Downtimes: Social Activities

Just as economic actions help to bind PCs to the material world of the campaign, social activites connect them to its NPCs and organisations. By developing relationships they can build a growing network of allies, friends, contacts, lovers and frenemies; retainer rules allow them to take some of these along on adventures.

In my game, in the course of the story it just made sense that certain NPCs would become close to the party and even tag along on adventures – it made sense to give the PCs some control over this process and made my job easier if I could identify a particular PC as being responsible for controlling, say, Modron Paladin Sir Enceladus.

Rules for revelry or carousing allow for celebration or high living, and help to make PCs feel less like dungeon-crawling robots and more like real people (no offence intended to the characters who actually are dungeon-crawling robots.)

I’m struggling a bit with the carousing rules for a few reasons:

  1. Experiences. Not using numerical experience means gold-for-XP involves translating wealth into experiences, at an exchange rate that changes every level.
  2. Player Agency. It feels weird in my game for PCs to surrender the level of control required for most carousing tables.
  3. Downtime Results. The unified system for good/mixed/poor results doesn’t always fit with the variety of tables out there – different die sizes, some curved and some flat, some divided into boons and mishaps, others just one long table with good and bad results, and some divided by theme.
  4. Specificity. I hate having to stop and come up with a detailed table or example while writing general-purpose rules!

That said, it’s an action with a lot of potential. I like to have games with beach episodes and victory celebrations and whole sessions of the PCs just hanging out with each other and their favourite NPCs and drinking, making merry, and talking long into the night. I’ll be revisiting these rules and looking at other ways they can be used – I love this idea of using revelry actions as a way to play out melodramatic emotion.

Art by Russ Nicholson

Developing Relationships with NPCs

This action allows a PC to form or deepen a tie with an NPC or organisation. Relationships can change organically during uptime, but only at the DM’s discretion, but this action allows a PC to focus their efforts and exert some control over the process.

Each relationship has a level associated with it which determines what the NPC or group is willing to do for the PC:

  1. Strangers: The NPC does not know the PC.
  2. Acquainted: The NPC knows the PC’s name and has seen them around. They’ll do common courtesies.
  3. Associates: There’s some degree of friendship, gratitude, or shared experience with the PC. The NPC will do small favours.
  4. Friends: A serious connection; they genuinely enjoy one another’s company, share a common cause, owe each other a great deal or have shared a major experience. The NPC will go out of their way to help the PC.
  5. Close: True and old friends, lovers, comrades in arms, a beloved mentor and their student. The NPC will risk their life for the PC.

Note that all of these bonds cut both ways; if an NPC is in trouble they will call on their PC friends for help. A refusal may reduce the level of the relationship.

An NPC may do favours above their relationship level, but will want something in return. If the request is more than one level above the level of the relationship, it may be off the table entirely.

Some NPCs and in particular organisations may have specific relationship trackers with more or fewer levels, and specific rewards and requirements for each level.

Action: Develop Relationship

Improving a relationship costs one downtime and is usually modified by CHA, though if the PC is clearly using another attribute to impress the other party (such as bonding with the comic relief strongman through wrestling and flexing together) another attribute may be applied.

Seeking or Training Retainers

There are two kinds of followers available to PCs:

Hirelings are NPCs paid to serve the PC. They may be soldiers, sages, labourers and so on. They will not enter dungeons or embark upon adventures. Soldiers will escort a caravan through the wilderness and fight monsters who attack it, but they will not enter a dragon’s lair willingly. A PC may have as many retainers as she can afford to hire, and the only limit to hiring them is the number available in the local community.

Retainers are NPCs who consider themselves to some degree a part of the PC’s party. They may require pay, and often expect a share of the treasure. The total number of Retainers is limited by the PC’s CHA. They will go on adventures, enter dungeons, and join in the risky activities of the party, though may balk if they feel they are being treated poorly or the situation is too dangerous.

A PC has a total number of Retainer slots equal to their CHA. A retainer with a close relationship with the PC uses one slot; a friend uses 2, an associate 3, an acquaintance 4, and a stranger 5. So a PC with a CHA or 11 could recruit three associates and one friend to adventure with them.

When adventuring in any situation in which a Retainer has to make a morale check, either in combat or as a result of frightening events or orders, make a test on their PC’s CHA, with advantage or disadvantage based on particularly good/bad pay or treatment. The difficulty of the test is the number of slots the retainer is taking up.

On a failure, the retainer balks. In combat they may retreat to a safe distance or fight more defensively; when being given dangerous-sounding orders they may refuse; and they will usually make some kind of demand, usually either for greater rewards or less danger.

If their demand isn’t met and the PC fails another roll, they may consider abandoning or betraying the party instead of making another demand.

In combat, Retainers are controlled by and act on their leader's initiative. The leader's initiative die is reduced to the lowest of the followers, unless the leader is a fighter.

Action: Seek Retainers

Spend one downtime and modify the result by CHA.

Make a morale check to hire any retainer the PCs choose to hire. Retainers expect 1gp per day and half a share of treasure as their pay; anything less than this provides disadvantage on the hiring roll, significantly more will provide advantage. Failures can usually be rerolled if the PCs improve their offer.

Hiring an NPC with an existing relationship to the PC doesn’t take a downtime action; just make the offer and the morale check. The DM can always override the check result based on their knowledge of the NPC’s motives!

Action: Train Retainers

Spend a downtime to train one or more retainers who are 2 levels more lower than the PC, and have been on an adventure with the PC since they last levelled up or attempted training.

The chance of successfully training a single Retainer is 1-6 on a d6; for every additional retainer being trained at the same time, reduce the chance by one. Roll 1d6 for each retainer to see if they gain a level.

The result is not modified by any attribute, unless the retainers are all of the same class as the PC, in which case modify it by the PC’s prime requisite.

Carousing

Action: Carouse

Carousing is a way to trade gold for an Experience. It requires access to a site of excess, which may be a Holding. Each such location has its own set of tables. Carousing is not modified by a particular attribute.

If the player thinks the character would not do the thing described in the result, they can negotiate a comparable event with the DM. If they can’t think of one, they can have an unremarkable night of partying providing no experience. The gold and time spent are still lost.

The base cost of carousing depends on your level, as higher level PCs become more jaded and accustomed to wild experiences. The cost is 25 times your next level squared, as shown here:

Current Level Base Carousing Cost
1 100
2 225
3 400
4 625
5 900
6 1225
7 1600
8 2025
9 2500
10 3025
11 3600
12 4225