

 

[GwydapLlew]

Off the top of my head:

• Lord of the Rings
• Wheel of Time
• The Belgariad, Mallorean, etc (David Eddings)
• A Song of Ice and Fire

 

[Frostmarrow]

The whole "I make my own magic items!"-idea is uncommon in fiction too. Usually the protagonists are given old stuff to use. Like Luke gets to use Obi-Wan's lightsabre. Come to think of it; that's a great example to your question. Luke invests downtime with Yoda and later he takes time off to craft his own lightsabre. Meanwhile Darth Vader is up to no good. Blowing up planets and strangling generals.

 

[Aaron L]

Maybe I read the wrong books but the heroes don't usually take a vacation before/while hunting down known evil.

Most stories don't have the characters progress from barely competent to world shattering powers in the span of a year, either. Down time makes things a little more tolerable in that regard by imposing a little time span on events.

Plus, yeah, I can name like 5 book series off the top of my head that are chock full of downtime.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Harry Turtledove's Darkness series (a retelling of WW2 set in a fantasy world) has 2 powerful spells, one Necromantic and another that is some form or Conjuration/Transmutation that years of downtime and the efforts of numerous wizards to create.

(For the record, the first is related to the setting's version of "The Final Solution," the other is the setting's version of The Manhattan Project and resultant A-Bombs...)

 

[Li Shenron]

Over in the Magic Item Creation time thread several posters have expressed this attitude:
And I was wondering what genre novels contain lots of downtime?

Basically all, only that the novel doesn't necessary tells you.

The question is not so much about roleplaying downtime, but rather to at least assume downtime between adventures, so that the character levelling doesn't happen so often that every PC goes from rookie to lord of the universe in two years of his own life.

Note that the event of quick gain of enormous power is not completely unacceptable. It does happen in literature (although I think that it mostly happens to evil characters, and usually it ends with an ever quicker downfall). It's just that in D&D it is too often the norm.

 

[Shades of Green]

In Michael Scott Rohan's Winter of the World trilogy (Anvil of Ice and so on), which is pretty much epic (fighting against evil gods bent on covering the entire world with ice) the protagonist is a smith and uses his craft more than once to create various magic items.

 

[Hussar]

LOTR has lots of downtime? Sure, there's like fifty or sixty years at the beginning, but, after Frodo leaves the Shire, what significant downtime is there? A couple of weeks with the elves and again with the elves, but, other than that, not a whole lot. By the Return of the King, there's almost no downtime as I recall. From the breaking of the Fellowship to the fall of Mordor, there's what, a single year? In that time, Pippin and Merry go from being very low level fighters to pretty high level ones.

Never mind that the Hobbit takes about a year as well.

The Belgariad, from the time Garion leaves his home to becoming King is about two years. Helpless peon to world-shattering God-mage in a couple of years. Not too shabby.

I think JM has a good point here. Most heroic fantasy works don't include major downtime. Heck, Conan goes from being a wandering homeless guy to king in a matter of a couple of years, depending on how you count.

 

[delericho]

I don't think there are too many examples of downtime in the middle of adventures. However, a great many stories feature extended downtime between adventures. They just don't tell us too much about it, because it's pretty dull.

 

[Angellis_ater]

The Belgariad, from the time Garion leaves his home to becoming King is about two years. Helpless peon to world-shattering God-mage in a couple of years. Not too shabby.

Yeah, but then the boy is a born sorceror in a world where that means instant power at your fingertips, not screwed-by-the-wizards and near godlike powers. Epic yeah, usable in relation to D&D. nah.