When the DM askes so you've had 4 months of downtime to make stuff or do whatever what do you tell him.
This started because For most of my group the big strong burly fighter (played by a short pettite reheaded woman) answers "clang" meaning she's working on makeing masterwork armor or weapons. My wizard would be plane hopping all over the place and the theives would be running their legitimate business, cityscape is a great book. My druid in the current campaign is going all over the world to study the animals so he can honestly say "yes I know what a polar bear or dinasour looks like to shapechange into"
What do you other gamers come up with for PC downtime?
Last time I got to play a character for any extended period of time (I normally DM) was my Killoren Archivist; if our downtime was in any city she tended to spend most of her free time doing research - IE reading every scrap of paper in the local library/arcane school/temple/whatever - and engaging local clergy in discussion.
I'm currently involved in a Play-by-Post as a Hellbred Binder, but she hasn't gotten around to having any downtime yet. Probably will depend on where she's at at whatever time she gets some free time... if she's high enough level by that point I can see making magic items being up there on the list (contacting NPCs or party bard for necessary spells and binding Astaroth for the required crafting feats).
One classic answer is "Get drunk."
If the GM points out that you have a lot of time then you ammend it to "Get drunk frequently."
My character has more spare time than most thanks to ye olde ring of sustenance. She naps for 2 hours a night, prays at midnight, spends an hour afterward in meditation, and then has until the morning to take a watch and do whatever. Normal activities on a daily basis:
1) Standing an extra person on watch. Two pairs of eyes are better than one.
2) Taking care of her cohort (the Epona).
3) Mending damaged gear.
4) Writing in her journal (frequent).
During downtime, she's done the following:
1) Enchant magic items for the party (not often for herself)
2) Made contacts, even friends. She has a godson among the Rovers (homebrew equivalent to fantasy gypsies)as well as discussed religion and philosophy with other priests (including a cloud giant priest).
3) Researched the local customs and rituals associated with death (she didn't know dwarven customs well).
4)Done research into the days before the Cataclysm and into other planes as well as immortality. She'll be doing research into local history soon I think.
We don't usually have a lot of downtime in our parties; we tend to want to keep pushing forward. But it never hurts to have an answer to the question of what to do with downtime.
Recently, my character has been getting so convolutely entangled in non-adventure path related shenanigans and also kidnappings, that the DM is no longer e-mailing me to tell me what has happened and I'm clueless as to his recent past.
That's probably for the best though, as things rarely go well for him in downtime.
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My Shoanti fighter just got promoted by the Lords of Magnimar to Colonel with responsibility for the Lost Coast Road between Magnimar and Galduria, protecting the towns of Ravenmoor and Wolf's Ear and expanding Magnimar's reach by annexing Roderic's Cove. So, in my down time between adventures, I'm recruiting, training, building and patrolling. :)
Getting serious, I've faced this problem more as a GM than a player. The common responses are:
Training
Studying
Research
Attempting to create a new technique/spell/etc.
Starting a business
Running a business/kingdom
Relaxing a living on the money they have.
Trying to get a job to earn more money.
Have/raise kids.
Among the odder ones:
Holding a smithing contest with the winner marrying the character. (He was a dwarven king.)
Creating and running your own demi-plane.
Having a lengthy and bitter divorce.
Buying an island.
Starting an orphinage to secretly training child assassins.
There a plenty of things creative players can get up to.
Thanks for the great responses so far everyone. Admiral Jose you must be alot more kind with cash than my DM. He frequently changes all the money and such in the modules to one category lower Gold becomes silver silver copper and the copper stays copper so we either lug it around alot, or leave it.
He thinks that modules are way too montey haul and has no issues in under-powering our characters so that it takes all 4 of us pooling our money at 5th level to afford a party wand of Cure lite wounds.
ANY magic weapon he lets us have somebody will take training in it regardless of class or whatever.
I can't imagine being able to afford your own business or doing any type of spell research.
Keep the posts coming folks they're great so far.
He thinks that modules are way too montey haul and has no issues in under-powering our characters so that it takes all 4 of us pooling our money at 5th level to afford a party wand of Cure lite wounds.
.... OUCH.
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Most of the campaigns I’ve played in over the years have left little time for downtime between adventures, and what there has been has been spent investigating things that came up during previous adventures. Here’s a few past and present characters who have been lucky enough to have some downtime here and there.
One of my long running second edition characters, an elven mage named Anarian, spent a lot of time between adventures and campaigns researching new spells – I had pages and pages of home-brewed spells for this guy.
