Downtime Activities

Before making an D20 Test for the downtime activity, consider whether the character will have any penalties or bonuses to the roll. Bonuses could be applied due to species or class features or maybe due to having the right contacts. You may also allow the player to come up with roleplay reasons why they should have bonuses. Penalties could be applied due to harsh environments, such as freezing temperatures, or due to antagonists messing with their downtime.

In either case consider what this bonus or penalty would look like, examples of some are given in the Bonuses and Penalties table below. It is also advised to not use bonuses and penalties in the form of (dis)advantage, as this will undermine the Complication Risk rule.

Your bonus total should always be capped at +10, in order to allow the potential risk of failure of the downtime event.

When working together, roll a D20 Test for each person involved in the downtime process. The time for working together reduces the normal amount of time by a quarter for each person working on it. If a resolution check is made, only one person makes this check, gaining a +1d4 bonus for each other person assisting them (not exceeding the +10 bonus cap). For certain downtime activities working together may not realistically reduce the time required, such as for training. Therefore working together has no effect on those types of activities, at the GMs discretion.

Almost every type of downtime activity has multiple tiers of success, each with their own quality type associated with it. The tiers are as follows: (Major) Failure, Poor, Minor (Modest), Normal (Comfortable or Good), Major (Wealthy or Amazing), Epic (Aristocratic or Excellent), and Masterful. These tiers of success will play an important role in how much benefit it gives, but also for determining complications.

For each downtime event, there is a chance of complication. This complication may be due to a rival, accidents, or failure in general.

Whenever you need to make a check for a downtime activity, you roll a d100 to see if a complication occurs. This roll should be limited to be made no more than once per workweek.

Whenever the player is about to make a ability check related to their downtime activity, determine whether they want a high, normal, or low chance of complication. Their choice will affect the success rate of their roll, as shown in the Complication Risk table below.

The Gamemaster should keep in mind that not everything will be possible in certain situations, whether that be due to location, time, or some other reason. Whenever this is the case, it is advised to be as transparent as possible. For example, a player character might want to research something the GM doesn't think should be revealed yet. In order to avoid disappointment of a falsely promised reward, just state that this research won't be possible in this location. Make sure to use this suggestion for very specific situations and use it sparingly in order to avoid the disappointment of player characters being unable to do anything.

A player character might want to have a place they call home, or to start running a business from. Once the PC has obtained a piece of land they can get to work or hire people to do the work for them.

• Base Plan. The player(s) can come up with a base plan, deciding the amount of rooms they wish to have, how big each room is supposed to be, and what the purpose of each of those rooms is. The purpose of each room could fill the requirement location for the other downtime activities, allows them to fulfil the "Rest, Relaxation, and Recuperation" activity without the need to spend any gold, or give some other effect as determined with your GM.
• Requirements. Each 5-foot square, of a single floor, of the base is expected to cost 5 GP to create, half as much if you only need to furnish it. This cost is based on if you hire workers to do it for you. If you decide to create the base yourself, the cost will be half. In either case creating a new room or building will take one day for each 5ft square. Furnishing will only take half a day for each room.
• Resolution. If you hire workers or buy furnishing for your base, it will be considered normal quality. If the player character intends to create it themselves, they should roll a skill check, using a relevant tool, for each room. The result decides the quality of that room, as shown in the Room/Base Value table below. The quality of the entire base, uses the average of all rooms taken together.
• Room/Base Value. The room/base value shows how much you can realistically rent out a furnished room, provided it contains all necessities. If you wish to rent out the entire base you could use the following calculation: Half Rent Value x Number of Rooms.If you wish to sell the building, use the following calculation for an estimate of how much people would be willing to pay for it: Half Rent Value x Number of Rooms x 40.

A player might be interested in crafting potions, magic items, spell scrolls, tools, or works of art. With enough time they will be able to do just that. Crafting an item can be defined in four different categories: Mundane Items, Spell Scrolls, Potions, and Magic Items.

