Reflections on downtime
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2020 7:18 am
The PCs in my 4th edition Border Princes game recently took their first downtime. I thought I’d share our experiences with the downtime rules, and my reflections on what worked for us and what didn’t.
My players asked to take a 3 week downtime. I had originally offered them a 1 week downtime, before various events were going to catch up with them in play, but allowed myself to be talked round to the full 3 weeks to more fully playtest to Endeavour rules.
Interestingly, the game mechanics provide no reason for the players to ever take anything less than a 3 week downtime. The “cost” they pay in terms of the “Money to Burn” rules and risking a roll on the random events table is the same however long a downtime they take, and 3 weeks maximises the benefit they receive in terms of Endeavours.
I’ve got 4 players, and they each rolled for random events.This resulted in a “Local Crop Failure” (doubling good prices in the area for the duration of the next adventure), a “Bolt from the Blue” (which could have resulted in a PC losing his horse, only he didn’t have one), a “Crime Crackdown” (which would have prevented Rogue characters taking the Income Endeavour, if we had any Rogues in the party) and an “Uneventful” (nothing happens).
Personally, I found the idea of a local crop failure the most interesting, but the random events otherwise seemed pretty sparse pickings for planning future adventures. Especially as two of the four events were basically “nothing happens, twice”.
These random events also triggered a bit of discussion over what the “duration of the next adventure” means. I took a common sense approach to this: if the crops have failed the odds are food prices will realistically be higher for at least a season.
The PCs each spent their leftover money on equipment, to avoid losing it under the “Money To Burn” rules. Again, the way the downtime rules are set up means there’s no reason not to do this.
We then moved on to Endeavours:
- Everyone took a free change of career, to save 100 XP. Fair enough.
- One of the PCs is an Agitator and spent his remaining two Endeavours to “Foment Dissent”. The town the PCs are staying in is holding a referendum over whether to join with one of the neighbouring Border Princes (“The Marquise”). Fortunately for the PC, he rolled Astounding Success (6SLs) on his Charm Test to incite public opinion against her. I asked the player how he wanted to interpret this, and we decided that the PC had secretly forged letters implicating the Marquise in various plots against the town. Personally, I found this by far the most interesting consequence of the downtime, especially in the context of the election plotline I’d already set up. I’m running a sandbox campaign, and I liked the influence it gave the PC in shaping events. It also gave me a lot to work with in planning future adventures. It’s a shame none of the other PCs had the option of similarly dynamic downtime activities: although this is something I might well house-rule if we were to use the downtime rules again.
- Everyone else just spent their remaining two Endeavours on Income, rolling their status to generate some extra money. Again, fair enough. It didn’t really give me much to work with in terms of generating plot hooks, beyond introducing a few NPCs as employers and co-workers, but the downtime rules didn’t really give them an incentive to do much else.
So, to summarise, the mechanical impact of the downtime was that everyone gained a bonus 100 XP and a load of free money with the downside that food prices will be doubled in the area for the foreseeable future. I’ve got a few things I can use as plothooks for future adventures, but (with the exception of the Foment Dissent downtime) there’s nothing there I couldn’t have easily come up with on my own. I’ve got to say that, much as I like the idea of downtime rules, the execution seemed a bit lacking.
I suppose my main gripe with the downtime rules, beyond missed opportunities to generate additional plothooks, is the potential for PCs to use downtimes to generate a lot of money easily, and without any risk to themselves.
I’ve been working reasonably hard to keep my PCs low on funds, since the desire to “keep the wolf from the door” is often one of the main spurs to adventure in WFRP, and one that can often present PCs with difficult choices to make about whether to accept dangerous or otherwise unsavoury offers of employment. In this case, I’m running a sandbox game and the party have had offers of lucrative employment from some of the Border Princes, but have always taken the high road and refused to compromise their independence or morals. In my opinion, providing a free and risk-free source of money diminishes those sorts of dilemmas by offering an easy way out.
To summarise, I’d have liked to have seen more opportunities for PCs to engage with and shape the campaign world, I’d have liked to have seen more things that I could have mined for plothooks, and I’m not keen on PCs being able to earn money in downtime (at least without some sort of risk or cost to themselves). I’d therefore be inclined to scrap (or at least limit) the Income and Banking Endeavours, and introduce some new Endeavours to allow PCs more opportunities to interact with NPC groups in interesting ways.
