Party hard like Conan. Carousing is a good way to develop contacts and earn favors. Working Class: Spend 10 gold pieces for a week-long bender at cheap seaside taverns and bawdy houses, rubbing shoulders with sailors and laborers. Middle Class: Spend 50 gold for a week of fine food, strong drink, and salacious entertainment. Upper Class: Spend 250 gold for a week-long debauchery.
A character with a noble background can mingle with the upper class, but other characters can do so only if you judge that the character has made sufficient contacts. Alternatively, a character might use a disguise kit and the Deception skill to pass as a noble visiting from a distant city.
After a workweek of carousing, a character stands to make contacts within the selected social class. The character makes a Charisma (Persuasion) check using the Carousing table.
CAROUSING TABLE
Check Total Result
1—5= Character has made a hostile contact.
6—40= Character has made no new contacts.
11—15= Character has made an allied contact.
16—20= Character has made two allied contacts.
21+ =Character has made three allied contacts.
Contacts are NPCs who now share a bond with the character. Each one either owes the character a favor or has some reason to bear a grudge. A hostile contact works against the character, placing obstacles but stopping short of committing a crime or a violent act. Allied contacts are friends who will render aid to the character, but not at the risk of their lives.
Lower—class contacts include criminals, laborers, mercenaries, the town guard, and any other folk who normally frequent the cheapest taverns in town.
Middle-class contacts include guild members, spell casters, town officials, and other folk who frequent well— kept establishments.
Upper-class contacts are nobles and their personal servants. Carousing with such folk covers formal banquets, state dinners, and the like.
Once a contact has helped or hindered a character, the character needs to carouse again to get back into the NPC’s good graces. A contact provides help once, not help for life. The contact remains friendly, which can influence roleplaying and how the characters interact with them, but doesn’t come with a guarantee of help. You can assign specific NPCs as contacts. You might decide that the barkeep at the Wretched Gorgon and a guard stationed at the western gate are the character's allied contacts. Assigning specific NPCs gives the players concrete options. It brings the campaign to life and seeds the area with NPCs that the characters care about. On the other hand, it can prove difficult to track and might render a contact useless if that character doesn’t come into play.
At any time, a character can have a maximum number of unspecified allied contacts equal to 1 + the character’s Charisma modifier (minimum of 1). Specific, named contacts don't count toward this limit—only ones that can be used at any time to declare an NPC as a contact.
A chance to make gold with obvious risks. A character must spend one week and at least 25 gp gathering information on potential targets before committing the intended crime.
● Struggling merchant (DC10) 50 gold
● Prosperous merchant (DC15) 100 gold
● Minor noble or master artisan (D20) 200 gold
● Guild hall or major noble (DC25) 1000 gold
The chosen DC can be 10, 15, 20, or 25. Successful completion of the crime yields a number of gold pieces, as shown on the Loot Value table. To attempt a crime, the character makes three checks: Dexterity (Stealth), Dexterity using thieves’ tools, and the player’s choice of Intelligence (Investigation), Wisdom (Perception), 0r Charisma (Deception). If none of the checks are successful, the character is caught and jailed. The character must pay a fine equal to the profit the crime would have earned and must spend one week in jail for each 25gp of the fine. If only one check is successful, the heist fails but the character escapes. If two checks are successful, the heist is a partial success, netting the character half the pay-out. If all three checks are successful, the character earns the full value of the loot.
Forewarned is forearmed. The research downtime activity allows a character to delve into lore concerning a monster, a location, a magic item, or some other particular topic. Typically, a character needs access to a library or a sage to conduct research. Assuming such access is available, conducting research requires one workweek of effort and at least 50 gp spent on materials, bribes, gifts, and other expenses. You can spend an additional 100 gold for a sage to assist in your research, up to a maximum of 6.
This is a good way for someone skilled in Arcana, History, and Investigation to learn new spells, discern the location of magic items, discover a monster's weakness, and unearth secrets about Hyperborea.
The character declares the focus of the research—a specific person, place, or thing. After one workweek, the character makes an Intelligence check with a +1 bonus per 100gp spent beyond the initial 100gp, to a maximum of+6. In addition, a character who has access to a particularly well—stocked library or knowledgeable sages gains advantage on this check. Determine how much lore a character learns using the Research Outcomes table.
RESEARCH OUTCOMES TABLE
Check Total Outcome
1-5= NO effect.
6-10= You learn one piece of lore.
11-20= You learn two pieces of lore.
21+ =You learn three pieces of lore.
Each piece of lore is the equivalent of one true statement about a person, place, or thing. Examples include knowledge of a creature's resistances, the password needed to enter a sealed dungeon level, the spells commonly prepared by an order of magicians, and so on. As GM Franz, you are the final arbiter concerning exactly what a character learns. For a monster or an NPC, you can reveal elements of statistics or personality. For a location, you can reveal secrets about it, such as a hidden entrance, the answer to a riddle, or the nature of a creature that guards the place.
Wager from 10 to 1,000gp at games of chance. Highly risky, but if one wagers big and wins bigger the rewards can be impressive. The character must make a series of checks, with a DC determined at random based on the quality of the competition that the character runs into. Part of the risk of gambling is that one never knows who might end up sitting across the table. The character makes three checks: Wisdom (Insight), Charisma (Deception), and Charisma (Intimidation). If the character has proficiency with an appropriate gaming set, that tool proficiency can replace the relevant skill in any of the checks. The DC for each of the checks is 5 + 2d10; generate a separate DC for each one. Consult the Gambling Results table to see how the character did.
GAMBLING RESULTS TABLE
Result Value
0 successes= Lose all the money you bet, and accrue a debt equal to that amount.
1 success= Lose half the money you bet.
2 successes= Gain the amount you bet plus half again more.
3 successes= Gain double the amount you bet.
Seek fortune and glory fighting pits have hosted gladiator fights, boxing, wrestling, chariot racing and more, depending on the locale and situation. The strength of one's opponents can vary wildly, making this quite challenging. Pit Fighting offers income and fame (Reputation) for seasoned warriors. Pit fighting includes boxing, wrestling, and other nonlethal forms of combat in an organized setting with predetermined matches. If you want to introduce competitive fighting in a battle-to-the-death situation, the standard combat rules apply to that sort of activity.
The character must make a series of checks, with a DC determined at random based on the quality of the opposition that the character runs into. A big part of the challenge in pit fighting lies in the unknown nature of a character's opponents. The character makes three checks: Strength (Athletics), Dexterity (Acrobatics), and a special Constitution check that has a bonus equal to a roll of the character’s largest Hit Die (this roll doesn't spend that die). If desired, the character can replace one of these skill checks with an attack roll using one of the character’s weapons. The DC for each of the checks is 5 + 2d10; generate a separate DC for each one. Consult the Pit Fighting Results table to see how the character did.
PIT FIGHTING RESULTS TABLE
Result Value
0 successes= Lose your bouts, earning nothing.
1 success= Win 50gp.
2 successes= Win 100gp.
3 successes= Win 200gp
Just chill until the next adventure, gaining improved recovery from injury and disease at no risk. Anyone can choose to relax in their downtime but you have to maintain at least a Modest lifestyle to gain any benefit. This option is also ideal for players who don’t want to make use of the downtime system. Characters who do maintain at least a modest lifestyle while relaxing gain several benefits. While relaxing, a character gains advantage on saving throws to recover from long-acting diseases and poisons. In addition, at the end of the week, a character can end one effect that keeps the character from regaining hit points, or can restore one ability score that has been reduced to less than its normal value. This benefit cannot be used if the harmful effect was caused by a spell or some other magical effect with an ongoing duration.
cont.