• Location & Tools. Depending on what you intend to craft different tools or crafting locations are required. For most mundane items to uncommon magic items it is possible to craft them on the road. Bigger or rarer materials might need a full workshop or forge. Magic items of very rare or higher quality will likely require a magical workshop/forge, while legendary magic items and relics will require a legendary/mythical workshop/forge, of which only one is rumoured to exist.
• Material Amounts. Each item crafted requires a different amount of materials. The amount per item type, are as follows:
  • 1 Material. Weapons with the light property, potions, rations, and a tiny object.
  • 2 Materials. Any weapon without the two-handed or heavy properties or a full set of clothing.
  • 3 Materials. Shields, weapons with the two-handed and/or heavy properties, or a small object.
  • 4 Materials. Light and Medium armour.
  • 5 Materials. Heavy armour or a medium object.
• Resolution. No matter what type of item you craft, you make two ability checks, a check at the start to determine the speed of your craft and one at the end to determine the quality of your craft.The ability check made should correspond with the type of tool used to create the item or the person creating the item. For instance, smith's tools might require a Strength (Athletics) check, while tinker's tools require a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check and scribing a scroll is determined by your spellcasting ability.Before they make any ability check, you should tell them at least two different ability checks that are required to the crafting process. The player can then decide which of the choices to use on the speed check and which one to use on the quality check.

Mundane Items

Spell Scrolls

Potions

Magic Items

A player character might want to enter a competition, excluding those that require combat. These competitions could be about, for example, arts or crafts, baking, beauty, eating, maths, or sports.

• Requirements. A PC joining a competition has to pay an entry fee, determined by the GM. Knowing the right people or having high amounts of fame, may give you a discount on this entry fee. There are two types of competitions the PC can join, a short and a long competition.
• Resolution. A short competition will require the player character to roll only one D20 Test, resulting in a general lower reward. Competitions with a longer duration will require the PC to make three different D20 Tests. In either case the player should describe how they intend to win that round, after which the GM decides what D20 Test they should roll.No matter the type of the competition, the DC is determined by the GM, if narratively important, or by rolling 7 + 2d10 for each D20 Test. The results of each of these D20 Tests determines how much the PC earns, as shown in the Competition Winnings table below.

A player character might want to take the illegal route of gaining money or items, also known as crime. This downtime activity is risky, as you may end up in jail for a week, in which you could have done a downtime activity.

• Requirements. Before you can successfully commit profitable crime, you must spend a workweek exploring your options and determining good ways to commit this crime. The PC can determine the amount of gold coins they wish to spend for this preparation, which will directly influence how much they earn.
• Resolution. The player character should decide on what type of crime they wish to commit and where. Most often they will want to do a robbery. Each time the PC commits crime they must choose the DC they wish to beat, as shown in the Crime Loot Value table below, and then succeed on three different, but relevant, D20 Tests (their choice). If they fail the first two tests, they will always be caught, after which the last test has to be a Constitution ability check, to try to outrun the guards. If the character fails all three D20 Tests, they will spend a week in jail and have to pay a fine equal to their preparation cost.The value of gold or items obtained depends on the amount of successes: 3 successes: Get all the loot; 2 successes: get half the loot's value; 1 success: you fail, but regain loot equal to their preparation costs.

A player character may attempt to gain favour with a person in power, their patron, or even their deity. Whenever a person attempts to gain this favour, they spend time sucking up to the person or deity. Sometimes this takes the form of doing odd jobs for the person in power, doing religious service, or just generally doing the bidding of the person/being you are trying to gain favour of.

• Requirements. As this activity already requires you to know the person/being, no other requirements have to be met, other than spending a full workweek doing this activity.
• Resolution. A PC should decide how they attempt to gain the person's/being's favour, after which the GM decides which D20 Test would make the most sense, such as Intelligence (religion) for doing religious service. The Favours Gained table below shows the result of the D20 Test.
• Favours. A favour, in broad terms, is a promise of further assistance from the person/being. It can be extended for a political or legal problem, reduce costs of casting components, or directly help you out on a mission. If it is a warlock's patron or a deity, they might even directly assist you in the form of divine/patron's intervention. Sometimes you might need to spend more than one favour to make your contact do what you wish.

