Downtime Overview

Mystara of the Five Spheres D&D Downtime Event of Carousing

USES ONE OF THE DOWNTIME ACTIVITIES FOR THE DURATION

Downtime activity for going out and drinking to make new friends. A carousing character spends money depending on who they want to carouse with for the week.

Nobility - A character with connections to nobility can freely mingle with the upper class otherwise a failure on check would get the character banished from the settlement. A critical failure here has the crime of pretending to be nobility or causes a complication. A critical success means that you might gain a gift as well from your connection.

Check - After spending a week or more carousing and the cost for the class you wish to mingle with, you can make a skill check to see how your carousing went. For every week in additional to the first you get to add one to the check. A character can choose to have a complication instead of the result.

For the check you can choose any of the skills you can convince the GM is appropiate for the check.

Event breakdown
• Requirements (What you need to make the check in session)
• Note - Can't be done while travelling
• Base Check DC = 10 + number of previous contacts of that class in the settlement.
• Note - Lower-Class contacts do not increase the base check, Middle-Class increases it by +5 and Upper-Class increases it by +10.
• Time (What you need to make the check in session)
• 1 week (additional weeks adds +1 to the roll)
• Cost per Week (What you need to make the check in session)
• Lower-Class - 5 gp (with +1 to check for spending an additional 10 gp each week) Middle-Class - 50 gp (with +1 to check for spending an additional 100 gp each week) Upper-Class - 250 gp (with +1 to check for spending an additional 1,000 gp each week)
• Check (What you need to make the check in session, between sessions the d20 in the check is replaced by 10)
• Skill Check = d20 + skill bonus + Settlment Modifier + Lifestyle Modifier + Renown

Check Result
• Fails the DC by 10 or more – Character has made a hostile secret contacts group
• Fails the DC by 5 or more – Character has made a hostile contact group
• Fails to reach DC – Character has made a hostile contact
• Equals the DC – Character has made an allied contact
• Exceeds the DC by 5 or more – Character has made an allied contact group
• Exceeds the DC by 10 or more – Character has made an allied secret contacts group

A player my choose to accept a contact of the level of the result or lower. So if they rolled a contact group they can choose to just get a contact, or if they got a contact, gain a hostile contact.

Type of Contact
• Contacts - are NPCs who share a bond with the character.
• Contact Groups - are organisations that operate in the open and might not be available in all areas.
• Secret Contact Groups - are organisations that operate in secret and might not be available in all areas. These include the secret crafts of the setting.
• Hostile Contact - works against the character, placing obstacles but stopping short of committing a crime or violent act.
• Allied Contacts - are friends who will render aid to the character, but not at the risk of their lives.

Role of Contact
• Lower-class contacts include - criminals, labourers, mercenaries, the town guard, and any other folk who normally frequent the cheapest taverns in town.
• Middle-class contacts include - guild members, spellcasters, town officials, and other folk who frequent well-kept establishments.
• Upper-class contacts include - nobles and their personal servants. This includes banquets, state dinners and other official events.

A contact aids once, until caroused again, and their attitude is based on how they are interacted with while providing the assistance. A character can have allied contacts up to 1 + the characters Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).

Complications - For each point you increase your check by, you increase the cost of carousing as if you had spent that many weeks and you roll on the appropriate complication table.

LOWER CLASS COMPLICATIONS TABLE
d12 / Complications (* Might involve a rival)
1. Surprise! You’re married *
2. You have fuzzy memories of doing something very, very illegal, but can’t remember exactly what *
3. After a few drinks, you swore in the town square to pursue a dangerous quest
4. Streaking naked through the streets seemed like a great idea at the time.
5. Everyone is calling you by some weird, embarrassing nickname, like Puddle Drinker, or bench Slayer, and no one will say why *
6. You are jailed for a week at the end of the downtime period on charges of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. You can pay a fine of 10 gp or try to resist arrest.
7. A bar brawl leaves you with a scar. *
8. You earn modest winnings from gambling. You recuperate your lifestyle expenses and gain 1d20 x4 gp
9. You are banned from a tavern after some obnoxious behaviour *
10. A pickpocket lifts 1d10 x5 gp from you. *
11. You earn modest winnings from gambling and recuperate your lifestyle expenses for the time spent carousing.
12. You make a small fortune gambling. You recuperate your lifestyle expenses and gain 4d6 x10 gp. Your carousing becomes the stuff of local legends.

MIDDLE CLASS COMPLICATIONS TABLE
d10 / Complications (* Might involve a rival)
1. A social gaffe has made you the talk of the town *
2. You swore to complete some quest on behalf of a temple or a guild.
3. A particularly obnoxious person has taken an intense romantic interest in you *
4. You accidentally insulted a guild master, and only a public apology will let you do business with the guild again *
5. You regain consciousness in a strange place with no memory of how you got there, and you have been robbed of 3d6 x5 gp.
6. You have made a foe out of a local spellcaster *
7. You made a drunken toast that scandalised the locals.
8. You spent an additional 100 gp trying to impress people.
9. You have been recruited to help run a local festival, play or similar event.
10. You make an enemy. This person, business, or organisation is now hostile to you. You decide how you offended them.

UPPER CLASS COMPLICATIONS TABLE
d12 / Complications (* Might involve a rival)
1. You have made a foe out of a local noble *
2. You spend an additional 500 gp trying to impress people.
3. A pushy noble family wants to marry off one of their scions to you *
4. A boring noble insists you visit each day and listen to long, tedious theories of magic.
5. You are caught up in a whirlwind romance – The romance ends badly; you gain a new flaw.
6. You are caught up in a whirlwind romance – The romance ends amicably; you gain a connection.
7. You have agreed to take on a noble’s debts.
8. You have been challenged to a joust be a local noble *
9. You tripped and fell during a dance, and people can’t stop talking about it
10. You have become the target of a variety of embarrassing rumours *
11. You are caught up in a whirlwind romance – The romance is ongoing, you gain a connection.
12. You are awarded an accommodation for service to the nobility, you just can’t remember what it was.

BECMI Rules

TBA - Will detail how the original game worked.

5th Edition D&D Rules

TBA - Will detail how 5th Edition worked.

Level Up Advanced 5th Edition D&D Rules

TBA - Will detail how Level Up worked.

GM Notes on Rules

OLD VERSION

Carousing - Adding a nobility check with a base 14 was chosen as this is achievable for most characters with a little Charisma, and then modifying it based on the settlement makes it easier to pretend to be a noble away from the larger settlements as they are likely not wanting to offend by not knowing who you are and harder in the big cities as they can be small circles who know each other well.

I have since changed it to Lower-Class DC 10, Middle-Class DC 15 and Upper-Class to DC 20 which seems to work a little cleaner from play.

Downtime Checks - You can make a roll at the table, or take 10 if your doing it off scene between adventures away from the gaming table. Allowing for characters to have a baseline without having to roll in a session means they will succeed at most downtime tasks without having a critical fail, or success. This allows for long downtimes of months to years as necessary for the storyline so its not just number crunching and dice rolls. If the character can beat the target number by 10 or more when taking 10 you can consider the check a critical success, and if the check would fail by more than 10 you can consider it a critical failure. This allows for room for improvement and shows times when characters should not be attempting the checks.