Comments on: Unearthed Arcana: Downtime Breakdown

By: Tim Baker

Tim Baker — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 19:03:00 +0000

I enjoyed the Beatles references.

By: Brandes Stoddard

Brandes Stoddard — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 05:06:00 +0000

In reply to Drow. I'm working on a 5e crafting system, yes, though it hasn't seen progress in awhile now. It's still on the agenda, for sure. Believe me, if and when I have a working draft, I'll be telling everyone. ;)

By: Drow

Drow — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 05:34:00 +0000

Shoot, I got my hopes up when you mentioned crafting would be covered, since I have two players who would really benefit from having more than the sparse PHB material. Especially since one player seems to be trying to naturalistically and in-character invent clockwork-punk, and her husband outright designed his character around magic crafting, with an ultimate goal of creating a mobile magical RV/TARDIS (probably beyond the scope of any document, but there’s other stuff to craft in the meantime). There doesn’t seem to be much useful in the document beyond the implicit removal of level limits (we’re already using a sort of “special material” system, which probably only works because the resulting crafted item would be absurd to receive as part of a hoard). There’s also nothing that suggests how to allow independent invention, unless that’s meant to be covered under unspecified lore research.

Going through Colin’s link now, but you said you’re working on a 5ed crafting system?

And yeah…speaking as one of that new generation of DMs (literally on my first game run), I’m completely behind making the advice newb-friendly.

By: Brandes Stoddard

Brandes Stoddard — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 14:04:00 +0000

In reply to Unexpected Dave.

Yeah, that’s what I’ve taken to calling pass-the-salt roleplay, in which players want to go for minute detail but can’t come up with any better business than the motions of eating dinner.

I agree that downtimes in email between sessions are all to the good – what in our LARP community we call BGAs, or Between-Game Actions. If you’re interested in a synopsis of LARP BGAs across multiple games, I wrote about them in Harbinger of Doom: http://www.brandesstoddard.com/2012/06/larp-design-between-game-actions/

By: Unexpected Dave

Unexpected Dave — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 14:00:00 +0000

I can see why you’re disappointed with these crafting rules. They seem like they would work fine for my group, who would only ever want to craft items for their own use, but they don’t really support the Heroic Smith archetype. It’s the same design philosophy they used in the Artificer class: you can make magic items for yourself, but the Rules don’t want you making magic items for other people.

By: Brandes Stoddard

Brandes Stoddard — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:59:00 +0000

In reply to Unexpected Dave. I missed that in the text! I'm as guilty as anyone of skimming for eye-catching content when faced with a self-imposed deadline and a big document. =/ But yeah, if there's an 11-20 follow-on, that would be great.

By: Brandes Stoddard

Brandes Stoddard — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:57:00 +0000

In reply to Colin McLaughlin. I mean, Arcana gets a bit too broad of usage here, but I like that crafting magic items is the relevant type of tool kit proficiency OR Arcana, with no further requirement. I just wish they made it all more interesting and emphasized that the smith's knowledge is as deep and secret as any wizard's, you know?

By: Unexpected Dave

Unexpected Dave — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:54:00 +0000

These downtime rules definitely seem geared to the kind of groups that have limited table-time, and don't like to roleplay mundane activities like buying and eating. I do like the suggestion that a lot of downtime activities that don't concern the whole party can be played out via email. As a player, there's nothing more annoying than going to my weekly D&D game after a hard day's work, only to spend half of that time falling asleep at the table because there's nothing for my character to do while one or two party members are playing out their own personal dramas as they haggle over the price of a pint of ale. It's hard enough for a DM to keep everyone at the table engaged with a group adventure; they shouldn't have to try and keep all players engaged in one character's personal business (although it is amazing when a DM can do that well.)

By: Unexpected Dave

Unexpected Dave — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:24:00 +0000

The text makes reference to the downtime rules being suitable for “Levels 1 to 10”, so I wonder if we’ll see some higher-level downtime options (like domain rulership) in another article before the month is out.

By: Colin McLaughlin

Colin McLaughlin — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 12:33:00 +0000

I took a pass at crafting forever ago – https://standsinfire.wordpress.com/2017/01/10/shes-crafty-part-1/

Like you, I hate that pure smithing isn’t a way to make something. It’s particularly frustrating when you look at D&D own narrative fiction.