Beldan Vale, my human rogue in Heathy’s Greyhawk pbp game spent his last big chunk of downtime helping to fix up an old manor house that some of the party had moved into, as well as spending time with (and money on) his girlfriend Pharsia. Shorter periods of downtime prior to and since then are typically spent drinking, whoring and experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs, usually in the company of most of the rest of the party. The downtime is quite typically brought to an abrupt end in either a tavern, brothel or bath-house, where the group is attacked by drunks, assassins, the city guard, or angry husbands and fathers.
Thorn of Clovenwood, a bariaur binder from James Keegan’s now defunct Planescape game spent his pre-campaign downtime hanging out at the World Serpent Inn with an assortment of weird and wonderful fellow travellers.
Tain Locus, a paladin from Korvosa in a Curse of the Crimson Throne game that I’m playing in, has had small chunks of downtime here and there, ranging from a couple of days to a couple of weeks at a time. He typically spends his ‘downtime’ attending to his day job at the Bank of Abadar – writing reports, tending to the poor and sick, and walking patrols with the Korvosan Guard. What little free time he has beyond this he usually spends praying, visiting the grave of his dead wife Talia, having breakfast (or brunch, or lunch, or dinner, or supper) with his former brother and sister in law, Marcus and Marianna Merivanchi, or, recently, exploring a fledgling romance (chaperoned tea and walks through the city mainly) with a young Galtan refugee, Lavinia Delamore. Oh, and writing his journals. The campaign journals of Tain and some of his adventuring companions can be found here.
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Recently, my character has been getting so convolutely entangled in non-adventure path related shenanigans and also kidnappings, that the DM is no longer e-mailing me to tell me what has happened and I'm clueless as to his recent past.
That's probably for the best though, as things rarely go well for him in downtime.
To be fair, though, you haven't actually had that much downtime lately; you've been charging from one disaster to the next!
Downtime? What's that? >.>
To be fair, though, you haven't actually had that much downtime lately; you've been charging from one disaster to the next!Recently, my character has been getting so convolutely entangled in non-adventure path related shenanigans and also kidnappings, that the DM is no longer e-mailing me to tell me what has happened and I'm clueless as to his recent past.
That's probably for the best though, as things rarely go well for him in downtime.
Come again!? In between the end of HoHR and the start (proper) of TCB there wasn't much downtime? Have you lost my e-mails about that rather long period of inaction? Or just don't want to retcon? I'm sure you'd be able to twist it so I get absolutely zero information anyway...
:-)
Actually, if you don't want to do all that backstory stuff I can turn the volume down a bit? My main player concern is to AVOID DM BURNOUT WHENEVER POSSIBLE!
That, and make sure my character looks cool even if he is having his butt handed to him on a plate...
Downtime? What's that? >.>
Downtime is what a normal campaign uses to help develop charecters into something more than numbers on a page, plus it avoids the classic 20yr old ubermage.
You knwo the guy I'm talking about, he uses his starting age of 15 rolls a 1 on the d4 so at 1st lvl he's 16yrs old refelcting his magicall training and then after a few princess rescues and then averting a wold destroying disaster or two he's 20th at 20yrs old. Heck by the time he's 30 he should be a demi-god.
I'm really enjoying my current campaign because my charecter is actually haveing a romance with an NPC. He and my charecter are in the same house and he hired me and my group to eliminate some undesirables from town.
After the mission I made a pass at him and the DM ran with it. He's got a charisma of 8 and his face has a massive scar down the side while my wizard has a 16 charisma so we make quit the pair. Now I'm wondering what the DM has in store for my charecter and how the house will react to two of it's dragon marked, favored in house guys carrying on a torid love affair.
OH BTW Dork Lord I know you were being retorical with the question I just used it as a vehicle to make my point of the importance of downtime not just as a role playing device but to lend some credence to not haveing a 20yr old master theif running his own guild the size of a kingdom.
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Come again!? In between the end of HoHR and the start (proper) of TCB there wasn't much downtime?
True, but that was the first for some time.
I kept having to remind certain players, when they were coming out with plans that involved them going nova with all their daily abilities, that you've only been in the city a day!Have you lost my e-mails about that rather long period of inaction? Or just don't want to retcon? I'm sure you'd be able to twist it so I get absolutely zero information anyway...
Not at all; just real life getting in the way.
Most of what you learn won't affect your current situation.There might be a few 'Aahh...', lightbulb moments.
Actually, if you don't want to do all that backstory stuff I can turn the volume down a bit? My main player concern is to AVOID DM BURNOUT WHENEVER POSSIBLE!
ORLY? Mr variant-level, splatbook multiclass, racial template, with the tragic backstory, who gets possessed at the drop of a hat?
I'm glad you're going easy on me.
That, and make sure my character looks cool even if he is having his butt handed to him on a plate...
I never expected Tegan to run off to join the Illithid Freedom Train; I totally expected that to be you.
