D&D 5E Downtime: When, How, and How Much?

[Hriston]

Hi All!

As per the title, please describe how your table implements downtime (if at all). I’m currently in the process of writing a rules module that heavily relies on downtime and would like to get an idea of the play processes involved with downtime at various tables. I’m primarily interested in how downtime interacts with the play loop. For example, does the DM of your group describe an amount of downtime for the players to use, or is it more player-initiated?

Thanks in advance for your reply!

 

[Nebulous]

I don't use it. We typically dive headlong into the next scenario/quest/fight without any downtime. I too would be curious how other groups implement it though.

 

[iserith]

In my upcoming hexcrawl with megadungeon, downtime is tied to long resting which is 1 week long. So if you take a long rest, you get a work week of downtime. There are three towns on the hexmap and each one offers different downtime activities which increases the incentive to travel outside of the main hub. The PCs can opt to spend additional weeks on downtime if they want, but the megadungeon has a restocking mechanic and there's a "season" for going there (the terrain is impassable in the winter). Spend too much time in town and the dungeon repopulates and resets. This makes it a meaningful choice.

 

[Oofta]

I do longer downtimes this for a few reasons. I assume people are training and learning between levels but also it just never made sense to me that you go from the equivalent of high school graduate to seasoned professional at the top of your field overnight. I view story arcs much like The Dresden files and similar books, things are chugging along and then the poo hits the fan for a few days or weeks.

So my campaigns typically have weeks, months or even years between adventures. However I don't have hard-and-fast rules about downtime, I just have people narrate what they've been doing most of the time. I also assume separate accounts for off-season time. Your business may be going gangbusters, but it's assumed all the money is tied up on the business. I've tried using the downtime rules from the DMG, but in most cases there just wasn't enough there to justify their usage.

There are exceptions to the "loose" downtime rule of course. In one campaign the party raised a small army for a rebellion, in another they renovated an abandoned keep they had "requisitioned". People may do something as simple as making armor.

Maybe when my current campaign gets high enough level I'll try to figure out stronghold rules or similar, but it's really up to the players whether or not they want to pursue something like that.

 

[Horwath]

we consider looting corpses downtime.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I require three days downtime in order to level up (since starting 5e this year, I changed that to level 4+).

In addition, the party generally needs to do research, bleed off stress, maintain family ties and relationships, sell loot, shop, create potions, write scrolls, and attend to the details that I require of various classes which can only be done in downtime.

Plus collect news and rumors, which are hard to come by on the road.

Generally a minimum of ten days when they reach their 'home town', but periodically as much as thirty.

 

[Tonguez]

I assume that an adventure happens over a ‘season’ regardless of how long it actually takes and that the rest of the time Is spent attending to real life or training or stuff, I encourage PCs to have connections to family or some other social ties.
SO generally theres four seasons in a year but a longer set of interconnected adventures might be assumed to cover two seasons

 

[DND_Reborn]

We actually have a lot of downtime, which is often used for research, trading, training, etc.

Also, we "winter" in towns mostly when we can, which is a bulk of our downtime. We also have it when we are on voyages which don't result in many random encounters.

In other campaigns, I've had downtime of up to five years as character built homes, had families, etc. before needing to pick up the sword again.

 

[Fanaelialae]

In my current campaign, the area they are in is covered in a dangerous miasma. In between adventures, characters require 11 days (a sacred number in the setting) to recover from exposure. During this time they're free to do whatever they need to in whatever settlement they decide to relax in, but they need to avoid further exposure and therefore must limit themselves to remaining in town.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I would love to use downtime, but when my players arrive at a town with no pressing mater, they always, always look at me with a blank stare and say: ''what are we supposed to do now?''.

People likes to complain about ''railroads'', but it seems I have fallen upon the only table that loves being told where to go and who to talk to with large glowing signs like in modern video games.

Probably a situation due to young-ish age (from 24 yo to me at 29 yo as the DM) and a good mix of ADDH, short time to play etc etc. Anyway, to them time not adventuring = time wasted.