Long periods of downtime in genre novels

[jmucchiello]

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.

Travelling is not downtime. Travelling is travelling. Downtime is sitting around checking the accounts on your businesses, kissing the loved ones and (apparently) making magic items.

Frodo's whole adventure is in the travelling. I don't think he would say his time sneaking through Mordor was downtime even though nothing of note happens between his rescue by Sam and his arrival at Mount Doom.

 

[the shmoopie]

I don't know if it is the kind of epic fantasy you are looking for but the Sword Of Truth books feature some down time. I recall in one of the books there was an entire half a year off, while the warring armies waited for the weather to get less winter-y.

 

[jmucchiello]

One reason that there's not a lot of downtime in many fantasy stories is that there's not a lot of adventuring going on. Most fantasy stories focus on one adventure, after which the main character usually retires. Bilbo had his one adventure with the dragon, and then spent decades in the Shire afterwards.

This is perhaps the crux of my issue. I regard the campaign arc as "the main story". Once the main story is in full swing, downtime disappears. Early in the characters' careers there is downtime. But once they discover their destiny* or fate* they rarely engage in downtime until that destiny or fate is fulfilled.

* I must admit to using a personal terminology set when referring to destiny and fate. The game In Nomine's use of Destiny and Fate has ingrained itself in my brain and I tend to forget that this is not the dictionary definitions of these terms. In Nomine is about angels defeating the evils of hell. The game field involves the souls of humans and in it, angels seek to bring souls to their destiny (aka reward) while devils seek to send souls to their fate (aka perdition). This will explain why I will awkwardly use the "destiny or fate" construction when I don't know/care about whether the PCs succeed or fail in their saving the world. In other words when they succeed they fulfill their destiny and when they fail they meet their fate.

 

[Storm Raven]

Travelling is not downtime. Travelling is travelling. Downtime is sitting around checking the accounts on your businesses, kissing the loved ones and (apparently) making magic items.

Well then, look at the Earthsea books. In Wizard of Earthsea, even if you discount the period before Ged attempts to summon the spirit of Elfarran, he has significant downtime in his travels. After his disasterous summoning attempt, he spends several months revcovering, followed by a year or two of studying. Then he sets out to work in the 90 Isles, and spends months there before confronting Yevaud. After that he travels around a bit, and ends up on the Isle of O, where he stays for a while. The he travels a bit more, and ends up with Ogion again, and spends a month or two recovering and then, recovered, spends some time doing not much of anything. Then he sets out again, and ends up meeting with Estarriol, and stays with him for a while, before finally setting out on the climactic voyage of the book. That's a lot of down time in one book.

 

[Hussar]

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

Thanks, I was aware of what you meant. However, from the time that Luke's Aunt Beru get's turned into kibbles to the destruction the Death Star, there is no down time. As JM said, travelling is not down time, it's travelling.

Now, between the movies, there is some down time, but, really, Luke goes from farm boy to Jedi Master in what, a year, two tops? The time is pretty shakey, they don't really say how much passes from Empire to Return of the Jedi, but, it's not like it's meant to be large amounts of time.

Heck, Dragonlance takes about two years from start to finish.

 

[prosfilaes]

Travelling is not downtime. Travelling is travelling. Downtime is sitting around checking the accounts on your businesses, kissing the loved ones and (apparently) making magic items.

I disagree with your bald assertion. Rough or dangerous travel is likely not to be downtime, but I don't see any functional difference between Luke training on the Millennium Falcon and him training at Tatooine. Long voyages by ship (or spaceship, or spelljammer) may even provide enough room and stability to make magic items.