Thanks for the great responses so far everyone. Admiral Jose you must be alot more kind with cash than my DM. He frequently changes all the money and such in the modules to one category lower Gold becomes silver silver copper and the copper stays copper so we either lug it around alot, or leave it.
He thinks that modules are way too montey haul and has no issues in under-powering our characters so that it takes all 4 of us pooling our money at 5th level to afford a party wand of Cure lite wounds.
ANY magic weapon he lets us have somebody will take training in it regardless of class or whatever.
I can't imagine being able to afford your own business or doing any type of spell research.Keep the posts coming folks they're great so far.
And here I was thinking PFS was stingy
So how does your party deal with level appropriate encounters when you seem to have 1/10th of the resources you should have?
Have you lost my e-mails about that rather long period of inaction? Or just don't want to retcon? I'm sure you'd be able to twist it so I get absolutely zero information anyway...Not at all; just real life getting in the way.
Most of what you learn won't affect your current situation.
There might be a few 'Aahh...', lightbulb moments.
That's what I'm thinking. I know it's hard to do downtime stuff - Cathy is always asking "you're not doing D&D again are you?" when in fact I haven't got the time to do anything but a quick browse of paizo and a look up on OOTS to if it's updated.
Actually, if you don't want to do all that backstory stuff I can turn the volume down a bit? My main player concern is to AVOID DM BURNOUT WHENEVER POSSIBLE!ORLY? Mr variant-level, splatbook multiclass, racial template, with the tragic backstory, who gets possessed at the drop of a hat?
I'm glad you're going easy on me.
You'd better believe it! If only you left the adjudication of my character abilities to me, rather than stick your 'impartial DM fiat' judgements on them you'd have no problems at all! :-)
And my backstory isn't THAT unusual or OTT - the only truly tragic backstory is not having one at all... I think I'm making your life easier with these hooks, not harder!
As for possession, that's your fault IMNSHO - go pick on a cleric instead of the thief for a change *ahem*
That, and make sure my character looks cool even if he is having his butt handed to him on a plate...I never expected Tegan to run off to join the Illithid Freedom Train; I totally expected that to be you.
Me too. Me too...
And here I was thinking PFS was stingy
So how does your party deal with level appropriate encounters when you seem to have 1/10th of the resources you should have?
The answer to that DM wellard is we die alot.
The DM has an attitude of "oh well"
You should have ran, mem'd better spells, had better tactics, etc etc. Then he will sight how it was a lvl appropiate encounter and we just couldn't hang.
We however have found ways of ticking him off royally. When ever we have ANY encounter we stop trek back to town and sell the loot, no problem he started giving us monster that had no treasure, wizards that had no spell books and encounters that used cursed swords or such that when the current owner(ie Bad guy) died not only would he explode in a death srtike spell but all items would be rendered nonmagical so we couldn't sell them.
His way of thinking is well you have spells that give your weapons magical abilites so mem them cleric/druid. Any mage in his game had better take "collegiate wizard" feat to double the free spells you get per lvl cause you will never find any through adventureing. Any foes in modules he changes to a sorceer so that spell books can't be copied or sold.
We as a group have found ways to minimise the stingy DM syndrom, I always take max ranks in diplomacy for a 10% bonus on selling stuff, someone else always takes merchantile background so we can sell at 75% rather than 50 and we never, ever cast spells with expensive material components. We will happily let a charecter die or sucide so that A) we loot the corpses stuff abd B) the new charecter comes in at the DMG lvl of gold and stuff so when they come in it's with belts of healing, magic items like bags of holding and such, rinse and repeat.
It may sound drastic but we were sick of fighting and dieing to monsters that could only be hit by magic or magic weapons and TPK because they always knew to attack the mage first( no matter how high my disguse check was) then the cleric and finally finish off the entire party. 3 times in a row we had had enough.
And here I was thinking PFS was stingy
So how does your party deal with level appropriate encounters when you seem to have 1/10th of the resources you should have?
The answer to that DM wellard is we die alot.
The DM has an attitude of "oh well"
You should have ran, mem'd better spells, had better tactics, etc etc. Then he will sight how it was a lvl appropiate encounter and we just couldn't hang.
We however have found ways of ticking him off royally. When ever we have ANY encounter we stop trek back to town and sell the loot, no problem he started giving us monster that had no treasure, wizards that had no spell books and encounters that used cursed swords or such that when the current owner(ie Bad guy) died not only would he explode in a death srtike spell but all items would be rendered nonmagical so we couldn't sell them.
His way of thinking is well you have spells that give your weapons magical abilites so mem them cleric/druid. Any mage in his game had better take "collegiate wizard" feat to double the free spells you get per lvl cause you will never find any through adventureing. Any foes in modules he changes to a sorceer so that spell books can't be copied or sold.
