stonehead
Explorer
When I first started playing ttrpgs ages ago, I found some obscure mundane items in the equipment section of the core rule book that really piqued my imagination. They were simple things like a bar of soap, or a whetstone, or an encyclopedia (not the most exciting, I know). I really liked the idea of describing what my character did in camp, while the wizards were preparing spells. The items all had very minor effects though, +1 to diplomacy with wealthy aristocrats, or +1 to damage on your first attack after sharpening your weapon. Not even worth tracking.
I still like the idea of describing how your character spends their free time, and providing some mechanical benefit from it. A bard who sings to the party feels different from one who spends his time styling his hair; and a fighter who spends his mornings sharpening his swords has a different vibe from one who spends them exercising. Alternatively, your character could cook healthy meals to buff their allies.
The problem though is that these are pretty minor things so it's hard to justify giving out a big bonus for them, and if they give out tiny bonuses, it probably wouldn't even be worth the time to track. A well fed adventurer might be stronger than a normal one, but not by much. A normal adventurer is going to be significantly more effective than one with scurvy or an iron deficiency, so my next idea was to apply penalties for bad hygiene, or unmaintained weapons. Imagine making a diplomacy check, and the GM says "Ok, -1 for unkempt hair, -1 for bad breath" or worse "How long ago was it since you bathed? Ok, then -3 for that."
Then I realized, mathematically, there's no difference between "-2 to hit for using a rusty sword; -2 ac for wearing rusty armor" and "+2 to hit for using a non-rusty sword; +2 ac for using non-rusty armor." If you just change what an unmodified roll represents in fiction, all of a sudden all these abilities make sense. There's also a massive difference in the way it feels to players. See Rested XP vs fatigued xp in WoW.
A related story: back in the day, lots of people would complain about the bard's inspire courage, complaining about how unrealistic it was that you could fight better if this guy played a little song for you. These were largely the same people who argued games should bring back morale checks. These are basically the same thing, just with a different base unmodified roll.
A game where the default expectation is that every character, npc and players alike, are disease ridden, malnourished, unclean and depressed can justify much higher bonuses for small things like exercise, soap, and morale.
The way I see this playing out is characters selecting their "hobby" at character creation, similar to how backgrounds work in DnD 5E and Pathfinder 2E, and apply its benefits to their character or party. Maybe you could pick a second or third as you advance. IMO, managing your actual daily time use is too finicky, and would lead to too many changing modifiers.
I know Fabula Ultima has an optional system that's kinda similar to this, but I haven't seen anything else. Does anyone here know of any other games that represent "downtime" activities like this? Would this be a fun way to establish characterization in game, or does it just sound like a waste of time?
I still like the idea of describing how your character spends their free time, and providing some mechanical benefit from it. A bard who sings to the party feels different from one who spends his time styling his hair; and a fighter who spends his mornings sharpening his swords has a different vibe from one who spends them exercising. Alternatively, your character could cook healthy meals to buff their allies.
The problem though is that these are pretty minor things so it's hard to justify giving out a big bonus for them, and if they give out tiny bonuses, it probably wouldn't even be worth the time to track. A well fed adventurer might be stronger than a normal one, but not by much. A normal adventurer is going to be significantly more effective than one with scurvy or an iron deficiency, so my next idea was to apply penalties for bad hygiene, or unmaintained weapons. Imagine making a diplomacy check, and the GM says "Ok, -1 for unkempt hair, -1 for bad breath" or worse "How long ago was it since you bathed? Ok, then -3 for that."
Then I realized, mathematically, there's no difference between "-2 to hit for using a rusty sword; -2 ac for wearing rusty armor" and "+2 to hit for using a non-rusty sword; +2 ac for using non-rusty armor." If you just change what an unmodified roll represents in fiction, all of a sudden all these abilities make sense. There's also a massive difference in the way it feels to players. See Rested XP vs fatigued xp in WoW.
A related story: back in the day, lots of people would complain about the bard's inspire courage, complaining about how unrealistic it was that you could fight better if this guy played a little song for you. These were largely the same people who argued games should bring back morale checks. These are basically the same thing, just with a different base unmodified roll.
A game where the default expectation is that every character, npc and players alike, are disease ridden, malnourished, unclean and depressed can justify much higher bonuses for small things like exercise, soap, and morale.
The way I see this playing out is characters selecting their "hobby" at character creation, similar to how backgrounds work in DnD 5E and Pathfinder 2E, and apply its benefits to their character or party. Maybe you could pick a second or third as you advance. IMO, managing your actual daily time use is too finicky, and would lead to too many changing modifiers.
I know Fabula Ultima has an optional system that's kinda similar to this, but I haven't seen anything else. Does anyone here know of any other games that represent "downtime" activities like this? Would this be a fun way to establish characterization in game, or does it just sound like a waste of time?
