D&D 5E New L&L When Adventurers Aren’t Adventuring

[CAFRedblade]

Looking forward to seeing what Wizards can put together for DNDNext's Campaign Mechanics like this, and compare and integrate them with Paizo's Ultimate Campaign guidelines.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

Mark me down as another positive response.

I suspect that, by default, healing will occur simultaneously with these tasks. That way the time you have to spend healing becomes a resource you can use.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Mark me down as another positive response.

I suspect that, by default, healing will occur simultaneously with these tasks. That way the time you have to spend healing becomes a resource you can use.

I don't think it's going to work like that, since if you have a healer, healing will take about 2 days at most (a day for the healer to heal everyone, then a day for the healer to get his spells back).

 

[am181d]

To repeat my comment from the mothership, it sounds great, but it doesn't answer WHY adventurers aren't adventuring. In my current campaign, the party is about to finish up an adventure, and they have a bunch of hooks for other adventures. It would be cool for them to chill in Waterdeep and do downtime stuff for a bit, but why would they not immediately go and do another adventure? The game needs to encourage this kind of downtime, and two-day rests isn't the way.

Why does the game need to encourage it? I think the idea is that the rules are there if people want to use them, and if not, they can just go from adventure to adventure.

From an "in game" standpoint, I think the motivation is pretty clear: Adventuring is dangerous and if there's nothing pressing, they might to take some time off now and then.

 

[Warbringer]

I really like the below that seems to be the heart of the system as they all provide excellent hooks for moving between adventure-time (for want of a better term) and downtime. I also like that these can easy be turned into resources that will clearly interact with each other.

Influence: Actions that win you friends and political or social power
Economic: Actions that deal with earning and investing cash
Knowledge: Actions that allow you to train abilities or uncover secrets
Dominion: Actions for managing your personal followers and holdings

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[GX.Sigma]

I like it. It kind of reminds me of how downtime scenes were represented in the Stargate SG-1 show (probably because I just finished up re-watching the series again). Often before an episodes adventure really took off, we'd see the team wrapping up their downtime activities. Sam would be shown researching devices or working on some applied science that would lead to the devices and breakthroughs that became important to the plot; Daniel would be translating and researching, leading to the hooks (leads, information) that led them to their next adventure; Tealc and Mitchell would be exercising or training, improving eachothers martial abilities; and O'Neal would go fishing or catch up on paperwork. This mechanic sounds to me like something that can be ignored if one's not interested in it; or used at a level of immersion one chooses; and can enhance the overall game and roleplaying experience.

It sounds ideal for an episodic, Castle Greyhawk-style campaign, where each session ends with the players returning to town and saying what they do for the next week, and the next week's session starts with the DM recapping the results of their downtime activities before they return to the adventure.

 

[the Jester]

Very cool. I also find it extremely encouraging that "Raise an army" and "dominion management" are explicitly mentioned- I really, really, REALLY want rules for that stuff.

 

[LightPhoenix]

<Falls over>

Wow, second page of a Legends & Lore thread, and every single response so far is positive!

You rang?

...

Okay, I actually liked this week's column as well. A bit of information on stuff in progress, a bit of theorycraft about what the problem is and why it is, and the general idea sits well with me. I don't necessarily think there needs to be mechanics for stuff that is traditionally narrative. However, I think it's a good transition for new players that will mostly be focused on the adventure/mechanical part into narrative. Plus, anything that helps players get involved in narrative is good in my opinion. At the very least, this could be inspiration.

 

[Texicles]

Well, I was sold on this idea before I read this week's L&L. Now, I'm still sold.

I, like Chris_Nightwing, am hoping to see the inclusion of a system for expanding and improving skills by way of studying, practicing, training, apprenticing, etc. that is independent of the level/XP system.

The only thing that disappoints me is the likelihood that, with our appetites whetted for "downtime" (or "campaign" as I too prefer) mechanics, we're going to have to wait until roughly GenCon to get our greedy mitts on some concrete rules.