What do you do between adventures?

[dreaded_beast]

In the games you play/DM in, what do you do between adventures?

Do you go straight into the next one or is there time for the PCs to rest and take care of mundane things (item creation, buying gear, etc.)?

 

[Galethorn]

Usually, the PCs get downtime between the adventures I run, but not always. In the games I play in, however, between-adventure-time seems to always be taken up with travelling.

 

[Crothian]

We are adventurers, we set our own time table. What's the point in looting all that money if I can't spend on ale!! THe human in the group complained we were drinking his life away when after the first adventure we spent the 3 full days drinking at the local pub. Heck, we even got the elf to drink with us, but that human he's got a stick up his backside somethign fierce So far about 50% of the sessions we have had cover what we do between advntures.

It's great having a party of mostly dwarves.

 

[painandgreed]

Train, research, gather information, craft and profession, sell loot from last adventure, buy equipment, wait for equipment that was bought to be finished, wait for winter to go away and for the passes to clear, wait for spring to go away and the roads to dry out, socialize with the NPCs, and drink. It's also a time for smaller individual side quests.

In a game where there was much magical research going on, mostly "invienting" and learning their favorite (1E) Unearthed Arcana spells, they once spent two years between being told to go on the adventure and actually leaving. Even then guards had to escort them out against their will. The next city they got to they camped out for another year a half to finish their research.

 

[The Shaman]

Do you go straight into the next [adventure] or is there time for the PCs to rest and take care of mundane things (item creation, buying gear, etc.)?

Definitely the latter.

The only exception is my d20 Modern tabletop game - the adventurers set off in search of a missing girl, and once they rescued her, the kidnappers have been trying to steal her back. The pace has pretty much been non-stop with the breaks in the action coming from travelling or perhaps a free afternoon or evening once in awhile.

Otherwise, in my other games there's considerable time between adventures as a rule.

 

[Li Shenron]

There's potentially lots of things to do, most of which probably don't affect adventures directly, but several do (buying equipment, crafting items, learning/researching spells, identifying magic loot...).

My favourite way is to let players think on their own what their PC are doing, so when we gather up for the next adventure, each can tell the others what he/she has done in the downtime. Some characters have near to nothing to do except a generic "training", so if we were to do this part always at the gaming table, those players may be bored and push the others to begin the next adventure ASAP.

 

[hong]

I'm planning to buy an Xbox and play Jade Empire between adventures. Woohoo!

 

[Jdvn1]

What?! Why wait? What kind of adventurers do you take us for?

 

[MonsterMash]

But the adventure never ends...

As playing time tends to be limited for my groups I try and do as much of this stuff away from the table as possible using email to communicate with the GM and other players so that face time is largely spent on adventuring, after all I play D&D not Accountants and Bookeeping.

 

[Scarbonac]

Rest, heal, fornicate, craft items, research spells, buy/repair gear, get drunk...and you have to be careful of the order in which these acts are performed...