Downtime Activities

When characters are not adventuring, there are many things that could take up their time. Some activities are short and require little time to conduct, but others qualify as "Downtime Activities".   Downtime activities are measured in weeks, and represent a concerted effort to accomplish a goal of the character. Sample Downtime Activities are listed below, but players are encouraged to work with the GM if there is a goal they wish to pursue. Characters may split the time required when completing downtime activities. A week is considered 7 days, so a character may spend 4 days on an activity, then go adventuring. When they return, they still need to spend 3 more days to complete that downtime activity.    

Activities that don't require Downtime

Activities such as buying and selling mundane items, meeting and interacting with merchants or other NPCs, drinking and interacting at the inn or tavern, and others are not considered downtime activities, although they take place during downtime.     Downtime Activities can be grouped into five main categories.   Nights on the Town. The character spends their time either just relaxing, participating in activities related to their profession, or just "hanging out".   Preparing for the Next Adventure. The character spends their downtime laying the groundwork for their next adventure.   Self-Improvement. The character spends their time working on improving their own abilities.   Business Ventures. The character spends their downtime buying or selling, working on their business or domain, or otherwise engaging in the commerce of the region.   Spellbooks and Scrolls. The character, usually a wizard, spends some time working on his spellbook(s) or scribing scrolls.     -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

Nights on the Town

   

Carousing

1 week   Carousing is a default downtime activity for many characters. Between adventures, who doesn't want to relax with a few drinks and a group of friends at a tavern?    

Crime

1 week   Sometimes it pays to be bad. This activity gives a character the chance to make some extra cash, at the risk of arrest.    

Gambling

1 week   Games of chance are a way to make a fortune—and perhaps a better way to lose one.    

Pit Fighting

1 week   Pit fighting includes boxing, wrestling, and other non-lethal forms of combat in an organized setting with predetermined matches. If you want to introduce competitive fighting in a battle-to—the-death situation, the standard combat rules apply to that sort of activity.    

Relaxing

1 week   Sometimes the best thing to do between adventures is relax. Whether a character wants a hard-earned vacation or needs to recover from injuries, relaxation is the ideal option for adventurers who need a break. This option is also ideal for players who don’t want to make use of the downtime system.    

Religious Services

1 week   Characters with a religious bent might want to spend downtime in service to a temple, either by attending rites or by proselytizing in the community. Someone who undertakes this activity has a chance of winning the favor of the temples leaders.    

Work

1 week   When all else fails, an adventurer can turn to an honest trade to earn a living. This activity represents a characters attempt to find temporary work, the quality and wages of which are difficult to predict.     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

Preparing for the Next Adventure

   

Gathering Information

1 week   You can also use Intelligence (Investigation) or Charisma (Persuasion) to gather information about a specific topic or individual. To do this, you must spend a week canvassing people at local taverns, markets, and gathering places.    

Research

1 week   Forewarned is forearmed. The research downtime activity allows a character to delve into lore concerning a monster, a location, a magic item, or some other particular topic.    

Scheming for an Upcoming Adventure

1 week   You can use downtime to prepare for an upcoming adventure or event. For example, if you know you have to crash the baron’s fancy party in 2 days, you can spend downtime watching the baron’s manor, investigating what clothing the servants will wear, and finding out which important guests are attending. Scheming for an upcoming adventure requires one workweek of effort and at least 50 gp spent on materials, bribes, gifts, and other expenses.    

Sowing Rumors

1 week (village) 2 weeks (town), 4 weeks (city)   Swaying public opinion can be an effective way to bring down a villain or elevate a friend. Spreading rumors is an efficient, if underhanded, way to accomplish that goal. Well-placed rumors can increase the subject's standing in a community or embroil someone in scandal. A rumor needs to be simple, concrete, and hard to disprove. An effective rumor also has to be believable, playing off what people want to believe about the person in question.   Sowing a rumor about an individual or organization requires a number of days depending on the size of the community, as shown in the Sowing Rumors table. In a town or city, the time spent must be continuous. If the character spreads a rumor for ten days, disappears on an adventure for another few days and then returns, the rumor fades away without the benefit of constant repetition.     -------------------------------------------------------------------------  

Self-Improvement

   

Earning XP

1 week   If you’ve missed a campaign session or otherwise fallen behind in XP compared to the other characters, you can spend downtime adventuring to help catch up to the other PCs. The character is assumed to have gone on another adventure, maybe they've cleaned out a goblin lair, etc. The character doesn't get lasting wounds, expend magical resources or gain treasure. Players are encouraged to send a quick write-up or story if they'd like, otherwise it happens "off camera."    

