This is an old revision of the document!
Downtime and what you do with it is a major part of character development in Brightshore. What you do in between adventures is just as important, if not more so, than what you do during your time spent delving in dungeons and slaying monsters.
Between your adventures, you must use whatever downtime you have earned. You can do this at the end of the session in which you earn the downtime, at the beginning of the next session you play at, or by talking to one of the Weavers on Slack sometime between adventures. Regardless, describe how you are spending your time and what you wish to do with it, and the Weaver will adjudicate the results.
This means that you have total freedom to spend your downtime in any way that makes sense to you within the limits of whatever resources and skills you have available. Some activities have associated rules (crafting, researching, etc.), many activities you might think up do not.
Unless the Weaver decides otherwise, you must pay lifestyle costs for downtime used. This represents the quality of life you live while you're in Brightshore, and Weavers and DMs will frequently use a combination of what you did with your downtime and your lifestyle choices to determine how the world perceives you.
Each week of real time represents a full month in Brightshore. (A Brightshore month is 30 days.) For each real week that you participate in an adventure, your character will gain 30 days of downtime minus the number of in-game days that you spent adventuring in any sessions that week. You do not gain downtime for weeks in which you did not participate in an adventure.
If you participate in multiple adventures in the same week, both adventures subtract from your downtime allowance, but downtime gained will never drop below 0 days. In other words, even if you spend more than 30 in-game days adventuring during a single real week, it won't cause you to accrue “negative downtime.”
Another way to think of this is:
So, for the current month/week, you can't spend any downtime until after 5:00PM if you play on Sunday, and if you play on Wednesday with the same character, you can't spend any downtime until after 9:00 PM Wednesday. Spending downtime will indicate that a character is done adventuring for the week.
For each day of downtime you spend, you must also pay your character's daily lifestyle expenses. Each one comes with its own cost and benefits. The wealthier your lifestyle, the more your character can associate with other wealthy characters, allowing them to gain influence among the town's elite.
Note that if you do activities during downtime that that provide you a lifestyle at a certain level and you choose to use a lower lifestyle, you do not get a rebate for the difference between the lifestyles. However, you are allowed to pay the difference between the granted lifestyle and a higher lifestyle to upgrade to that one.
You can craft non-magical objects, including adventuring equipment and works of art. You must be proficient with tools related to the object you are trying to create (typically artisans’ tools). You might also need access to special materials or locations necessary to create it. For example, someone proficient with smith’s tools needs a forge in order to craft a suit of armor.
For every day of downtime you spend crafting, you can craft one or more items with a total market value not exceeding 5 gp, and you must expend raw materials worth half the total market value. If something you want to craft has a market value greater than 5 gp, you make progress every day in 5-gp increments until you reach the market value of the item. For example, a suit of plate armor (market value 1500 gp) takes 300 days and costs 750 gp to craft by yourself. Trade goods count as raw materials and you must expend other raw materials to make them equivalent to their cost instead of half their cost.
Multiple characters can combine their efforts toward the crafting of a single item, provided the characters all have proficiency with the requisite tools and are working together in the same place. Each character contributes 5 gp worth of effort for every day spent helping craft the item. For example, three characters with the requisite tool proficiency and the proper facilities can craft a suit of plate armor in 100 days, at a total cost of 750 gp.
While crafting, you can maintain a modest lifestyle without having to pay 1 gp per day.
You can work between adventures, allowing you to maintain a modest lifestyle without having to pay 1 gp per day. This benefit lasts as long as you continue to practice your profession.
If you have proficiency in the Performance skill and put your performance skill to use during your downtime, you earn enough to support a wealthy lifestyle instead.
You can use downtime between adventures to recover from a debilitating injury, disease, or poison.
After 3 days of downtime spent recuperating, you can make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a successful save, you can choose one of the following results:
The time between adventures is a great chance to perform research, gaining insight into mysteries that have unfurled over the course of the campaign. Research can include poring over dusty tomes and crumbling scrolls in a library or buying drinks for the locals to pry rumors and gossip from their lips.
When you begin your research, the Weaver determines whether the information is available, how many days of downtime it will take to find it, and whether there are any restrictions on your research (such as needing to seek out a specific individual, tome, or location). The Weaver might also require you to make one or more ability checks, such as an Intelligence (Investigation) check to find clues pointing toward the information you see, or a Charisma (Persuasion) check to secure someone’s aid. Once those conditions are met, you learn the information if available.
For each day of research, you must spend 1 gp to cover your expenses. This cost is in addition to your normal lifestyle expenses.
Though demand for spell scrolls is quite low in Brightshore, you may be able to sell scrolls to other adventurers. This is also the table that is used should you choose to sell any scrolls you find during your adventures.
Spell Level | Time | Cost to Scribe | Base Purchase Price |
---|---|---|---|
Cantrip | 3 days | 15 gp | 25 gp |
1st | 5 days | 25 gp | 75 gp |
2nd | 7 days | 250 gp | 150 gp |
3rd | 10 days | 500 gp | 300 gp |
4th | 15 days | 2,500 gp | 500 gp |
5th | 20 days | 5,000 gp | 1000 gp |
6th | 40 days | 15,000 gp | 5000 gp |
7th | 80 days | 25,000 gp | 10,000 gp |
8th | 160 days | 50,000 gp | 25,000 gp |
9th | 240 days | 250,000 gp | 50,000 gp |
Crafting potions of healing requires proficiency with the herbalism kit, the knowledge of how to craft the level of potion you require and ingredients, which may be both mundane and special. Following is a table of the recipes and costs in downtime and materials it takes to make them. The recipe for the Potion of Healing is assumed to be known by all characters with proficiency in the herbalism kit.
Potion | Downtime | Mundane Ingredient Cost | Special Ingredient |
---|---|---|---|
Potion of Healing | 5 days | 25 gold | None |
Potion of Greater Healing | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
Potion of Superior Healing | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
Potion of Supreme Healing | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
You can spend time between adventures learning a new language or training with a set of tools or musical instrument. Weavers might allow additional training options.
First, you must find an instructor willing to teach you. The Weaver determines how long it takes to find an instructor, and whether one or more ability checks are required.
The training lasts for 250 days and costs 1 gp per day. The full cost must be paid up front. After you spend the requisite amount of time and money, you learn the new language or gain proficiency with the new tool or instrument.
For the purposes of Brightshore, a guild is any organization to which a player can belong that has a collective purpose. This includes the Guard, the Arcanum, the Defenders, trade guilds, and the like. This does NOT include the religious orders, shrines or businesses.
A player must spend 15 days of downtime per month to stay in good standing with the guild. If they do so, they can live the entire month at a modest lifestyle at no additional cost.
Being a member of a guild carries with it some benefits beyond lifestyle. A character may, if they spend 15 days that month working for a guild, make up to three distinct, guild appropriate checks of their choosing. This does not count any checks that might arise as part of arbitrating those three checks.
For example, a Defender on patrol outside the city may make three survival checks to track threats, or perhaps three charisma checks to chase down rumors, or some combination thereof.
Additionally, the character will have access to knowledge and contacts that make sense within the guild. Guards will know of other guards, but may also know of repeat offenders, or rumors about certain people, or information of a similar nature.
There are almost certainly other activities your character could spend their downtime on. If you have an idea, consult with your Weaver. Also, this list will likely grow as the world itself grows!