Long periods of downtime in genre novels

[Inconsequenti-AL]

The Riftwar Saga skips years while Pug is a slave and student.

But I honestly think that trying to emulate the details of great novels is a great way to make a really bad game.

QFT!



And the riftwar was a fun saga... they seemed to have quite a bit of downtime in that. Quite a long time period covered in a lot of feists stuff.

Not that I recall anyone doing much exciting in it apart from Pug and Tomas.

 

[Vuron]

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.

It can arguably be said that with the exception of the Hobbits few if any of the characters in LotR gain much if any power (ie levels). Gandalf is already powerful he just is transformed post death, Aragon simply reveals his power (after all he's 90+ years old).

In contrast the average 3.5e party goes from incompetent newbies to virtual demigods in roughly 270 encounters (13.5 x 20).

 

[Chimera]

In contrast the average 3.5e party goes from incompetent newbies to virtual demigods in roughly 270 encounters (13.5 x 20).

But I would hope so. 270 battles. Seriously. Think about that for a minute.

 

[Umbran]

LOTR has lots of downtime?

Consider the amount of time they spend travelling, in which nothing of note happens - if the book takes a year to pass, does the author describe an entire year's worth of action? No. Thus, there's a huge amount of time with very little action. That's downtime.

 

[Cabral]

A New Hope is full of downtime?

My appologies for the confusion. Star Wars, the series of movies, the Star Wars, the first/fourth movie in the series.

 

[Vuron]

But I would hope so. 270 battles. Seriously. Think about that for a minute.

Well from a book writing perspective leveling in a manner like DnD is a chore and a bore to write.

The majority of the action in the books are in effect the equivalent to higher CR encounters.

That and Tolkein obviously gave experience based on social challenges as well as combat situations (Befriending Tom Bombadil, ending Grima's hold on Theoden, taking part in the White Council)

Honestly though comparing the two paradigms is like comparing apples and oranges.

 

[Tarek]

Read the Black Company series by Glen Cook.

There is a lot of downtime in those novels, some of it is shown, some of it is only alluded to. The books altogether span about 20-25 years, if I remember correctly. And it's definitely an Epic fantasy, it's just not High fantasy.

 

[frankthedm]

Sometimes you have to heavy hand the downtime. That is partly why the rules for crafting armor and masterwork weapons take so much time.

Refitting fullplate takes about 14 weeks of worktime for a dedicated non elite level 3 expert. 6 ranks, 1 stat, 3 skill focus.

The 5th level elite expert dwarf [8 ranks, 2 racial, 3 focus, 3 from int and +5 from his heirloom Hammer of the Dwarven Smiths could choose to take a +10 to his DC for said armor and have it done in 6 weeks.

 

[Heckler]

Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series.

Inbetween attacks on the slavers' guild, the heroes spend downtime back in their home city.

 

[lukelightning]

Traditionally D&D was more episodic. You'd do a single adventure/module, then have some downtime to dispose of all the loot, then go on to the next adventure, which may not have been at all related to the previous one.

I'm kind of tired of epic/long-running stories. In the game I'm running I've decided to abort this long sinister plot/running theme thing and turn it into smaller adventures.