Downtime Activities
A good downtime menu gives players clear options without trapping the game in accounting. Use these activities as defaults. Adjust the cost, time, and risk to match the tone of your campaign rather than treating them as fixed law.
Use this when a character wants to work a trade, perform, teach, guard caravans, or leverage a reputation.
Reward stable coin, modest local connections, or a rumor. Add complications if their work puts them in public view.
Use this for mundane equipment, long projects, rare components, and securing specialist help.
If the craft itself is not interesting, summarize it and focus on material cost, lead time, and whether the party can get what it needs locally.
Ideal for lost lore, enemy habits, planar theory, local scandals, or magical problems.
Good research gives the player a usable edge: a weakness, a map clue, a contact, a ward, or a better question.
Contacts are more interesting than generic bonuses. Let players build allies in guilds, temples, courts, black markets, or frontier towns.
A contact should come with a personality, a price, and a limit.
Clear curses, reduce suspicion, repair a reputation, reconcile with an ally, or stabilize after catastrophe.
This is often the right answer after a rough arc and can be more interesting than direct reward.
Gather maps, secure pack animals, bribe a guide, hide supplies, or spread false rumors.
The payoff should appear in the next adventure as reduced friction, not just flavor text.
A Simple Activity Template
| Question | GM Prompt |
|---|---|
| What is the player trying to accomplish? | Ask for one concrete result, not a vague intention. |
| What does it cost? | Time, gold, favors, risk, or public attention. |
| What resolves it? | A scene, a single check, or an automatic success with payment. |
| What can go wrong? | Complication, delay, rival response, bad information, or a social obligation. |
| What does success change? | Write down one real campaign consequence. |
Hand-Wave It When…
The outcome is obvious, the stakes are low, and the task supports rather than defines the session.
Charge the cost, summarize the result, and keep moving.
Play It Out When…
The action reveals character, creates new tension, risks an important relationship, or can pivot the next adventure.
For build and economy support, cross-reference Craft, Wealth by Level, and Retraining.