We as a group have found ways to minimise the stingy DM syndrom, I always take max ranks in diplomacy for a 10% bonus on selling stuff, someone else always takes merchantile background so we can sell at 75% rather than 50 and we never, ever cast spells with expensive material components. We will happily let a charecter die or sucide so that A) we loot the corpses stuff abd B) the new charecter comes in at the DMG lvl of gold and stuff so when they come in it's with belts of healing, magic items like bags of holding and such, rinse and repeat.
It may sound drastic but we were sick of fighting and dieing to monsters that could only be hit by magic or magic weapons and TPK because they always knew to attack the mage first( no matter how high my disguse check was) then the cleric and finally finish off the entire party. 3 times in...
It sounds like time to kick your GM in the nuts and then find one worth playing with. This is rediculous.
The DM has an attitude of "oh well"It sounds like time to kick your GM in the nuts and then find one worth playing with. This is rediculous.
+1, I honestly don't see how you can stand that ST.
I agree with the Admiral and Orthos. Your GM seems to have an adversarial relationship to his players. Like it or not, adjustments need to be made if the party isn't running with WBL. We're not, but we fight far fewer battles than expected in a day and use good tactics wherever possible. But even that can't make up for things like fighting monsters with DR when no one can bypass it. I'd say turnabout is fair play and see how he likes it, or show him how it's done.
I appreciate the sympathy guys I really do but I don't want you to think the guys all bad. He does run a good game, lots of actual role playing and good charecter development and if we wern't haveing fun we would drop him.
The main thing is even a bad day at D&D is better than a good day doing soemthing else. Plus he loves running, he hates playing but loves running and doesn't want to let anyone else behind the screen.
The fun thing I'm doing now is my charecter is haveing a budding romance with a monk/dragon mark heir named Kazeen d'orien. He and my wizard hit it off and decided to paint fairhaven red with romance and scandle, while another charecter just found out that my house of Orien hasn't told over 500 warforged "workers" that their free, naturally no one else within the house knows anything about them but me and my brother( another player that took the same feats and house as me so we decided to be the brothers grimm but use d'orien) and I see no reason to lose free labor until the underground lightning rail is completed.
My DM is stingy but he weaves a great story. Yes I will never ever be able to buy books of stat bumps nor will I ever cast 8th or 9th lvl spells, he refuses to run past 16th lvl as it's too high and the PC's become too powerful, but he's almost the only game in town.
Which is kindda sad considering the size of the Norfolk,va area.
Well best luck Steven. Try talking seriously with him. After all it's not like he can have a game if there aren't any players. Maybe a temporary boycott will get him to actually listen.
Oh, and if it is a 3.5 game it is possible to get 8th and 9th level spells by 16th level, at least cleric ones.
This brings up why I hate running a mid-level or better wizard in DnD. I hate the party having their hand out for stuff. My wizards generally have something going on. Maybe they are into private research or haunt libraries for clues on a quest? I even had one halfling wizard/ranger who was an alchemical genius AND master cook, but the party always wanted him to crank out Rings of Spell Storing or something. Ugh.
....but he's almost the only game in town.
Which is kindda sad considering the size of the Norfolk,va area.
only game in norfolk, va???? what the??? i was in the army for 4 years, and surprisingly, where i was stationed, had 2 game stores, and tons of soldiers came out and played. i can only imagine what it is in a naval port... filled with seamon!!! lol, sorry, its an army thing.
but seriously. i can understand your DM's POV with the maunty haul thing, i think that dnd and pathfinder are rather tame in the death and roleplay factor. give me a good warhammer fantasy campaign any day of the week. thatll kill off alot of PCs real fast.
but at the same time, its all about game balance. when you boil it down, DnD, Pathfinder, and alot of other games of that nature are all about the combat, im thinking 60/40 combat to roleplay ratio. (hell, it even says in the pathfinder book "instead of wasting time describing the trek back to town with your dead companion, just end the campaign there and do a brief description about the res process in an email.")
when i was introduced to warhammer, it was brutal. the first game session i went running in, vagabond swinging his short sword, only to be cut down really easily by a beastman. after that, it went to planning out attacks so the attack happens on the party's terms.
but to answer your original question about party down time, if im a PC, im usually spending my gold on ale and wenches. as a DM, i force the characters to come up with greatness. one guy came in at one session and told me he was running for mayor of the city. he won that one in a landslide. next session, he showed up with a folder filled with reports on the budget, land proposals, new taxes, milita, and so on. yeah, he was a poli-sci/econ major. when we broke up due to me joining the army, he had carved himself an empire from the ten towns to camlimshan. (Beat that WOTC!!!)