A player character might want to risk their money on the odd chance of doubling it. Since gambling is such a risky opportunity, there is at least more than 50% chance of failure, whenever someone attempts it.

• Requirements. There are only two requirements for gambling: 1. People or creatures who are willing to match your bet; and 2. Valuables you wish to spend. A PC can also choose to spend more than they currently own and in turn get into debt.
• Debt. If a PC loses more than they own, they get into debt. The terms of each debt will vary, but often will require them to pay it back with added interest. If a PC leaves the debt unpaid long enough, the money lender will come looking.
• Resolution. There are two ways you could handle gambling:
  1. Let the player play an actual short gambling game against you or another player, such as a round of blackjack. If the player wishes to cheat, you can allow them to roll a DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check before each round, on a success let them break the rules once, in any way they want. If they win a round, they get the Major tier reward of the Gambling Winnings table.
  2. Roll a straight d20 or a skill check using Dexterity (sleight of hand), if they want to cheat, a Charisma (deception or intimidation), Wisdom (insight), or Intelligence/Wisdom (Gaming set). The result of that roll is shown in the Gambling Winnings table below.
  Failing on a D20 Test to cheat will always create a complication.Each time the PC wins a round, allow them to choose to double their winnings again or back out, provided the people/creatures they are gambling against haven't run out of money yet.

A player character engages in pit fighting, wishes to engage in boxing, wrestling, magical combat, or any other organised form of non-lethal combat. If the PC wishes to engage in a form of lethal combat, you should use normal combat rules instead.

• Requirements. Joining a pit fighting tournament requires an entry fee, which should be determined by the GM. Knowing the right people or having a higher fame, will likely increase the fee, but also the rewards. A player can always choose to participate in a match that costs less.
• Resolution. The player character must make two different D20 Test, followed by a special Constitution check that adds a bonus equal to the result of a roll with the PC's highest hit die, to signify taking damage.For each of the two D20 Tests, the player can describe how they are trying to defeat their opponent, after which the GM determines what d20 test they should roll. The DC for each of these tests is decided by the GM, if narratively important, or by rolling 7 + 2d10. The result of each of these rolls, determines how much the PC earns, as shown in the Pit Fighting Winnings table below.

A player character might be interested in discovering more information about a piece of lore they have just uncovered or maybe more information about a person of interest. Whatever the subject of research, with the required amount of time and resources one can discover quite a lot.

• Requirements. When a PC wishes to research something, determine whether they have access to the right resources, such as a library or the right contacts. Sometimes this may even require the PC to pay a set price to get access to this information at all.The second requirement would be time, as time is something research requires a lot of. Before research is attempted the amount of time to gain one piece of lore should be determined.
• Resolution. After you have determined the required time and resources, your character should make an Intelligence (Investigation), for book studies, or a Charisma (Persuasion or Intimidation), to gain information by talking with other people. The result of this check is shown in the Research table below.
• Information Type. The Information type obtained falls in one of the following categories:
  • No Information or Red Herring. You either find nothing or a piece of information that is wrong, known as the red herring. Use the red herring sparingly. Only use it when it leads to another goal or an interesting roleplay or quest opportunity.
  • Barely Useful. You obtain a piece of information that has one part of what you wanted. It will usually require at least a second piece of information for a proper lead.
  • Useful. You obtain a piece of information that gives a proper lead for your research topic.
  • Detailed. You obtain a piece of information that gives a proper lead for your research topic, as well as more detail on how to achieve it. This type of information could even give you a useful item.
  • Legendary. You obtain a piece of information, which contains everything detailed lore has. Additionally, it contains extra information which barely anyone knows about, which could give you the advantage in certain scenarios.

A player character might want to spend their downtime resting, relaxing, or recuperating. When doing so, you spend an entire workweek and a money for a minor benefit for the week after downtime.

• Requirements & Resolution. No D20 Test is required for this activity. Instead the PC spends a full workweek at a certain location, in order to gain a benefit. They either get this benefit immediately or for the week after the downtime activity completes. To gain access to these benefits, the PC must have access to one of the listed locations and spend the appropriate amount of money, as shown in the Rest, Relaxation, & Recuperation. The effects obtained from this activity do not stack, and a PC can only benefit from two at once.

