So, after the great advice I got here last time, I thought I'd skim for ideas a second time. I'm planning a session for my players on a port city demiplane, designed for Merfolk and surface dwellers alike, and I haven't really done a downtime adventure before. I have a couple of ideas for things to come across, but rather than make it feel like I'm throwing the plot parts in whenever they run out of things to do, I'm instead playing with the idea of measuring time, giving them 12 hours of shore leave with the plot events happening at set periods. I'd love both ideas of mini encounters for them to do (and a reasonable estimate for how many half-hours you think it'd take), and opinions on how to make this work.
What I've got is as follows:
-Trawl the market. Each player can find any mundane item of less than 200gp with a half hour of searching, but for each half hour spent they can also find one extraordinary item from a generator I've got.
-Hit the bars. Some social checks to make some contacts and a possible barfight, with a pickpocket stealing the purse and running from the first player who does it. Easy to track, but tricky to follow, leading them on a goose chase around the city and giving them a chance to sightsee. Maybe a roll per hour.
-Specialty stores. Magic or intricate items, with the players finding out they need a license to buy such goods. The shopkeep offers to sell it to them under the table, but needs an off-the-books job done first. Half an hour per shop, then depends on the job.
-Library. The city is pretty damn ancient and outlasted the planet it came from, so there's a hell of a lot of knowledge. If they can't impress or convince the curator to allow them in, they may have to break in. They have a fair number of plot hooks they don't really understand at the moment, so this one is probably happening sometime.
Anyway, about 4 hours in, they come across a sometimes-ally of theirs called Adar, which (short version) leads to her becoming hostile and bolting. The local guard are particularly hostile to her and lead the charge against her, and turn against the party when she escapes. They get arrested, but end up with a whole lot more info on the ally than they've picked up so far.
Then tracking down Adar as the reason for her hostility comes to light and graduating into a full on bossfight and attack on the city. That'd be probably earliest 8th hour, with any after being epilogue.
So yeah. How would you run "shore leave" for your party and does this plan sound doable?
Be extremely careful with using items from a generator. It's generally a good idea for a GM to know what s/he is potentially introducing into a campaign. Make sure that you're going to be ok with the PC's potentially having whatever item you draw from the generator.
Its okay, I filled the generator myself, I just wanted an element of randomness. Then items are generally more novelties than gamebreakers- speak with dead remotion lotion and tutus that boost acrobatics.
Sounds good. Suggest (somewhat strongly) that you make it a floating city - at least in part - so that merfolk and that sort of thing can be at their ease. (Of course, there's underwater security too.) For all that, don't forget the criminal elements - whether in the party (want to hook up with the local thieves' guild?) or for someone flashing a lot of cash (such as anyone openly purchasing, say, 5 or more items worth at least a total of 50 gp, or one item of 200gp or more) to get their pocket picked.
That latter item (a pickpocket) could readily result in them running into their old ally - who is themselves allied with the pickpocket for some reason, and <insert chase scene here>.
ooh, nice. And I've got a pretty solid mechanic for the city- its a demiplane connected to the plane of water, with waist-high water maintained by pumps and gulleys in all public places and attuned rings of waterwalking or swimming being commonplace. I hadn't really considered the criminal side though-I'm planning meeting the ally to be a complete coincidence in some variety, as her belief that the PCs are stalking/hunting her are what leads to the conflict.
In 2nd Edition, there is Pearl, the city in the plane of water. Top half, dome of air, bottom half, dome of water. Part of the Planescape setting. Might be miss-remembering the name. There is also the city of the water genies.
/cevah