Example for a session between two adventures?

[Daniel Kre]

Hi.

So we're playing a campaign (me as a GM, RotR) and we are between two adventures. Several weeks will pass before the first encounter of the new adventure appears. So how do I handle it this time?

I've read some threads in several forums about this and most people gave the advice to use the time to bring Sandpoint closer to the PCs. Like a sandboxy session with a few little encounters IN Sandpoint, like meeting new NPCs and stuff.

So far so good, the problem I have now is how to do this: I never GMed a session like this, I have absolutly no experience, I did not even see other people doing sessions like this. (my players have zero experience either)

Now I am trying to get some information on how to handle this time between the two adventures when nothing with the mainplot happens. The thing is that I actually know what my intention is, i know WHAT to do, but I don't know HOW to do it. I never had an example how to play such sessions out. I just cannot really imagine it.

So are there any examples you can give me on this topic? Like a youtube-video, a detailed sessionlog of a campaign someone else played, or something like that.

And do you have some advice you want to give me concerning this topic?

( I hope, I made my point clear lol )

[Eltacolibre]

Don't stress about it. It's actually a good time to roleplay and interact with the players, finding out what they are looking for and maybe toss in a little bit of conflict or sidequest that is quickly resolved. Not sure how far you are in RoRTL but if you are still in Sandpoint there is plenty of stuffs to do and stories to explore with all the npcs.

[Daniel Kre]

We ended Burnt Offerings last session, so we're between Burnt Offerings and Skinsaw Murders.

Yeah, I actually know that, but there are weeks and weeks between the adventures (I just said for me that there are 7 weeks between the adventures). I have some sidequests ready and stuff, but what should they do so long?

I am especially searching for examples, because as I said, my main problem is not that i do not know WHAT to do, my problem is that I don't know HOW to it practically. So like youtubevideos or some adventurelogs where people did "roleplaysessions".

[Imbicatus]

You could use the downtime rules in ultimate campaign

[Daniel Kre]

Had that idea as well, but we are new to RPGs and my player found these rules too complicated, so they don't want to use them.

They had one thing, one goal they want to achieve, as far as I remember. Maybe that's too RotRl-specific for the Adviceforum, but they wanted to use

Spoiler:

Thistletop

as their base. They want to renovate the whole fortress.

[Rerednaw]

If the PCs decide to look for trouble, 5 room dungeon is a good resource.

If the PCs want to focus on downtime, I keep it as an open forum. Nothing more heavy then just having the players around and asking
"What do you want to do?"
"How do you go about it?"

Hopefully the players will be more than capable of filling in that time.

Preface the game session with a few conversations or emails ahead of time if necessary to get some groundwork.

The fortress renovation is an excellent idea. Every PC can take up a different role in that...or some may decide to go off on their own and spend time with a mentor for training or item crafting, etc...

[CraziFuzzy]

Doing the base-building thing is not uncommon for adventurer downtime - however, it usually doesn't burn up much table time. What you can do to make that goal work to fill a gaming session, is to have whatever regent controls the realm offer a charter for the site, based on performance of some little quest. You could also have them do some job for the local masons to get their support for the repair/renovation of the fortress. Let the adventurers play at fort building by being adventurers, don't bother with them stacking up bricks themselves.

[pennywit]

One possibility is that you can do downtime without the downtime rules. If they're too complex and convoluted for you, you can use the basic GP costs of rooms and such (shorn of the influence rules) to approximate the money players will need to spend to get their base up and running. In any case, I think you ought to talk to your players about what they want to do with it, total up the costs ... and point out that they can get money from sponsors and such to help with it.

As far as turning this into a session, you might be able to get some mileage out of this scenario in the Kingmaker messageboards (beware of spoilers). Change up some of the demands and the political factions involved, but I think the core system itself (negotiating, promising favors, etc.) could make for an interesting RP scenario for a single session. You could also use the card system outlined in this thread for negotiations.