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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6482291" data-attributes="member: 4937">Is it?  If it isn't a downtime activity, what the heck is it?First, how?  You have argued that the rule for NPCs ought to be if they are prosperous or not the DM is to just by fiat say so.   Secondly, why?  Why should this not be handled as a downtime activity?  Why should I be required to promote this to center stage and suddenly handle this by process simulation?  Why can't DMs be left to choose?Err... why?  And more to the point does it some how become 'not D&D' if you disagree about whether NPCs exist, and whether they have time?  Nothing to me seems more obvious than the fact that NPCs have the same degree of existence as PCs.  They are both imagined beings.  They might be of different importance to the story.  They might mostly be minor characters to the PC's protagonists.  They might be on stage and they may have other differences.  Or on the other hand they might not, since it isn't necessarily wrong to have an NPC on stage all the time, or for an NPC to be a major character, and so forth.  But as far as existence goes, they are of the same kind and as a practical matter at some point it often becomes of interest to a PC how an NPC spends their time off stage.  Gygax for example probably spent more time describing how NPCs spent down time (on behalf of PC's) than he did spend describing PC down time (who presumably would prefer to spend most of their time adventuring).  Is it wrong to have this perspective or just different than what you so evidently prefer?I just with the briefest of brain storming gave two examples of purpose for knowing how much an NPC makes on a semi-regular basis and how that would interact with the PCs.I daresay I'm better aware of what arguments are being made here than you are.  The OP asked, "Why can't the rules be used for process simulation?"  And your answer is not, "Well they can if you want to" (which I think is probably true), but rather to launch off in a long tirade about how wrong it would be to want the rules to do that - and you are still doing so.</blockquote>

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