Sometimes a player character would like to be the boss, instead of working for someone else. If this is the case, they could run their own business, either temporarily or even while they are out on an adventure. Either way, a PC can only influence the success of their business directly when they are actively helping out.

• Requirements. You only need a little bit of stock to sell items from the street, but if you want to passively run a business, you at least need 1 NPC worker. A permanent location would also be beneficial, but is not required.Whether you intend to only temporarily or permanently run a business, decide on how much gold you are willing to invest in your product stock. This will directly affect your earnings. For permanent businesses, you are also expected to pay at least a quarter of your earinings a week, for wages, rent, and taxes.The GM should enforce a realistic limit on how much the PC can be expected to earn. Factors that could affect this are: the location of the business, reputation of the business, and the demand of the product.
• Resolution. When you want to actively manage your business, the player may decide on how they wish to run this business. Depending on the method they decide, the GM will decide what D20 Test makes the most sense. The result of the earnings, based on the test, is shown in the Business Earnings table below. The first week of running or changing your business will always have other earnings than the rest of the weeks. If you lose your investment on the first week, you have to spend it again for the next week if you want to continue running the business.A PC can usually only collect their earnings when they return to the location of the business. It is possible to mail the earnings, but this will have to be communicated properly.

A player character might want to find new connections in the area where you take your downtime. These social connections could be used to find potential buyers or to find an allied contact, which might be helpful in a later situation, such as for getting access to a building or allowing your party to evade the law.

• Requirements. Making connections does not come for free, depending on the social class of people you are trying to form a social connection with, the cost of socialising changes: 5 GP for lower class, 15 GP for middle class, and 25 GP for the upper class.Additionally, it takes time to properly form a connection, therefore this activity takes at least 1 workweek to complete.
• Resolution. When a player chooses this downtime activity, ask what type of social connection they would like to form with a NPC. After they have made their choice, ask them how they try to make this connection and let them make a Charisma based ability check. The way they form the connection should influence later roleplay opportunities with this NPC.The result of the Charisma check is shown in the Socialising table below. This table shows how many times this contact will go out of their way to help you, without expecting anything in return.

A player character might want to gain the ability to use new weapons, armour, tools, or even learn new languages. When doing so, a character has to get 10 successes in a relevant ability or skill check. The type of check will depend on what the character is trying to learn.

• Requirements. While training, a PC will require either a tutor or a written form of instructions or information. For each week of training the price for this should be 25 GP.The second requirement would be a proper venue to practise the use of these new weapons, armour, or tools. For instance, learning a new weapon or armour only requires a training grounds of some sort, but while learning to use smithing tools you'd be required to be in a forge.
• Resolution. For each workweek you spend training in the correct environment, you'll have to make a D20 Test, using an ability or skill that is relevant to your training. This is usually Intelligence or Charisma for languages and Strength or Dexterity for weapons and armour. The type of required check will vary for each tool.For your training, you need at least a success score of 10 to be considered proficient in it. The Training table below show how this score changes based on your test result.

A player character may want to spend their downtime making some money through honest to good work. The money earned depends on the check rolled, the amount of days worked, and the type of work or general wealth of the venue you work at. Work could include general labour, a performance, or maybe even an administrative job.

• Requirements. To be able to earn money through work or performance, the PC requires a work opportunity and/or a venue.
• General Wealth and Job Type. Each type of job or the general wealth of the venue changes the base amount of money you can earn while working. An example for the base wages is shown in the Base Wages table. The wage listed here is the daily wage, so increase it appropiately based on the number of days worked.
• Resolution. For each week of work the character needs to roll a relevant D20 test, based on their work. Unskilled labour may just require a skill check using Strength or Dexterity, skilled labour will require a skill check using a relevant tool, administrative work will require a skill check using Wisdom or Intelligence. The result of the test determines the effect on your base wage, as shown in the Work Wage Table.