Gaining Renown

1 week   A character can spend downtime joining an organization or improving his or her renown within a particular organization. Between adventures, a character undertakes minor tasks for the organization and socializes with its members.    

Train an Animal

1 week   You can use the Wisdom (Animal Handling) skill to train an animal. The rules for training assume the training period is continuous. However, you can break this training into smaller increments (allowing you to make progress on this training between adventures), but you must attempt an Animal Handling check for each training period, and the DC increases by 2. Failing the check means that training period doesn’t count toward completing the training.    

Training

1 week   Given enough free time and the services of an instructor, a character can learn a language, pick up a Secondary Skill (tool proficiency), or weapon proficiency. It takes 10 weeks (70 days) to learn one of the options above.     ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    

Business Ventures

   

Buying a Magic Item

1 week +   Purchasing a specific magic item requires time and money to seek out and contact people willing to sell hat item. Even then, there is no guarantee a seller will have the item a character desires.    

Crafting

Varies by item   A character who has the time, the money, and the needed tools can use downtime to craft armor, weapons, clothing, magical items, or other kinds of gear. A character with the appropriate skill and tools may craft an item. The character needs raw materials equal to one-half the items base value or selling cost.    

Buying, Building, or Improving Property

Varies   The character or characters spend time looking for property to purchase, or they start the work of building a property or expanding one of their properties. The characters may contribute to the work, but are not the ones actually doing the construction.    

Lead Your Kingdom

1 week   If you are using the kingdom-building rules and have a leadership role in the kingdom, you must spend 7 days per month performing various leadership duties. In the downtime system, performing leadership duties for a day costs 1 day of downtime. You can’t perform any other downtime activities on a day you perform kingdom leadership duties.    

Promoting a Business

1 week   You can spend 1 work week to increase interest in a business, temple, organization, or other local fixture. It costs 25 gp per week to promote a business. The business you promote with this downtime activity doesn’t have to be one you own.    

Running a Business

1 week   Adventurers can end up owning businesses that have nothing to do with delving into dungeons or saving the world. A character might inherit a smithy, or the party might be given a parcel of farmland or a tavern as a reward. If they hold on to the business, they might feel obliged to spend time between adventures maintaining the venture and making sure it runs smoothly.    

Selling a Magic Item

1 week   Selling a magic item is by no means an easy task. Con artists and thieves are always looking out for an easy score, and there's no guarantee that a character will receive a good offer even if a legitimate buyer is found.     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    

Spellbooks and Scrolls

   

Add Spells to Your Spellbook

If you’re a wizard, you can spend 1 day of downtime to copy up to four levels of spells from other sources into your spellbook. You must spend 2 hours and 50 gp per spell level.    

Mastering a Foreign Spellbook

Magic is as much art as science, and each wizard uses their own unique notation when adding a spell to their spellbook. Two wizards who learned the exact same spell from the exact same mentor recorded the spell differently and use slightly different verbal, somatic, and material components. If a wizard finds themselves in possession of another wizard's spellbook, they are unable to use that spellbook unless they take the time to master the intricacies of the other wizard's version of the spell.     Scribing a Spell Scroll With time and patience, a spellcaster can transfer a spell to a scroll, creating a spell scroll.   Scribing a spell scroll takes an amount of time and money related to the level of the spell the character wants to scribe, as shown in the Spell Scroll Costs table. In addition, the character must have proficiency in the Arcana skill and must provide any material components required for the casting of the spell. Moreover, the character must have the Spell prepared, or it must be among the character’s known spells, in order to scribe a scroll of that spell.