Re: Out Of Character
Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 6:30 pm
Part of the intention of the 'piecemeal scroll/potion' house-rule, is in response to players requesting a way to drain their bank accounts: 1st level scrolls cost ~14gp/day and 1st level potions cost ~36gp/day (and eventually, more, for higher-power items). It's a way for me as DM to bleed gold pieces from the PCs. Think of it like a punch-card at the donut shop; each time we flash-forward a day, the party's casters get a 'punch' on their card, and then after 7 rest-days, their potion or scroll is complete.
The 'old school tabletop' way of handling item/spell research, would have been to back-burner that character for X number of consecutive campaign-days, and if the player wants to participate with the group, they roll up another PC, to be active while their caster is making the potion/scroll. So each player has a 'roster' of multiple PCs that they rotate in and out of the game, based on item completion times and other side-quests. But I kind of don't want to do that for this campaign; I don't really want the party's druids dropping in and out of the game to craft potions and scrolls. A week of in-game-time could be months of real-world time (at the rate we've been going) and I would be sad to back-burner great characters like Noh and Bilfur.
In specific response to @kipper's comment about "handwaving the passage of a week when the characters are in a safe location would be materially different from handwaving the passage of a single day." It's true: that is an accurate observation, of the campaign mechanics to this point. The party has been floating along in a holiday pancake bubble, where they get free room and board, totally unaffected by campaign-world politics or Larger Events. But I will *spoiler* it for you: Once the party reaches an Heroic level of experience (only one or two more Delves, for Dame Simonetta) the bubble pops, and suddenly, maybe it actually does make a big difference, whether the party rests for a day or a week. Maybe it makes a difference of 6 days closer to the Mayoral Primary election, and the party needs to move quickly, if they want to thwart the anti-hobbet candidate.
tl;dr Once the Party is equal in power to Frederick and his allies (a day which is fast approaching, just a few thousand xp's) y'all are no longer under Frederick's protection. You become his peers.
The 'old school tabletop' way of handling item/spell research, would have been to back-burner that character for X number of consecutive campaign-days, and if the player wants to participate with the group, they roll up another PC, to be active while their caster is making the potion/scroll. So each player has a 'roster' of multiple PCs that they rotate in and out of the game, based on item completion times and other side-quests. But I kind of don't want to do that for this campaign; I don't really want the party's druids dropping in and out of the game to craft potions and scrolls. A week of in-game-time could be months of real-world time (at the rate we've been going) and I would be sad to back-burner great characters like Noh and Bilfur.
In specific response to @kipper's comment about "handwaving the passage of a week when the characters are in a safe location would be materially different from handwaving the passage of a single day." It's true: that is an accurate observation, of the campaign mechanics to this point. The party has been floating along in a holiday pancake bubble, where they get free room and board, totally unaffected by campaign-world politics or Larger Events. But I will *spoiler* it for you: Once the party reaches an Heroic level of experience (only one or two more Delves, for Dame Simonetta) the bubble pops, and suddenly, maybe it actually does make a big difference, whether the party rests for a day or a week. Maybe it makes a difference of 6 days closer to the Mayoral Primary election, and the party needs to move quickly, if they want to thwart the anti-hobbet candidate.
tl;dr Once the Party is equal in power to Frederick and his allies (a day which is fast approaching, just a few thousand xp's) y'all are no longer under Frederick's protection. You become his peers.