Edit: Looks as though someone’s already come up with some house rules for downtimes that are a lot closer to what I’m looking for: https://liberetc.blogspot.com/2020/06/l ... s.html?m=1
My players asked to take a 3 week downtime. I had originally offered them a 1 week downtime, before various events were going to catch up with them in play, but allowed myself to be talked round to the full 3 weeks to more fully playtest to Endeavour rules.
Interestingly, the game mechanics provide no reason for the players to ever take anything less than a 3 week downtime. The “cost” they pay in terms of the “Money to Burn” rules and risking a roll on the random events table is the same however long a downtime they take, and 3 weeks maximises the benefit they receive in terms of Endeavours.
I’ve got 4 players, and they each rolled for random events.This resulted in a “Local Crop Failure” (doubling good prices in the area for the duration of the next adventure), a “Bolt from the Blue” (which could have resulted in a PC losing his horse, only he didn’t have one), a “Crime Crackdown” (which would have prevented Rogue characters taking the Income Endeavour, if we had any Rogues in the party) and an “Uneventful” (nothing happens).
Personally, I found the idea of a local crop failure the most interesting, but the random events otherwise seemed pretty sparse pickings for planning future adventures. Especially as two of the four events were basically “nothing happens, twice”.
These random events also triggered a bit of discussion over what the “duration of the next adventure” means. I took a common sense approach to this: if the crops have failed the odds are food prices will realistically be higher for at least a season.
The PCs each spent their leftover money on equipment, to avoid losing it under the “Money To Burn” rules. Again, the way the downtime rules are set up means there’s no reason not to do this.
We then moved on to Endeavours:
- Everyone took a free change of career, to save 100 XP. Fair enough.
- One of the PCs is an Agitator and spent his remaining two Endeavours to “Foment Dissent”. The town the PCs are staying in is holding a referendum over whether to join with one of the neighbouring Border Princes (“The Marquise”). Fortunately for the PC, he rolled Astounding Success (6SLs) on his Charm Test to incite public opinion against her. I asked the player how he wanted to interpret this, and we decided that the PC had secretly forged letters implicating the Marquise in various plots against the town. Personally, I found this by far the most interesting consequence of the downtime, especially in the context of the election plotline I’d already set up. I’m running a sandbox campaign, and I liked the influence it gave the PC in shaping events. It also gave me a lot to work with in planning future adventures. It’s a shame none of the other PCs had the option of similarly dynamic downtime activities: although this is something I might well house-rule if we were to use the downtime rules again.
- Everyone else just spent their remaining two Endeavours on Income, rolling their status to generate some extra money. Again, fair enough. It didn’t really give me much to work with in terms of generating plot hooks, beyond introducing a few NPCs as employers and co-workers, but the downtime rules didn’t really give them an incentive to do much else.
So, to summarise, the mechanical impact of the downtime was that everyone gained a bonus 100 XP and a load of free money with the downside that food prices will be doubled in the area for the foreseeable future. I’ve got a few things I can use as plothooks for future adventures, but (with the exception of the Foment Dissent downtime) there’s nothing there I couldn’t have easily come up with on my own. I’ve got to say that, much as I like the idea of downtime rules, the execution seemed a bit lacking.
I suppose my main gripe with the downtime rules, beyond missed opportunities to generate additional plothooks, is the potential for PCs to use downtimes to generate a lot of money easily, and without any risk to themselves.
I’ve been working reasonably hard to keep my PCs low on funds, since the desire to “keep the wolf from the door” is often one of the main spurs to adventure in WFRP, and one that can often present PCs with difficult choices to make about whether to accept dangerous or otherwise unsavoury offers of employment. In this case, I’m running a sandbox game and the party have had offers of lucrative employment from some of the Border Princes, but have always taken the high road and refused to compromise their independence or morals. In my opinion, providing a free and risk-free source of money diminishes those sorts of dilemmas by offering an easy way out.
To summarise, I’d have liked to have seen more opportunities for PCs to engage with and shape the campaign world, I’d have liked to have seen more things that I could have mined for plothooks, and I’m not keen on PCs being able to earn money in downtime (at least without some sort of risk or cost to themselves). I’d therefore be inclined to scrap (or at least limit) the Income and Banking Endeavours, and introduce some new Endeavours to allow PCs more opportunities to interact with NPC groups in interesting ways.
Edit: Looks as though someone’s already come up with some house rules for downtimes that are a lot closer to what I’m looking for: https://liberetc.blogspot.com/2020/06/l ... s.html?m=1